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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76905 ***
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE TOWN HALL, STOCKHOLM]
+
+
+    SWEDEN
+    BY
+    DUDLEY·HEATHCOTE
+    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
+    A·HEATON·COOPER
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    A&C BLACK LTD
+    4.5.6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1.
+
+
+    _Published in 1927_
+
+
+    Printed in Great Britain
+
+
+    TO
+
+    LOUISA BLANDFORD
+
+    IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM
+
+
+NOTE
+
+
+I record my acknowledgement to the Editors of the following journals in
+which a few of the chapters of this book have already appeared: _The
+Fortnightly Review_, _The Spectator_, _The Field_, _The
+Westminster Gazette_, _Eve_, _Country Life_.
+
+  DUDLEY HEATHCOTE.
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAP.                                                PAGE
+
+    I. THE LAND AND PEOPLE                         1
+
+    II. GOTHENBURG                                16
+
+    III. BOHUSLÄN                                 32
+
+    IV. THE GÖTA CANAL                            44
+
+    V. STOCKHOLM                                  70
+
+    VI. THE SKERRIES OF STOCKHOLM                100
+
+    VII. GOTHLAND                                118
+
+    VIII. DALECARLIA                             147
+
+    IX. LAPLAND                                  166
+
+    X. A NIGHT IN A LAPP HUT                     176
+
+    XI. AN IMPRESSION OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN        187
+
+    XII. AN IMPRESSION OF A SWEDISH CHRISTMAS    194
+
+    XIII. SWEDISH WINTER SPORTS                  213
+
+    INDEX                                        223
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    IN COLOUR
+
+    1. The Town Hall, Stockholm                _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                   FACING PAGE
+
+    2. The Kullen Rocks, Mölle, on the Kattegatt             5
+
+    3. Arild, a Fishing Village near Mölle                  12
+
+    4. Gothenburg, the Harbour                              21
+
+    5. Gothenburg, the City                                 28
+
+    6. Marstrand                                            38
+
+    7. The Trollhättan Falls                                49
+
+    8. Sjötorp Locks, Göta Canal                            53
+
+    9. Jönköping                                            60
+
+    10. Vadstena Castle, Lake Vättern                       64
+
+    11. The Royal Palace, Stockholm                         81
+
+    12. Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm                     96
+
+    13. Islands in the Baltic, near Stockholm              101
+
+    14. Gripsholm Castle, near Stockholm                   108
+
+    15. The Kings’ Mounds, Upsala                          113
+
+    16. Timber on the River Ångerman, Harnösand            117
+
+    17. Kalmar Castle                                      124
+
+    18. Ruins of Borgholm Castle, Öland                    128
+
+    19. The Walls of Visby                                 133
+
+    20. The City of Visby                                  140
+
+    21. Sunday at Rättvik, Dalecarlia                      145
+
+    22. Lake Siljan                                        149
+
+    23. Mora Church                                        156
+
+    24. Leksand Church                                     160
+
+    25. Sundsvall, a Great Baltic Timber Port              165
+
+    26. Luleå, Lapland                                     172
+
+    27. Midnight Sun over Lake Torne Träsk, from Abisko    177
+
+    28. A Lapp Hut on Lake Torne Träsk, Midnight           181
+
+    29. View from Tourist Station, Saltoluokta, Lapland    188
+
+    30. Stora Sjöfallet, Great Lake Falls, Saltoluokta     192
+
+    31. Lake and Village of Åre                            213
+
+    32. The Tännforsen Waterfall, Åre                      220
+
+    _Sketch Map on page xii_                               xii
+
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF SWEDEN]
+
+
+
+
+SWEDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LAND AND PEOPLE
+
+
+For those who wish to wander a little further afield than France,
+Belgium, or Italy, there are few more delightful places in which to
+spend a holiday than Sweden, for not only is this country a paradise
+for the lover of open-air life and every kind of summer and winter
+sport, but it is a land especially favoured in the variety and beauty
+of its scenery and unique character of its climate and geological
+formation, the peculiar charm of its atmospheric effects, and the
+appeal that lies in its strong national characteristics.
+
+The Swedes hold of course that they were the originators of the various
+kinds of sport that are practised in Europe to-day, though they confess
+that the supremacy which they originally exercised in this field of
+human activity soon passed to other countries; in fact, that it is only
+comparatively of recent years that they have made any serious attempts
+to regain their lost laurels. Idrott, or sport, is an old Swedish name,
+and it cannot be denied that among the ancestors of the present-day
+Swedes sports were in vogue even in times beyond the reach of history,
+no ancient literature in the world containing so many descriptions
+of sport as the old Norse sagas. We read that greater assiduity was
+shown by the Vikings in perfecting themselves in strength, suppleness
+of limb, and courage than in promoting the culture of their mind by
+“exercise in the art of poetry and jurisprudence”. Their principal
+sports consisted of racing (either with or without armour), running
+and leaping of various kinds, wrestling, ski-running, tugs-of-war and
+throwing the spear, skating, swimming, riding, archery, and fencing
+with sword and shield play, and also many ball games. Every one of
+these sports, and also such typically British games as Association
+football and ice or ground hockey, are now played extensively in their
+proper season, the great importance that is attached to athletics
+being more than justified by the brilliant results which Swedish
+athletes have lately been attaining in the Olympic games. More truly
+characteristic of Swedish life, however, than any field game, or even
+than pure athletics, are certain branches of sport which perhaps thrive
+in Sweden better than in any other country in Europe owing to her
+peculiar climatic and geographical conditions; and also that system of
+physical culture which is associated with the name of P. H. Ling, the
+creator of modern movement therapeutics.
+
+Sweden, thanks to the severity of her winter, is perhaps the country
+in Europe where winter sports can be practised to the best advantage;
+and not only is ski-ing the Swedes’ national pastime even more truly
+than it is that of the Swiss, through it having become in many
+northern provinces of their country the only method by which the
+people can conveniently travel from one district to another, but it
+can be practised with even greater frequency than in any part of the
+Swiss Alps, and for a far longer period in the year. The Swedes also
+excel in figure-skating, tobogganing, and bobsleighing, while I have
+seen nothing as exhilarating as ice-yachting among the skerries of
+the Baltic when a good breeze is blowing, the speed attained by the
+ice-yachts often exceeding that of any express train. To mention only
+a few places where Swedish winter sports can be played under ideal
+conditions, the ski-ing on the fjells of Jämtland, the skate and ice
+yachting among the skerries of Stockholm, rival, if they do not excel,
+any that can be found in other regions of Europe.
+
+Thanks to her long indented coast-line, tideless seas, and a
+superabundance of large inland lakes, on the other hand, Sweden can
+offer ideal conditions during the summer months to those who like an
+open-air life and are not in need of the usual conventional amusements;
+and not only the Skärgård and the extensive Stockholm archipelago, but
+the coast of Bohuslän, stretching right up to the coast of Norway,
+provide ideal water playgrounds for those who are fond of swimming,
+boating, and yachting, the innumerable rocky islands surrounding
+the southern coast being perhaps unsurpassed for the opportunities
+which they offer in these respects. As sailing and motor boats can,
+moreover, easily be hired, and the air is magnificent, an extended stay
+during the summer months in this part of Sweden has much to recommend
+it, while there is always plenty of good and not too expensive
+accommodation to be found at such seaside resorts as Marstrand,
+Särö, Lysekil, or Fiskebäckskil, if only the prospective visitor
+applies for it in seasonable time.
+
+[Illustration: THE KULLEN ROCKS, MÖLLE, ON THE KATTEGATT]
+
+In the domain of gymnastics proper, lastly, the Swedes have long
+exercised supremacy, and not only has the system of physical culture
+which Ling devised during the time that he was teaching fencing and
+gymnastics at Lund University proved to be one of the main contributory
+causes of Sweden’s subsequent athletic prowess, but it has been
+generally adopted in other countries of the world, and more especially
+in this country and the United States, Swedish gymnastics having come
+to be recognised as the most efficient and valuable physical culture
+system so far devised by man. Physical culturists, in fact, hold the
+name of Ling in such esteem that when the Olympic Games were last held
+at Stockholm many of the foreign and all the Swedish athletes who had
+flocked to the Swedish capital to participate in the games paid a
+special visit to his grave in order to offer their floral tributes of
+affection and regard.
+
+The climate of Sweden is almost unique. Lying between the 55th and 69th
+degrees of latitude, it stretches nearly two hundred miles north of
+the Arctic circle and in line with the south of Greenland, while its
+most southerly point is not far north of Hamburg, and somewhat lower
+than parts of Northumberland, this length of coast implying great
+extremes of climate; yet so magical is the potency of the Gulf Stream,
+which fortunately flows in a north-eastern direction right across the
+Atlantic towards Scandinavia, that the lower layers of air are able to
+absorb sufficient heat to make even the extreme north habitable in the
+winter months, the weather north of the Arctic circle being, moreover,
+often delightfully warm during the summer. The average July temperature
+in Kiruna, the most northerly town in Sweden, for instance, is well
+over 55 degrees: that is to say, equal to the mean May temperature
+in England; and the sun never sets here or in Northern Lapland for
+a period of six weeks. Stockholm, on the other hand, has days which
+last nearly eighteen hours in June, with a temperature equalling that
+found in Paris at the same time of the year. Swedish climate possesses
+consequently the dual advantage of being sufficiently warm in summer
+to attract even the most exacting lover of sunshine and warmth, and
+yet of being cold enough in winter to provide an ideal playground for
+winter sports of every description, the period during which these can
+be safely practised being appreciably longer than in Switzerland or any
+other region of Europe.
+
+Geologically, too, Sweden is one of the oldest parts of the world,
+its formation differing materially from that found in other European
+countries. It is, generally speaking, a very rich land, but its wealth
+usually entails a considerable amount of work to become productive,
+as the greater part of it consists of granite, timber, lime, and
+iron-stone. Everywhere, except perhaps in the south of Skåne, you will
+come across towns that are built on granite or even iron-stone rock,
+there being such a profusion of the latter that there are actually some
+localities like Kiruna where the iron mines serving as foundation do
+not consist of underground veins, but of mountains of ore from which
+the iron has to be blasted from the surface almost in its natural
+state. The spring water issuing from these rocks is strongly tonifying,
+moreover, and at such places as Porla has been converted to practical
+uses, its healing and curative qualities in all cases of debility or
+anæmia being remarkable. Next to iron, Sweden’s greatest asset lies
+in her timber land, and dense forests abound which cover an area
+greater than the British Isles. It is estimated that over 52 per cent
+of the soil is covered by trees the greater part of which consist of
+pine, fir, and birch, while immense quantities of timber are cut every
+year for the wood pulp and other industries. Much more than the above
+might here usefully be written concerning Sweden’s great industrial
+resources, but as the writer of the present volume is not concerned
+with writing a book on Swedish industries but is merely seeking to
+offer some illustration and account of the many beauties and points of
+interest, artistic, historic, and social, of this little-known country,
+we will readily leave off considering such matters to find ourselves
+upon more congenial and, we will venture to say, more artistic ground.
