The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Berlin, 1688. Died there, 1740. Aged 52.] The son of Frederic I. and the father of Frederic the Great. The best that can be said of him is, that he left behind him a full treasury and an efficient army of 66,000 men. He was rough and rude in his manners, a hater of luxury, and parsimonious in all things but his expenditure for the increase of his military resources. He had a childish desire to fill all his regiments with very tall men, and was unscrupulous in his methods of gratifying the whim. An amusing story is told in connexion with this passion. Meeting with a fine, tall, and strong young peasant woman, who was on errand to the quarters of a regiment, he gave her a letter to deliver to the commanding officer, ordering him to marry the bearer to his tallest grenadier. The girl, hindered on her way, and not knowing the purport of her mission, entrusted it to a little old woman, and the marriage was effected accordingly. His contempt for science and literature was supreme, and he made no secret of his want of all respect for their professors. He was feared, not loved, in his country, and his death caused no regret. [By Hopfgarten. Bronze. At Treptow. Done within the last ten years.]