BJÖLSTAD.
_Sunday, September 19._--Bjölstad is an ancient Norwegian homestead, and
consists of several separate buildings surrounding a central rectangular
court. The house that we slept in bears the date of 1818, and is the
most modern as well as the largest of the group; it is really a suite of
state apartments for the use of the king on the rare occasions when he
visits this part of his dominions.
On the left-hand side of the courtyard as we stand at the door of our
state apartments, is a very quaint and picturesque old house with a
handsome porch, built in the Byzantine style, date 1743, and in this the
owner lives whenever he comes to this farm.
Opposite to us is another building even more curious in its
architecture, and considerably older than the other; and the remaining
side of the yard is occupied by another more modern edifice, used
chiefly as a storehouse. Besides these there are several other detached
outbuildings, in which sleighs, ploughs, spare cooking utensils, rugs,
and various other useful and useless articles are kept, including all
the fittings and even the weathercock of an ancient church which used to
stand close to the farm, but which is now demolished and partly reduced
to firewood.
[Illustration: Old Buildings in the Courtyard at Bjölstad]
The owner of all this grandeur is one Ivar Tofte, a wealthy yeoman who
has several other farms in other parts of the country, one of which is
much larger and more important even than Bjölstad; and we were lucky
enough to find this Northern Croesus at home, for it turned out that he
was the cheery old man in the shocking bad hat who had run out to
welcome us last night.
This morning he came into our room after breakfast, with a bottle of
aquavit in his hand wherewith to drink our health. Now to refuse this
ceremony is an unpardonable insult, but we had tasted aquavit before,
and had a wholesome dread of the nauseous compound, reeking of carraway
seeds and aniseed, which we were accustomed to expect out of an aquavit
bottle. So we poured out very small glasses, clinked them in approved
manner, and raised them to our lips as we uttered the magic word Skaal,
more with a feeling of disgust than any other sensation. And then it was
beautiful to see a heavenly smile steal over Esau's ingenuous
countenance; while John, softly murmuring, 'Chartreuse, by George!'
reached for the bottle, and with a shout of 'Skaal Ivar Tofte,'
proceeded to fill himself a bumper. It was a perfect liqueur, soft,
delicate, and mellow, as probably age alone could have made it; and we
drank Skaal to 'Gammle Norgé,' and England, and Kong Oscar, and Queen
Vict_oo_ria, and Ivar Tofte again, and then ourselves again; whereupon
the old man perceived that we appreciated his 'cuvée de réserve,' and
went for another full bottle, which he left in our room, so that we
could 'put it to our lips when we felt so dispoged.'
After this, John, feeling at once genial and liberal, announced his
intention of buying a sheenfelt (sheepskin rug) for importation into
England; and Tofte with an aged retainer volunteered to show us his
stores of sheepskins.
First our guide procured a bunch of enormous keys, such as Bluebeard
would have hanging from his waist in a pantomime, labelled 'Key of the
Wine-cellar. Umbrella stand. Fowl-house. Potted shrimps. Cupboard where
the jam's kept,' &c., &c. Then he marched off to one of the buildings,
followed by us and the other old man, whose profession was apparently to
exalt Bjölstad sheenfelts, and to debase--as far as extreme volubility
and strict inattention to the elements of truth would enable him to
accomplish that object--an ancient one which John wished to give in part
payment.
Bluebeard led us up some stairs to the Blue Chamber, where we saw
hanging in a row the skins, not of his deceased wives, but of many
'timid-glancing, herbage-cropping, fleecy flocks,' to use the beautiful
and touching language of the Greek poet. Then the two accomplices
selected the sheenfelt which they intended us to buy, and began to
expatiate on its beauties in terms of undisguised admiration; and after
half an hour's huckstering and haggling, of course they persuaded John
to take that and no other. However, it was a beautiful specimen of this
kind of rug, of a dark grey colour, and very thick, warm, and heavy; so
both sides were highly satisfied, and proceeded to the drinking of more
aquavit in celebration of the bargain.
The weather was so unpleasant, and Bluebeard and his aquavit were so
engaging, that we decided not to leave here till to-morrow. Our host was
delighted to hear this, and at once went for more aquavit, which he
appears to consider the first necessity of life; and then he proceeded
to show us round his ancestral halls, as though he were a sober old
verger of Westminster Abbey.