+
+The greatest appeal which Sweden makes on all those who pay it a visit,
+however, lies in the beauty of its scenery, this being as varied as the
+climate or the character and appearance of the people that are found on
+its shores.
+
+Fringing the southern coast are the principal seaside resorts of the
+country, mostly in the province of Skåne, this province being the most
+fertile and thickly populated district of the kingdom. Skåne, which
+is called the granary of Sweden, not only produces enough sugar-beets
+to supply the whole of Sweden with sugar, but boasts a vegetation
+and flora that are usually only found in more southern climes, its
+climate being so mild that peaches, apricots, and even grapes are
+found ripening to perfection, while it also abounds in old historic
+castles and manor-houses as well as dolmens and archæological remains
+that, like those found in Brittany and Cornwall, evoke prehistoric
+ages. Further north we come to Bohuslän and Halland, provinces that
+if a little barren in vegetation nevertheless possess a coast-line
+whose rugged wildness of scenery never fails to make a special appeal
+to the mind of those who are attuned to its beauty: dense groups of
+bare and often treeless red granite islands which when illumined by
+the setting sun become visions of beauty and hold the eye as surely as
+does the silver of the moon on running water. North of these provinces
+is Gothenburg, the second city of the kingdom and the starting-place
+of the famous Göta Canal that takes you through the very heart of
+the country, linking up in one continuous waterway of river and
+lake the capital of Sweden with the west coast; an idyllic journey
+that, lasting three days, conveys you along peaceful rivers, across
+shimmering lakes and past lush meadows overgreen from the bounty of the
+waterways near by. Then, after passing Stockholm, most beautifully
+situated of all cities, we proceed north through Dalecarlia, the home
+of folk-lore and peasant costume, a smiling, fertile country of rich
+farm-land and pleasant homesteads, until we reach the province of
+Norrland with its great wide valleys and undulating plains, boundless
+forests, roaring waterfalls, and barren mountain-tops on whose surface
+the colours of the sunset are ever playing in constantly varying
+flushes of crimson and rose, silver or grey. Here is the home of
+the timber industry, and here too winter sports and game of every
+description abound, the landscape evoking in turn the endlessness of
+the Russian steppes or the mountain scenery prevailing in Canada or
+Norway. And continuing our way north we finally reach the province of
+Lapland, a vast barren country of high mountains and immense forests,
+iron hills and foaming waterfalls, where live the strangest and perhaps
+the most primitive people to be found west of the Caucasus, and where,
+incidentally, a nine months’ bleak and bitter winter is followed by a
+delightful summer, during six weeks of which the sun never sets.
+
+Of such is Swedish scenery, its main appeal lying, I fancy, not so
+much in the contour of its landscapes, beautiful though they be, as
+in the peculiar clearness of atmosphere that appears to endow every
+object with an almost magical quality of colour; and whether you visit
+the more southern regions and the enchanted island of Gothland in the
+Baltic, or travel north to Lapland, you will invariably find, not only
+sunsets whose beauty so transfigure every crag, island, or peak, that
+you begin to feel as if you have been transported from the common world
+into some wondrous world of phantasy, but a crystalline limpidity of
+atmosphere that makes every detail and contour of the most distant
+landscape stand out with faultless definition. It is this continual
+drama of surprise and delight that captures one’s very soul and that
+gives a visit to Sweden its characteristic charm.
+
+Almost as great a diversity is seen, however, among the people who
+inhabit this country as in the scenery which I have just described; and
+though no other nation surpasses the Swedes in the patriotism, pride,
+and love of country which have always been some of their dominant
+characteristics, few present as many different racial features.
+
+In South-west Sweden, and especially in the province of Skåne, we find
+a population which strongly resembles the Danes living across the
+Sound in physique and character, the two races having for centuries
+constituted one political unit. Further north, and extending from
+Gothenburg to the Norwegian frontier, is a race of Goths who, like
+the sturdy inhabitants of Gothland in the Baltic, claim descent from
+the Vikings, the greater number of these famous sea-rovers having
+hailed from these two localities (this province is now called Viken).
+Further inland and to the north of the lake district of Vättern,
+Vänern, are the Sveas, a race of Swedes who, like the Dalecarlians and
+the men of Småland, constitute an element of the Swedish nation whose
+ethnological purity has been little affected by either Norwegian or
+Dane. The Sveas, unlike their southern neighbours, are distinguished
+by a liveliness and pleasure-loving temperament that makes them ideal
+hosts and boon companions, and also by a love of art and beauty which
+they share in common with the Dalecarlians. Like the inhabitants of
+Skåne and Viken, however, they are an easy-going and industrious folk,
+but extremely combative and stubborn if roused. Even more attractive
+in disposition are the Dalecarlians, who are found clustering on the
+shores of Lake Siljan, and nowhere in Sweden will you come across a
+finer race of peasantry or one less spoilt by the modern spirit of
+industrialism.
+
+[Illustration: ARILD, A FISHING VILLAGE NEAR MÖLLE]
+
+As for the other branches of the Swedish nation, if exception has
+been made of the Roos Swedes who are found about the capital, and the
+men of Småland, to the north of Blekinge, whose proverbial honesty,
+truthfulness, and hardihood are as pronounced to-day as they were
+in the days of Charles XII., none can be said to be of pure Swedish
+stock. Norrland is inhabited by a race which either strongly resemble
+their Norwegian neighbours (in Jämtland) or ethnologically are not
+unrelated to the Finns and Lapps, with whom there has been some slight
+intermarriage; while you meet in Lapland a Mongolian people that are
+entirely alien to the remainder of Sweden in both manner of living and
+race.
+
+In spite of ethnological distinctions which, it should be stressed,
+are in any case not any more strongly marked than those at present
+existing in the British Isles, the Swedish nation remains to-day as
+of old one of the most united countries in the world as well as one of
+the most distinctive, its highly marked national characteristics never
+failing to impress the visitor.
+
+If I were now asked for the dominating impressions which the Swedish
+nation generally leaves on the mind of people visiting their country,
+I would say that the first is of a highly practical, hard-working,
+and cultured race, which not only considers efficiency as one of the
+cardinal virtues, but also manages to ensure such a quality being the
+one outstanding characteristic which any foreign observer never fails
+to remark whenever he comes into contact with Swedish national or
+civil life. I strongly question whether towns more efficiently run,
+and citizens more profoundly imbued with civic or public spirit, are
+to be found anywhere in either Europe or America than in this country,
+the result being a husbanding of resources and a co-ordination of
+public and private activities that certainly makes for prosperity and
+contentment. Nowhere have I seen cleaner or more orderly streets,
+tramway or telephone and public services better run, public squares or
+parks more beautifully laid out, educational and cultural institutions
+better designed to promote the welfare of the race; hospitals, prisons,
+and public institutions better organised or conducted, and public
+buildings and business undertakings conceived on a larger scale. The
+second impression, of a general standard of living vastly superior
+to that found in any country in the world outside the United States,
+with the additional advantage of a comparatively small difference
+between the standards attained by the rich and poor respectively; and
+the third, of a people that combines an almost excessive formality of
+manners with the most lavish and whole-hearted hospitality, there being
+few countries, moreover, where an Englishman is more certain of being
+well received wherever he may go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+GOTHENBURG[1]
+
+
+[1] In Swedish, _Göteborg_.
+
+The two principal ways of reaching Sweden from England are: the first
+via the Continent and the Sassnitz Trälleborg train ferry route, the
+second by steamer across the North Sea; and for those who are not
+subject to sea-sickness the sea route is by far the more comfortable of
+the two. I travelled direct to Gothenburg in one of the Swedish Lloyd
+Company’s boats, the _Saga_, and found both boat and crossing
+a pleasant experience. There is a special train from St. Pancras to
+Tilbury in connection with the steamers, and the crossing takes about
+forty-five hours, instead of the long railway journey, and endless
+passport formalities, which all take place, however, in the comfortable
+through carriages. Swedish passenger steamers are invariably replete
+with every comfort and convenience, and the _Saga_ was no
+exception to the rule, her cheery captain proving not only an ideal
+skipper, but a host whose gaiety and _entrain_ were so infectious
+that even those passengers who were beginning to be adversely affected
+by the strongly dipping and rolling boat were beguiled into making
+light of their troubles. The two great events of the day on board a
+Swedish boat are always the two principal meals, and in this respect a
+Swedish steamer is much like other boats, but the thing that marks out
+the Swedish meal from its fellows, whether taken on land or sea, is
+the Smörgåsbord (the bread-and-butter table, literally butter-goose)
+which almost invariably opens the meal. Prominently exposed on the
+various sideboards that greet you as you enter the dining-saloon are a
+large selection of dishes flanked by tall stands upon which enormous
+pats of butter and a most varied assortment of breads are heaped:
+black bread, white bread, honey bread, wheaten bread; and as soon
+as the gong has sounded for luncheon (or dinner) the guests make a
+massed attack on these dishes, after arming themselves with a large
+plate, knife, and fork. You first help yourself handsomely to butter
+out of a huge central stand and also to the species of bread which
+you fancy, and then proceed to fill up your plate with as large a
+choice of edibles as possible, there being no fixed rule as to the
+sequence in which these are to be eaten. Around you are eggs in every
+conceivable form, olives, tomatoes and sardines, anchovies, cucumber in
+sweet sauces, cold fried fish and strömming salmon, hams and cheeses
+hailing from many lands, sausages and Swedish caviar, fish in aspic,
+pâtés and minces, as well as the great national delicacy called “sill”,
+consisting of slices of herring floating in sweetened vinegar and
+plentifully flavoured with spices and onion, which the Swedes consume
+before anything else. This ambulatory portion of the meal is apt to
+last a considerable time, as a Swede who is in form is rarely satisfied
+with one journey to the Smörgås table, but the inexperienced should
+abstain from following his example, however enticing the lure that lies
+in novel gastronomic experiments, in view of the very liberal meal that
+they are expected to consume after it, and of which the Smörgåsbord
+constitute only a preliminary _coup d’essai_. As accompaniment to
+these somewhat strenuous _hors-d’œuvre_, a species of cocktail
+called _snaps_, consisting of pure alcohol flavoured with a kind
+of carroway, is invariably swallowed in one gulp before attacking the
+Smörgåsbord or immediately after that operation has been completed.
+This beverage is certainly a better appetiser than any commonly drunk
+in England, which may possibly account for the ease with which the
+average Swede is able to demolish an almost infinite selection of
+smörgås without either his capacity appearing to be strained or his
+curiosity to be sated, while he then proceeds to wash down the meal
+proper that follows with plentiful draughts of a Pilsener (No. 2 or 3)
+that are so innocuous that even Pussyfoot Johnson would drink of it
+without polluting his immortal soul.
