THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
This large group of buildings contained the dwelling of the tenant and his retainers, the steward's officers necessary for the management of the estate, the granaries and the stables. On the fourth side of the court a second bridge spanned a branch of the moat and led to a small but more pretentious building, also surrounded on all sides by water. This was the residence occupied by Count Metternich and his family during the summer and the shooting seasons. It also had its tall towers and spreading wings, containing a chapel and household service rooms. It was situated on somewhat higher ground, and seemed to dominate the other buildings. This residence, standing apart, was called “The House.” A third drawbridge united “The House” with a park of about forty acres, of which one-half resembled the Versailles gardens, with its straight pebble walks, labyrinths and trimmed hedges, and here and there statues of Greek gods and nymphs, fountains and ponds. Large orange trees, in green tubs, stood, like sentinels, in rows along the walks.
The grounds were enlivened by flocks of guinea hens and stately moving peacocks. Another part of the grounds was laid out like an English park, with lawns, ponds and groups of tall trees and shrubbery, and here and there a small summer house or a pavilion. The estate as a whole was called by the people “Die Burg,” and my grandfather was known in the village and surrounding country as “Der Burghalfen.” “Halfen” was the name given originally to the farmer-tenants who went halves with the lord of the estate in the proceeds of the crops. This has in some parts of the Rhineland given way to the payment of a fixed rent to the landlord, but the old name “Halfen” remains.
My grandfather, the Burghalfen, had, at the time of my first recollection, attained his sixtieth year. He was a man of
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