xiv Editor's Introduction 



however, refused them all, and sought his very- 

 considerable estates inherited from his father. 

 In the course of the settlement of certain bound- 

 ary and feudal rights, the Prussian Government 

 decided to give Piickler the title of Prince and a 

 considerable sum of money. 



For the better part of ten years he devoted 

 himself to carrying out his great plans for his 

 estates, even importing American trees for which 

 he had conceived an admiration during a visit 

 he had paid to the United States. Eventually, 

 however, he found his funds so much exhausted 

 that about 1828 he bethought himself of mak- 

 ing a journey again to England with an idea of 

 bettering his fortunes in some mysterious, w;him- 

 sical way, but chiefly, it may be surmised, be- 

 cause he loved England and travel. During this 

 trip in 1828 his travels extended over England 

 and Ireland, and resulted in the instructive and 

 witty letters afterward published in Stuttgart 

 under the name o£ Brief e eines Gestorben ("Letters 

 of a Deceased Person"). They were translated 

 into English under the name Tour of a German 

 Prince, etc., etc. These letters became celebrated, 

 indeed so much so that Goethe wrote at the time 

 in the Berliner Buch that Puckler's letters had 

 been long a pattern in all that relates to land- 

 scape gardening. Goethe says, these letters " be- 

 long to the highest class of literature." As litera- 

 ture they certainly take high rank both for their 

 fine and true conception of landscape gardening 

 principles and for their descriptions of scenery. 