+
+The approach to Gothenburg from the sea is exceptionally beautiful,
+and the traveller should make a point of being up early on the morning
+of arrival to see the ship as it forges its path through the rocky
+archipelago of the Skärgård lying at the mouth of the river Göta älv.
+Here are thousands of islands, many of these bare of trees and without
+the slightest vegetation, whose red granite boulders, if seen in summer
+with the sun and waves beating upon them, possess a fascination that no
+artist as yet has adequately been able to convey on his canvas. They
+are the favourite haunts of the inhabitants of Gothenburg, and like
+the skerries of Stockholm, are admirably adapted for bathing, yachting,
+and living the simple life, the whole coast right up to the Norwegian
+frontier providing almost equal facilities for this form of sport. The
+first object that comes into view of the town proper, however, as you
+pass the last group of islands of the archipelago (and even before that
+if the day is at all clear) is the tall high tower of the Masthuggs
+Kyrka, which is one of the best-known landmarks on the coast; and then
+as the boat draws nearer to the harbour mouth the whole panorama of
+Gothenburg appears before you in all its splendour. Here the busy,
+humming port, crowded with shipping of every kind, from the massive
+ocean liner to the smaller coasting vessel, fishing smack, or miniature
+passenger steamer; there enormous floating docks and shipbuilding
+yards whose unceasing activity attests Gothenburg’s prosperity, with
+as background to the whole scene the city itself with its many fine
+buildings and towers.
+
+[Illustration: GOTHENBURG—THE HARBOUR]
+
+Built largely on a foundation of rock and situated about five miles
+from the river Göta älv at the foot of low-lying hills that are almost
+equally rocky, the city of Gothenburg probably owes not a little
+of its reputation to the fact that it stands on the threshold of a
+district which is not only one of the best known and most popular of
+any in Sweden, owing to it being the starting-point of the famous
+Göta Canal route, but which also possesses an almost inexhaustible
+store of interests at the disposal of the student of mediæval history,
+folk-lore, and geology.
+
+Like many other Swedish towns, Gothenburg is comparatively a modern
+city, but it stands on a site that is a veritable storehouse of legend
+and history, the adjoining territory having frequently changed hands
+or provided a battle-ground for those nations or piratical bands that
+were usually found contending for its possession. It was founded in
+1621 by Gustavus Adolphus, after a visit which this enterprising and
+far-sighted monarch paid to the mouth of the river Göta älv early in
+that same year with the object of seeing if a commercial port could
+not conveniently be erected as close to the main ocean highways as
+possible to ensure his country becoming a factor in the world trade of
+the future. We are told that as he was deliberating on the matter, a
+bird who was being pursued by an eagle dropped suddenly at his feet,
+and that looking down at the utterly exhausted bird he remarked that
+he could not look for a more promising omen.
+
+“Here I shall build the town,” he declared; and acting on these words,
+he selected the present site of the city and entrusted its planning and
+building to some Dutch mercantile experts whose help he had solicited.
+The town was accordingly laid out in the Dutch manner, with many
+artificial canals and straight streets, and was also fortified and
+surrounded by a large moat. Ultimately the walls were razed to make
+way for a beautiful esplanade, while the moat was converted into a
+picturesque artificial waterway with high trees, bordered vernal banks,
+which winding in and out through the very heart of the town, have
+invested those portions traversed by it with a scenic charm that they
+would hardly have possessed otherwise.
+
+The subsequent history of the town soon demonstrated the wisdom which
+had dictated Gustavus Adolphus’ selection of a site, for the city not
+only received large influxes of colonists, mostly German, Dutch, and
+Scotch, who materially contributed to its welfare by the important
+and fast-growing volume of trade which followed in their wake, but
+very quickly became an important trade centre for eastern commodities.
+The East India Company, which was established here about this time,
+was for a long time one of Sweden’s most flourishing concerns, while
+the herring fisheries on the coast of Bohuslän became sufficiently
+productive to allow large quantities of this fish to be exported to
+foreign lands. Further impetus was given to the commerce of the town,
+moreover, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, by Napoleon’s
+attempt to enforce a continental blockade of Great Britain in 1806,
+this short-sighted measure having the effect of converting the Swedish
+city into the principal emporium and transit mart of all English goods
+in North Europe, while its subsequent progress has been almost equally
+marked. During the War it enjoyed a period of tremendous prosperity
+which, though followed by an unavoidable slump, has nevertheless
+persisted to this day, Gothenburg having by now entirely superseded
+Stockholm as the leading exporting and shipping centre, while it has
+also become the second most populated town in Sweden, as well as an
+important educational and cultural centre, and one of the most thriving
+commercial and industrial cities of the kingdom. Gothenburg owes these
+advantages, however, almost as much to the tireless energy, business
+acumen, and flair which her inhabitants appear to have inherited from
+their Swedish, German, and Dutch ancestors as to her favoured position
+in the world markets; and in no other town in Europe of equal size
+will the traveller find a more hard-working or efficient _corps
+commercial_ or a population whose civic pride and public spirit
+so strongly impel them to insist on superefficiency. The town has
+consequently a well-ordered aspect which appears to apply to even the
+most out-of-the-way path and little lane, while its administration has
+been raised to so fine an art that, apart from the town fire brigade,
+which seems to have been a little overlooked, the whole machinery runs
+on model lines. You may wander in the town when and where you will,
+and yet never find a street that is not clean or devoid of refuse,
+the local scavengers apparently fulfilling their duties at such an
+early hour and so unobtrusively that you will rarely come across them,
+while the public gardens and parks are so perfectly kept and become
+in May and June such dreams of beauty, that you are found most often
+calculating the lavish expenditure and imposing staffs that alone
+can have ensured such excellence. Indeed in no town in Europe have
+I found public gardens better or more artistically laid out than in
+Gothenburg, the Swedish gardeners often possessing not only an ample
+_expertise_ and a sufficiency in botanical knowledge that marks
+them out among the gardeners of the world, but a natural taste of an
+order high enough to justify appeal being made to them in questions
+dealing with the designing of ornamental and formal gardens.
+
+To visit Gothenburg without seeing its gardens is therefore as
+unthinkable as if you passed through Rome without seeing St. Peter’s;
+and though every visitor should, almost as soon as he has landed,
+first take a stroll over by the water front (this being the obvious
+thing to do) in order to steep his mind with an adequate sense of the
+town’s importance as a commercial and shipping centre (which should be
+his principal dominating impression), he must immediately afterwards,
+and before seeing anything else, stroll even more leisurely along the
+delightful artificial waterway that has given Gothenburg its peculiar
+resemblance to a Dutch city; and after passing by the picturesque
+market thronged by lusty market women who can daily be seen selling
+their baskets of fruit and flowers along the very water edge, linger
+for a while in the beautiful Slottskogen and Trädgårdsföreningen parks,
+on whose upkeep and embellishment many municipalities have expended
+lavish sums. In the summer months these gardens are a dream of delight
+and colour, while they are so beautifully kept and well ordered that
+though frequently invaded by festive crowds there appears to be an
+almost entire lack of that careless abandon that so often impels the
+British holiday-maker to litter even the most pleasant garden with
+paper bags and food refuse. Of the two parks the Trädgårdsföreningen
+is perhaps the finer and more restful, and it contains incidentally
+one of the finest hot-houses for tropical plants that are to be found
+in Northern Europe after those in Kew Gardens, as well as a very good
+restaurant and theatre; but the Slottskogen park contains almost as
+many pleasing features, although its principal charms are to be found
+in the natural beauty that it possesses or in the magnificent view
+that can be obtained of the city and surrounding country from its
+Belvedere, rather than in the number, variety, and orderly beauty of
+its flower-beds, which are not to be compared to those of the other
+park.
+
+Having thus briefly surveyed the various vicissitudes through which
+Gothenburg has passed in the course of its somewhat short life as a
+city, and given some account of its parks and general aspect, we may
+now proceed to consider some of the principal characteristics of the
+town itself, its monuments and other public buildings, and then deal
+with the surrounding country.
+
+Like many other Swedish towns, Gothenburg impresses from the first
+as a city in which every street and building form integral parts of
+a general scheme. The thoroughfares are mostly ample in size and the
+buildings nearly all modern structures of stone and plaster in which
+the new school of Swedish architecture has sought to express a purely
+Swedish style of architectural expression. As I intend in a subsequent
+chapter to treat this subject more fully, I will content myself with
+saying that though the public buildings of Gothenburg undoubtedly
+reflect the art that was preconised by such masters as Clason and
+Ferdinand Boberg in the way in which the principal ornamental designs
+centre around the entrances, and also in the very distinctive form of
+panelling and decorative _motifs_ which characterise them, they
+should not be taken as typical examples of a style which can only be
+studied to advantage in the capital. I should therefore advise all
+lovers of architecture, whose first view of Sweden is by way of this
+city, to suspend all judgment of Swedish architecture until they have
+arrived in Stockholm and seen Ragnar Östberg’s famous masterpiece, the
+new Stadshus.
+
+[Illustration: GOTHENBURG—THE CITY]
+
+Of the many new buildings of Gothenburg which have been inspired by
+the new school, the most pretentious and interesting is the New Art
+Gallery, which was opened to the public last year at Götaplatsen, a
+big, massive building containing a fine handsome loggia with seven high
+round arches, which, though awaiting completion, possesses a certain
+massive dignity that is not without charm. Of the other numerous
+buildings that are to be found in the town, which incidentally probably
+contains a greater number of scholastic institutions, technical
+colleges, and hospitals than any other city of its size in the world,
+there are few which deserve any special mention. A visit should,
+however, be made to the old seventeenth-century building on the Harbour
+Canal in which the Swedish East India Company once had their offices
+and warehouses, where very interesting ethnographical and sociological
+historical collections can be seen, and also to the new General
+Post Office, which is probably the largest post office to be found
+in the north of Europe. As for the churches of Gothenburg, there are
+only one or two that are in any way out of the common, and none that
+should detain the tourist for any appreciable length of time, except
+perhaps the Masthuggs Church, situated in the suburb of Majorna, whose
+red-bricked tower certainly possesses quite a distinctive air of its
+own, and also the Kristine or German Church on the Harbour Canal. The
+remainder are devoid of any special interest.
