I left Copenhagen for Elsinore on the last day of June, with two
companions, in a _char-a-banc_; a rough but not inconvenient kind of
carriage drawn by two horses. We took the route by Fredericksborg
(different from the Fredericksberg already mentioned), in order to
visit that most distinguished of all the Danish palaces. The king
was living in it at the time; but this was understood to present
no difficulty. The life of Frederick VII. is remarkably modest and
unobtrusive. Allowing his ministers to govern according to the best of
their judgment, he is content to live in the manner almost of a private
gentleman. It was stated that at this time, when half the sovereigns
of Europe were in the agonies of a revolutionary crisis, the attention
of the Danish monarch was chiefly engrossed by some ancient sepulchral
tumuli found in his neighbourhood. So great is his disrelish of royal
state and parade, that he can only with difficulty be induced to come
occasionally to town to give audiences and attend reviews. Yet Denmark
is a year old in a constitution which grants something approaching to
universal suffrage. Very probably the Sleswig-Holstein war is what
has secured this internal peace. Uniting in this external object, the
people have escaped as yet the danger of falling together by the ears
about progress and reaction. So for once a democratic movement has not
been attended by a crop of folly and outrage.
The country passed over in our drive is composed of the tame
undulations usual in the chalk formation, varied only by a few lakes
and some fine woods. We snatched an interval required for resting the
horses to see the queen-dowager's palace at Lundby, which we found
to be a plain building situated amongst some pleasant groves, but in
no way remarkable, except that the domain was open at all points to
any one who chose to leave the high road by which it is skirted. We
walked over the grounds, and penetrated into the garden, asking no
leave, and meeting no resistance or challenge--a proof not so much,
I apprehend, of any special liberality in the royal possessor, as of
great harmlessness in the people; for certainly without _that_, no such
indulgence could be extended. The inferiority of the place in point of
trimness to similar places in England, and the meagre show of plants in
the garden, were remarkable. That fastidious mowing, and paring, and
cleaning, which is continually going on round a country residence in
England, is unknown in the north of Europe.
All along our way to Fredericksborg I observed heaps of granite and
gneiss boulders, ready to be broken up for the repair of the roads.
They were to me an interesting set of objects, as being my first
introduction to the grand Drift Formation of the north. To most
readers it will be enough for the present to say that they are masses
of stone belonging to the granitic and gneissic countries of northern
Sweden and Finland, which have been carried southward, probably for the
most part by icebergs floating in the sea by which this region was once
overspread. They are found imbedded in the clayey and gravelly covering
of the country, or encumbering its surface; and now the farmers are
allowed something for carting them to the roadsides, that they may be
pounded down by the disciples of Macadam. The kirb-stones, which form
the only approach to a pavement in Copenhagen are from the same source.
I examined many of the wayside heaps, as well as those presented in
gravel-pits, and found a few with traces of striation, denoting their
having undergone rubbing in the transport; but these were rare objects.
The cultivated land seems now pretty well cleared of them; but they
still abound in forest ground. The sand of the aforesaid gravel-pits
is in many places stratified, marking the deposition by water; but I
nowhere could detect shells.
At length the pinnacles of Fredericksborg began to appear over the dull
landscape, and we speedily found ourselves seated in the village inn at
a very tolerable dinner. When this was concluded, we sauntered to the
palace, which we found to be a huge brick edifice of the Elizabethan
style, forming three sides of a square, with detached masses and
courtyards, the whole closely surrounded by water. It is one of the
many memorials of the magnificence of the fourth Christian, but was
built on the site of a former palace; and amongst the few traces of
the original left, is a small island covered with shrubbery. The
shrubbery had been planted by Frederick II., the father of Christian,
in commemoration of the son having been born on the spot; and under
a feeling with which we can all sympathise, the reforming king left
this shrubbery untouched. It is said that the new palace took fifteen
years in building. Here, again, one wonders that so small a state
could at that time furnish funds for the erection of such sumptuous
edifices. The unchecked authority exercised by its princes is the only
explanation of the mystery. They seem to have regarded palace-building
as a legitimate amusement for their leisure hours, and to have been
under no sort of scruple as to the sufferings of their people in
furnishing the requisite funds. A Danish king, in the last century,
told his young queen, in a fit of gallantry, that if she should kill
a deer in the chase, he would build a palace on the spot. Such, I am
told, was the actual origin of one of the numerous palaces which now
adorn the country. To find ourselves now in this gray, old-fashioned
château, and be told that the king lived in it, seeing as we did no
trace of any state or pageantry whatever, and scarcely any mark of the
place being inhabited at all, raised some curious speculations in our
minds as to the change of the relations of monarch and subject since
the days of Christian IV.
