62

DOMESTIC MANNEKS OF THE PKÜSSIAXS.

recommend it to the eye, being merely one long, ungainly,barrack-like building (indeed, a wing of it forms the quartersof the Baden cavalry), with so-called " gardens " at its rear,extending to the river side; though the said gardens are littlebetter than a mangey coppice, and certainly not equal in beautyor neatness to the humblest of our parks.

Mannheim, however, is but a mere mushroom city—aStadt that can trace its bricks and mortar back no farther thanthe 17th Century; for it was founded in 1606 by Frederick IV.Elector-Palatine of Germany, who built a Castle near themouth of the Neckar. But this, together with the first muralattempts at a city, was rased to the ground long before therooks had time to build their nests in the sapling elms aroundthe Royal Residenz.

The town was afterwards rebuilt and strongly fortified bythe Elector Charles Philip; but the fortifications intended forits defence were the cause of its being repeatedly besieged,and convcrted either into a mass of cinders, or levelled withthe dust, at frequent and regulär intervals. Indeed, duringthe religious wars, the city had to be twice rebuilt within aCentury.

The story runs that the French Commander, who in1689 caused the placed to surrender, summoned the peopleimmediately after his entry into the city, and told them thathis master, Louis XIV., had given strict orders that the townshould be reduced to a rubbish-heap. However, he added,that as a mark of special favour, he would allow them twentydays to rase their houses to the ground themselves, But thetownspeople wanted the heart to destroy their own dwellings;accordingly, at the expiration of the term, the Generalsummoned his soldiers to execute the work, and they havingdriven out the lingering inhabitants, fired all the houses and