INTRODUCTION xiii 



homely women as between a cock pheasant and his 

 mates. But in Prussia also I experienced for the 

 first time the amazing Gastfreimdlichkeit of Germany, 

 something warmer, more intimate and adopting 

 than the best of English hospitality, a quality that 

 to my mind has done much to dim the eyes and dull 

 the ears of the many able, informed, and honest 

 men who have brought back to England a false 

 report of Germany's national purpose. It is a quality 

 that I believe to be entirely innocent and unassumed, 

 as innocent and unassumed as its counterpart, the 

 odd way in which a German will sometimes confide 

 in you his scheme for your own undoing. Many 

 years later, when I was secretary of the Zoological 

 Society of London, a German zoologist unfolded to 

 me, in my office in Regent's Park, his scheme for 

 establishing, with German capital, a Hagenbeck 

 Zoological Park in London, which, he assured me, 

 would wipe us out in a season. He was uncertain 

 as to the most suitable part of London to select for 

 the enterprise, and wished my advice and assistance 

 in choosing and obtaining a site. I know that he did 

 not think me a fool, as he had asked for, obtained 

 and adopted many suggestions of mine with regard 

 to the establishment he controlled in Germany, and 

 he was an honourable man who would not have 

 thought of bribing me. But his was a great scheme, 

 which any man of experience and inteUigence must 

 value, which any friend must help. 



I am still grateful for so much kindness that I close 

 the pages of my memory of these summer Prussian 

 days, even upon some curious and in a small way 

 entertaining sidelights on persons bearing great 



