FRIEDRICHSDORF.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." I
SIR,—I read with much interest the account of Friedrichsdorf in your last number, the more that it revived recollections of a time (some thirty years'ago) when I was at school there. The head of the school, always styled the " Professor," was a native of the village. He was, I believe, fairly qualified for his office ; but he had a brother, often about the house, who had never travelled farther than Darmstadt, and was reported to have expressed his surprise on that occasion that the world was so large. Probably the simplicity of those antique times has vanished.
I do not think it was considered derogatory to intermarry with neighbouring Germans, although some conservatives may have had a prejudice against such marriages. The Professor's
only daughter was engaged to a German master iu the school ; and the match seemed, as far as we boys could judge, to be regarded with satisfaction.
Your readers may be interested to know that another Huguenot colony was planted at Dornholzhausen, only a mile or two from Friedrichsdorf. This settlement was very much smaller, and had. consequently, less power of resisting the influence of its neighbours. Already iu my time I was told that, although all the inhabitants could speak French, only a few elders used it by preference among themselves ; while to the children German was the natural tongue, and French an acquired one.—I am, Sir, &c., F. D. M.
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