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25 July 1883 — Berlin | |
Wednesday. 25th July [1883]. Henry went off to the gallery directly after breakfast & I being rather tired remained in & wrote till 11.30 when I walked to the gallery to join him. We gave a glance round the pictures & then walked back to the Hotel & lunched. While we were at lunch Ct Hatzfeldt & his daughter Nelly paid us a visit; we had not seen her since she was at Consple & now she is grown up—out in the world & considered pretty. She has rather brusque manners & dresses badly. They asked us to go later in the afternoon to play lawn tennis wh we promised to do. At 3 Henry & I went off to Ascher’s where I bought some cheap German books & then Henry put me into a cab & I went to the Potsdam station to meet Miss Green the governess of the little Princesses whom the C. Pss sent up on purpose to show me her Kindergarten & her sick nurses’ home. Miss Green took me to the Victoria Home but we were unable to see the Kindergarten as it was closed for the holidays. We were kindly received at the Home by the head nurse a pleasant bright lady who wore a blue print frock, a white apron & bib & a white cap. She spoke English perfectly & said she had been over a year in London in St Thomas’ hospital & among the London poor. She showed me the house which is small but comfortable & contains 4 nurses & 2 probationers. They are entirely for nursing the poor & the whole thing was set on foot by the C. Pss & is succeeding very well in spite of all prophecies to the contrary. The sister took us down stairs to a bathroom belonging to the establishment where any poor child may come on 3 days of the week to be washed for 10 pennigs (1d) the only condition being that they should bring clean clothes to put on after the bath. It was a pretty sight to see the little ones—some standing round waiting their turn—one on a sister’s lap being undressed—another in a big towel being dried & all looking happy. We found from the sister that all the poor live at the top of the great houses & therefore the children do not get the fresh air of the streets & there is a great deal of sickness. She also told us there were 50,000 souls in her parish—one church & 2 clergymen! I dropped Miss Green at a friend’s door & went in search of Hatzfeldt’s house—Henry had forgotten to give me the address. At the F.O. they told me & I walked from there a short distance. I found Henry there & Mr Cartwright. They were having tea in the interim of tennis. We stayed there till 7 & had some very amusing games. Took a cab & went to our hotel to dine. At 9.30 Hatzfeldt & Nelly called for us in their carriage & took us top the Hygeniè Museum gardens. There were crowds there. It was beautifully lighted up by electricity & there were Restaurants and bands of music in all directions. As it threatened to rain & a few drops fell occasionally there was not such a crowd as usual. The Museum itself is shut at night but the gardens & beer places are a great resort for the people. There was also a show house which attracted crowds & wh we went over—but as usual with all shop fitted houses it was rather a thing to avoid than to imitate. After sitting a while & the gentlemen having beer we begged to go back to the Hotel as we were tired & had to start tomorrow for Cassel early. | |
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