The grand sight of Fredericksborg is the royal chapel, forming the
lower floor of one side of the square. It is a superb specimen of
that mixture of Grecian and Gothic which prevailed at the end of the
sixteenth century; no grandeur of plan, but infinite ornament of
detail, gilt reliefs (especially on the ceiling), carvings, and fine
inlaid woodwork. The pulpit has pillars of silver, and the altar-piece
glows with golden images and sculptures. 'The Swedes,' says Feldborg,
'took away twelve apostles in silver, leaving the figure of Christ,
which was formed of the same metal, to preach the Gospel at home, as
they wickedly expressed themselves, but declaring that his apostles
should do so abroad.' The screened recess for the royal family still
contains a range of chairs with wrought seats, which must be coeval
with the chapel, as they contain Christian's initials. There is even
still the same charity-box at the door, into which this grand old
prince must have popped his donations as he passed to worship; for
it, too, bears his initials. The coronations of the Danish kings take
place here, and this has led to an unfortunate modernisation being
effected at one end of the chapel for the accommodation of the throne,
with seats for the knights of the Order of the Elephant. In every
other particular it is preserved exactly as it was in the days of
the founder. I may remark that the shields of the living Elephantine
knights adorn the gallery. When they die, these symbols of their glory
are removed to a clean, well-kept crypt beneath one of the angles of
the palace, where the whole series for the last two centuries may be
seen. This is at once a curious historical study and a touching lecture
on the transitoriness of all human grandeur.
Over the chapel, and therefore occupying the same area, is the
Banqueting-Hall, certainly a most magnificent apartment, being no less
than 150 feet long, and of proportionate breadth, though generally
thought to be a little deficient in height. This large room is
beautifully paved with diced marble, and is covered all over with gilt
and painted ornaments, particularly in the ceiling, while each space
of wall between two windows contains a portrait of some monarch which
had been presented to the Danish sovereigns. The ceiling alone, which
is said to have been the work of twenty-six carvers for seven years,
might detain a curious visitor for a day, since there is scarcely a
familiar animal, or a trade, or art, which is not represented in it. In
one compartment you may study the business of _Distillatio_; in another
that of _Impressio Librorum_, and so forth. One sees in this and
similar places many valuable memorials of the things of a former age,
which he cannot but regret to leave after only a hasty and superficial
inspection. I am convinced that a painstaking and leisurely person, who
could take accurate drawings of such objects, would, in the course of a
few years' rambles over Europe, acquire the means of producing almost
a complete resuscitation of our mediæval ancestors in their dresses,
habits, and all other external circumstances.
When we had satisfied our curiosity with the Fredericksborg palace,
we returned to the inn, and speedily resumed our _char-a-banc_, but
with fresh horses. I observed with some surprise that the driver, in
passing out of the town, deemed himself at liberty to take a short
cut through the half-ruinous gateways and rain-bleached courts of the
palace, notwithstanding the presence of royalty within the mansion. We
found some fine woods extending from the palace in this direction, and
peopled with deer. A short drive brought us to another palace, called
Fredensberg, more modern than the last, and with some pretensions to
notice. But we were too much satiated with such sights to care for an
inspection of Fredensberg, and we therefore passed on to Elsinore,
where we arrived betimes in the evening.
An Englishman usually approaches this town with his mind full of
Shakspeare and Hamlet, and an eager expectation to see places hallowed
by association with the name of him of the inky cloak: supply naturally
follows demand, and hence it is not surprising to find that a place
called 'Hamlet's Garden' has been 'got up' in the neighbourhood, and
established as the scene of the murder of the royal Dane. Not being
disposed to have much faith in the reality of a northern prince of
the fourth century before the Christian era, I entered Elsinore with
comparatively sober feelings. It is a very ordinary-looking mercantile
town of 8000 inhabitants (yet the fourth in Denmark), situated on a
low plain beside that Sound which has originally given it consequence.
Not much less than a hundred vessels of all flags lay in the calm
sea in front, waiting for wind, or till they should pay their dues
to the king of Denmark. It is admitted that L.150,000 per annum are
thus extorted under favour of the cannon of Cronberg Castle, which
raises its huge form near by, like the beggar in 'Gil Blas,' whom the
reader may remember described as having his gun presented on a pair of
cross-sticks to enforce a demand neither less nor more justifiable.
