The Park in Muskau 



^15 



genre appeared foreign to the character and purpose 

 of the building as well as to the whole region. 



In order to obtain the earth required for filling 

 in, and at the same time be able to have the com- 

 mand of several pieces of water, it was necessary 

 to plan and excavate a new arm from the river 

 which runs through the park, which arm, in a 

 course ot two or three miles, forms two lakes of 

 considerable area. The last and perhaps the great- 

 est difficulty was that five to six hundred acres 

 of land nearest to the castle consisted of barren 

 sand and clay, hard as iron, and this could only 

 be made fertile at great expense. 



I therefore was confronted with more difficul- 

 ties at the very outset than many a man in a more 

 favorable situation finds throughout his entire 

 work. Plate XI, for instance, gives the view from 

 the drawing-rooms of the castle as it is now, and 

 on the flap or folding sheet, as it was. On Plates 

 yf and By two ground-plans of the park in these 

 different epochs, one can follow every detail of 

 my descriptions.' 



The greater part of the preliminary work is 

 now complete; all that remains is the construc- 

 tion of roads, plantations, and small changes of 

 the surface by grading, and the erection of sev- 

 eral buildings, all of which will be easy in com- 

 parison with the really colossal earthwork done 

 at the beginning, although considerable time and 



' I have purposely not drawn these plans in the picturesque manner 

 now so much in favor, since picturesque effects are only adequately 

 shown in pictures, while here it was a question of concise statemo'" of 

 particulars. 



