Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1800 Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Boylston

IV. John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

No: 8. Hirschberg. 7. August. 1800. 4. August. Monday. 1

The reason, which induces travellers, who purpose a visit to the Riesenkoppe, to pass the night before at the Hempel’s baude is, that they may ascend the mountain in the morning early enough to see the sun rise, from its summit— Such was our own intention; but 328 when we rose at two o’clock in the morning, Louisa, found herself suffering so severe a headache, that she was obliged to give up the idea of going with us; & I set out accompanied only by Whitcomb & our guide— We had at first a steep & painful ascent for about twenty minutes; then a gentle sloping downwards & a plain for a quarter of an hour, untill we came to the immediate foot of the particular hill, which bears the name of the giant’s head— The darkness of the night had been gradually dispersing, & the borders of the horison at the east gradually reddening from the moment when we left the baude, so that I was apprehensive the Queen of day, as Zöllner on a similar occasion calls him,2 would show his glowing face before we should reach the summit, & to avoid this disappointment doubled the usual pace of ascent, & in another quarter of an hour stood at the door of the chapel on the top of the mountain— About ten minutes after, the great luminary arose in all his glory from the low cloud, which bordered the horison, for although the weather was remarkably fine for this region, the sky was not perfectly clear, & a murky vapour hung upon the atmosphere, which intercepted a part of the immense extent of territory, which would otherwise have been within the compass of our vision. I had heard so much of the apparent magnitude of the sun’s disk, when seen rising from this spot, that when I came to see it, I found it less striking than I imagined. It appears ~~to me~~ about the size of a large coach wheel, but the same effect may at any time be produced to a much greater degree by looking at it through a telescope.

The prospect from this spot is of course more extensive, than from any other point upon these mountains, & its grander is augmented by the circumstance that the eye can range freely, bounded only by the horizon, on every side. The spectator has but to turn on his heel, & all Silesia, all Saxony, all Bohemia, pass in an instant before his view— It is therefore truly sublime, but it has the defect usually attendant upon sublimity, of being indistinct, & in some sort chaotic— The lovel of beautiful objects must content himself with a smaller elevation— A Painter at Hirschberg, by the name of Rheinhart, who is employed by the academy of Sciences at Berlin, to paint views of the most remarkable spots in this province, observed to me, that from the highest mountains there was nothing picturesque, nothing that he could employ as a subject for any one of his paintings—3 When on the Schneekoppe, I felt the force of this remark, for when the eye embraces at once such an extent of 329 objects it perceives only great masses; whereas all the pleasure that painting can afford is by the accurate representation of details.

The proper Giant’s head is of a conical form, & the surface of the summit is not more I think than an hundred yards in diameter— Its perpendicular elevation is about 600 feet, & the path by which it is ascended forms nearly a regular angle of about 45 degrees— The ascent would indeed be too steep to be practicable, but that when the chapel on the top was built in the year 1668, a flight of stone steps was made to help in mounting to it, of which a sufficient part remains to give no small assistance. The mountain itself appears to be a solid rock of granite, upon which there is no appearance of vegetation, unless a kind of red moss, resembling rust upon iron, which grows on the loose stones, that cover it on every side may be so called— These loose stones, part of which are of granite, & part of a species of white flint, are in such abundance that they wholly conceal the side of the mountain itself— On one side of the path as you approach the top, a precipice of about 1500 feet opens, by the side of which you continue to mount; it ends at the bottom in a narrow vale of perhaps a mile in extent along the course of which are scatter’d a number of peasant’s huts— Here too it looks as if the body of the mountain had been riven at a single stroke, & the rocks which stand on either side correspond in such a manner as to resemble the teeth of a saw— Opposite the summit to the westward, is a mountain somewhat lower, called the little koppe, from the foot of which is a sloping grass plot, that goes by the name of Rübenzall’s pleasure garden—4 Other remarkable spots within the view, are called his meadow, his pulpit, his grounds &c. The whole neighbourhood is full of his name— I asked our guide to tell me honestly whether he had ever seen him; but he thought I was joking him, & said that he had not only never seen him, but had never believed in him— That the Silesians had never given credit to the stories about him; all of which had been believed & circulated by the Bohemians alone— I suppose a Bohemian guide would have assured me, that it was merely a Silesian superstition, which his countrymen had always derided.

