hold of the youth. Frederick was not always in that sportive
humour in which we have seen him repeatedly. At times he would
wander about silent and solitary, wrapped in his musical
meditations. He would sit up late, busy with his beloved music,
and often, after lying down, rise from his bed in the middle of
the night in order, to strike a few chords or try a short phrase-
-to the horror of the servants, whose first thought was of
ghosts, the second that their dear young master was not quite
right in his mind. Indeed, what with his school-work and his
musical studies, our young friend exerted himself more than was
good for him. When, therefore, in the holidays of 1826 his
youngest sister, Emilia, was ordered by the physicians to go to
Reinerz, a watering-place in Prussian Silesia, the parents
thought it advisable that the too diligent Frederick should
accompany her, and drink whey for the benefit of his health. The
travelling party consisted of the mother, two sisters, and
himself. A letter which he wrote on August 28, 1826, to his
friend William Kolberg, furnishes some information about his
doings there. It contains, as letters from watering-places
usually do, criticisms of the society and accounts of
promenadings, excursions, regular meals, and early hours in going
to bed and in rising. As the greater part of the contents can be
of no interest to us, I shall confine myself to picking up what
seems to me worth preserving. He had been drinking whey and the
waters for a fortnight and found he was getting somewhat stouter
and at the same time lazy. People said he began to look better.
He enjoyed the sight of the valleys from the hills which surround
Reinerz, but the climbing fatigued him, and he had sometimes to
drag himself down on all-fours. One mountain, the rocky
Heuscheuer, he and other delicate persons were forbidden to