Erfurt, the view opens to a rich and widely expanded horizon and a beautiful valley interspersed with villages. Toward the north Weimar is shaded and defended by the mountain of Ettersberg, and toward the south appears the inviting Belvidere with its wood-clad heights. The Stern' (or Star) is a very peculiar and a very charming feature in this grand whole. It is divided from the park by the river Ilm, whose opposite bank it adorns with its beautiful wildernesses and promenades, a handsome bridge connecting them together and leading the passenger from the light of the higher into the shade of the lower bank, as it were from one climate to another. To this delightful elysium a cool refreshing atmosphere invites the lover of pleasure, and relieves him from the sultry heats of summer, which prevail on the heights of the park, as effectually as though he plunged into a bath, by merely crossing the river and descending as it were into the shades below. These shades every where abound in this charming spot, and the vast number of poplars crowded together without, and thick hedges within, afford a kind of sacred obscurity which tunes the soul to benevolence and phi losophy. This part of the garden is also eminently distinguished by the elegant variety it exhibits within so compressed a space. Groves of trees, wildernesses, statues, and some waterfalls by which the otherwise gently flowing stream here and there surprises the ear by joining in the general concert. The Stern has in some respects undergone a happy revolution on occasion of the late visit of the royal couple during their travels, and it generally receives some new embellishments every year, for which the Duke has for the future appointed a considerable fund; nor can it be doubted that it will do honour to the taste and liberality of the Prince. The park is entirely free both to the inhabitants and strangers, and the benevolence of the proprietor is evident even in the inscription at the entrance of the garden, where they are requested to spare the trees and flowers, in consequence of which not the least damage is ever done, and its beauties always remain unimpaired; which is one proof among many that, with the generality of mankind, more may be effected by means of confidence and benevolence, than by distrustful prohibitions, and multiplying the officers of justice. Confide in them for good actions and they will soon be induced to perform them. In the summer-season Sunday is a kind of festival for all Weimar. On these occasions all that have the use of their limbs, or are susceptible of the true pleasures of the heart, from the highest to the lowest, amuse themselves amid the VOL. II D numerous numerous walks of this luxuriant garden, and form a gay and happy crowd in their best attire, enjoying themselves free and unrestrained. At Whitsuntide the court of Weimar suspend their levees and concerts, and remove to the park, where they assemble in the open air, and take tea in a large wooden building, resembling an ancient temple, and erected in the garden for that purpose; after which they walk, and at dusk retire in the form and order of a procession, as they first appeared, to the castle-hall, where supper waits their arrival. The prince himself rarely appears at these public promenades, nor is he often seen at table; probably because even the small remains of etiquette still observed at the court of Weimar are burdensome to the unbounded liberality of his mind. To enjoy the society of his muse with less interruption, this prince last year built an edifice in the higher part of the park called the Roman house, where he passes the summer season, and which forms an important addition to its beauties. Nor are various amusements wanting in this charming spot, which directly address themselves to the feeling hearts of the inhabitants of Weimar. I will here mention but one of these external motives to internal reflection, which excites his attention by the way. Near the river is a wooden staircase, leading to a little hermitage overshadowed by trees, and thatched with bark. It was erected in commemoration of a particular day which is kept as a festival at Weimar, in celebration of the tranquil and elevated virtues of the reigning Princess Louisa. The place where it stands was once a barren spot of the park, across which a path led to the farther part of the garden, whither the princess resorted in her daily walks. On the day preceding her birth day, she came there as usual: the place was still uncultivated: but on the day of the festival, when not even the gaiety and formalities of the court prevented her again visiting it to offer a sacrifice to nature amid the tranquil scenery of the park, how great was her surprise when a hermitage suddenly struck her eye, and near it a t wer on which a clock began to strike the hour; meanwhile two greyheaded hermits met her with a pious salutation, and conducted her into their silent abode. After a short and frugal repast, accompanied with edifying and spiritual conversation, which filed the heart of the princess with emotion, the pretended hermits again conducting their princely guest out of the hermitage and throwing off their disguises in her presence, the poet Göthe and the chamberlain Einsiedel advancing forward in their gala dresses, paid their compliments to her. In remembrance of this interesting scene, which made a perma nent nent impression on the mind of the noble duchess, the hermitage was suffered to remain, and thus gives to the surrounding scene an interesting character of tranquillity, and a romantic cast and appearance, so that strangers often come to Weimar for this particular object, and flock in crowds to the park and to the hermitage; and the Prince of Anhalt Dessau, who is the proprietor of the celebrated garden of Worlitz, often does his rival of Weimar the honour of a visit, and the latter endeavours to reconcile his princely visitor to the superior beauties of this garden, by conducting him to the spot where he has placed a flattering memento of his friend. In a much frequented spot in the middle of the park, on a small eminence, is