234 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



having an unexpected engagement, consigned me to 

 the head gardener, and I was very kindly shown over 

 the whole establishment, which is much larger and 

 better than I had supposed, and in excellent condition. 



Afterwards I strolled about the town for an hour 

 or two, heard the fine military band in the Hofgarten, 

 and at half past six went to the house of Martius ; saw 

 his wife, who looks much younger than he, and I suspect 

 he was not married until after his return from Brazil. 

 She seems a very intelligent and pleasant lady, under- 

 stands English pretty well, but does not speak it, while 

 Martius speaks extremely well ; the eldest daughter, 

 a pretty girl of thirteen, speaks French fluently, has 

 taken lessons in English, which she reads readily, but 

 speaks slightly ; there is another daughter of about 

 ten, another still younger, and a boy a little more than 

 a year old completes the list. Professor Zuccarini 1 

 was there, and afterwards an entomologist, whose 

 name I forget, dropped in ; also a young man from 

 Rio Janeiro, a Dr. Hentz from Vienna, who inquired 

 especially after Dr. Buck; the director of the mu- 

 sic in the royal chapel here ; and two ladies, one of 

 whom sung exquisitely. The director and Dr. Hentz 

 both played the piano to perfection, and, to crown all, 

 Martius seized his fiddle, quite to my surprise, and 

 played with great spirit. Before they were done a 

 little crowd had begun to assemble before the windows. 

 So the evening passed off very pleasantly. 



I like the sound of the German language much ; it 

 is manly, and certainly not more rough than the Eng- 

 lish. From the lips of the women and the little chil- 

 dren I assure you it sounds very musical, and I often 



1 Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini, 1797-1848 ; professor of botany at 

 Munich. Among other publications he assisted in describing the 

 plants collected and described by .^iebold in the Flora Japonica. 



