The Park in Muskau 



139 



borhood of Berlin, which in regard to beverages 

 can only boast of Weiss beer, formerly was a wine 

 country as is proved by the Berlin calendar? 



In recent times, finally, when all the different 

 interests of the people have been more and more 

 amalgamated by the spread of education, — this 

 period marks the beginning of my modest work, 

 — a feeling for art and beauty at last began to 

 awaken in these regions, formerly overlooked 

 in the general march of culture. The leading 

 thought was to reflect the past in one congruous 

 picture, whereby everything which was still in 

 existence should be again emphasized, improved 

 as far as its purposes allowed, and embellished 

 and combined anew in a well-arranged whole. A 

 new source of income was found in the long 

 known, but never exploited, mineral waters which 

 rise near the mines, as well as the strong sulphur 

 springs in most productive meadows in neighbor- 

 ing valleys, which had been doubtless running 

 for centuries past and wasted in the dust of de- 

 cayed forests. By means of a hydropathic estab- 

 lishment, well furnished w^ith all requisites, it was 

 sought to benefit also the suffering of humanity. 



Other undertakings were started, some with- 

 in the precincts of the castle, some elsewhere ; 

 namely, a wax bleachery, a fisherman's cottage, 

 and some colonies of cottages in the vicinity of 

 the village of Kobeln, near the alum works, and on 

 the Braunsdorf plain, each grouped as a whole and 

 arranged throughout as free dwellings for garden 

 hands, miners, and the needy; further, an observ- 



