Ever since the end of a very pleasant excursion in Rhineland and
Switzerland in 1848, I had set apart the summer of the present year
for a more extended tour, which should embrace the principal German
cities and Italy. When the time came, however, those parts of the
continent were in such a volcanic state, that unless I had had a
decided taste for walking over hot cinders and lava ('_incedere
per ignes_'), there was no chance of getting along with any degree
of comfort. In these circumstances, I turned my thoughts to a part
of Europe which is not perhaps possessed of so many attractions,
but which at least had the merit of being sufficiently cool for
the foot of the English traveller--namely, the group of countries
which rank under the general appellative of Scandinavia. In England
these countries are generally regarded as only too cool--which
is not altogether true either--and they are accordingly little
visited. But here, again, lay a reconciling consideration; for,
if neglected, they were just so much the more _recherchés_ to the
person who should make his way into them. I also reflected on the
singular social condition of Norway as a curious study for such a
wanderer as myself: it would, I thought, be deeply interesting to
try and ascertain if a democratic constitution, and the absence
of a law of primogeniture, really did render that country the
paradise which it appears to be in the pages of Samuel Laing. Then
there were some curious geological and archæological studies to
be pursued in Scandinavia. One large lump of it is supposed to be
playing a sort of game of see-saw, to the great inconvenience of
mariners in the adjacent seas; while another, though now steady,
appears to have at some former period been engaged in the same
strange procedure. According to some philosophers, there had been
a time when a sheet of ice had passed athwart the whole country,
rubbing away every asperity from its craggy surface, excepting only
the peaks of the highest mountains. Its wild fiords were still as
curious for their natural phenomena as for the lonely grandeur of
their aspect. And the remains of the early inhabitants of these
remote regions, whether in the form of literature, or that of their
arms, personal ornaments, and domestic utensils, were, I knew, a
treasure of the richest kind to any one taking the least interest
in the past history of his species.
Having, for these reasons, determined on a tour through Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, I left Edinburgh in the latter part of
June. The readiest course for one proposing such a tour is, in
general, either by the steamers which leave London, Hull, and
Leith for Hamburg, or those which proceed from the two first of
these ports to Copenhagen. At the time of my proposed journey,
the Elbe was under blockade by the Danish navy, in consequence
of the Sleswig-Holstein war. Copenhagen was therefore the only
access. It is much to be regretted that there is no steamer direct
from England to any port of Sweden and Norway. There was one to
Gottenburg a few years ago; it was discontinued because it did not
pay. According to Swedish report, an endeavour to revive it has
been obstructed by a demand of the English government that only
English steamers shall be employed; apparently a most unreasonable
demand, and one not characteristic of the present policy. It would
surely be much to be lamented if anything so advantageous to the
two countries as a direct intercourse be really prevented by such
petty difficulties. Let us hope that not another summer shall
elapse without the revival of the Gottenburg steamer.
A railway train conducted me from Edinburgh to Hull in the
interval between breakfast and supper, allowing me three hours of
pause at York, which I employed in a visit to the Minster. The
consequences of the second conflagration of this superb building
are now repaired, and the edifice is probably in a state of
completeness, both as to building and decoration, which it never
knew in Catholic times. I was led to reflect how strange it was
that so much zeal had been expended in the reconstruction of this
theatre of an extinct drama--for the Gothic church of the middle
ages was strictly a theatre in which to present daily to mankind,
under suitably impressive circumstances, the spectacle of a divine
sacrifice which had been made for them. Under modern Christianity,
this object exists no longer. The ancient church, accordingly, when
too large to be rendered into an ordinary place of worship--as is
the case with the English cathedrals--becomes, over and above the
corner devoted to the reading of a liturgy, a mere antiquarian
curiosity. It is strange that what was done in the twelfth century
under the impulse of a powerful religious feeling, can now be done,
and done more promptly and quickly, under a feeling almost purely
romantic. We must of course rejoice that so beautiful a building
as York Minster has been redeemed from the ruin into which it was
accidentally thrown, and once more made worthy of the homage of the
highest taste. Yet we cannot well forget that such works amongst us
can only be something similative or imitative--what the Eglintoune
tournament was to real chivalry. The paroxysm of public feeling in
which such noble structures originated was a true thing, and one
of the finest true things of its era. It is past--it can never be
reproduced. The feelings and energies which took that direction are
now expended on totally different objects. It is from a different
and secondary source that Gothic renovations proceed.
