Hermann von Pückler-Muskau
Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau (1785–1871) is perhaps best known today for the ambitious landscape gardening
projects he carried out in his native Germany. When he ran short of money while
creating the Park of Muskau, he set off on a tour of Britain in search of a
wealthy wife, visiting all the places where affluent society was known to meet.
And whilst he
ultimately failed as a Fortune hunter, the success of a book based on the
letters written on this tour provided him with an income that almost made up
for this setback. The English version of the book came out in 1832 and was
called Tour in Germany, Holland, and England
in the years 1826, 1827 & 1828 and 1829. With Remarks on the Manners and
Customs of the Inhabitants, and Anecdotes of distinguished Public Characters.
In a Series of Letters. By a German Prince.
For Pückler, Harrogate compared more favourably with continental spas than did its English counterparts. ‘This bathing-place’, he writes, ‘is much after the fashion of ours, and more social than most of the English ones. People meet at table d’hôte, at tea, and at the waters, and thus easily become acquainted.’ He also uses it as an opportunity to make a side-swipe at English society:
Source: Wikimedia Commons
‘At table d’hôte I met about seventy other
persons. Though the season is nearly over, there are still about a thousand
visitors, most of them of the middle classes; for Harrowgate is not one of the
fashionable watering places, though it seems to me far more pleasant than the
most fashionable Brighton. An old General of eighty, who was my neighbour at
dinner, interested me greatly. He had met with Frederick the Great, Kaunitz,
the Emperor Joseph. Mirabeau, and Napoleon, on various occasions of his life,
and told me many interesting particulars about them. He had likewise been
Governor of Surinam and of the Isle of France; had commanded for a long time in
India, and was now what we call General of Infantry, (next rank to a Field
Marshall). All this would give him a high station with us: here - no such thing;
and this he remarked himself, “Here” said he “the aristocracy is
everything: without family influence, without connection, without some person
of rank by whom a man may be pushed, he may indeed attain a high rank in the army;
but, except under some very peculiar circumstances, this gives him no
consideration. I am only a baronet” added he “yet that empty and
trifling title gives me more consideration than my long services or my high
military rank; and I am not called General, - or as I should be with you, Euer Excellence, but Sir
Charles.”’ (28th
and 29th September 1827)
