Gothenburg is a clean airy town, and, having been built by the Dutch,
has canals running through each street; and in some of them there are
rows of trees that would render it very pleasant were it not for the
pavement, which is intolerably bad.
There are several rich commercial houses--Scotch, French, and Swedish;
but the Scotch, I believe, have been the most successful. The commerce
and commission business with France since the war has been very
lucrative, and enriched the merchants I am afraid at the expense of the
other inhabitants, by raising the price of the necessaries of life.
As all the men of consequence--I mean men of the largest fortune--are
merchants, their principal enjoyment is a relaxation from business at
the table, which is spread at, I think, too early an hour (between one
and two) for men who have letters to write and accounts to settle after
paying due respect to the bottle.
However, when numerous circles are to be brought together, and when
neither literature nor public amusements furnish topics for
conversation, a good dinner appears to be the only centre to rally
round, especially as scandal, the zest of more select parties, can only
be whispered. As for politics, I have seldom found it a subject of
continual discussion in a country town in any part of the world. The
politics of the place, being on a smaller scale, suits better with the
size of their faculties; for, generally speaking, the sphere of
observation determines the extent of the mind.
The more I see of the world, the more I am convinced that civilisation
is a blessing not sufficiently estimated by those who have not traced
its progress; for it not only refines our enjoyments, but produces a
variety which enables us to retain the primitive delicacy of our
sensations. Without the aid of the imagination all the pleasures of the
senses must sink into grossness, unless continual novelty serve as a
substitute for the imagination, which, being impossible, it was to this
weariness, I suppose, that Solomon alluded when he declared that there
was nothing new under the sun!--nothing for the common sensations
excited by the senses. Yet who will deny that the imagination and
understanding have made many, very many discoveries since those days,
which only seem harbingers of others still more noble and beneficial? I
never met with much imagination amongst people who had not acquired a
habit of reflection; and in that state of society in which the judgment
and taste are not called forth, and formed by the cultivation of the
arts and sciences, little of that delicacy of feeling and thinking is to
be found characterised by the word sentiment. The want of scientific
pursuits perhaps accounts for the hospitality, as well as for the
cordial reception which strangers receive from the inhabitants of small
towns.
Hospitality has, I think, been too much praised by travellers as a proof
of goodness of heart, when, in my opinion, indiscriminate hospitality is
rather a criterion by which you may form a tolerable estimate of the
indolence or vacancy of a head; or, in other words, a fondness for
social pleasures in which the mind not having its proportion of
exercise, the bottle must be pushed about.
These remarks are equally applicable to Dublin, the most hospitable city
I ever passed through. But I will try to confine my observations more
particularly to Sweden.
It is true I have only had a glance over a small part of it; yet of its
present state of manners and acquirements I think I have formed a
distinct idea, without having visited the capital--where, in fact, less
of a national character is to be found than in the remote parts of the
country.
The Swedes pique themselves on their politeness; but far from being the
polish of a cultivated mind, it consists merely of tiresome forms and
ceremonies. So far, indeed, from entering immediately into your
character, and making you feel instantly at your ease, like the
well-bred French, their over-acted civility is a continual restraint on
all your actions. The sort of superiority which a fortune gives when
there is no superiority of education, excepting what consists in the
observance of senseless forms, has a contrary effect than what is
intended; so that I could not help reckoning the peasantry the politest
people of Sweden, who, only aiming at pleasing you, never think of being
admired for their behaviour.
Their tables, like their compliments, seem equally a caricature of the
French. The dishes are composed, as well as theirs, of a variety of
mixtures to destroy the native taste of the food without being as
relishing. Spices and sugar are put into everything, even into the
bread; and the only way I can account for their partiality to
high-seasoned dishes is the constant use of salted provisions. Necessity
obliges them to lay up a store of dried fish and salted meat for the
winter; and in summer, fresh meat and fish taste insipid after them. To
which may be added the constant use of spirits. Every day, before dinner
and supper, even whilst the dishes are cooling on the table, men and
women repair to a side-table; and to obtain an appetite eat bread-and-
butter, cheese, raw salmon, or anchovies, drinking a glass of brandy.
Salt fish or meat then immediately follows, to give a further whet to
the stomach. As the dinner advances, pardon me for taking up a few
minutes to describe what, alas! has detained me two or three hours on
the stretch observing, dish after dish is changed, in endless rotation,
and handed round with solemn pace to each guest; but should you happen
not to like the first dishes, which was often my case, it is a gross
breach of politeness to ask for part of any other till its turn comes.
But have patience, and there will be eating enough. Allow me to run over
the acts of a visiting day, not overlooking the interludes.
Prelude a luncheon--then a succession of fish, flesh, and fowl for two
hours, during which time the dessert--I was sorry for the strawberries
and cream--rests on the table to be impregnated by the fumes of the
viands. Coffee immediately follows in the drawing-room, but does not
preclude punch, ale, tea and cakes, raw salmon, &c. A supper brings up
the rear, not forgetting the introductory luncheon, almost equalling in
removes the dinner. A day of this kind you would imagine sufficient; but
a to-morrow and a to-morrow--A never-ending, still-beginning feast may
be bearable, perhaps, when stern winter frowns, shaking with chilling
aspect his hoary locks; but during a summer, sweet as fleeting, let me,
my kind strangers, escape sometimes into your fir groves, wander on the
margin of your beautiful lakes, or climb your rocks, to view still
others in endless perspective, which, piled by more than giant's hand,
scale the heavens to intercept its rays, or to receive the parting tinge
of lingering day--day that, scarcely softened unto twilight, allows the
freshening breeze to wake, and the moon to burst forth in all her glory
to glide with solemn elegance through the azure expanse.
The cow's bell has ceased to tinkle the herd to rest; they have all
paced across the heath. Is not this the witching time of night? The
waters murmur, and fall with more than mortal music, and spirits of
peace walk abroad to calm the agitated breast. Eternity is in these
moments. Worldly cares melt into the airy stuff that dreams are made of,
and reveries, mild and enchanting as the first hopes of love or the
recollection of lost enjoyment, carry the hapless wight into futurity,
who in bustling life has vainly strove to throw off the grief which lies
heavy at the heart. Good night! A crescent hangs out in the vault
before, which woos me to stray abroad. It is not a silvery reflection
of the sun, but glows with all its golden splendour. Who fears the
fallen dew? It only makes the mown grass smell more fragrant. Adieu!