Journal.
Vienna,
June 20, 1836.—This forenoon I did nothing but drive about the city and make a few visits; one to
Kenyon, the brother of my old friend in
London, who has lived here many years, and who seems to have the same spirit of kindness which I found so pleasant and useful in
England; another to
Baron Lerchenfeld, the
Bavarian Minister, a very courteous person; one to
Dr. Jarcke, one of the persons most confidentially employed by Metternich; and several others whom I did not find at home, among them the
British Minister,
Sir Frederick Lamb, who, I am sorry to learn, is absent, and not likely to return while I am here.
In doing this I drove a good deal about the city, and was surprised to find how clean it is, how rich, solid, substantial, and even fresh, everything looks.
Pavement can hardly be better than it is made in the streets here, the whole being of hewn, square blocks of granite, almost as nicely fitted to each other as if the work were masonry; but there are no
trottoirs, so that, though everybody walks cleanly and comfortably, nobody is protected against the carriages. . . .
In the afternoon we drove out to the Prater,—the famous
Prater.
It is a great public garden and drive, intersected with many pleasant walks and roads, ornamented with fine old trees, and parts of it enlivened with large numbers of deer, while other parts are rendered still more lively with coffee-houses, puppet-shows, and shows of animals. . . . . But we enjoyed very much the drive into the more picturesque parts, where the deer were browsing undisturbed, and oaks a thousand years old cast their shade upon us, as they had, perchance, in their youth upon the
Court of Charlemagne.
In some