+
+Before passing on to consider the many pleasant excursions that can
+be made from Gothenburg along the coast of Bohuslän, a few remarks
+concerning the hotels and restaurants of the town may not fall amiss;
+and while I have little further to add to the description which I gave
+in the earlier pages of this chapter of a typical Swedish meal (the
+luncheon which I described being characteristic not only of Swedish
+steamers but also of Swedish towns generally), it may be useful to
+point out that the hotels of Gothenburg mostly belong to the expensive
+category, and that travellers should not therefore base their estimate
+of costs on this city alone, Gothenburg and Stockholm being probably
+the two most expensive towns in the whole of Sweden. Swedish hotels are
+invariably clean and comfortable, however, and though a traveller may
+at first experience a certain shock at finding that the stalwart and
+often prepossessing chambermaid whom he has requested to prepare his
+matutinal bath will not only prepare it most adequately, but will also
+look very aggrieved if he does not allow her to scrub and generally rub
+him down much as his nurse used to do in the days of his childhood, he
+will find little else that differs materially from his experience of
+English hotels. Swedish rule of behaviour must, however, be acquired
+by any visitor who intends to make a protracted stay in the country,
+as Swedish table manners differ considerably from our own; and one of
+the first rules that must be mastered is never to drink any wine at a
+dinner or luncheon party without first toasting somebody: it does not
+matter who it is so long as it is not your hostess. As this book is not
+intended to be a Swedish etiquette manual, we will now pass on to other
+subjects, after contenting ourselves with saying that though the custom
+referred to is the one which the ignorant Englishman is the most likely
+to break, there are many others that he should try to assimilate,
+especially if he happens to be one of those luckless individuals who
+are always doing the wrong thing. In no other country in Europe has
+a _gaffeur_ more opportunities for showing off this particular
+failing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+BOHUSLÄN
+
+
+A more weather-worn and scarred coast than Bohuslän is difficult to
+find, for the waves have cut so deeply into its shore that it presents
+the appearance of a huge and abnormally uneven comb with countless
+jagged teeth or “Naess”, between whose steep and precipitous banks
+equally innumerable and winding fjords have eaten deeply into the land.
+In winter, when both sky and rock are bleakly grey and repellent, it
+brings suggestions of desolateness and strife, and affords foreboding
+vistas of innumerable clusters of bare rock often separated by the
+narrowest of channels, which some primordial giant of fable has
+scattered all along the coast to protect the mainland from the
+onslaughts of tide and breakers, and so maintain the integrity of the
+rugged country over which Beowulf once held sway. This forbidding coast
+has, however, many compensating advantages, and if only you explore
+it during the summer months with a certain amount of thoroughness it
+will never fail to appeal to any one who loves wild scenery. To see
+it at its best you should of course visit it when the sky is azure
+blue and the waves are beating against the rocky red granite islands
+of the Skärgård, encircling them with snow-white foam, while the sun
+is transfiguring even their most forbidding boulder into a dream of
+beauty. But even if conditions are not as favourable, you may, if you
+wander a little far afield, find concealed here and there among the
+fjords and skerries many enchanting valleys and little coves where
+trees grow luxuriantly and which are so protected from wind and storm
+that even the most exacting lover of warmth and sunshine will in summer
+imagine he has been transported to a more southern clime, without
+too much stretching of his imagination. Arid and grey-looking as the
+greater part of the mountain landscape may be, the restful green of
+pine and fir is never entirely absent; and while there is also the
+cool grey of crag and peak to delight the eye, even the wildest and
+most rugged mountain feature feels ever companionably close—not
+immeasurably distant and unattainable as the desert.
+
+Of all the provinces of Sweden, Bohuslän is perhaps one of the earliest
+inhabited, while the entire coast is stamped with memories, memories of
+Viking days when in the fjords of the coast the Sea Kings fitted out
+their fleets for voyages across the North Sea, or legends concerning
+the great Beowulf, King of the Western Goths, whose name is so bound up
+with Bohuslän that I cannot refrain from describing his most legendary
+exploit more or less fully.
+
+For many years Bohuslän had been looted and ravaged by Grendel the sea
+monster without being able to retaliate, when very unexpectedly there
+arrived in the land a strange boat full of armed men whose tall and
+fair leader was brought before Hrothgar, the King of the Danes (who was
+then ruling Bohuslän), and asked to account for his visit.
+
+“We are of the Goths kin,” he replied, “Hygelac’s hearth sharers; my
+father is widely known; he is the high-born lord Eogtheow.” Hrothgar
+recognised him as Beowulf, and bidding him warmly welcome, escorted
+him to his castle. That same night, as the King was sleeping, the sea
+monster crept into the palace and seizing one of the sleeping knights,
+“bit him through the body, drank his blood, and tore off his flesh
+in great strips”. Then he advanced towards Beowulf, and would have
+treated him in similar fashion if that knight had not forestalled him
+by immediately attacking. Seizing the monster with his two hands,
+Beowulf tore his shoulder open with a superhuman effort, and breaking
+his sinews rendered him powerless. Grendel limped away mortally wounded
+and made for the cavern at the bottom of the lake which acted as
+his lair, leaving a trail of blood behind him, but succumbed to his
+injuries while seeking to reach the bottom of the water. Next night
+his infuriated mother left the cavern to avenge her son, and creeping
+surreptitiously into the palace succeeded in killing one of the Danes
+before Beowulf could prevent her. The sea monster then fled back to her
+lair, with Beowulf following hard upon her. Reaching the lake he dived
+to the bottom, and though seized by the monster as he reached it, was
+able to draw his magic sword and slay his opponent. He then cut off
+Grendel’s head, and returning to the surface took the trophy back to
+the palace and laid it at the King’s feet. Some say that this legendary
+hero is buried on a headland at Hronesnass near Gothenburg; others that
+Upland was his last resting-place, while objects similar to those that
+are depicted in the Beowulf Anglo-Saxon epic are shown to this day in
+both places purporting to have been discovered in the near vicinity.
+
+We should be too obviously departing from the legitimate scope of this
+volume were we to enter upon any detailed account of the many other
+legends which deal with Beowulf and his exploits. They are legion. It
+must suffice to say that the student of folklore and mythology will
+find in Bohuslän an almost inexhaustible fund of old legends at his
+disposal, as well as an unusually rich store of relics from even the
+earliest period of antiquity. I have been shown burial chambers and
+vaults that were 4000 years old, and also inscriptions on slabs of
+rocks dating from 1500 B.C. which purported to reproduce human
+forms or animals, while the whole district also abounds in cairns and
+grave finds of stone, bronze, and iron, many of these dating from the
+Stone, Bronze, and Iron epochs, as well as numerous caverns and islands
+that are popularly supposed to have been the favourite resorts of sea
+monsters akin to Grendel.
+
+As for the people of Bohuslän, they are in every respect worthy
+descendants of their Viking ancestors, and while their lives are not
+as equally colourful and picturesque, they are almost as constantly
+exposed to danger both on land and sea. A hardy and energetic race that
+turns to a seafaring life as by a natural instinct, they make ideal
+sailors, deep-sea fishing with its accompanying sister industries of
+salting and canning being one of their principal and most productive
+occupations, while those who are not employed in fishing earn their
+living quarrying granite, of which there are enormous quantities all
+along the coast, and shipping it to foreign countries. This occupation,
+though even more remunerative than that of herring fishing, entails
+even more risks, owing to the unfortunate tendency that charges of
+dynamite occasionally manifest of exploding at the wrong moment, large
+blocks of stone having frequently been known to crash down on groups of
+unfortunate workmen at the most unexpected moments.
+
+While there are many pleasant excursions that can be made along the
+coast of Bohuslän and among the islands of the Skärgård, there are none
+which will give the visitor a more comprehensive idea of the coast in
+as short a time as that which may be made by taking one of those many
+small steamers that ply regularly from Gothenburg to Marstrand and
+Lysekil, and then returning on the following day by the Uddevalla route.
+
+Leaving Gothenburg, the steamer turns sharply northward, and after
+passing a lighthouse enters the archipelago of the Skärgård, through
+which it now proceeds to thread its way, stopping occasionally in
+front of islands on which you see grouped near a landing-stage a
+number of fishermen’s wooden houses, all painted red. Nothing very
+distinctive about the scenery apart from its almost entire lack of
+trees or vegetation, but many of the skerries are so protected from the
+wind, and they evidently offer such remarkable facilities for boating,
+yachting, and swimming, that you soon begin to realise the cause of
+their popularity during the summer months, while the scenery and
+conditions which they present are of so novel a character that you find
+yourself enjoying every minute of your leisurely progress through the
+channels and straits that separate them.
+
+[Illustration: MARSTRAND]
+
+After about two hours’ journey you arrive at Marstrand, one of the most
+popular bathing resorts of the whole coast, and further meditations are
+cut short by the captain’s announcement that you have barely three
+hours for obtaining some food and also for seeing the town.
+
+Marstrand is a city of great antiquity, perhaps the oldest in the
+province after Kungälv (a town with which we will make acquaintance as
+we proceed on our way to Stockholm by the Göta Canal route), and like
+many towns that have enjoyed great prosperity, has little to suggest
+its former greatness, apart from a few old seals and documents. Two
+centuries ago it was one of the richest cities in Sweden, owing to its
+thriving herring fishing industry, though an old writer informs us
+that “the herrings suddenly began to disappear owing to the ungodly
+ways of the fisherfolk, after which it rapidly declined and sank into
+poverty and oblivion”. It has recovered, however, much of its former
+prosperity, and in the summer months is thronged with visitors, mostly
+Swedes and Swedish-Americans, who delight in its excellent boating and
+yachting.
+
+Built on a small island that is separated from another called Koön
+that immediately faces it by a narrow strait, it is dominated by an
+old dismantled fortress with a massive circular granite tower which
+dates from the seventeenth century and affords a splendid view of the
+skerries and surrounding country. As it entirely lacks even the most
+conventional form of amusement, it will hardly appeal, I fancy, to
+that class of tourist whose only conception of a seaside resort is
+based on their experience of English or French watering-places, and
+should therefore be avoided by any visitor who does not consider a
+bracing air, excellent bathing, yachting, and camping-out facilities as
+indispensable adjuncts to a holiday. In these respects, at any rate,
+few seaside resorts excel Marstrand, which incidentally possesses the
+additional inducement of a scenery that is almost unique in character,
+while its hotels are comfortable and their proprietors so up-to-date
+in their methods that almost before I had set foot on the island I
+found myself being rushed off to a particular hostelry (the Grand) and
+induced to order the most expensive and elaborate of meals. As Swedish
+hotel managers all appear to possess an equally ingratiating manner, I
+strongly advise people travelling with a light purse to fight shy of
+any but the cheaper hotels. In justice to the particular restaurant
+in which I was so dexterously inveigled I must add that, expensive as
+was the bill with which I was presented, the luncheon which I consumed
+was so excellently cooked as to almost justify the expenditure that
+it incurred, the genial manager informing me that he had served a long
+apprenticeship in France before the War, and that nowhere in Sweden
+except at the Royal Hotel in Stockholm would I find a more delectable
+and recherché cuisine. Judging from the many restaurants whose food I
+subsequently sampled during my stay in this country, I rather fancy he
+was right.
+
+Passing on our way we then come to Lysekil, a busy little fishing town
+whose herring industry ranks next to that of Marstrand in importance.
