The Mill That Might Not Be Sold

In 1704 the supreme provincial judge Václav Vojtěch, Count Šternberk, wished to buy the Imperial Mill with its sawmill for a hundred thousand gulden, excepting the building in which the game for the park was kept. But the Estates refused, holding that the mill was a place always dear to the Bohemian sovereigns and much esteemed for its historical associations from the time of Rudolf II: as a retreat hidden from human eyes it protected, they said, memorable buildings, an artificial pond, a grotto and a bath, which the King of Bohemia could not well do without. And so the sale came to nothing.