The Schloss (or Grand Ducal Palace) at Darmstadt, 1862. Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, is situated in a sandy plain on the Darmbach. It is surrounded by walls and ditches, and consists of an old and a new town...Around [the Louisen Platz] are a number of lofty and elegant mansions, among others the new palace, the residence of the Grand Duke, built at the commencement of the present century, but, though sufficiently commodious, not of much architectural merit. Other buildings deserving of notice are the old palace, a large pile of mixed architecture, now fitted up as a residence for the Hereditary Grand Duke, surrounded by an old dry ditch, which has been converted into a shrubbery and garden...Darmstadt...has important civil and criminal courts and public offices, and a number of establishments, benevolent, educational, literary, and scientific. It is also provided with various sources of amusement at public places of resort, and with several fine promenades. Of these the best are the palace gardens, which are well laid out, but very indifferently kept. Darmstadt, though on the whole somewhat dull as a town, has much to attract the tourist in the picturesque scenery of its environs. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.