+Like most Swedish cities of this part of Sweden its red-tiled houses
+are nearly all built of wood, but it is picturesquely situated at the
+mouth of the Gullmar Fjord and is not devoid of a certain charm, while
+it is equally celebrated for the efficacy of its medicinal waters
+and the excellence of its boating and bathing. Near the quays are
+innumerable sailing boats specially built to accommodate parties of
+twelve or more, in which one can comfortably cruise about the adjacent
+fjords for the whole or part of a day at a price that is obtainable
+nowhere in England, while the lover of sea-bathing will find every
+facility that he can desire, not only in the octagonal wooden bathing
+establishments that are to be found near the quays, but in the many
+clear pools that abound among the rocks, the Swedish Mrs. Grundy being
+very tolerant with regard to the costume that may be worn on these
+occasions. But Lysekil possesses many other attractions, and is not
+only an ideal place for fishing whether out at sea or in the fjords,
+but the centre for many interesting excursions in the neighbourhood.
+Over across the bay is the picturesque little village of Fiskebäckskil,
+while further north is the seaside resort of Strömstad, quite near to
+the Norwegian frontier, and beyond it the fortress of Frederikshald,
+where Charles XII. was killed as he was attempting to invade Norway.
+Near this fort, incidentally, is a small cove where this Swedish king
+launched his galleys “after having had them dragged twelve English
+miles across the land from Strömstad”, a feat which, according to
+Emerson, was only rendered possible by the material help and advice of
+Swedenborg.
+
+The first part of the excursion being now completed, we then take
+the train for Uddevalla, and after a short journey, during which the
+scenery gradually loses its barren character, soon arrive at our
+destination.
+
+Delightfully situated at the foot of wooded hills and in a countryside
+whose luxuriant fertility is a pleasant contrast to the barren
+wildness of other parts of Bohuslän, Uddevalla is a busy little place
+with a large paper-mill and other industries that was originally
+founded by Dutch settlers. And like Marstrand and Lysekil, it is
+thronged in summer by Swedish holiday-makers, its principal appeal,
+apart from its pretty setting, lying in the splendid opportunities for
+open-air life that, like other Swedish summer resorts, it is able to
+offer to the visitor. Boarding the Gothenburg steamer, we then pass
+through the Byfjord and begin a journey that if taken so as to include
+a sunset will often present you with entrancing vistas of promontories
+and rocky islands that appear to have been especially designed as
+settings for the sun. And plodding our way among islands that by this
+time have lost all sign of vegetation we deposit portions of our cargo
+at various ports and pass countless granite boulders strewn along the
+coast that, seen in a fading light, look like huge sea monsters on
+whose bare backs the waves are beating in vain. Slowly the darkness
+deepens, and as the sky assumes its many shifting colours the beams
+from the lighthouses of Gothenburg come into view and very soon we
+reach our moorings in the harbour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE GÖTA CANAL
+
+
+For those who are not pressed for time I can hardly imagine a more
+enjoyable trip than that of travelling from Gothenburg to Stockholm
+by the combination of river, lake, and canal known as the Göta Canal,
+a leisurely journey of two days and a half that takes you through the
+heart of the country, from coast to coast, on a line of steamers that,
+though bearing much the same relationship to an ordinary passenger boat
+as a Pomeranian to a wolf-hound, are models in miniature of what a
+river vessel should be, accommodation, cooking, and service being all
+that could be desired. The charm of this trip does not lie so much in
+the beauty of the castles, churches, and lake scenery that characterise
+it, as in the way in which it brings you into constant touch with the
+heart-beat of the country. At times the boat glides along fertile
+fields and meadows, and within sight of ancient churches, pleasant
+villages, or old castle ruins; at others it makes its way across
+wide shimmering lakes or passes locks innumerable that afford ample
+opportunities for exercise to those desiring it. I shall not easily
+forget the enjoyable days that I spent in this manner seeing mile after
+mile of the most varied scenery unfolding itself before me, as I sat
+lazily complacent in a comfortable deck-chair, almost hoping that
+the journey would have no end. This passage across the very centre
+of Sweden is so assuaging that I most heartily recommend it to all
+those who hold with me that every traveller who would duly appreciate
+a country that is to him virgin soil should only visit it with mind
+attuned to the world, and consequently that the Göta Canal should
+be regarded as a kind of portal to the more arduous Sweden which is
+disclosed to the senses as soon as the last lake of Östergötland and
+the Stockholm Archipelago will have been traversed. Used both as an
+entrance and as an exit to Sweden, however, it is alike admirable,
+since in the first instance it predisposes the mind to view everything
+favourably, in the second it soon consoles the disillusioned traveller
+for any shortcomings and deceptions that he will have discovered in the
+rest of the country.
+
+The credit of building a system of waterways linking up Sweden’s many
+large lakes, and even the Baltic and North Sea, belongs to no modern
+engineer but to a certain Catholic bishop called Brask of Linköping,
+a town found on this route, who in 1525 advocated this canal in a
+letter to King Gustavus I. as a means of escaping the duties that were
+exacted by the Danes on shipping passing through the Sound. The work
+was actually begun at a place called Norsholm, and advanced so far
+that signs of it are still visible at Brask’s Ditch: only the King’s
+extensive commitments in other directions preventing further progress
+being made. And from that moment there was hardly a Swedish monarch
+who did not recommend the project, though nothing much was achieved
+until the reign of Charles XII., when Christopher Polhem finally
+obtained permission from the Swedish King to “construct a passage
+between Gothenburg and Norrköping by using the natural waterways as
+far as possible”. The Swedish Government was to be responsible for the
+financial part of the undertaking, and according to the terms of the
+contract that was now signed between the King and Polhem on January 17,
+1718, this engineer was to complete the canal in five years, a sum
+of 40,000 silver daler being allowed him annually for expenses, with
+a stipulation that any eventual deficiency would be made good by the
+King. The length of the sluices was fixed at that time at 180 feet and
+the breadth at 38 feet. The great engineering project was immediately
+started from the side of Gothenburg, but Polhem was compelled to
+abandon the enterprise at the King’s death in December of the same
+year, the Council declaring that the entire project was useless, as it
+was only a product of Polhem’s egoism and that it would therefore have
+to be abandoned. The completion of the canal was subsequently delayed
+for many years, owing to difficulties which arose attendant upon the
+construction of several of the locks, and it was only in the early part
+of the nineteenth century that a really concerted effort was made to
+complete the work, this ultimately leading to the opening of the route
+from the Cattegat to the Baltic in 1832, a result that was in the main
+due to Baltzar von Platen’s extraordinary energy and driving power. The
+cost incurred in completing the canal, as well as the time that was
+spent in building it, were so much beyond the estimates made at the
+time that there is good reason to assume that von Platen deliberately
+handed in an erroneous estimate from the very beginning, so keen was
+his resolve to allow no consideration to interfere with the carrying
+out of his plan, and so firm his conviction that a more correct
+estimate would only have torpedoed his scheme; this misrepresentation
+giving Sweden a canal that, though possessing far less importance as
+trade route or for war operations than many later canal constructions,
+is, as a piece of engineering work, ahead of even the Suez Canal.
+
+During the first stage of the journey the steamer proceeds slowly up
+the Göta river, and after passing Jordfallet, arrives in sight of
+the picturesque ruins of Bohus Castle, which dominate the two arms
+of the river. Erected in 1308 by Håkon Magnusson, King of Norway,
+this fortress long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most
+formidable strongholds of Scandinavia, and was also the scene of
+innumerable sieges and counter-sieges in which the attacking party
+invariably came off second best. King Eric XIV. invested it for over
+a year and a half, only to find his best armies and most experienced
+generals recoiling in defeat before its massive walls and equally
+stout-hearted defenders, and it continued to live up to its proud
+reputation of impregnability until the beginning of the eighteenth
+century, when it was condemned as a fortress and left to fall to wrack
+and ruin. Only two of its towers remain, the _Fars hatt och mors
+mössa_ (the father’s hat and the mother’s cap), of which the first
+is an interesting and well-preserved example of mediæval fortress
+architecture.
+
+[Illustration: THE TROLLHÄTTAN FALLS]
+
+On the opposite shore, and immediately facing Bohus, is the little
+town of Kungälv, now an unimportant village, but at one time a large
+and thriving city which appears to have been the Scandinavian Geneva
+of its age. Here the rulers of the three Nordic nations used to meet
+in conference, and it was here again that the famous Peace Congress
+of 1101 held its meetings. Kungälv did not, however, long retain its
+exalted position, and after having been partly destroyed by Ratibur,
+King of the Wends, at the close of the twelfth century, quickly
+relapsed into comparative obscurity. Though shorn of all its former
+importance, Kungälv is an attractive place to visit, especially during
+the summer, and is picturesquely situated at the foot of a steep and
+thickly wooded hill from which interesting views can be obtained of the
+neighbouring country. Beyond Bohus are the green fields and marshes
+of Hisingen island and in the far distance the chimneys and church
+steeples of Gothenburg. After passing Gamla Lödöse (Old Lödöse), of
+which a story relates that by command of Gustavus I. its inhabitants
+removed to another locality twenty miles nearer the mouth of the river
+and there built a new town on the spot now called Gamlestaden, the
+steamer reaches Trollhättan and the first series of sluices that lead
+up to Brinkeberg Hill, the time spent in negotiating this uphill climb
+providing ample opportunity and leisure for seeing the Trollhättan
+Falls and electric power station. The Falls are six in number, and
+the sight of the great masses of water as they hurtle and leap down
+from one rocky shelf to the other, impetuously forging their way
+between rocky canyons in a frenzied descent of over a hundred feet,
+is impressive to a degree. The accumulated force of this water is
+more than 270,000 horse-power, of which over 170,000 have been turned
+to practical use by the huge electric power station that has been
+installed in the vicinity of the cataract; while of the current thus
+generated part has been transformed into electricity for the lighting
+of a 300-mile area and also for the Stockholm-Gothenburg railway,
+and part consumed by the numerous saw and wood-pulp mills, smelting
+furnaces and ironworks which have been set up near the falls. For sheer
+grandeur of scenery Trollhättan compares favourably with any other
+place in Sweden, and abounds with beautiful walks in the surrounding
+woods, from whence magnificent views can be obtained in all directions.
+
+Shortly after leaving Trollhättan the steamer begins what is to many
+by far the most attractive portion of the journey, for lake after
+lake are now traversed that, if lacking the dreamy voluptuous charm,
+soft atmosphere, and luxuriant vegetation of southern lakes, are
+almost equally pleasing for the exquisite loveliness of their sunsets
+and the beauty of their skies. Surrounded by low-lying hills and
+pine woods that often extend to the very water edge, these lakes are
+strongly evocative of Canadian scenery, and from early dawn to that
+golden twilight which in June is the nearest approach to night that
+is obtainable in these northern latitudes, present a slowly changing
+kaleidoscope of colour so rich and varied that not only does the eye
+rarely weary of watching it, but even the mind refuses to do aught but
+unquestioningly admire.