The chapel at the summit, is a small round building, partly of laths, partly of stone, & not more than twelve, or fifteen feet in diameter; it was built by a Count Schafgotch, whose descendent still owns the whole range of these mountains, & is the richest subject in Silesia— The number of his vassals is said to be upwards of 330 35000— The chapel is dedicated to St: Laurence, & the Cistercian monks at Warmbrunn, are obliged to perform the mass in it, on the Saint’s day, & upon four other feasts days annually.5

After passing about an hour & a half upon this spot, we thought it time to descend once more to the habitable ~~world~~ regions of the earth; but when we had got about half way from the bottom of the mount to the baude, who should we meet but Louisa, whose headache had left her as the day advanced, & who after coming so far had determined not to return & leave the most important object upon our tour unseen— I turned back of course, & went up the second time with her— It was now about 8 o’clock in the morning, & the sun had risen so high as partly to disperse the vapours, which had streightened the view at my first ascent— The mountain now appeared familiar to me as an old acquaintance, & the temperature of the air upon it was so uncommonly mild, that we might have dispensed with putting on our cloaks— It has so happened that the three, or four days we have been upon the mountains’ have proved to be among the warmest of the year; & excepting the few minutes before sunrise this morning, the cold has in no one instance been troublesome, in scarcely any perceptible degree to us— We had indeed taken the precaution to be very warmly clad, & as were advised have never been without thick cloaks to put on whenever the occasion should require.

Sentiments of devotion, I have always found the first to take possession of the mind, on ascending lofty mountains— At the summit of Giant’s head, my first thought was turned to the supreme creator of the universe, who gave existence to that immensity of objects expanded before my view— The transition from this idea, to that of my relation, as an immortal soul, with the author of nature, was natural & immediate— From this to the recollection of my country, my parents, & friends, there was but a single & a sudden step— On returning to the hut where we had lodged, I wrote the following lines in the book.

From lands, beyond the vast atlantic tide, Celestial freedom’s most beloved abode, Panting, I climb’d the mountain’s craggy side, And view’d the wondrous works of Nature’ God. Where yonder summit, peering to the skies, Beholds the earth beneath it with disdain, 331 O’er all the regions round I cast my eyes, And anxious, sought my native home—in vain. As, to that native home, which still infolds Those youthful friendships, to my soul so dear, Still, you, my parents, in its bosom holds, My fancy flew, I felt the starting tear. Then, in the rustling of the morning wind, Methought I heard a Spirit whisper fair, “Pilgrim, forbear— Still upwards raise thy mind, Look to the skies—thy native home is there.”

But as you will probably think these lines of too melancholy, or even too gloomy a cast, task, the lines written by my immediate predecesser in the book, which may perhaps restore the tone to your spirits—

Es ist alles eitel! Ausser nur drey stück allein, Hübsche mädchen, guter wein, And ein volles beutel. Hab ich die, so bin ich froh, Und sprich auch mit Salomo, Es ist alles eitel!6

Upon taking our departure from the baude, we thought the charges of the land lady rather extravagant, & upon asking her in the mildest manner, how they came to amount so high, she flew into one of the most violent passions that ever deformed an individual of the softer sex, & stormed in a manner that a Fury might have taken lessons from her— Our guide afterwards told us, that the reason why we found her so ill natured was because her husband had yesterday given her a severe flogging, & she had not yet recovered from the ruffling of her disposition— Simple! virtuous! happy partriarchs!

At no inconsiderable distance from this hut are two lakes, or ponds, the water of which is deep & clear, & which contain some fish— We visited one of them as we returned to the place, at which we had left our cart. This spot we reached at about 11 in the morning, & proceeding immediately thence, through Warmbrunn arrived again at Hirschberg at 3 in the afternoon.

You have now an account, probably more circumstancial than you would have wished of our excusions upon the Giant mountains, 332 which, although in point of elevation they cannot stand a comparison with those of Switzerland, & much less with those of South America, still yield an ample compensation of pleasure, for the toil & trouble of ascending them. There are travellers, who think to give themselves an air of courage & importance, by representing parts of this tour as dangerous— But in truth with common prudence & precaution, there is no more danger than in walking the streets of any city— The roads have indeed been within the last month somewhat mended upon the expectation that the queen, who in the course of ten days is expected at Warmbrunn will be disposed to make the tour of the mountains—7 They have been made less inconvenient, but there was really no danger to remove.