It is certainly surprising that a system so little different from the
predatory practices of the Rhenish barons of the fourteenth century
should still be found in vigour. I am afraid that my only true
English associations with the place referred to things at which the
Shakspearian enthusiast will scoff--to wit, James VI. dating during
his honeymoon from Cronberg, 'quhair we are drinking and driving ower
in the auld maner,' and his descendant, Queen Matilda, here sighing
over the lost peace which was never more to be hers.[1] The mind is
sometimes strangely perverse and wayward, and I often find myself
interested in things for reasons sufficiently trivial. For instance,
while passing through the fosses and walls which surround this hardy
fortress, and while my companions were probably lost in admiration
of its stately proportions, I could not help recalling a passage in
Spottiswoode the historian, where, speaking of James's winter in this
castle, he mentions with complacency there being no such thing as a
quarrel between the Scotch and the Danes all the time, a circumstance
the more wonderful, says he, 'since it is hard for men in drink, _at
which they were continually kept_, long to agree.' After all, Cronberg
is only a great quadrangular palace in the centre of a set of ordinary
fortifications. The casemates in the walls are usually, however, a
subject of curiosity, in consequence of a legend thus related by a
native writer:--'For many ages the din of arms was now and then heard
in the vaults beneath the Castle of Cronberg. None knew the cause, and
there was not in all the land a man bold enough to descend into the
vaults. At last a slave who had forfeited his life was told that his
crime should be forgiven if he could bring intelligence of what he
found in the vaults. He went down, and came to a large iron door, which
opened of itself when he knocked. He found himself in a deep vault. In
the centre of the ceiling hung a lamp which was nearly burnt out; and
below stood a huge stone-table, round which some steel-clad warriors
sat, resting their heads on their arms, which they had laid crossways.
He who sat at the head of the table then rose up: it was Holger the
Dane [a hero of the fabulous age]. But when he raised his head from the
arms, the stone-table burst right in twain, for his beard had grown
through it. "Give me thy hand," said he to the slave. The slave durst
not give him the hand, but put forth an iron bar, which Holger indented
with his fingers. At last he let go his hold, muttering, "It is well!
I am glad there are yet men in Denmark."'[2] What is curious, there is
a similar traditionary story in Scotland, referring to a person called
the last of the Pechs;[3] and, if I am not mistaken, the Irish have
the same legend, varied only as to the person and the locality.
Behind the town, at the base of an ancient sea-bank, lies a plain
modern house called Marienlyst (Mary's Delight), which was built for
the residence of the late Frederick VI. when crown-prince, and which is
surrounded by a garden and pleasure-grounds open at all times to the
people of Elsinore. English strangers are taken hither to see 'Hamlet's
Garden'--the very scene of that foul murder which the mad-seeming
prince studied to avenge; also to muse over a cicerone-made _Hamlet's
grave_. I took a ramble here, to enjoy the physical beauties of the
place, which are considerable, and to obtain a view of some celebrity
from a platform above the house, where we command a long reach of the
Sound and of the opposite coast of Sweden. A less hackneyed subject of
curiosity is the geological character of the bank behind Marienlyst.
It is a terrace of clayey sand extending for miles along the coast,
at one uniform height in the fore part of about ninety-six feet above
the waters of the Sound, the front descending at the usual angle of a
talus of loose matter (38 degrees), to the low plain on which the town
is situated. This bank has already attracted the attention of native
geologists as a marine formation, the top being understood to have once
been the beach of the sea, which had subsequently rolled on the low
plain, cutting and carrying away matter from the bank rising above,
so as to leave the talus which we now see. What struck me, however,
with the greatest interest, was the perfect resemblance of the ground,
in all its features and relations, to ancient sea-banks and terraces
in Britain, even to the elevation of the terrace above the mean level
of the sea--a point from which the Baltic, it will be recollected,
scarcely departs.
