A COURT DANCE.

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are very common in summer, particularly on rural occasions. Kalt schale, or a cold bowl, is a pleasant composition of wine, lemon, currants, &c. served up in soup plates. Sour milk bears an honest name, and is neither more nor less than milk put into a jar in a cellar till it becomes sour and curdy; - a curious process, similar to that which produces sour krout. This celebrated dish is nothing more than finely sliced cabbage, pressed down in jars, sprinkled with saltand kept till fermentation gives it that peculiar acidity so much admired in Germany. The evening at Bessungen was gay and agreeable, in spite of the wretchedness of the weather, and the coldness of the scene of action. There was less of ceremony than on the generality of Court entertainments. The Princesses, as usual, affable and conversable, were less intrenched within the barriers of etiquette than in the saloon of the Palace; and the opportunity which I thus acquired for a further acquaintance with the Grand Duchess of Weimar was my principal resource during the evening, my head not being at that time quite strong enough to enjoy the dizzy mazes of a German ball.

Dancing was concluded by a cotillon, at the end of which the hour of nine gave the signal for the Court's departure to supper. The handsome Court carriages appeared at the glass door of the Orangery, into one of which, more than ordinarily splendid, and drawn by a pair of prancing cream coloured horses, the two Grand Duchesses stepped, with a profusion of graceful bows, in return for the low obeisances of the assembly crowding round them. The little Princes, and their cousin the young Duke, with the ladies and officers of the Court, followed in the substantial coaches, with long tailed black horses, and the rest of the company filed off as their carriages drove up, with less delay and damage than sometimes occur at a rout in Grosvenor Square.

A few days after, I was present, or-as a Frenchman would say, if he sat in the gallery of the Chamber of Deputies to listen to the speeches—I assisted—at another rural entertainment, given by a pretty and amiable Lady of Honour of the Grand Duchess of Hesse, in the Bosquet, or public English Garden, one of the principal orna

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ENTERTAINMENT IN THE ENGLISH GARDEN. 49

ments and resources of the elegant little Capital. Half the towns of consequence, in Germany, have something dignified with the appellation of an English garden-often, a little plot of ground, crammed with grotesque seats, rustic bridges over tortuous canals, and ruins and hermitages half hid in shrubs, to surprise the wanderer in a path meandering like a corkscrew. There are, however, imitations of more taste and more resemblance—of this number is the garden in question, which covers forty acres of pleasing and picturesque shrubbery and lawn. In a retired thicket, is the simple little urn in memory of the Landgravine, mother of the present Grand Duke, with Frederic of Prussia's complimentary inscription:

A large piece of water, which moderate grandiloquence might term a lake, with an island planted with luxuriant weeping willows, ornaments the gardens, and afforded our joyful party the juvenile amusement of aquatic excursions between the

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island and the main land; a diversion which delighted the little Princes. A pont volant, sliding on ropes, gave a securer passage to the more steady beaux and belles, and did not fail to elicit many nautical jokes and similes. The lively young Princes, rocking their crazy bark, set up a cry of shipwreck. The ladies screamed, and an amusing scene of good-humoured, laughing, handing, splashing, and practical joking ensued, fortunately terminated by the safe landing of the whole party.

After these lively out of door amusements we retired to a large summer-house, interestingly rural rather than elegant, where card-tables and refreshments awaited us. The time was thus whiled away in goodhumoured mirth, and easy conversation, with the chance of losing a fortune of Kreutzers, till the palace clock and the drums of the guard announced the hour of nine, when half the party, called by official duties, as usual, took their hats and shawls to hasten to the Court supper.

A sociable gaiety and unrestrained ease gave a life to this elegant little party.

AMUSEMENTS.-STATE REVENUE.

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The air did not ring with dapper compliments and neatly turned repartees, as it might have done if the scene had been the gardens of Trianon; but there was much good-humour and unpretending bonhommie, which to strangers are very prepossessing. If society here wants some of the excitements, and stimulating attractions which it presents in a great and busy Capital, it is at least in some respects more regular and unpretending, and has less of extravagance and dissipation. The graceful hospitality and amiable manners of the Baroness

our hostess also contributed much to the agrément of our party in the Bosquet.

The state revenue of the Grand Duke of Hesse is about 400,000l. per ann.-besides which he has a private fund of about 10,000l. per ann. chiefly arising out of estates which he has purchased, and over which he has the disposal during his life, but which become domains of the Crown on his death. The German States have most of them a national debt, incurred in the necessities of the late wars. That of the Grand Duchy of Hesse is not, however, so very insignificant, the in