entire façade, with the statues of the kings and heroes of Bohemia, was re-edified in the modern Gothic style some ten or twelve years ago; the clock is peculiar from having ceased to go two hundred years back, nobody since that period having been discovered clever enough to set it in order.
The objects of most interest to many travellers are the hotels; of these there are several of superior order; the original principal Gasthof was the Schwarzen Ross (Black Horse), in the Graben, the Grande Rue of Prague, the breadth of which emulates Regent Street; at present the reputation of this house is entirely traditionary, as it is dirty, noisy, and most remarkable for the imposition of its charges and the badness of its attendance. The best are the Hotel de Saxe and the Blauen Stern, or Blue Star.
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The Town-Hall, Prague.
For comfort in sleeping, an Englishman could hardly be worse off in Kamschatka; the bedsteads are the breadth of an ordinary sofa, and not calculated for any person exceeding five feet eight inches in height: indeed they more nearly resemble a box without a lid, having neither curtains nor valance, than any idea we are accustomed to attach to a bed in England. The coverings are as uncomfortable as the bedstead, consisting, in severe cold weather, of a feather bed thrown over you, and when that becomes too warm, its place is taken by a small, wadded, prettily-quilted cover in blue, green, or red silk, or twilled cotton, with the sheet attached to it, each only the breadth of the mattrass, and so short and narrow, that except in a very contracted position, either the feet or the shoulders must remain uncovered, and whichever way you turn the opposite side of the person must be exposed. In hotels beds are generally found in all the rooms; it is, therefore, difficult to get a sitting-room not fitted up to serve the double purpose of a saloon and a sleeping apartment.
The climate being very severe in winter, all the houses are fitted up with double windows, with cushions laid between them, which in spring give place to plants and flowers; when summer sets in the outer frames are removed and jalousies are fixed in their stead. In the houses of the wealthy, the stoves are made very ornamental objects by their shape and decorations; they are sometimes formed with vases for water on the summit, a certain portion of moisture being necessary, or