+
+The steamer first glides into Lake Vänern, the largest inland lake
+in Sweden, and the biggest in Europe outside of Russia. Over 2000
+square miles in area, this lake is divided into two parts by two long
+necks of land, each with an archipelago. Dotted here and there are
+many beautiful islands and skerries, of which many call for careful
+navigation, compasses being often at a discount owing to the ore lying
+at the bottom of the lake.
+
+From Vänersborg, the first port of call in the lake, we motor or drive
+to Halleberg, a strange-looking hill that is now separated by a deep
+valley from Hunneberg, a sister hill which was originally one with it.
+Exceedingly steep and difficult of access, but equally picturesque,
+Halleberg is crowned by a large plateau in which lonely waste land
+alternates with small lakes and pine woods, where, if luck favours
+you, giant elks evoking prehistoric times may occasionally be seen
+crashing through the encircling branches. Like many other hills found
+in the vicinity of these lakes, Halleberg possesses many interesting
+geological features and affords a good idea of the type of Swedish
+scenery that characterises this part of Sweden.
+
+[Illustration: SJÖTORP LOCKS, GÖTA CANAL]
+
+The steamer from here proceeds north, and after reaching the Eken
+archipelago, a labyrinth of small islands and skerries which present
+considerable difficulties to the navigator, rounds the promontory and
+turning south calls at Hällekis, a village that is most picturesquely
+situated at the foot of Mt. Kinnekulle. Towering over all the
+surrounding country, this mountain is not only so extraordinarily
+fertile that in early spring and summer it becomes a garden of wild
+flowers, but it possesses geological characteristics that in themselves
+would justify making it a special visit, there being no less than three
+distinct layers of rock strata below the diorite that once covered the
+entire hill. Surrounded by many pleasing valleys and woods, Kinnekulle
+is during the summer months an inland rural paradise and an ideal place
+for dreaming away an hour in quiet contemplation of the landscape.
+
+Leaving Kinnekulle the steamer then proceeds north and at Sjötorp
+begins a long uphill climb along the canal leading out of Lake Vänern
+into the province of Västergötland. From lock to lock the boat is
+gradually raised until it is more than 150 feet above Lake Vänern, this
+providing a unique opportunity for getting down on shore and having a
+look at the country people working in the fields. I thoroughly enjoyed
+the experience, but found few fellow-passengers energetic enough to
+follow my example, the great majority seeming to prefer to remain on
+deck, from which they could occasionally be heard making those vapid
+exclamations of admiration that pass for appreciation of beauty.
+
+Comfortably reclining in deck-chairs and basking in the sun, it was
+clear that their thoughts were little concerned with the rustic beauty
+of the landscape through which they were passing, and that they only
+regarded the journey in the light of a rest cure. For this regrettable
+state of affairs I rather fancy the Göta Canal Company is in part
+responsible, for the diminutive little steamers in which the journey
+from Gothenburg is taken are so crammed full with comfort and so
+similar to miniature hotels that it is perhaps not to be wondered at
+that so many travellers succumb to their attractions and lazily allow
+life to slip by without worrying over such trifles as scenery or old
+and historic buildings. _On le ferait à moins._
+
+Quietly and almost unobtrusively, then, the steamer glides along
+fertile fields and rural landscapes, the canal being at times so narrow
+that at one place after passing Lake Viken (Spetsnäset or Pointed
+Ness) branches can actually be broken off the trees lining the banks.
+Nothing very distinctive about the scenery, apart from its general
+pleasantness, but I noticed, in addition to innumerable silver birches,
+a profusion of unfamiliar trees of the ash variety lining the banks
+of the canal, which I was informed were called oxel or beam trees.
+Covered with white blossoms they made a pretty picture, though their
+general effect was rather marred by the very pungent and sickly perfume
+which emanated from their flowers, and of which I became unpleasantly
+conscious as I approached nearer to the trees. I made various attempts
+to bring back some of these sprays of white blossoms to the boat, but
+on every occasion elected to throw away those which I had picked, owing
+to their offensive and almost nauseating odour.
+
+After crossing Lake Viken, a typical forest lake of great natural
+beauty studded with rocks and small wooded islands, the steamer
+proceeds down the canal, and near the point where it enters Lake
+Vättern passes the powerful fortress of Karlsborg. Begun as far back
+as 1820 to serve as a final base of operations against a potential
+invader, this fortress was part of a scheme of defence which Carl
+Johan Bernadotte, the founder of the present Royal House of Sweden,
+organised just after the Napoleonic campaigns in order to make good
+the wastage caused by a very exhaustive series of wars. It was thought
+at the time that the fortress would take ten years to build, and
+the probability is that it would have taken no longer a time if the
+military authorities had not been so anxious to make it outshine every
+other fortress in Europe. The result was that though any amount of work
+was put into building it the Swedish military authorities submitted
+so many plans and counter-plans that little was done that was not
+immediately undone, in view of a possible improvement, this policy
+causing the work to drag on till 1909, when the principal fort was at
+last completed. Passing on from Karlsborg we then enter Lake Vättern,
+the second largest lake in Sweden and perhaps the most beautiful.
+Shaped somewhat like a spindle, Vättern is fed almost entirely by
+subaqueous springs of purest quality which would account incidentally
+for the limpidity of its waters, and possesses so many legends and
+historic memories of the past that it has become invested with a charm
+and attraction that are quite its own. Our next objective being the
+town of Jönköping, at the southern extremity of the lake, the steamer
+now takes a southerly direction, and after a few hours arrives in sight
+of the mysterious Vising Island, a visit to which is almost obligatory
+upon any visitor to the lake. It contains an old abbey and a castle
+which was for centuries the residence of the Swedish kings, as well
+as a number of runic stones that were erected in the Viking age to
+the memory of warriors who had fallen in distant lands. Apart from
+Mt. Omberg, with its lovely grottos and its wooded heights recalling
+Kinnekulle, however, we pass nothing else of special interest until we
+reach the extremity of the lake and the town of Jönköping.
+
+An important commercial city and the centre of the match industry,
+Jönköping is less frequented by tourists than the other parts of the
+lake because it is not on the direct line between Gothenburg and
+Stockholm and consequently is very often overlooked by English and
+American tourists. It is, however, well worth visiting, if only for the
+beautiful park which the municipality has had planted on the shores of
+the lake and a very interesting wooden church dating from the Middle
+Ages, in which I saw many quaint wall-paintings and carvings as well as
+an old portal that was simply riddled with Danish bullets. Jönköping
+is the most convenient headquarters for making excursions to either
+Visingsö, Vadstena, or St. Bridget, while it is within easy distance
+from the iron mountain of Taberg, the surrounding country being very
+typical of Sweden.
+
+Turning north again the steamer then proceeds to Vadstena, perhaps one
+of the most interesting historical places in Sweden, and certainly one
+of the oldest.
+
+Dominating the town is a large sixteenth-century Renaissance castle,
+built for Gustavus Vasa by Joakim Bulgerin, the best fortress architect
+of his age, as a defence against Danish Sweden, an imposing edifice
+forming one side of a rectangle, the others consisting of ramparts and
+four circular bastions bristling with cannon embrasures, which are
+surrounded by one of the widest moats that I have ever seen. A little
+too massive for my taste, yet not without a certain air, and replete,
+moreover, with historical memories, this building is typical of what
+Augustus Hahr calls “business-like architecture or utility buildings”.
+You feel that it was only constructed for a utilitarian purpose and
+that Bulgerin’s principal concern was to make a fortress that would
+resist both the attacks of time and those of its enemies.
+
+Here many Swedish monarchs had their residence, including Gustavus
+Vasa, who was married here to Catharine Stenbock, and Magnus, who in
+a fit of madness hurled himself out of a window in order to “seize
+a beautiful girl whom he had seen rising out of the waters of the
+lake”. Here again many Parliaments were held, including that of 1501,
+when Hans of Denmark was dethroned. Vadstena owes its proud position
+as royal city almost equally to the convent which the same Magnus
+Eriksson had built on the shores of the lake in 1370 for St. Bridget
+and the religious order which she founded—the most influential and
+respected association of the north at that time. And especially after
+St. Bridget’s canonisation in 1391 the town increased in population
+and in importance sufficiently to enable Queen Margaret to give it
+full civic rights, while it was also entirely re-planned. Very little
+remains to-day of the original convent buildings erected by Magnus,
+but within the precincts of the lunatic asylum which now stands on the
+old site are still to be seen one or two nuns’ cells, and also the
+private chapel of the Abbess, while of the original gardens there
+remain a few old pear trees dating from those early days on which the
+first Bergamote pears had been grown. Apart from the castle and convent
+there is little else of interest to be seen in Vadstena except the Blue
+Church, an attractive towerless building of bluish-grey limestone in
+which the bones of the saint and many memorials of the Middle Ages can
+be seen.
+
+[Illustration: JÖNKÖPING]
+
+Passing on from Vadstena we next come to the town of Motala at the most
+easterly extremity of the lake, and re-entering the canal begin our
+gradual descent to the Baltic, after passing the stone memorial which
+the townspeople of Motala erected in the early part of the nineteenth
+century to Baltzar von Platen, the founder of the canal. Made of one
+solid block of stone, this monument is typical of early Victorian
+architecture, and a blur on the landscape. More pleasing and typical
+of a scenery which from this moment is perhaps the prettiest of any
+found on this journey are the many fine estates now seen on both sides
+of the canal and on the shores of Boren, the next lake that we meet.
+And after making its way across this very attractively wooded lake
+the steamer re-enters the canal at Borensberg and there begins a slow
+progression down fifteen locks in the short distance of two miles,
+a feat that, taking nearly two hours to accomplish, affords a splendid
+opportunity for walking to Vreta Abbey church situated near by. Built
+in the twelfth century, in the reign of King Charles Sverkersson, this
+old church has undergone many vicissitudes, and after being burned
+to the ground in the middle of the thirteenth century was repeatedly
+built over and even considerably altered in form and dimension. In
+1915, however, the church was restored and excavations made, in the
+course of which large parts of the old walls of the monastery building
+were brought to light and freed from the thick layer of soil that had
+covered them for centuries. Inside the Abbey are numerous graves of the
+Middle Ages, in which are treasured the relics of the old dynasties of
+the country, the most noticeable of these being the tombs of King Inge
+and his queen Helena, those of Kings Magnus Nilsson and Valdemar and
+Queen Sophia, and the well-preserved mortuary chapel in which members
+of the Douglas family lie buried. Like most of their countrymen who
+emigrated to foreign countries in the Middle Ages, the Scotch soldiers
+of fortune who came over to Sweden at various moments of her history to
+earn renown not only made good but rendered signal and distinguished
+service to the country of their adoption, there being few fields of
+activity in which they were not soon prominent.
+
+From Vreta the journey now proceeds through Lake Roxen, there
+being, however, little to detain us beyond the pleasing character
+of the scenery and the town of Linköping on the southern side of
+the lake, where a visit should be made, if time permits, to the
+thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral which has been attributed to Bishop
+Bengt, brother of the mighty Birger Jarl.
