George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor, Chapter 16: , page 331

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[331] died,—and their kindness was, if possible, greater than ever. Additional instances of it occurred in Vienna, where Count Thun followed them, and where his sons, Count Franz and Count Leo,—the latter then a Cabinet Minister,—renewed all their former faithful and attractive courtesy; and in Italy, where Count Frederic, whom Mr. Ticknor had not before known, received him at Verona as an old friend of the family.

During his second short visit in Berlin Mr. Ticknor wrote as follows to Mrs. Ticknor:—

Berlin, Friday, September 19.

I cannot get back before Sunday evening, 6 o'clock. It is impossible. I have worked till twelve o'clock every night, and, though I am sixty-five years old, I have accomplished as much in the last five days, including Leipzig, as I ever did in any five days of my life.

Wednesday I passed all day at the Library, and in the booksellers' shops with Dr. Brandes, and wrote all the evening, except that I called twenty minutes at Varnhagen's. But the booksellers are very clumsy and slow; and kind Dr. Brandes scolds them in vain, and gets more out of patience with them than I do.

Yesterday I first arranged with Professor Dehn, of the Library,— where there are 95,000 works in music and on music,—to buy £ 100 worth to begin our Library with. Then I came home, and had a visit from Varnhagen and his niece, desperately agreeable, and I promised to take coffee with them this P. M. at five. Then I worked on books; then at two o'clock was off to Potsdam, to dine with the King, who sent his verbal commands by his Hofmarschal, about eleven o'clock, to that effect. Went out in the cars, and slept nearly the whole way, from sheer fatigue.

Dinner was very brilliant; the whole Court . . . . Had a jolly good time at table with forty odd people, but chiefly with an old general, who went to England when the affiancing took place there,¹ and is now just back from the Russian coronation; the Prince of Prussia;² and one of the dames d'honneur, of which I will give you an account. After dinner we were in the salon about an hour, and the King talked with me more than half the time; was truly agreeable, and sometimes scholar-like, urged me very much to stay to the fetes of the marriage next week, and took leave of me with a hearty shake

1 Of the Princess Royal.

2 The present Emperor.

Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.

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George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

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George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.