On the evening of the 1st July I departed from Elsinore in the Gyller
steamer, which makes regular weekly voyages between Copenhagen and
Christiania, calling at Elsinore and Gottenburg to receive and set
down passengers. The accommodations in the vessel are sufficiently
comfortable; but the weather proving rough, my actual experiences were
anything but agreeable, more particularly as I was here, for the first
time, exposed to a near association with one of the most odious habits
of the northern nations. I do not like to speak too plainly on such a
subject; but it is remarkable, even as a physiological fact, how much
salivation goes on amongst some nations as compared with the generality
of mankind; and the fact of a neighbour on this occasion effecting a
vociferous discharge from his throat about every minute during all
the time I was awake, was scarcely less curious than his carelessness
about what came of the discharge was disgusting. Early in the morning
I came on deck to see the low rocky coasts of Sweden looming through
the thick rain and haze. On getting into the arm of the sea which leads
up to Gottenburg, I was enabled to observe the rounding of the surface
of the whole of the rocks along the shore, and gazed with admiration
on a phenomenon, the explanation of which has proved so puzzling. Even
here the perfect independence of the effect on any connection with
the sea as a cause was apparent, for the smoothed surfaces everywhere
descended unbroken below the waves. For a long time nothing was to
be seen on land but a tract of undulating rocky ground devoid of all
asperities; but at length we began to obtain glimpses of an extensive
swampy plain, where the sea terminated in the embouchure of a copious
river--the Götha (pronounced _Yutta_) Elv. Here we found seated the
thriving mercantile town of Gottenburg. We landed in heavy rain, amidst
which we had to make our way on foot to the Götha Kellare (pronounced
_Chellara_), the best inn in the place, but one strikingly beneath the
character of the town. The whole affair was a most dismal initiation
into Sweden; but it was soon made up to me by the welcome which I
experienced from a kindhearted schoolfellow and friend settled in the
neighbourhood.
Under more agreeable circumstances next day, I became aware that
Gottenburg is a regularly-built town of about 30,000 inhabitants,
containing a remarkable proportion of good private houses--much
permeated by canals, which are crossed by rather hard-favoured
stone-bridges--exhibiting on the inland side some beautiful environs,
throughout which are scattered many handsome mansions belonging to the
most eminent merchants. Gottenburg contains several British mercantile
houses, and is very much an English town, unless that my own countrymen
may be said more particularly to take the lead in its society.
Iron-founding and machine-making, cotton-spinning, sailcloth-making,
and sugar-refining, are the chief branches of industry, all of them
conducted under the protection of prohibitory duties, the Swedes
being willing to buy these articles at high prices from Englishmen
who will consent to make them in Sweden, rather than purchase them
cheaply in England. Accordingly, several of the Gottenburg firms are
understood to be realising incomes in striking disproportion to those
common among the natives; one, for instance, having cleared so much
as L.50,000 in a year; though here, it must be remarked, the result
was helped by a patent. These settlers are probably compensating in
some degree for their monopolies by the impulse which they give to the
indigenous population, noted in all time for the slowness of their
movements, and their dislike to adopt new fashions and methods. There
is a good, moreover, to be gained from commixtures of the people of two
countries, in as far as it tends, by making them acquainted with each
other, to extinguish mutual prejudice. As might be expected, some of
the manufactures thus forced into prominence in Sweden are conducted
under considerable disadvantages as compared with those of England.
For example, a cotton manufacturer in Sweden cannot get a supply of
his materials equably over the year, all communications being shut
up during the seven months of winter. The consequent necessity of
laying up a stock to serve through the winter, entailing a greater
outlay of capital, is so much against him. On the other hand, he may
save in the wages of his labourers. These trades are in the meanwhile
prosperous; but I have a strong sense of the precariousness of any
prosperity depending on protection, and believe that it would be well
for the protégés to consider that the self-sacrificing whim of their
Swedish customers may some day give way to an admission of the rational
principle--that the cheapest market is, in all circumstances, the best.
At the time of my visit to Gottenburg, one of the leading matters
of local interest was the erection of an Exchange upon an unusually
handsome scale. I had an opportunity of inspecting the building, when
it was all but finished, on my return from the north, and I must say
that I have rarely seen any edifice presenting a more elegant interior.
There are, besides the Exchange-room on the street-floor, a ball-room
and supper-room, also the apartments required for a restaurant and
coffeehouse up stairs; and the whole are decorated in a style of taste
far beyond any similar place in England that I am acquainted with.
The outlay, I was told, would be L.60,000 sterling; a remarkable sum
to be given for such a purpose in so small a town. Verily, I thought,
if some of my friends, who speak of Sweden as little better than the
Frozen Regions, were to be transported into the midst of the fairy
palace here erected in one of its second-rate towns, their ideas about
these northern countries could not fail to undergo a change. They
might turn, it is true, to the hotel, and remark with some bitterness,
derived from their own experiences, that Gottenburg, while going a
century ahead in an Exchange, was lingering two centuries behind in its
accommodations for strangers. I had afterwards some pleasure in looking
over the Chalmers School, an institution founded by a Scotch gentleman
of that name in order to give young men an education in the mechanical
and physical sciences. It is a large establishment, conducted in a
most efficient manner, and attended by abundance of pupils. Here,
again, Gottenburg is ahead of many other places of greater pretensions.