There are two remarkable changes in the face of the country, as you ascend— From the bottom of the mountains about half way up, the ground is covered with tall, majestic trees, chiefly pines, & firs, which gradually dwindle in size & height, untill in the middle region they can no longer be called trees; but shrink to a shrub of an extraordinary kind, which I believe is commonly called, dwarf pine. It goes here by the name of knee wood, in allusion to the height, which it seldom exceeds— The stem is sometimes about the size of a man’s leg, & it spreads round its branches, something in the shape of a large lustre, so as to be at least fifty feet in circumference— This bush grows up as high as what is called the kamm, or back of the whole range of mountains, & the bounderies between the two provinces are shown by a narrow lane cut between these bushes all along the ridge. The region above this consits entirely of the naked rock, without a trace of any kind of vegitation.

We have had repeated opportunity to observe the sentiments of national aversion & rivalry between the neighbouring Bohemians & Silesians. At the Bohemian glass works, one of the men, who shew’d us some of their best specimens of cut glass, boastingly said to us— “You have seen nothing like this in Silesia—” And upon our return, a glass merchant at Warmbrunn shew’d us a large wine glass, with a landscape cut upon it, very beautifully executed, though done more than a century ago— “You saw nothing like this at the glass works in Bohemia”—said he— But the story I have related concerning the old dispute, respecting the source of the Elbe you will perceive that these neighbourly jealousies are of a more antient date, than the period when the two provinces belonged to different & rival sovereigns. Your’s—

333

LbC in Thomas Welsh Jr.’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “T. B. Adams. Esqr:”; APM Reel 134.

This letter was printed under the 7 Aug. dateline, omitting that of 4 Aug., in the Port Folio, 1:81–82 (14 March 1801).

Zollner, Briefe über Schlesien, 2:203.

On 7 Aug. 1800 JQA visited the studio of German landscape painter Johann Christian Reinhart (1761–1847) and “took four of his coloured prints, comprising the whole range of mountains” (D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27). For more on Reinhart and the engravings JQA purchased, see LCA, D&A , 1:xi, 137, and for additional artwork acquired by JQA while in Silesia, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 8, above.

Rübezahl, or “turnip-counter,” is a figure of German folklore who is said to inhabit the Riesengebirge, or Giant Mountains (now the Karkonosze Mountains) (William S. Walsh, Heroes and Heroines of Fiction: Modern Prose and Poetry, Phila., 1914).

Count Christoph Leopold von Schaffgotsch (1623–1703) was a Silesian statesman who financed the construction of a circular wooden chapel consecrated in 1681 that stands atop the Giant’s Head peak (Bernhard Pollmann, Riesengebirge mit Isergebirge, Munich, 2007, p. 42–43; Deutsche Biographie, www.deutsche-biographie.de).

It is all vanity! / Except for three things only, / Pretty girls, good wine, / And a full wallet. / If I have those, I am happy, / And say with Solomon, / It is all vanity!

From 14 Aug. to 9 Sept. 1800 Frederick William III and Louise Auguste Wilhelmine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz traveled through Silesia on a review of Prussian troops, attending a ball in Hirschberg on the 16th and climbing to the Giant’s Head on the 18th. On the 19th at Waldenburg (now Walbrzych, Poland) they descended by boat into a stream-fed coal mine and were sere-naded by singers in the caverns; they also attended a medieval jousting entertainment at Fürstenstein Castle (Constance Richardson, Memoirs of the Private Life and Opinions of Louisa, Queen of Prussia, Consort of Frederick William III, London, 1847, p. 87–96). For JQA and LCA’s visit to the same coal mine and festival, see Nos. VI and VII, both below.

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 9 August 1800 Adams, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Boylston

V. John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

No: 9. Hirschberg. 9. August. 1800.

