I 



tETTERS PROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN". I3I 



though he afterwards adopted the purer but full more 

 pompous Italian. Hence arofe a mixture, that difa- 

 greeably ftrikes the beholder. If the fame tafte pre- 

 vailed throughout, one might be induced to pronounce 

 the city at kail handfome, though we fliould not then 

 declare it to be exactly the elecl: city. However, as 

 feveral others are very finking to the eye, and yet we 

 can only efteem one of them to be the finer! ; let us 

 declare for which we will, it muft be to the difparage- 

 ment of the reft. This in general difpleafed me, that 

 from no part can "one fee any thing like a continued 

 whole. This defedt is felt fo much, that a man, on 

 his firft arrival at Berlin, is at a lofs to know where the 

 city properly begins. At leaft I found myfelf for a time 

 in fome perplexity on that account. 



You know what an inveterate averfion I have to fear^> 

 chers, and how lamentably I have complained of them 

 during my journey, in my letters to you. Of Berlin I 

 had often been told that they were, always very ftridh 

 Judge then what horrible reprefentations I had made to 

 myfelf, arid how much and how anxioufly my imagi- 

 nation dwelt on the detefted cuftbm of making a poor 

 traveller, who goes from one .place to another for the 

 fake of ho profit but that of information, deliver up all 

 his papers and bundles, . and detaining him till they 

 have all been rummaged and ranfacked over and over 

 again, and the officers think fit to be convinced that 

 they do not contain one -atom of whatever the fovereign 

 has been pleafed to declare contraband. Accordingly, 

 as quite contrary to my expectation, they treated me 

 with great civility on my coming up to the outer m oft 

 barrier, not fo much as once opening my carriage, but 



K & contenting 



