14° LETTERS FRpM 



you my frank and undiffembled opinion, on ail I faw 

 there ; but, to my great furprife, I found, that, in the 

 two days I had devoted to this tour, I had not only no 

 time for that purpofe, but I muft even put it off for 

 one whole day more. I confefs indeed that one might 

 be ready in a fhorter fpace : but one reafon is, that I 

 never content myfelf with a curfory view ; and another, 

 that the days, at this feafon of the year, fhould only be 

 reckoned for half-days. 



The road from Berlin to Potfdam is about five and 

 twenty englifh miles ; but, being a royal pofh, we 

 are obliged to pay for thirty. It is fo horridly bad, 

 that one cannot fufflciently wonder, how a road that is 

 the moll: frequented of any in all the Pruffian territo- 

 ries, which leads from the royal rerldence to the capital, 

 and which the king himfelf fo frequently travels, fhould 

 not be kept in tolerable repair, and be fomewhat better 

 regulated. One is dragged all the way through a vile 

 fand ; and the profpect over the barren flat on both 

 fides, is interrupted by no one agreeable object, till 

 the gates of the city appear. It has often been faid, 

 that Brandenburg, the natural capital of the electorate, 

 might be made, on account of its fituation, a far better 

 capital of the kingdom, than Berlin ; but furely Potfdam 

 would make one equally good. The Havel is here 

 much broader and more majefTic than the Spree ; com- 

 merce would be infinitely advantaged by it ; and the 

 country round Potfdam, is, beyond all comparifon, 

 more delightful than that about Berlin. The Havel, 

 which forms a little lake clofe to the town, and the 

 fand, which is thrown up into hills as far as the eye can 

 reach, and covered with trees, fields, and cottages, 



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