Since our return to this place we have indulged ourselves with a few days of rest. The morning after we came back, I went over the lutheran church, which is the handsomest building in the town, & makes a conspicuous figure in all the views from the neighbouring hills. It is built in the shape of a cross, painted white, & roofed with red tile. These colours shew to great advantage here, as they contrast so well with the dark hue of the mountains, which always form the back ground of the scene. The church yard is spacious, & built almost entirely round with stone porches, within which are the family vaults of the inhabitants— The inscriptions upon the tomb stones are in great number, & generally long to tell the passenger that the person beneath was an honest linen trader— The most storied urn, can scarcely ever say so much— I have remarked here, 334 & in two, or three other church yards in this country a practice, which I had never observed elsewhere— A single tomb stone serves for a husband & wife; whichsoever of the two dies first, the inscription is made for both, only the date of the survivor’s death is left in a blank to be filled when the event happens.

As the morning prayer was singing, within the church, just at the time of my stroll thither, I went in, & looked it over— The cielings are painted in a style of mediocrity with scenes of the resurection & ascension of Christ. On the two sides of the alter, are full length portraits of the Emperors Joseph. 1. & Charles. 6. who granted the permission for building this church, & round the walls, as is customary in lutheran churches, the pictures of all the clergymen, who have been its ministers, are hung.1

One of our visits since we returned has been to the painter Rheinardt, whom I have mentioned to you before— He paints annually two landscapes of remarkable views in Silesia, for the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. He has lately sent the two, which will appear at the next exhibition in the automn, & has now at home only two, or three partly finished pictures of his own. Ten of his Silesian views have been engraved & colored at Berlin; four of which I have taken, as they exhibit together the whole range of the Giant mountains. I hope one day to have the pleasure of shewing you upon them the remarkable spots we have visited.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Reinhardt went with us to Stohnsdorf, a village, with a chateau belonging to a count Reuss,2 & remarkable for two hills, from one of which there is one of those extensive, varied, & beautiful prospects, of which there seems to be in this country no end; & the other is curious for forming a sort of rocky labyrinth, in which enormous masses of granite seem as if they had been tumbled together in the most extraordinary positions, now forming a large cavern, where one rock, supported by others at various points serves as the roof of a chamber twenty feet square, & twelve feet high; now a sort of covered way, in which you pass in a narrow lane, between two vast rocks, over which another is laid like a bridge. These hills are called the Stangenbusch, & the Prudelberg.

As we come home last evening, the sky was perfectly clear— The sun had sunk behind the hills to the westward of us, but still shot his level rays across the vallies between them, & as they fell upon the high mountains to the eastward painted their sides, with colours varying from deep purple to a light pink; so that while we ourselves were in the shades of evening, we could perceive them glowing in 335 the mild radiance of the luminary, which seemed to play round them with delight, & to quit them with reluctance. Such an enchantment of colouring I do not remember to have seen before—3

10. August. Sunday.

Yesterday morning we went over the sugar refinery, which has existed here since 1787. It belongs to a company, & the property is devided into shares, which are held by the inhabitants of different towns & villages all along the mountains. In this district they have an extensive priviledge, & there is only one more establishment of the kind, in the province, which is at Breslau. The buildings employed in the business here were given to the company by the late king, & being upon a small elevation near the walls, are a great ornament to the town. They receive their raw sugar from Stettin & Hamburg, & refine quantities sufficient for the neighbourhood, but for exportation to a large amount. The principle curiosity they shewed us however, was a specimen of the new sugar produced from the beet, or turnip, which I have mentioned to you in a former letter—4 They have made here a few loaves of it, which in appearance is equal to the very finest sugar from the cane; but it is neither of so close a texture, nor so sweet to the taste— They sent about two months ago, two loaves of this sugar, as samples to the king, who returned them a very gracious letter of thanks, & an elegant gold medal, as a reward of their industry. The gentleman, who accompanied us, & who is one of the directors of the company assured us it was impossible to make this sugar under double the price, which that from the West Indies amounts to— From a quintal of the vegetable they can make only four pounds of fine sugar.