At this time there were in Hull 8000 people out of employment,
in consequence of the interruption to the Hamburg trade, and it
was said that much misery existed in the town. One would have
expected, in such circumstances, that any little job to one of
the hangers-on of the streets would have been keenly relished,
and the remuneration, if decent in amount, thankfully received.
Nevertheless, when I handed a shilling to two men who had, at
one turn of three minutes, carried my few packages from the cab
on the quay into the vessel, it was contemptuously rejected, and
only accepted after it became clear that I would not accede to
their demand of half-a-crown. What would a foreigner, in such
circumstances, have thought of the state of things which had been
described to him as appertaining to Hull? He could scarcely have
resisted a supposition that bad times in England are something
better than the best times on the continent.
Usually, the passport grievance does not commence till one has
set his foot on a foreign soil. On this occasion it began before
I left the harbour. At the earnest solicitation of the owners
of the steamer, I went to the Danish consul to have my passport
_visé_, for the sake of establishing that I had come from a
district unaffected by cholera. For this a fee of five shillings
was exacted from myself and some other passengers. It was hoped,
by such means, that no interruption would occur in the landing of
passengers at Copenhagen, and the subsequent proceeding of the
vessel to St Petersburg. It will be found that in this object we
were disappointed, and that the exaction was to us virtually an act
of spoliation. When will states be above the meanness of imposing
these petty taxes on travellers, whom one might suppose they would
see it to be for their interest to encourage, by every possible act
of civility and generosity, to visit their lands?
On rising early next morning, I found the vessel ploughing its
way out of the Humber, with the new works of Great Grimsby on the
right. This is designed as a new port for the east of England,
in connection with certain lines of railway. It is to enclose a
hundred and thirty-five acres of the sea-beach, and within this
space there will be an entrance basin, accessible at all times to
every kind of vessel, besides large docks, piers, and wharfs. The
scheme is a magnificent example of English enterprise, and promises
to be attended with success. In this event, Hull must fall into a
secondary place among British ports. If I am rightly informed--but
I only speak upon report--those privileges which have hitherto
appeared as her strength will have had no small concern in bringing
about the result.
A sea-voyage seems as if it could never be a comfortable thing. The
sickness from the motion of the vessel is the first and greatest
drawback; but the lesser evils of straitened accommodations,
imperfect ventilation, the odious smell inherent in the vessel, and
the monotony of the daily life, are scarcely less felt. Prostrated
under a sense of nausea, afraid to rise, and afraid or unable to
eat, unable to exert the mind in reading or discourse, one sinks
down into a state of mere stupid endurance, almost the most hapless
in which one can well be in the course of ordinary existence.
After suffering thus for four-and-twenty hours, I ventured upon
deck, and, finding the weather not unpleasant, walked about for
an hour or two. Here the want of objects on which to exert the
mind beset me, and I became surprised at the interest which the
slightest change of circumstances or sights occasioned. We eagerly
scanned the dim horizon for vessels, and reckoned them up with the
greatest care. We marked every variation in the direction of the
wind, and in the ship's course. But all was insufficient to give
an agreeable stimulus to the craving mind, and passiveness always
appeared, after all, as the best resource. Seeing two vessels at a
distance, sailing different ways under one wind, I amused myself by
comparing them to two speculative philosophers driving to opposite
conclusions from one set of facts.
On the third morning there were some symptoms of our coming near
the land, though it was still beyond the ken of vision. One of
these symptoms was a couple of small boats. Finding afterwards
that we sailed seven hours, or as much as seventy miles, without
approaching the land, I wondered that two small boats should be
met so far out at sea. Supposing they were fishing-boats, it was
the more surprising that it was on a Sunday morning, though this,
a passenger explained, might be from an anxiety to make as much as
possible of the short season during which fishing can be carried
on in these seas. As we approached the opening of the Sound,
vessels became more frequent, and at length one happy passenger
was able to announce that he saw the 'loom of the land.' It was,
as expected, a portion of the north of Jutland, a low tract of
sandy downs, presenting scarcely an object for many miles besides
a lighthouse and a solitary country church. We soon passed the
Skaw Point, amidst a crowd of vessels of all sizes, calling for
almost as much care in steering as is necessary in conducting a
drosky through the Strand. Then the young moon appeared setting in
a cloudless summer sky, and it became delightful to walk along the
elevated deck, watching her slow descent into the gleaming wave,
interchanging a word of remark now and then with a companion, and
mentally speculating on the new scenes which must meet our eyes
under the next sun. We were all by this time fully restored to our
usual healthy sensations, and each meal, as it came upon the board,
was heartily done justice to.