a vast mouldering rock grown over with wild vines, amid overhanging branches, and bearing the following simple inscription in letters of gold: "FRANCISO DESSAVIÆ PRINCIPI." This rock is of extraordinary size, and the spectator wonders by what force so immense a weight could be removed, or how any tackling could be fixed upon its pointed summit. M. Schmidt, the secretary-librarian at Weimar, so wellknown for his version of Pope's Abelard and Eloisa, has also indulged his muse in an effusion in praise of this celebrated park. THE BELVIDERE. The castle of Belvidere, which has been already mentioned, is situated a short league from Weimar, on a woody eminence, the road to which is a beautiful vista of trees beginning near the park. It was built as a house of amusement by the Duke Ernest Augustus. Behind the castle are a considerable orange grove and an extensive ornamental garden, formerly adorned and enlivened with a great number of statues, water-works, and other similar decorations, to which great numbers of visitors continually flocked; but these are now destroyed and lie in ruins. They are however still worthy the particular attention of travellers, having been the scene where the Duchess Amelia spent many happy hours of intellectual delight with her poetical young friends. Relative to the destruction of this interesting garden, the following anecdote is current at Weimar. Soon after the marriage of the reigning duke, he took his bride to the garden of Belvidere, where all the waterworks were playing; but the more simple taste of the duchess found no pleasure in this display of art; at which the duke was so disappointed, that he gave private orders to destroy all these artificial works. Το To this visit however, so unfortunate for Belvidere gardens, the city of Weimar is perhaps indebted for the existence and elegant decoration of the park. Yet this ancient and despised, but once favourite spot, has lost so little by the destruction of its works, that it has thence derived innumerable beauties which it did not possess before. For that affectation of ornament which offends against a refined taste, is converted by their destruction and decay into all the wildness of nature, while the dilapidated works and buildings, and the fragments of statues which are strewed throughought the scene, so that those who visit it tread sometimes on a head of Jupiter, a foot of Diana, and a trunk of Hercules, &c. excite in the traveller of sensibility that kind of veneration which he feels when visiting the remains of antiquity at Rome. In the back ground of the garden is a venerable old ruin, in form of an antique temple, half dilapidated by time, which might even do honour to the park itself, and decorate it as it were with the "forms of other days." But on approaching nearer, it becomes apparent that these ancient outlines are entirely covered with petrified moss. The castle itself, which is in the foreground of the Belvidere, is now granted for the newly formed institute of Mounier, on which I shall perhaps take occasion to speak hereafter, when describing the institute of Weimar. TIEFURT. This is another pleasure-garden in the environs of Weimar highly worthy of observation, and the usual summer residence of the Duchess Amelia, to whose creative genius it owes all its charms and beauties. This princess inhabits a kind of cottage of very rustic architecture adjacent to the garden, and here enjoys,with a small select society, the happy tranquillity arising from a dignified, active, and meritorious life. The whole garden is laid out in the same style, a scrious repose and solemn stillness prevailing throughout the whole, and is more wild, romantic, and lonely than the park. It may be said that people go to the latter to dissipate their mind, to the former to collect their thoughts. The garden itself lies low, and the wood shuts out all prospect with lofty and shady trees. Every thing contributes to make the soul retire within itself, and like a prisoner, it communes but with its own thoughts. The Ilm gently glides beneath the overshadowing branches, nor even is the song of the feathered tribe often heard. All is silence and repose. Beneath a clump of oaks on the right hand of the entrance, and near the river, is the monument of Leopold, Duke Duke of Brunswick, of glorious memory*, a brother of the princess, bearing the following inscription from Göthe: Seiz'd by the God, resistles floods obey, And borne from earth to share his mighty reign, Till wak'd by storms to gen'rous deeds again. Above this beautiful inscription stands a bust of the Duke; and farther on, towards the middle of the garden, a second monument stands out from the shade, consecrated to the memory of Prince Constantine, the beloved younger son of the Duke, who fell an early sacrifice to this unhappy war. These affecting objects add much to the pathetic solemnity of this spot. But they are relieved and softened by a third, which is a statue of a gayer cast, and stands amid the underwood. It is a little cupid sitting on a round stone, and busily employed in feeding a nightingale, that is fluttering on his hand, with the point of his dart. The stone on which he sits bears the following inscription, also from Göthe: Sweet warbler nurtur'd by the hand of Love, Who playful feeds thee with his pointed dart! But it is time after thus amusing the reader amid the pleasure grounds of Weimar, to conduct him back to the city itself, where the most interesting objects, those of genius and literature, of which as yet he has scarcely perceived the distant breath over the walls, await his arrival. X. (To be continued.) *This Prince lost his life at the breaking up of a great frost, in attempting to save some persons who were in a mill on the Maine, which was carried away by the torrent, after offering great rewards to several peasants who refused to hazard their *wn safety. + Dich ergriff mit Gewalt der alte Herrscher des Flusses, Hält dich, und theilet mit dir ewig sein strömendes Reich. Bis dich die stürmende Fluth wieder zu thathen erweckt. Dich hat amor gewiss, o sängerin, fütternd erzogen, A VIEW |