We likewise made an excursion yesterday to Lähnhaus, the seat of a Baron Grünfeld, at two German miles from the town.5 It is situated upon a steep hill, from which we had some of the most beautiful prospects that have yet been exhibited to us. At the foot of the hill is a little town of Lahn, which you will find upon the map with the Boder winding round it. The seat itself is fitted up in the modern taste, with hot houses, & gardens, & arbours, & summer houses, and fountains, all which shew some taste in their arrangment, though nothing to be compared with a nobleman seat in England. On the summit of the hill behind the house, are the ruins of an old castle, the most romantically situated of any that I have seen. It was built about the year 1250, by Henry, the bearded, duke of Silesia, whose wife appears to be more celebrated than himself— Her name 336 was Hedwige, & she is known as a Saint in the Roman calender. The catholic church at Berlin, you know is dedicated to her— From the inscriptions on her pictures of which there are two here in the catholic church at Lähnhaus, it should seem she was sainted for having repeatedly gone up the hill on foot to hear mass there— At present the proprietor & all his vassels, consisting of the inhabitants of six villages in the neighbourhood are evangelics; but they are all obliged to hear mass said once a year in this church, which joins close upon the Baron’s House— Nor are the Lutherans suffered to make use of the church during the rest of the year— Nor even to say the service of the dead, who are buried in the yard round the building— Saint Hedwige one would think, would have been more charitable, if the story of the talking old servant, who went round the place with us, related, be true— According to him, she was that famous example of conjugal affection, of whom all the world has heard; who, upon the castle’ being taken a long siege, obtained leave of the enemy’s general to carry off her most precious effects, & under that denomination took upon her back, to the astonishment of both armies, & of all posterity,—her husband.6

This morning, I attended the religious service at the Lutheran church. The house was very full, chiefly with country people from the neighbourhood. The service was like what I had heard last Sunday at the village of Seydorf, & partakes at once of our manner in the congregational churches; of that used by the church of England, & of the roman catholic mass. The sermon was more than half an hour, & consisted of an exhortation not to murmur at the dispensations of Heaven. It was delivered with great distinctness & precision, without notes, but with so much method in the treatment of the subject as fully convinced that it had been studied before hand. The style & manner are very plain, without any flourish of oratory, or any grimace of action. There was a large proportion of singing in the service, & the whole congregation joined in it. This adds so much solemnity to these acts of devotion, that I wish the practice were adopted among ourselves.

After church, we went by invitation of Mr Hesse, the gentleman, who accompanied us yesterday to the sugar refinery, & who is one of the principal merchants of the town, to dine at the public table at Warmbrunn. It is in a very elegant building erected within these two years for the accomodation of the company, who attend at the baths. The company at dinner amounted to about thirty persons, with none of whom we had any acquaintance, but all of whom we 337 found very civil & conversible. Twice a week, on Thursdays & Sundays they have balls, but the style of Society is such as cannot be very agreable to the Ladies. Next to the ballroom is an apartment as full of smoakers & smoak, as a dutch coffee house, & the door between the rooms is constantly open. On one side is a billiard room, & on the other is the den of the gamesters, all which is going on at the same time with the ball, which usually begins at five in the afternoon, & ends at nine, or ten. They are making great preparations at Warmbrunn, for the reception of the king & queen, who are expected there, this day week.

After dinner, Mr Hesse took us with him to a bleachery of linen belonging to himself at an house in the country about a mile from Warmbrunn. He shewed us a couple of tubs each containing about four hundred pieces of linen, soaking in water with a misture of soap & potash, for they make no use of any acid here for the purpose. In these two tubs they usually keep the linen overnight, & in the daytime stretch it over a grass plot, near the house, to dry in the sun. The ground is fullowed, at distances equal to the width of the linen, the more effectually to drain off the moisture. After whitening a sufficient time it undergoes the process of fulling & of mangling, both of which are performed by water mills under the same roof.

The materials of which the linen is composed usually pass through four distinct & separate hands before they come to the merchant for sale. The flax is raised by the peasant, on his own account, if he is the possessor of a farm, or of his lord, if he is in a state of vassalage. He breaks & combs the flax, & sells it in the state when it is ready for spinning, to the spinners, of whom the weavers in their turn purchase the thread, which after being wove passes to the bleachers. In general the bleacheries belong to the merchants themselves; but otherwise there is no connection other than that of byeer & seller, between the several trades employed in the work. With the most favorable weather a piece of linen cannot be fully whitened in less than ten weeks.