+
+Richly decorated, this old church is one of the best examples of
+fifteenth-century Gothic architecture to be found in Sweden. After
+passing Norsholm, where tourists who are pressed for time can break
+the journey and proceed to the capital by train, we then cross one of
+the most enjoyable parts of the Göta Canal, the scenery being not only
+extremely attractive but equally varied. At one moment we glide through
+a lake (Asplången) whose banks are pleasantly wooded or studded with
+picturesque country houses; at another we follow the sinuosities of a
+canal that, winding its tortuous way through a most fertile landscape
+or passing between high banks of trees whose branches sweep the
+very deck of our boat, is a revelation of what engineering can do.
+And passing lock after lock we reach Söderköping, once an important
+commercial centre and coronation city, now one of Sweden’s principal
+watering-places. Picturesquely situated almost on the shores of the
+Baltic, this town abounds in enjoyable excursions, the finest of
+these being the delightful though steep ascent that may be made of
+the heights of Ramunderhäll on the other side of the canal. An hour
+later, and as the steamer glides gently into an arm of the Baltic Sea
+at Mem, the water trip across the mainland of Sweden may be said to be
+completed, yet the remainder of the journey to Stockholm is no less
+enjoyable than that spent along the canal. We first pass the ruins of
+Stegeborg on our right, a solitary tower on the water edge dominating
+the surrounding country, which is the last remnant of a castle in which
+Gustavus I. and his son John III. are said to have passed the greater
+part of their lives. Stegeborg has had an interesting history, and by
+some authorities is declared to be of unknown antiquity, by others to
+date back to the twelfth century. All, however, agree that King Birger
+Magnusson held his court here at the beginning of the fourteenth
+century and that after his flight it underwent many vicissitudes.
+
+It was first captured by Mats Kettilmundsson, and then besieged in turn
+by Engelbrekt, Charles Knutsson VIII., Sten Sture, and Gustavus Vasa’s
+famous leader, Arvid Västgöte; the estates ultimately passing into the
+possession of certain noble families connected with the Vasa dynasty,
+only to be then dismantled and allowed to fall to rack and ruin.
+
+[Illustration: VADSTENA CASTLE, LAKE VÄTTERN]
+
+From here the steamer proceeds past Etter Sound and the deserted
+copper mine of Arvidsberg along the wooded shore of the mainland
+until the Arkö Sound is reached, when it cuts right across Bråviken
+Bay and steers north in the direction of Oxelösund, the first of
+the Archipelago lighthouses (the _Femörehufvud_ or Half-penny
+Lighthouse) being passed shortly before reaching this port. These
+lighthouses are not exceptionally striking to look at, but possess
+a lighting apparatus that is so exceptional that I am not afraid of
+wearying my readers by describing them with some detail. Around a
+petroleum flame 14 inches in diameter, whose glare is intensified by a
+powerful lens and driven by the heat generated by it, there revolves a
+rotary plate which ensures that the flame is adequately hidden at
+regular intervals from any given point, frames of coloured glass, red
+or green, in the body of the lighthouse itself but interposed between
+the flame and the outside world, causing that light to appear red or
+green according to the position in which the observer is then standing.
+This enables the position of the vessel to be correctly estimated.
+These lights are so distinct that no person who is not absolutely
+colour-blind should ever make a mistake as to their character, and
+so carefully adjusted that as you stand on one part of the deck of
+the steamer one colour is visible, while another can be observed if
+you shift your position in any appreciable degree. When the course is
+clear the light appears white. The archipelago is strewn with so many
+rocks and skerries, however, that even with the help of these splendid
+light towers the most expert navigator crossing it would be courting
+inevitable danger if to his skill was not added great local knowledge
+of the shoals and rocks lying in his course.
+
+Oxelösund itself is a very thriving industrial town possessing every
+natural advantage for the facilitation of transport both by land and
+water, in addition to being the terminus of the Flen Oxelösund railway
+and the port to which converges for transporting purposes practically
+all the iron ore mined in Central Sweden. The harbour is deep and
+capacious enough for the largest steamers, and enormous quantities of
+iron ore are shipped from here not only to other parts of the country,
+but also to Germany and Great Britain, where the high-grade Swedish
+iron is in great demand for the manufacture of heavy ordnance and
+plate armour. From this town, moreover, many delightful excursions can
+conveniently be made, especially in the direction of Norrköping.
+
+Continuing our journey, we then cruise in and out of narrow straits
+and among skerries and rocks that are at times so close that you could
+almost jump on to them from the steamer as you pass them by, there
+being one particular strait called Stendörren, or Stone Door, reached
+shortly after entering Örsbaken, that is so narrow and winding that
+only the exercise of the greatest caution and the firmest of hands
+at the helm can negotiate it successfully. From this point until
+Hållsfjärden, where the boat enters the Södertälje Canal, we then
+pass the most delightful scenery, the archipelago simply abounding
+in picturesque pine-clad islands and rocks and furnishing endless
+subjects for an artist’s canvas, while the clearness of the atmosphere
+appears to endow every object with the most exquisite colouring.
+These skerries, like those found in Bohuslän and in the Baltic around
+Stockholm, are ideal places for fishing, boating, and yachting, and
+in summer become the happy hunting-ground of numbers of Swedish men,
+women, and children, who can be seen daily yachting or darting in
+and out among the islands in those very light motor-boats that have
+become so common a feature of Swedish life of to-day. As the islands
+number many thousands, however, there are hundreds which are still
+unfrequented, this ensuring a complete absence of those unpleasant
+elements which tourists are apt to bring in their train, there being
+countless beauty spots where even the most retiring traveller is
+certain of finding peaceful solitude and oblivion from the world.
+
+After passing through Södertälje Canal—which, incidentally, is so
+narrow that even steamers as diminutive as the canal-boats belonging
+to the Göta Canal Company cannot pass one another when crossing
+it—the steamer follows the coast line of Södertörn and soon reaches
+Lake Mälar, our course now taking us eastward in the direction of
+Stockholm, through scores of channels and past even more numerous
+islands set with pine and dotted with attractive red wooden houses or
+with the more imposing stone castles of the aristocracy. The scenery
+here recalls that seen in the archipelago of the Skärgård, with the
+one distinction that the shore line that we continue to hug until we
+reach the capital is no longer uniformly pine-green in colouring, this
+typically Swedish landscape colour being now frequently splashed with
+the more genial green tints peculiar to the elm, maple, and other less
+sombre deciduous trees. A very pleasant part of the journey this last
+stage. Steaming lazily along, we first come to the island of Björkö
+(Birch Island) on our left, where Christianity was first preached in
+Sweden by Ansgarius, in whose memory a granite cross in old Gothic
+style was erected on a prominent part of the island in 1834, and then
+swinging eastward follow the coast line of Södertörn, first crossing
+the narrow Bockholm Sound (Buck Island Sound), perhaps the most
+beautiful strait in the country. On our right we notice several fine
+estates, among these the beautifully situated Sturehof Castle, and
+Norsborg with its numerous graves purporting to contain the bodies
+of old Swedish giants, while we pass several islands on our left
+concerning which interesting legends have lingered on to this day
+attesting the part which they played in the early annals of the country
+or locality. Thus Estbröte recalls the history of Johan Knutsson
+Folkunge, whom the Esthonians treacherously attacked and killed on
+his family estate of Askanäs, only in their turn to be annihilated by
+his avenging wife when they had returned to their island lair, while
+Kungshatt (King’s Hat), one of the next islands that we come to, evokes
+the days of King Erik Väderhatt. Stuck on the top of a high pole that
+is visible from any part of the straits is a large hat which this
+warrior king is supposed to have flung aside as he jumped down from
+the rocks into the lake and with his horse swam across to the opposite
+shore when escaping from his foes. Then after passing Fågelö (Bird
+Island) and the islands of Långholmen (Long Island) and Slagstaholmen,
+whose shores are lined with villas and summer residences, we obtain
+our first view of the quays of Stockholm glimmering white in the water
+and of the city itself, beautifully situated amid encircling and
+intersecting waterways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+STOCKHOLM
+
+
+Of all the capitals of Europe there are few which are more beautifully
+situated, or that have grown up by a more natural process, than
+Stockholm, and yet none that appear at first sight to have been built
+more deliberately on a site especially chosen for its beauty.
+
+Very little is known of its early history before the thirteenth
+century, except that the heathen monarchs of Svea then holding sway
+over the greater part of central Sweden erected a stronghold on one
+of a group of three islands found on the banks of the Norrström, that
+foaming stream hardly three-quarters of a mile long, which serves as
+connecting link between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic, and that around
+this fortress, originally constructed as a defence for the important
+merchant centres of Upsala and Sigtuna, a village community arose that
+was destined to become the capital of the land.
+
+It was on these three islands, and in the midst of the watercourses
+connecting Lake Mälar with the Baltic, that Duke Birger Jarl, a
+powerful chieftain who was then ruler of Sweden, elected to build
+his capital in 1255. And taking into account the way in which the
+surrounding islands were being repeatedly harassed and laid waste by
+the rovers and pirates then infesting these seas, he strongly fortified
+the site of his new city, and so made it secure from any molestation.
+
+Stockholm soon outgrew the site of Birger Jarl’s original settlement.
+First the wall which had been built around it was moved outward
+until it eventually encompassed the whole of Stadsholmen; then other
+islands were included within the city, which by the Middle Ages had
+become a typical fortified town of the age, its commerce being now
+controlled by German merchants who obeyed the ruling of the Hanseatic
+town of Lübeck. It was only under the Vasa dynasty, however, that
+Stockholm freed itself from the tutelage of the foreigner, and almost
+concurrently with the further expansion of the town, whose old wall was
+now destroyed as the city began to encroach on the mainland on its
+northern side, Norrmalm, Gustavus Vasa liberated the country from its
+Danish oppressors, broke away from Lübeck, and laid the foundations of
+Stockholm’s greatness. The seventeenth century was the Great Age of
+the new capital, and during this period the town grew so rapidly that
+it had to be laid out afresh, while her citizens made every effort and
+sacrifice to convert their city into a really splendid capital town;
+a task which, given the almost unequalled situation of Stockholm,
+afforded unlimited possibilities. The city, which then occupied more
+than a dozen islands connected one with another by bridges, now
+witnessed a period of extraordinary building activity, and with the aid
+of the great riches which the victorious Swedish armies had brought
+home from the Continent, many stately buildings were erected which were
+in the main inspired from foreign models.
+
+As was natural in an age when Italy and France exercised a supremacy
+in the world of manners, art, and architecture that was almost
+unquestioned, the ambitious city magnates turned almost exclusively to
+these two countries for their architectural ideas. In 1641 was begun
+the building of the Riddarhuset, the Assembly Hall of the nobility,
+one of the most exquisite Franco-Dutch Renaissance buildings which can
+be seen in Sweden, while towards the close of the century Nicodemus
+Tessin drew up the plans for a new late Renaissance palace which on
+its completion was acclaimed by all as Sweden’s and Tessin’s proudest
+architectural masterpiece.
