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the friendship, which their correspondence had cherished and increased, between the King and Mr. Ticknor, was further strengthened by the warm and simple welcome which King John gave his American friend, desiring him to come to Pillnitz to see him without other form than at a private house, and summoning him repeatedly to dinner, on all which occasions he treated him with affectionate confidence.
On the 27th of August Mr. Ticknor took his family for a short visit to Berlin, where they remained together for six days, and where he outstayed his party.
Rejoining the ladies in Dresden on the 7th of September, he again left them there on the 14th, and went to Berlin for another week.
In Leipzig, where he stopped three times in his journeys to and fro, he was busy for the Library, and in Berlin he did a great deal of laborious work.
But in Berlin, as in Dresden, he found old and new friends, and in subsequent letters he describes his enjoyment of daily intercourse with Humboldt,1 and the entertainment of a great Court dinner at Potsdam, on occasion of the arrival of the Grand Duke of Baden for his marriage with a princess of Prussia.
This was Mr. Ticknor's only opportunity for conversation with the then reigning sovereign, Frederic William IV., whose varied accomplishments and versatile talent made a strong impression on him. Von Raumer and Count Raczynski, among old acquaintances, and the younger Schadow, among new ones, added to the pleasures of Berlin.
On finally leaving Dresden, September 25, Mr.Ticknor and Mrs. Ticknor had further proof of the constancy of those who had formerly been kind to them, in the warm and earnest welcome given to the whole party at Tetschen, where they stopped a few hours to see Count Thun and his daughters.2 Old memories were recalled,—some sadly and tenderly, for the Countess had
1 Mr. Ticknor writes to Mr. Prescott, after this visit: ‘Humboldt was much changed, as might be anticipated; for the difference between sixty-seven and eighty-seven is always much greater than between forty-seven and sixty-seven: these being, respectively, the intervals of my acquaintance with him. But his faculties seem as active, and his pursuit of knowledge as eager as ever; while, at the same time, his benevolence seems to grow with his years.’
2 See Vol. I. p. 505 et seq.
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
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