132 LETTERS PROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN*. 



contenting themfeves with the ticket I had got at Lent* 

 zen and a fmall gratuity of a piece of eight grofches^ I 

 could not perfuade myfelf that I fhould be quit for 

 this, but kept conftantly looking out for a frefh gate, 

 - where it would go fomewhat harder with me. . In this 

 doleful expectation I proceeded a confiderable way ; for 

 notwithstanding all that I faw around me, I could not 

 convince myfelf that I had already really entered the 

 city; till I reached the pleafu re-garden, faw the royal 

 palace and the cathedral, and at this light my fears for- 

 fook me. 



Excepting the Friedefichftadt and Dorotheenftadt, 

 one every where fees a mixture of handfome modern 

 houfes with old ones, ftraight and crooked fbreets ; 

 which altogether have an appearance npt properly beau- 

 tiful. The king's determination is, not to embellifh 

 one part beyond the reft, but is rejfolved to have forne- 

 thing elegant in each part of the city. Accordingly, 

 he gives orders to build here and there, without caring 

 whether the intervening edifices efface the good impref- 

 fion the new ones have left, or not. He has taken up 

 the delign of demolifhing all houfes that conlift of only 

 one ftory, but to let all of two ftories Aand ; by which 

 practice the profpect is frequently interrupted in a very 

 unpleafing manner : arid even in tke fineft ftreet of 

 all Berlin , under the Lindens, fo called from its being 

 planted with linden trees, are fome iioufes of a perfectly 

 mean appearance left ftandihg as a difgrace to a multi- 

 tude of new ones. The public fquares, if we omit the 

 Wilhelrnfplatz, are quite deficient in any regular form ; 

 many large public ftruclures ftend in them entirely 

 without all connection or plan 5 the ground is no where 



1 even ; 