A large proportion of their exports of linen, before the war, were to Cadix, from which they were shipped to the Spanish colonies. Since the blockade of Cadix, this trade has in a great measure been up. At present they send great quantities to Hamburg, & even to England, of which no small quantities goes to the United States. The exportation of linen from the whole province, amounts to a million sterling, annually, of which one quarter part is sent from Hirschberg.7

We had heard much before we left Berlin of Silesian hospitality, 338 & in general find the character well deserved. We have every where found the most obliging attentions, & the strongest disposition to satisfy in every respect our curiosity. In some instances this kindness has been carried so far as to become troublesome. But this is far from having been the case with the civilities of Mr Hesse, to which we had no sort of claim whatever. We happened accidently to meet him at Mr Rheinardt’s, when we went to see his paintings, & he recollected having once dined with me at Mr Schickler’s in Berlin, a year, or two ago. He has considered this as giving us a sufficient title to all his attentions, which from that time have been unceasing.

Schmiedeberg. 12. August. Tuesday.

Yesterday afternoon, we concluded to proceed upon our journey, & quitted not without reluctance the pleasant town of Hirschberg, where we have so agreably past a fortnight. The whole way hither, is over, a most romantic valley, through fields loaded with luxuriant harvests, interspersed with hills & vales, country seats & villages, & bounded on one side by the range of mountains, of which you have so often heard in these letters. The road is a turnpike not inferior to the best in England. These turnpikes, which extend all along the highway through what are called the mountain towns, were made by Frederic II, who treated this province as a favorite.

Smiedeberg is a small city, containing between 3 & 4000, inhabitants. It is about a German mile in length, & consists of one street, in which there are many very handsome buildings; in both these respects it has a very considerable resemblance with the town of Salem in Massachusetts— The principal manufacturies here are of table linen, & of printed linen. I hope to give you some further account of them in my next. Your’s—

LbC in Thomas Welsh Jr.’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “T B. Adams”; APM Reel 134.

Hirschberg’s Protestant church (now the Roman Catholic church of the Holy Cross) was constructed, in the baroque style on a Greek-cross plan with a central dome, between 1709 and 1718 by Martin Frantz with painted decoration by Franz Hoffman (Jerzy Z. Łoziński and Adam Milobᶒdzki, Guide to Architecture in Poland, Warsaw, 1967, p. 96; Encyclopedia of World Art, 17 vols., N.Y., 1959–1987, 11:407).

Heinrich XXXVIII, Count von Reuss zu Plauen (1748–1835) (Friedrich Maximilian Oertel, Genealogische Tafeln zur Staatengeschichte des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1857, p. 82).

JQA’s letter to this point was printed in the Port Folio, 1:89 (21 March 1801), and the remainder appeared in 1:97–98 (28 March).

See No. I, and note 4, above.

Friedrich Gotthard Ehrenreich, Baron von Grünfeld and Gutterstädten (1755–1804), was last in his line to occupy the family 339 estate on the grounds of the Lehnhaus Castle (Ernst Heinrich Kneschke, Die Wappen der Deutschen Freiherrlichen und Adeligen Familien, 4 vols., Leipzig, 1855–1857, 4:157; Augustin Knoblich, Chronik von Lähn und Burg Lähnhaus am Bober, Breslau, 1863, p. 224).

The marriage of Hedwig of Andechs and Duke Henry the Bearded in about 1186 traditionally marks a turning point in the unification of Silesia. After Hedwig’s death in 1243 she was canonized as the patron saint of Silesia (Jan Klápště, The Czech Lands in Medieval Transformation, transl. Sean Mark Miller and Kateřina Millerová, Boston, 2012, p. 4–7).

A British blockade of Cádiz, Spain, from 1797 to 1802 caused upheaval in the Silesian linen industry. American traders provided an alternative conduit to West Indian markets, and at the turn of the century linen remained Prussia’s largest export (Edward Pelham Brenton, The Naval History of Great Britain, 2 vols., London, 1837, 2:57; John Macgregor, Germany: Her Resources, Government, Union of Customs, and Power, under Frederick William IV, London, 1848, p. 121–124).