I was awakened next morning at five with the intelligence that we
were just about to pass through the Sound. I ascended to the deck
in a provisional dress, and soon saw that assemblage of objects
which has been made so generally familiar by means of pictures--a
low point, fronted with mounds bristling with cannon, and an old
pinnacled palace starting up from within a few yards of the water's
edge, while the narrow sea in front bears a crowd of vessels of all
sizes. We had now an opportunity of examining the coast on either
hand, but found nothing worthy of special observation, beyond the
smiling character imparted to the landscape by pleasant woods,
cottages, and gardens, such as one sees on the coast of England.
Behind Elsinore, however, there is a lofty bank, of which I shall
afterwards take some notice.
After passing a few miles of the low coast of Sealand--for such
is the name of this insulated part of the kingdom of Denmark--we
were told that the vessel was near Copenhagen, which, however,
shows itself in this direction only by a few traces of steeples
and dock-yards, with a screen of green mounds serving as batteries
in front. We were quickly brought to a pause in the mouth of the
harbour. Every passenger had prepared for immediate landing. The
offer of breakfast by the steward was treated disdainfully, as
visions of the _Hôtel Royal_ rose before us. The captain had gone
ashore with our passports, and his return with permission for our
landing was instantly expected; when a rumour began to spread
that we were to be detained a couple of days in quarantine. It
proved to be too true, the government having received intelligence
of the revival of cholera in London, which had determined it to
subject all vessels coming from England to a quarantine which
should interpose five full days between their leaving port and
their landing passengers and goods in Denmark. Then all was dismay,
though at first we could scarcely perceive or believe in the extent
of our misfortune. The magical five-shillings affidavit of the
consul at Hull was reverted to. We had paid our money for being
certified clear of infection, and clear of infection we must be:
otherwise, what were we to think of that transaction? Our chafing
was of course unavailing. The Danish government is unusually
tenacious and pedantic about quarantine regulations, to which it
sapiently attributes the remarkable fact, that Denmark has never
yet had a visit of the Asiatic scourge. There was no chance that
it would relent on the present occasion. Slowly, and with a bad
grace, did we address ourselves to the formerly-despised breakfast.
Our friend the steward no doubt viewed the case in a light peculiar
to himself.
Two days were spent in perfect inaction, and consequently with
much tedium and dissatisfaction. For my part there is something
which makes me placid under such troubles. It is perhaps a negative
satisfaction in considering that I cannot be blamed for _this_
evil, as I must be for most others which befall me. I grieved
to think that there must be two days of tame, unvaried life,
before I could step into the new city before me; but meanwhile
the circumstances were not positively uncomfortable in any great
degree; the company was not marred by any bad element in itself;
there were books to read and memoranda to arrange: finally,
it could not be helped. I therefore submitted with tolerable
cheerfulness.
After all, we were comparatively well dealt with, for we heard
of many persons who were obliged to lie for longer periods in
quarantine, and to spend their time of durance at a station
arranged for the purpose on a part of the coast a few miles off,
where life was very much that of a prison. Persons coming from
Germany would have to stay there five days. If I am not mistaken,
travellers from England by the continental route had at this time
to pass a previous quarantine at Hamburg, so that a journey to
Denmark by that route could not occupy less than a fortnight. I
have since heard of a Scottish merchant having lost a vessel on the
south coast of Sweden, and going out there, by way of Copenhagen,
to see after his property. From the exigencies of business at
home, he had only twelve days in all to give to the excursion. On
reaching Copenhagen, he would not be allowed to land till that time
had nearly expired, and he would consequently be obliged to return
to Scotland without accomplishing his object.
By way of a favour, a party of our passengers (in which I was
included) was allowed to go in a boat to bathe at a place in
front of one of the batteries, an emissary of the quarantine
station hovering near us as a watch, lest we should break rules.
Two boys, returning from an English school to St Petersburg for
the holidays, were full of frolic. We soon had a riotous scene
of ducking and splashing, accompanied by shouts of (I must say)
very foolish merriment, and thus would probably help in no small
degree to confirm our guard in an impression which is said to be
very prevalent in Denmark regarding the English--that they are
all a little mad. A companion remarked to me, that certainly men
will condescend in some circumstances to a surprising degree of
puerility, or rather childishness of conduct: here, for instance,
said he, there is scarcely the least difference to be observed
between the conduct of the schoolboys and their seniors. Take away
the pressure of our ordinary immediate circumstances, and how all
our usual habits are dissolved! But this is a theme as trite as it
is tempting, and I must cut it short. A lunch after the bath was
attended by jocularity nearly as outrageous, and we did not return
to the ship till near the dinner hour.
