led, for a thoughtful King of Bohemia, Charles IV again, caused it to
be built in order to provide work during a lean year some centuries ago.
A gap in the Famine Wall, which you reach by shady winding ways, gives
you a glorious and unexpected view of the Hrad[vs]any; the winding ways
lead you up to the summit of the Pet[vr]in, as this height is called,
where you may find an outlook tower, a church, a diorama showing a scene
from the Thirty Years' War, and a beer-garden--so entertainment is
provided for all tastes. There is a way down from the top of Pet[vr]in
shaded by chestnut-trees, its stages marked by fourteen chapels, the
Stations of the Cross, until it narrows in between garden walls over
which you see Strahov and the Hrad[vs]any rising in graceful dignity out
of a maze of red-tiled roofs and foliage.

Then you may wander on past Strahov and over open rolling country to the
battlefield of the White Mountain and to the Star, those places of
tragic memory in the history of Bohemia. It is usual to speak
slightingly of the immediate environment of Prague as being
uninteresting and indeed unlovely; I protest strongly against this, and
that because I have traversed the fields and lanes on foot, not dashing
through the landscape in a motor-car, and therefore claim to have seen
the scenery round about the capital. The citizens of Prague seem to be
of my way of thinking, to judge by the numbers that set out on Sundays
to the heights that encompass the town on its western side. The good
people of Prague enjoy their Sunday beer in the Star Park Restaurant,
and take their walks abroad among the pleasant valleys that run down to
the river on its left bank. From the plateau of the White Mountain you
may find your way into one of these pleasant valleys, that of the
[vS]arka. You enter it by a narrow rocky gorge, and as it has a
distinctly romantic look, legend has fastened on to it and echoes a tale
of Bohemian Amazons led by a lady of the name of [vS]arka, who was
discontented with the dominance of mere man. The legend is somewhat
obscure, but as the Bohemians, like other people, prefer a happy ending
to their stories (they have till recently known but few in their own
history), we may take it that the Amazonian ladies arrived at the
natural issue out of their troubles. Amongst these rocks is an open-air
theatre where concerts are given; here one glorious Sunday afternoon in
autumn I was once again privileged to hear Kubelik pl