How the Dutch and Wends agreed together, within their rampart,
inclusive of both, is not said. The river lay between; they had
two languages; peace was necessary: it is probable they were long
rather on a taciturn footing! But in the oily river you do catch
various fish; Coln, amid its quagmires and straggling sluggish
waters, can be rendered very strong. Some husbandry, wet or dry,
is possible to diligent Dutchmen. There is room for trade also;
Spree Havel Elbe is a direct water-road to Hamburg and the Ocean;
by the Oder, which is not very far, you communicate with the
Baltic on this hand, and with Poland and the uttermost parts of
Silesia on that. Enough, Berlin grows; becomes, in about 300
years, for one reason and another, Capital City of the country, of
these many countries. The Markgraves or Electors, after quitting
Brandenburg, did not come immediately to Berlin; their next
Residence was Tangermunde (MOUTH of the TANGER, where little
Tanger issues into Elbe); a much grassier place than Berlin, and
which stands on a Hill, clay-and-sand Hill, likewise advantageous
for strength. That Berlin should have grown, after it once became
Capital, is not a mystery. It has quadrupled itself, and more,
within the last hundred years, and I think doubled itself within
the last thirty.


MARKGRAF OTTO IV., OR OTTO WITH THE ARROW

One Ascanier Markgraf, and one only, Otto IV. by title, was a Poet
withal; had an actual habit of doing verse. There are certain
so-called Poems of his, still extant, read by Dryasdust, with such
enthusiasm as he can get up, in the old Collection of
Minne-singers, made by MANESSE the Zurich