CHAPTER VI
1844
The so-called Saxon Switzerland is actually the Meissener Hochland, extending from Liebethal to the Bohemian frontier, a distance of about twenty-five miles and of equal width. The Riesen Gebirge, a mass of granite, has, at a comparatively recent period, been thrust up through an over-lying bed of sandstone, which it has splintered and fissured in all directions. The Meissener Highland is the representative of this riven bed in Saxony, and the equally interesting region of Adersbach and Wiechelsdorf on the south of the granite chain represents the bed in Bohemia. The former has the advantage that, being traversed by the River Elbe, it exhibits its beauties and its oddities in a way which the Bohemian sandstone cannot. There it conceals itself shyly in dense forests. The sandstone of which the lifted plateau consists often assumes the strangest shapes. Some of the rocky columns are so slender that but a slight earthquake would upset them. These rocky columns were formed by the disintegration of the softer veins of sandstone running vertically through the beds. The Bastei towers above the Elbe to the height of 605 ft. The spirelets of rock are now united by a stone bridge that does not improve the picturesque effect. We spent a very enjoyable summer at Schandau.
Whilst we were at Schandau we made a picnic to the Prebisch Thor, a curious arch in sandstone. As it chanced, on the same day, the King of Saxony and his party were there, also having their lunch. The King had heard of us at Schandau, and most courteously requested my father and mother to join their party. We children were, of course, left behind. He was most gracious, and asked why my father had not been at Court during the preceding winter. My father explained that not having been
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