There was a sort of old-world Rip van Winkle sleepiness about Bjölstad
very soothing to men who like us have lived in the nineteenth century
for some few years. All the varlets and handmaidens were dressed in the
old native costume, so appropriate to the ancient wooden buildings with
quaintly carved eaves and doorways, about which they hovered. In the
courtyard were two enormous dogs, that barked loudly whenever we
appeared, but at the same time wagged their tails and looked imbecile
and good natured. There were also four geese, who meant to be sitting
basking in the rain, but as soon as anybody came to one of the numerous
doors, or crossed the yard, they all stood up and quacked solemnly
fourteen times each, then hissed once, and sat down again; and as some
one was always moving about the court, the quiet rest of those birds was
more anticipatory than real; but they alone of all the living creatures
at Bjölstad appeared to have any fixed employment which demanded
constant attention.
Bluebeard first took us through the state apartments, which contained
many curious and interesting things of all ages, from an axe nearly a
thousand years old, to a Birmingham plated teapot won at the Christiania
horse show in 1860.
The Toftes boast themselves descended from Harald Haarfager, and are so
proud of their ancestry, that from time immemorial they have never
married out of their own family. If dear old Bluebeard may be accepted
as an ordinary result of this system, it must be confessed that it has
its advantages.
The things that he chiefly delighted to show us were those which had
been used by the king during his occasional visits, the most curious
being a large stone table made of one enormous slab not more than
three-quarters of an inch thick, but very hard and elastic, more like a
steel plate than stone; gorgeously embroidered counterpanes and chairs;
some very old ploughs and sleighs; and a brass-bound box with a
marvellous representation of Adam and Eve, very evidently before the
Fall, and the most remarkable thing in serpents which the wildest flight
of human imagination has yet conceived. There were some very nice silver
utensils and ornaments, but not many, as most of his plate is kept at
his largest farm. All that he had here was in a cupboard with a rubbishy
unlocked deal door, standing in John's bedroom; a fact which speaks
volumes for the trusting simplicity and total inability to read a man's
character from his appearance, caused by a millennium of marrying your
cousin once removed. Poor Bluebeard! he little thought what a viper he
was nurturing in his bosom, or rather in his chest (his plate chest),
and that in that room lay one who could perhaps, if he would, answer the
questions--
Who took the Gainsborough?
Who has the Dudley diamonds?
Who stole the donkey? and
Where's the cat?
N.B.--John has now a large collection of ancient Norwegian silver,
counterpanes, belts, tankards, knives, and ornaments to dispose of at
very low prices if no questions are asked. --ADVT.
_September 20._--We left Bjölstad in carioles on a real road about nine
o'clock, Bluebeard himself assisting in the operation of harnessing the
ponies and packing the baggage. Just as we were driving off,
a brilliantly original idea occurred to him, and he said, 'Come in and
taste my aquavit.' We did not like to refuse an old grey-haired man's
simple request, so descended and drank another Skaal to all the usual
loyal, patriotic, and festive toasts, and then we drove off murmuring
somewhat indistinctly, 'Shkaal Iva' Tofte Shhkaal Iv Toffie Shko Toffy.
Jolly good fler-ole-shole-Toffy.'
All day we drove, and ever as we descended the Hedalen valley with the
noisy Sjoa on our right hand, the farming kept improving, and the
country becoming more populous; and we saw many families digging
potatoes, many pigs roaming free and unmolested as they do in Ireland,
and a few men bringing up stores from the town for the long season of
snowed-up dreariness now so near at hand. Jens told us that in winter,
even so far to the south as Vaage, the sun only rises about eleven, and
sets at one o'clock, giving barely three hours of daylight in midwinter;
though he said that in the mountains where he spends his time hunting,
there is rather more light than in the valleys.
It may be well to explain in what manner so much information was
obtained from men whose language was unknown to us, and to whom ours was
equally incomprehensible.
The glorious principle of co-operation did it all. The Skipper spoke
Norse with great elegance and fluency, but did not understand it at all.
Esau could understand it perfectly, but was unable to express himself in
that tongue to even a limited extent; and John could neither speak nor
understand a word. Consequently our united accomplishments were equal
to meeting any emergency that might arise, even to the disentanglement
of such a coil as--
_Brandforsikringsselskabet_, or--
_Sommermaandernepassagerbekvemmeligheder_,
or any other of the little complex words that an educated Norwegian can
construct. It is wonderful to hear the natives launch out into one of
these cataracts: they do it fearlessly, and steer through the whole with
unflagging fortitude, and very seldom with any fatal results.
