History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 10 | Page 5

had been, what it
became, and how it was made; but nothing more so than the small
modicum of money lt cost. To our wondering thought, it seems as if the
shilling, in those parts, were equal to the guinea in these; and the reason,
if we ask it, is by no means flattering altogether. "Change in the value
of money?" Alas, reader, no; that is not above the fourth part of the
phenomenon. Three-fourths of the phenomenon are change in the
methods of administering money,--difference between managing it with
wisdom and veracity on both sides, and managing it with unwisdom
and mendacity on both sides. Which is very great indeed; and infinitely
sadder than any one, in these times, will believe! --But we cannot dwell
on this consideration. Let the reader take it with him, as a constant
accompaniment in whatever work of Friedrich Wilhelm's or of
Friedrich his Son's, he now or at any other time may be contemplating.
Impious waste, which means disorder and dishonesty, and loss of much
other than money to all, parties,--disgusting aspect of human creatures,

master and servant, working together as if they were not human,--will
be spared him in those foreign departments; and in an English heart
thoughts will arise, perhaps, of a wholesome tendency, though very sad,
as times are.
It would but weary the reader to describe this Crown-Prince Mansion;
which, by desperate study of our abstruse materials, it is possible to do
with auctioneer minuteness. There are engraved VIEWS of Reinsberg
and its Environs; which used to lie conspicuous in the portfolios of
collectors,---which I have not seen. [See Hennert, just cited, for the
titles of them.] Of the House itself, engraved Frontages (FACADES),
Ground-plans, are more accessible; and along with them, descriptions
which are little descriptive,--wearisomely detailed, and as it were dark
by excess of light (auctioneer light) thrown on them. The reader sees, in
general, a fine symmetrical Block of Buildings, standing in rectangular
shape, in the above locality;--about two hundred English feet, each, the
two longer sides measure, the Townward and the Lakeward, on their
outer front: about a hundred and thirty, each, the two shorter; or a
hundred and fifty, taking in their Towers just spoken of. The fourth or
Lakeward side, however, which is one of the longer pair, consists
mainly of "Colonnade;" spacious Colonnade "with vases and statues;"
catching up the outskirts of said Towers, and handsomely uniting
everything.
Beyond doubt, a dignified, substantial pile of stone-work; all of good
proportions. Architecture everywhere of cheerfully serious, solidly
graceful character; all of sterling ashlar; the due RISALITES
(projecting spaces) with their attics and statues atop, the due architraves,
cornices and corbels,--in short the due opulence of ornament being
introduced, and only the due. Genuine sculptors, genuine painters,
artists have been busy; and in fact all the suitable fine arts, and all the
necessary solid ones, have worked together, with a noticeable fidelity,
comfortable to the very beholder to this day. General height is about
forty feet; two stories of ample proportions: the Towers overlooking
them are sixty feet in height. Extent of outer frontage, if you go all
round, and omit the Colonnade, will be five hundred feet and more: this,
with the rearward face, is a thousand feet of room frontage:--fancy the

extent of lodging space. For "all the kitchens and appurtenances are
underground;" the "left front" (which is a new part of the Edifice) rising
comfortably over these. Windows I did not count; but they must go
high up into the Hundreds. No end to lodging space. Way in a detached
side-edifice subsequently built, called Cavalier House, I read of there
being, for one item, "fifty lodging rooms," and for another "a theatre."
And if an English Duke of Trumps were to look at the bills for all that,
his astonishment would be extreme, and perhaps in a degree painful
and salutary to him.
In one of these Towers the Crown-Prince has his Library: a beautiful
apartment; nothing wanting to it that the arts could furnish, "ceiling
done by Pesne" with allegorical geniuses and what not,--looks out on
mere sky, mere earth and water in an ornamental state: silent as in
Elysium. It is there we are to fancy the Correspondence written, the
Poetries and literary industries going on. There, or stepping down for a
turn in the open air, or sauntering meditatively under the Colonnade
with its statues and vases (where weather is no object), one commands
the Lake, with its little tufted Islands, "Remus Island" much famed
among them, and "high beech-woods" on the farther side. The Lake is
very pretty, all say; lying between you and the sunset;--with perhaps
some other lakelet, or solitary pool in the wilderness, many miles away,
"revealing itself as a cup of molten gold," at that