Our company was small, but it was sufficiently various. There were
two specimens of the idle English gentleman, if such a term may
be applied to the character. They were men in the prime of life,
unmarried, handsome, moustached, with an air of high society, yet
perfectly affable, and even agreeable, in their intercourse with
their fellow-travellers. I hesitate in applying the term idle
to these men, as they appear to be far from exemplifying true
inactivity. They speak of having travelled and sported in many
parts of the world. One is as familiar with the granitic wilds of
Finland as with Donegal and Inverness. He spends whole summers
of wild hardy life in the deserts near the head of the Gulf of
Bothnia, shooting bears and hunting deer, lost to wheaten bread
and every luxury for weeks at a time. His frame is sinewy and
firmly knit; his habits in eating and drinking are as simple as
possible. The other gentleman has been with his ship through every
sea in the East and West. He has left England at the height of
the gay season, to perform a journey of four months, commencing
with Copenhagen, St Petersburg, and Stockholm, to terminate on the
coasts of the Levant. Another of our party is a New Englander, with
an air of quiet confidence as remarkable as that of the Englishmen,
yet of a totally different character. He is a little of a humorist,
and not at all offensive. A fourth is an elderly Lincolnshire
farmer, homely, simple, good-natured, full of quaint remark, and
not unwilling to be smiled at by his companions on account of his
little peculiarities of manners and discourse. We have also a young
English student, evidently not of the university caste, delicate
in figure, of gentle manners, and possessed of considerable
intelligence. Of females we have few, only one being of the genus
_lady_, the sister of our bear-hunting friend; the rest are more
practical in their character. One is a mother with a charge of
young children, whom she is sadly ill-qualified for regulating or
keeping in order. Incessantly these juveniles are chattering about
something, or else crying and squalling. The mother goes about
with a broken-hearted air, and a voice worn down to its lowest
and saddest tones, either taking her children's querulousness
resignedly, or chiding them crossly for what is chiefly her own
blame. To attend even thus imperfectly to the group of little ones,
takes the whole time and energy of this poor mother, and of an
equally broken-spirited maid; for never does a minute pass when
there is not something to be done for them, either in the way of
attending to their personal necessities, or preventing them from
clapperclawing each other, and saving them from the effects of
their own recklessness. The thought occurred to me twenty times
a day--verily the _storge_ is a most marvellous endowment of the
mother's heart, enabling her, as it does, to submit placidly to
what every other person would feel to be intolerable misery.
We received a great alarm on the second day of our enforced
leisure. A party had gone off in a boat to row about and bathe,
without the attendance of a quarantine officer. No harm was meant,
but it was imprudent. By and by it was whispered that word had
come that, owing to this breach of regulations, we should all be
detained a week longer, or else have to pay a heavy fine--perhaps
both. This was dire intelligence to our good-natured captain, and
not less so to a mercantile person, who had sixteen first-class
English horses on board, which he was taking out on speculation
to Russia. These animals had to stand in cribs on deck during the
whole voyage from Hull to St Petersburg. While the vessel was
sailing, it was comparatively well with them, for the motion gave
them a certain amount of exercise: but the unexpected stoppage
of two days told sorely upon them: it was already remarked that
their legs were beginning to swell. The owner declared that a
week more of inaction would utterly ruin them. While we were
gloomily speculating on all the evils we had to dread, the peccant
boat-party returned, and relieved us so far, by declaring that they
had scrupulously abstained from approaching the shore or any other
vessel. They immediately despatched an assurance to this effect
to the quarantine station. Notwithstanding a defying tone on the
part of some of the defaulters, we passed the evening in a state of
serious apprehension, no one knowing what extent of penalty might
be imposed by an authority notoriously ruled by any considerations
rather than those of rationality. It was thought, on the strength
of former instances, not impossible that each of the grown
gentlemen of the party might have to pay twenty or five-and-twenty
pounds. One more confident than the rest offered four sovereigns
to another as an insurance to cover his own risk, or, as an
alternative, proposed to undertake that gentleman's risk for three;
and the latter arrangement was actually entered into. Early next
morning, when we were all on the _qui vive_ to learn our fate, a
boat came up, and the magical term so well understood in England,
'All right,' soon spread a general smile over the company. The
authorities, by an amazing stretch of generosity and common sense,
had agreed to overlook the delinquency, on condition that certain
expenses should be paid, amounting to something less than two
pounds. The passengers for Copenhagen were therefore permitted to
land immediately with their luggage, and the vessel was allowed
to commence discharge of cargo, preparatory to proceeding to St
Petersburg.