Burton Samuel Blyth

“ It seemed just the place to live a lazy, lounging life, free from all care or trouble, one’s hardest work to float in a canoe across the lake, and there, under the shelter of some giant trees, and lulled by the rippling of the water, sleeping or waking, dream away. ”

“ Since 1860 the guild and concession system has been modified in some states; and in others plans of reform are engaging the serious attention of the governments and people. Even, however, where the old system has been dealt with most radically very much remains to be done before real freedom of industry is established. Although the laws restricting freedom of trade have been partially modified, those restraining freedom of locomotion remain everywhere in all their baneful vigour. ”

“ Behind the park and on towards the sea were woods in which a sportsman would find, no doubt, plenty of amusement. The village is a long one, and as a royal residence should be clean and well-to-do-looking, with some good houses of much higher pretensions than peasants’ cottages. On the other side of the road is another and smaller lake, connected with the larger one by a stream which turns a mill, and upon this lake stands another large house. ”

“ The vast majority of concessions must be obtained from the government; but in some states the higher nobility have the right to grant them for the villages and districts which belong to them, and so have convents and charitable foundations. In some of the towns concessions for such trades and professions as chimney-sweeping, gelding, dealing in old clothes, and rag collecting, are granted by the municipality. The grant or refusal of a concession is a perfectly arbitrary act ”

“ A Frankfort butcher may only kill a certain number of oxen or swine in a week. With this interference is often combined the regulation by the police of the price of bread, meat, and even beer and cider, according to the prices of grain, cattle, and fruit. There is yet another mode of obtaining liberty to carry on business in Germany. The right to exercise certain trades, especially those of baker, butcher, brewer, vintner, and miller, is often attached to the possession of certain houses, and can be acquired with thorn. ”

“ The people looked strong and healthy, the young women were comely and ruddy as English peasant girls. The servant girls of Flensburg, drawn, I suppose, from Angeln, were among the prettiest I have seen out of or even in England. The country is pleasantly undulating and fairly wooded, and the larger part belongs to noble proprietors, as is also the case in Holstein, with the exception of the rich marsh district, Dithmarschen. In the rest of Slesvig the land belongs to peasant proprietors, but these peasant proprietors are really large yeomen, and own farms of three or four hundred acres. ”

“ The house is a very large one, with no pretension to architectural beauty, but evidently very solidly built. Round the lake, except for the small distance along which the road runs, stretches a beautiful park, open to all, through which the visitor must perforce ramble. ”

“ The traveller who, instead of making his way from Slesvig to Flensburg by the rail, chooses, perhaps from a desire to follow in the steps of the armies, the road, will find himself after he gets a mile or two out of Slesvig on a heath, broken only two or three times on the whole of the rest of the distance—some twenty miles—by villages, cultivated land, and bits of wood. ”

“ The application often draws its slow length along for years; and many a man at length obtains by unwearying importunity an authorisation which has been refused him several times, and would be refused to any less pertinacious applicant. What wonderful reasons sometimes govern the decision of the authorities, or at least are assigned by those Solons, may be judged from the answer given by the magistrates of a small town in the south to an application for a concession to manufacture cider. ”

“ Very easy of access, Slesvig, which no one formerly visited, because it led nowhere and had no special attractions, could boast no mountains or waterfalls, no world-compelling ruins or galleries, will now draw the curious who delight to gaze upon the theatre of important events, and charm while it fills with wonder all those Englishmen who love the rural beauty of their native land. ”

“ The castle was formerly the seat of the Glucksburg dukes, and King Christian, who belongs to that house, resumes, therefore, an old family possession. Let us hope that he will soon be able to enjoy it. At present the Prussians are masters at Glucksburg, and they are "men in possession" of whom it is very difficult to get rid. ”

“ Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/217 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/218 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/219 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/220 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/221 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/222 Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/223 would render it almost impossible to carry on their business. Foreign assurance companies, like foreigners generally, need a special concession, and have great difficulty in obtaining it. ”