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Monday 5 August 2013

Austrians

Wednesday, August 5th., Salzburg.

Another 1,000 words of "Lord Raingo" yesterday afternoon, between 5.15 and 7.15, after a bad night.
Kommer joined us late at lunch in the Mirabell Garden, among the wasps.

The Mirabelle Palace was built by Prince Arbishop Wolf Dietrich in 1606 for his mistress, Salome Alt, and her children. The central axis of the garden is aligned on Hohensalzburg, the castle on the other side of the River Salzach. It has a central fountain, an outdoor theatre and a marvellous sculpture collection. Mirabelle has a key position in the town, near the river and between the old town and the commercial new town. It is also, as Jellicoe observed, draws upon the surrounding landscape. It is a beautiful place, always full of people and more redolent of the atmosphere of a Court Garden than most of old Europe's extant Hofgartens.

Cafe Corso


After dinner we went to the Cafe Corso, to hear the Hungarian musicians - Zigeuner Kapelle.





These Austrians are gayer than the English. They laugh easily and have pleasant faces and eyes, though grace is not always one of their qualities - except of manner. The men generally have a little thing like a small feather duster, brush up, at the back of their hats. Pants are more and more often embroidered. I saw two country well-off lads on Sunday with a string of silver coins round their waists. The bow-neckties are rather good - bright and with nice patterns, and small. Knapsack carrying, and also by girls, is very common, and pretty heavy knapsacks too. The passers-by are now much less dowdy than a month ago, and one sees that fashion binds after all the whole female sex of Western Europe together - when the money will run to it.

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