ce and a metropolis of all
the arts. Under his fostering care, Munich was brought to bed of a
succession of temples and columns, and sprouted pillars and porticoes
in every direction. The slums and alleys and huddle of houses in the
old enceinte were swept away, and replaced by broad boulevards,
fringed with museums and churches and picture galleries. For many of
the principal public buildings he went to good models. Thus, one of
them, the Koenigsbau, was copied from the Pitti Palace; a second from
the Loggia de' Lanzi; and a third from St. Paul's at Rome. He also
built a Walhalla, at Ratisbon, in which to preserve the effigies of
his more distinguished countrymen. Yet, although it ran to size, there
was no niche in it for Luther.

In his patronage of the fine arts, Ludwig followed in the footsteps of
the Medici. During his regime, he did much to raise the standard of
taste among his subjects. Martin Wagner and von Hallerstein were
commissioned by him to travel in Greece and Italy and secure choice
sculpture and pictures for his galleries and museums. The best of them
found a home in the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek, two enormous
buildings in the Doric style, the cost of which he met from his privy
purse. Another of his hobbies was to play the Maecenas; and any
budding author or artist who came to him with a manuscript in his
pocket or a canvas under his arm was certain of a welcome.

We all have our little weaknesses. That of Ludwig of Bavaria was that
he was a poet. He was so sure of this that he not only produced yards
of turgid verse, defying every law of construction and metre, but he
even had some of it printed. A volume of selections from his Muse,
entitled _Walhalla's Genossen_, was published for him by Baron Cotta,
and, like the Indian shawls of Queen Victoria, did regular duty as a
wedding-gift. One effort was dedicated "To Myself as King," and
another "To my Sister, the Empress of Austria"; and a number of choice
extracts were translated and appeared in an English guide-book.

Ignoring the divinity that should have hedged their author, Heine was
very caustic about this royal assault upon Parnassus. Ludwig riposted
by banishing him from the capital. Still, if he disapproved of this
one, he added to his library the output of other bards, not
necessarily German. But, while Browning was there, Tennyson had no
place on his shelves. One, however, was found for Martin Tupper.

Ludwig cultivated friendly relatio