Mr Keiller's iron-foundry, where 170 people are employed, and where
everything seemed in the best order, occupied an hour agreeably.
Another was well devoted to Messrs Carnegie and Company's porter
brewery at Klippen, a suburb of Gottenburg. The favourite beverage of
London is here produced of excellent quality; and I was informed that
it is extensively used in Sweden, though it might be more so but for a
liquor more recently introduced--Bavarian beer--which is much better
adapted to the means of the generality of the people. I likewise paid a
visit to Messrs Gibson and Son's establishment at Jönsered, a few miles
from town, where, in a charming rural situation, iron-founding and
sailcloth-making are conducted on a large scale, the whole population
concerned being about 700. The entire arrangements seemed admirable,
but none more so than the general fact of the near and constant
association of the people with beautiful natural scenes, in which they
could, at their leisure hours, rove without restraint. When a factory
can be conducted in such local circumstances, the noted drawbacks
usually attending huge agglomerations of labour in a great measure
vanish; and one can only wish that so were they all.
I had now to consider with some friends by what means I should
prosecute my designed tour of Sweden and Norway, and much was the
cogitation and discussion on this subject before a plan could be
determined on. Driving one's self, with as little baggage as possible,
in a light carriage called a _carriole_, peculiar to the country, was
what my friends advised. Clever, pleasant Mr Enkstrom, the English
consul, who entered into the arrangements as if they had been a duty of
his post, could not imagine anything better. But I could not see how a
middle-aged person, who had never driven a carriage in his life, was to
get along with any comfort over the rough roads and through the vast
spaces of this northern land, exposed to all weathers, and destitute
of all knowledge of the language of the people by whose aid alone
could he stir even a step. I therefore expressed my willingness to be
somewhat obliging to myself in the way of expense; and it was finally
settled that I should have a four-wheeled and hooded carriage for two
horses, together with a servant to drive and act as my interpreter
or _tolkan_. The former was speedily obtained at a sum equivalent to
1s. 8d. English a day--a plain, old, barkened, battered machine as
ever met my eyes, yet warranted to be of great strength, as had been
often shown in Norwegian tours heretofore. As to a tolkan, the case
was more difficult. The man whom all regarded as the _facile princeps_
of his class, by name Jacob Carlblom, was absent under an engagement.
So were some others. At length a person named Quist was heard of, and
brought under examination. He proved to be a fine-looking, robust man
of about five-and-thirty, who had been a dragoon in the Swedish army,
but was now usually employed about a wine-merchant's establishment.
Little English did the honest fellow know, and he had never been far
into Norway; yet, all things considered, he seemed far from ineligible.
An amiable, simple character shone in his face, and he riveted the
favourable opinion which this excited amongst us all by the interest
he expressed about the welfare of his wife, and the stipulation he
seemed resolved to make that a portion of his wages should be paid to
her weekly during his absence. I therefore engaged Quist; nor was there
ever occasion to regret doing so, for he justified every favourable
anticipation. It was now, then, determined that I should set out on my
travels at an early hour next morning, taking the road to Christiania,
which is distant 215 English miles from Gottenburg. It was thought that
I might reach that city in little more than three days, provided that
_forebud_ notices were sent on before to warn the station-house keepers
to have horses in each instance ready for me. This is a custom peculiar
to the north, where the rarity of travellers teaches that it is more
economical to force horses from the farmers when they are wanted,
than to have them kept by innkeepers for regular service. There is,
therefore, a government regulation compelling the farmers to be ready,
when called upon, to furnish horses at a certain rate of remuneration;
and equally enforcing that the innkeepers shall, on receipt of warning,
or when directly called on by travellers, have horses at their doors
within two hours. It is a tyrannical system, to which I never could
reconcile myself; but no one is heard complaining of it. On the present
occasion, one of my friends procured for me a quantity of blank
schedules, and, extending a few, sent them off by post along the road
which I was to traverse next day, each being addressed to a special
innkeeper. Thus we accomplished the purpose at a comparatively trifling
expense. Had the post not been available, it would have been necessary
to send a special messenger at a cost equal to half that incurred for
the horses themselves.