The hay harvest seemed to be quite finished except on the roofs of the
houses, where some people were still cutting and carrying their crops.
The barley had just been reaped, and was now being dried by the process
of impalement, a dozen sheaves, one above the other, being transfixed by
a pole stuck into the ground, just as a naughty boy sticks a row of
moths on a long pin, or as the unfortunate Bulgarians were supposed to
be exhibited during the 'atrocity' scare. Can it be possible that those
stories arose from the distant contemplation of a barley-field?
[Illustration: Barley Sheaves: A Norwegian 'Atrocity']
The Norwegians also dry their hay in a different manner from that
usually practised in England. They erect high hurdles made of larch
poles in lines at intervals all over the field, and on these they hang
the hay to dry as we hang towels on a horse, and it is by this means so
well exposed to both air and sun that it dries very quickly. No doubt
the hurdles are also very useful in spring as a shelter for the young
lambs.
The weather kept improving so much that we grew quite jubilant, and the
ever-changing scenes that opened before us seemed full of life and
brightness, and we looked with a certain amount of pleasure on even the
magpies, which sat on the fences in scores, pluming their black-green
feathers, and talking things over quietly to themselves. So different
from the wary magpie of England, who, knowing that he is an Ishmael,
glories in the fact, and shrieks defiance to mankind at the top of his
voice and a tree.
For three hours we followed the brawling Sjoa through scenery that would
bear comparison with Switzerland, and then we reached the spot where it
joins the mighty Laagen, and crossing the latter by a picturesque but
discouraging bridge, soon struck the main road, and pulled up for our
first change of ponies at Storklevstad, nineteen miles from Bjölstad.
At another place further on we found a shop kept by a Norwegian Yankee,
and entered it to buy some sugar-candy, wherewith to appease our
cariole-boy. This storekeeper informed us that the emigration from
Norway to the States was enormous just now, especially to Minnesota and
Wisconsin, and that no less than sixteen men had gone this year from the
little village of Vaage--a place which does not strike one as being
likely to contain that number of able-bodied men at one time. Öla had
told us that five of his brethren were in Minnesota, but that he himself
had no intention of leaving his native country; and this we thought to
be well, for if he were to join them we are convinced that any
enterprise in which they might be engaged would inevitably fail with his
invaluable co-operation and assistance--unless perhaps the Skipper could
be induced to go out there and occasionally exhort him.
At Listad we lunched off a real white tablecloth; that is to say, we ate
not the cloth, but everything eatable that was placed on it.
We also found a note from the Skipper asking us to bring along one or
two little things that he had been obliged to leave behind in his
hurried flight, just as the allied armies kept finding Napoleon's
belongings at different places after Waterloo. The present loot
consisted of a coat, sleeping rug, and a towel.
At Kirkestuen we quitted the track for the night, having made fifty
miles in about ten hours. This, according to our experience, is a fair
rate of progression in Norway; in fact, the traveller is more likely to
find the average below this than above, unless he drives the good little
ponies faster than they like to go, which is wrong.
Here the three women who kept the station were immensely amused because
we asked for coffee with our food, and one of them took upon herself the
task of rebuking us for such dissipated habits, and explained at great
length that no respectable people ever did such a thing. 'Coffee,' she
said, 'should only be drunk during the day, gruel after sunset.' But we
persisted in our reckless demand, and they finally gave in, and produced
the delicious compound that may be expected at any wretched little
dwelling throughout the country.
This was the first place where the papered rooms and iron stoves of
modern Norway obtruded themselves on our notice; but in spite of these
we were very comfortable, and think that Kirkestuen deserves all the
praise which we cannot find lavished upon it in any of the guide-books:
it is cheap, comfortable, and clean, and the food is excellent. If the
three young ladies who preside over its arrangements wish to send us any
little remuneration for this advertisement, we are agents for several
Central African Missions, to which we could hand it over; or, as 'best
aquavit' is a good deal appreciated by the missionaries themselves when
they are suffering from certain diseases peculiar to the Central African
climate, we would receive that liqueur in cases of not less than three
dozen in lieu of money.