DARMSTADT.-COURT. 19 now forming a dirty fauxbourg to the elegant modern town, which has grown up since the territory has been doubled, and the venerable Landgraviate of Imperial Germany, has been metamorphosed into a modern Grand Duchy. The little Capital has thus like its greater prototypes, its Court End and its City. The Palace, a remnant of the old Landgraviate, has the merit of being considerably more respectable than that of St. James's. If it had been completed on the plan in which two wings were finished by the Grand Duke's grandfather eighty years ago, and the magnificence of which excited a satirical remark of the Emperor Joseph, it would have been highly commodious and splendid; but various causes found other employment for the Landgrave's revenues, and the Court at present reside in a part of the ancient building, which possesses more comfort than splendour, while the fragment of the new Palace is appropriated to the Court Library, the Museums, and Picture Gallery. Hospitality is a praise eminently due to a German Court; and this is no contemp 20 DARMSTADT.-COURT. tible one, considering that it is costly, and that their revenues are by no means enormous. The Court entertainments at Darmstadt are principally dinners, to which invitations are issued with obliging liberality to the nobility and such strangers as have the honour of presentation. The Fourrier of the Court visits you in the morning with the hospitable invitation of the Prince, which, of course, it is not seemly to decline. Sunday is a grand day, when the table is more than ordinarily crowded and splendid. The guests assemble in full dress at the old fashioned hour of two o'clock, in the large and handsome Saloons of the Palace. The Grand Duchess enters with her Ladies of honour and Chamberlains, and after half an hour occupied by her progress round the circle, gracefully addressing appropriate conversation to each individual, the exchange of affectionate kisses, of greeting, between the members of the reigning Family, and of civil speeches between the company, the party proceed, arm in arm, with ceremonious regularity to the spacious dinner Saloon. Here they take their seats in the order of the procession, the Grand Duchess and Court occupying the centre of the table. The table is splendidly covered with gold and silver plate, yperns, plateaux and flowers.-The system of a German dinner, which is national, because the same at the table of a Prince and at the Table d'hôte of an Inn-bating the additional plate and delicacies of the former-would have precisely hit the taste of Justice Greedy, as being admirably contrived for the undisturbed dispatch of the business of a meal. On sitting down you find the board amply covered with dishes-there, merely to afford the eye a preliminary feast. In an instant the servants transport them to the sideboard, from whence they are offered one after another, in prescribed routine, ready carved to the company. In this way the knife and fork are kept in constant occupation, without the awkward interruptions of attention to others, by a succession of from fifteen to five-and-twenty dishes; beginning with invariable soup and bouilli, continued by ragouts, made dishes, and extremêts of various kinds, of course including sausages and sour krout, summed up with substan tial roast meat. Every lady and gentleman have their decanter of light Rhenish or Burgundy before them, which they drink without ceremony; and the more precious wines are handed round in the course of dinner. An attractive neighbour is thus the only possible diversion from the business in hand, which can happen at a German table. The Germans, in fact, dine as might be expected of people who do not breakfast-a meal much out of use with them, and rarely extending beyond a light milk roll, and a cup of coffee. I confess I approve the ease and sociability of this system. Conversation flows on without interruption, and the guests enjoy all the indolent luxury of a banquet. The desert forms the conclusion of the dinner-and is not, as with us, a systematic recommencement.—It is soon dispatched, and the whole company rise-for the gentlemen have neither radicals nor parliamentary debates to discuss; and they prefer coffee, liqueurs, and the society of their ladies, to toasting them in bumpers in their absence. The Germans, though not invariably sober, and though often fond of society, do not ap · COURT DINNERS. 23 pear fully to understand those social pleasures of the table, which, when enjoyed in moderation, must be admitted to be no contemptible attraction of English society. I believe the true relish for these "noctes cœnæque Deûm" is peculiar to ourselves Prout cuique libido est, Siccat inæquales calices conviva, solutus Sermo oritur, &c. &c. &c. I have seldom seen a foreigner who truly enjoyed this happy blending of the enjoyments of sense and of reason-when mind and body unbend and indulge togetherwhen the wits are whetted through the medium of the palate—and the soul mellows and expands in sympathy with the luxurious enjoyment and ease of the corporeal frame. I believe England alone has had the merit or the guilt (which is it?) of producing a Thomas Moore, or I may add a Captain Morris-for Horace and Anacreon could not disdain either for a descendant. Schiller and many Germans have their convivial songs, but they are generally of a wilder |