Page:Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad (1835).pdf/24

Invalids coming from Prague were formerly obliged to descend the mountain, at the foot of which the town and its springs lay, by roads fiter for goats and woodsmen, than for heavy carriages. During one of the most calamitous periods of his reign, from 1804 to 1806, the late emperor had a magnificent serpentine Chaussée constructed, at the expenses of 160,000 silver florins, by which the town is approached with so much ease, and offering so delightful a prospect, that visitors have been known to say, the pleasant sensation this causes was sufficient alone to come here. For lighter carriages, a shorter cut of a road, called the Tappenhof–Chaussée, leads more directly down the hill, and is far easier than the Prague street (Prager Gasse). From the Egra side the roads, formerly very bad, are now excellent and flat. A statement of what has been done for the improvement of roads in all directions, in order to establish better and shorter communications between the different watering places of Bohemia, and for the improvement of Carlsbad, only since the beginning of the present Grand-Bourgrave (governor of the kingdom) count Charles Chotek’s administration, viz. since 1827, is to be seen in my Almanach for 1833, ch. XII and XIII. The great improvements of roads have facilitated the establishment of Stage and Mailcoaches, under the name of Eilwägen (vélocifères). For those who, by motives of health, are obliged to travel slowly (à petites journées), veturinis (Landkutscher) are every where to be had. From Prague