+
+In the latter half of the nineteenth century, and following a period
+when architecture was at a low ebb, the city of Stockholm entered
+upon a new stage of development. The plan of the town was revised
+and numerous magnificent buildings projected which sought to create
+a purely national style of architecture as well as to make good an
+undeniable deficiency in monuments of first-rate artistic importance.
+Only during the Renaissance have municipalities or other public bodies
+expended on art and public buildings sums in any way comparable to
+those which the Stockholm municipality now lavishly began to devote
+to the embellishment of their city. In modern times it has never been
+equalled.
+
+The best way to approach Stockholm is from the sea, and the view that
+one then has of it is memorable. On the left, the southern part of
+the city rising perpendicularly from the water towers like another
+Edinburgh, while between the northern and southern sides the Old Town,
+with its many quaint Hanseatic buildings and old palaces, recalls parts
+of old Amsterdam. Dominating the whole and facing the new Stockholm is
+the imposing Royal Palace, a massive rectangular Italian Renaissance
+pile of grey stone with a central courtyard and lower wings projecting
+east and west, which many architects consider the most beautiful
+building in Scandinavia.
+
+It faces the water and the North Bridge, “Norrbro”, from which approach
+is made to it by a stately carriage drive that is called Lejonbacken
+from the two massive bronze lions that adorn it, and in its Carolean
+sternness of exterior seeks to give expression to the very spirit of
+the country and to the express wish of its royal builder, Charles XII.,
+even if the thought behind it was borrowed from Versailles, while its
+lavish interior decoration and its Gobelin tapestries evoke the days
+when strong bonds of friendship united the Royal Houses of France and
+Sweden. Its northern façade is almost entirely without decoration,
+yet strangely impressive by virtue of that very simplicity, while its
+southern façade, which, like the western, is richly decorated, has in
+its centre a triumphal arch with six massive columns, and also four
+groups of statuary in bronze, and a row of niches containing statues of
+distinguished Swedes on both sides of the entrance.
+
+The original designs of the palace were drawn up by Nicodemus Tessin
+the younger, the greatest architect which northern Europe has produced,
+but the building operations, owing to the delays inseparable from an
+almost constant state of warfare, had constantly to be suspended, with
+the result that the Royal Family was only able to move into their
+new quarters about the middle of the eighteenth century. During all
+this period, however, and in spite of the unrest and turmoil that
+characterised this age, which incidentally was almost entirely due
+to Charles XII.’s romantic and adventurous temperament, the Royal
+Family and the nation as a whole continued to manifest so absorbing
+an interest in the building of the New Palace that everything was
+done to make it really representative of the best Swedish art and art
+industries of the period, while an equal measure of love, industry,
+and discrimination was lavished on its interior decoration, of which
+Masreliez was the principal designer.
+
+Severe and solemn-looking, this massive building possesses a
+_cachet_ and beauty of its own, while it certainly gives the city
+that transforming touch without which it would hardly have the aspect
+of a capital.
+
+Not far from the Palace is the Stortorget, or Great Market, which
+is flanked by interesting old gabled houses recalling those seen in
+Dantzig. On the façade of one of these, and below the doorway on which
+the builder’s coat of arms and the year 1650 are sculptured, are a
+number of iron crosses which are said to be a relic of the famous Blood
+Bath of 1520, in which over eighty Swedish noblemen were beheaded. Each
+one of these crosses enshrines the memory of one of the noblemen who
+died as a martyr for his country.
+
+Almost everything worth seeing is found in this ancient quarter of
+Stockholm, and within easy distance from the Palace are a number of old
+churches and buildings that are among the best which Sweden possesses
+architecturally, if the island of Gothland is excepted. At the top
+of the Palace Hill is Storkyrkan, Stockholm’s oldest and principal
+church, supposed to have been founded by Birger Jarl in 1264, although
+the present building was renovated in 1736. This is an attractive
+red brick edifice in which I especially noted a somewhat ornate but
+interesting baroque pulpit in the Royal Chapel, with canopy which was
+the work of Burchardt Precht, and a group of statuary called “St.
+George and the Dragon”, the masterpiece of Bernt Notke of Lübeck,
+which commemorates the victory won over the Danes at Brunkeberg in
+1471, when Sweden was freed from her long subjection to the national
+enemy. Crossing over to Riddarholmen, the Knights’ Island (formerly
+called Gråmunkeholmen, the Grey Friars’ Isle, after the monastery of
+that order which was founded here by King Magnus Ladulås at the end
+of the thirteenth century), I see immediately facing the city between
+the bridges the old Riddarholmskyrkan (the Church of the Knights),
+originally built in 1280 by the Franciscans—a plain red brick
+three-aisled building, with a long polygonal choir and a number of
+burial chapels on its northern and southern aspects, that was built
+during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which all the great
+men of Sweden and all her kings have been buried since the reign of
+Gustavus Adolphus.
+
+Here are tombs innumerable, enclosed in exquisite chapels and
+shrines, in which are treasured the relics of the old dynasties and
+patrician families of the country, while the floor of the church is
+almost entirely paved with the gravestones of its illustrious dead.
+I found much to admire in the beautiful green marble sarcophagus of
+Gustavus Adolphus, or in the almost equally attractive crypt of the
+Bernadottes, where lie buried the departed members of the present
+dynasty; but I confess that my footsteps quickly led me to forsake
+their historical appeal after I had seen Charles XII.’s chapel, on
+the north side, a stately and pompous baroque mortuary chapel with
+sandstone columns and copper-covered cupola, in which I was shown the
+grey-black marbled sarcophagus in which the much-loved hero knight of
+the Swedish people lies buried, his head shot through and through. The
+lid of this sarcophagus is adorned with a lion’s skin, a laurel wreath
+in hammered gilt bronze, and a Hercules club; and while Nicodemus
+Tessin the younger himself was responsible for the designs, the stone
+and bronze work were executed in Holland, where the sarcophagus was
+finally completed about 1735. Among the other chapels and sarcophagi
+which abound in the Swedish Pantheon are those belonging to King
+Magnus Ladulås, the ill-starred Gustavus III., and many other kings,
+while such families as the Banérs, Lewenhaupts, and Thorstensons, all
+connected with the Great Age of Swedish history, are represented.
+
+Close by and lying almost opposite Riddarholmen in the north-west
+corner of Gamla Staden is the House of Knights, also built by Gustavus
+Adolphus, an imposing building which, in spite of some pavilions that
+were added to it in 1672 that are architecturally poor, remains a fine
+example of Franco-Dutch late Renaissance style and the most exquisite
+seventeenth-century building in Sweden.
+
+Begun in 1641 from the designs of the two brothers De La Vallée,
+the Palace contains among several finely proportioned rooms a
+very spacious ceremonial hall with a beautiful ceiling painted by
+Ehrenstrahl, on whose walls I saw displayed among other relics the
+coats of arms of nearly 3000 Swedish noble families, quite a fair
+proportion of these being of Scotch descent. Here can be seen the
+armouries of the Hamilton, Lewis, Bruce, Leslie, Stewart and Bennet
+families, descendants of the many Scotch soldiers of fortune who had
+distinguished themselves on many a Swedish battle-field, while a few
+hail from England, their ancestors having fled from that country after
+the Wars of the Roses.
+
+In no ancestral picture gallery have I felt so supremely conscious
+of the prestige and glamour inherent in long lineage as when I was
+confronted by these countless coats of arms insolently blazoning the
+privileges and eminence which their holders had won in olden times
+through superior valour or might, good fortune or statecraft. Even
+the beautifully carved ivory arm-chair occupied by the Speaker of the
+House and originally presented to Gustavus Vasa by the town of Lübeck,
+and the long rows of comfortable velvet chairs facing the Presidential
+throne, seemed to possess an air and a dignity which were quite their
+own. One felt that one was walking on almost sacred ground, and that
+the plebeian foot that would tread it unceremoniously would probably
+be seized by the spirit of the place and hurled ignominiously from
+the hallowed precincts. The Assembly of the Knights is, however, only
+a shadow of its old self, and of the original 2890 families whose
+arms are displayed in its Hall only 660 remain to-day. It has lost,
+moreover, all its right and privileges except that which its members
+still possess of being able to claim death by the sword instead of
+by the more contumelious hanging or guillotine,[2] while it now only
+meets once every three years to discuss economic affairs or to render
+help to those of its members who require financial assistance.
+
+[2] Capital punishment was abolished in Sweden in 1921, but the last
+capital execution took place long before that date.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE, STOCKHOLM]
+
+Though the Riddarhuset is consequently only a survival of an age that
+is no more, it is impossible to visit it without feeling supremely
+conscious of the sense of continuity that is bred by old institutions,
+even when, like the Assembly of Knights, they have outlived their
+utility, while in few buildings have I felt so close to the past or
+experienced a keener regret at that past being gone for ever.
+
+Old Stockholm, and especially “the City between the two bridges”,
+contains a number of old fifteenth- and sixteenth-century houses which
+remain much as they were when originally erected, but fire has swept
+this old city so many times during the past four hundred years that
+the greater part of the old timber buildings which gave distinction
+to its streets have made way for the stone and plaster structures
+of a later period. Among the interesting older buildings that were
+spared by fire in this part of the town the most noteworthy are
+the Palace of Count Bonde (the old Rådhuset) near Strömmen, and the
+house belonging to the Petersen family in Munkbron, erected in the
+middle of the seventeenth century in the Dutch style, while there are
+a number of gabled houses pointing to a later Hanseatic period in
+Västerlånggatan and Österlånggatan, two narrow and tortuous streets
+which are well worth visiting. These thoroughfares are so narrow and
+their houses so high that you feel when walking through them almost as
+if you were traversing a deep canyon, while their many windings and the
+innumerable equally crooked and narrow alleys which are continually
+crossing them have proved the downfall of these imprudent travellers
+who elect to put their trust in their own bump of locality rather
+than in a guide. The doorways of many of these houses are surmounted
+by interesting sculptured coats of arms and other decorative details
+bearing testimony to the artistic taste of these times, and there is a
+certain seventeenth-century house in Västerlånggatan, erected by the
+wealthy burgher Van Linde, whose carved portal is perhaps the finest
+and best-preserved memorial of the period to be found in Stockholm.
+
+Another characteristic of this part of the town is the number of small
+shops which indicate the nature of their calling by the quaint symbolic
+signs that are displayed over their doorways or shop fronts. Here a
+pewter pot indicates a café or beer-house, and a pair of wings topping
+a pole that is itself entwined with diminutive serpents, a bakery;
+there a maiden milking her cow suggests a dairy, and a gold pretzel
+a pastry-cook or confectioner. There appears in reality to be no end
+to the ingenuity that is shown by those tradesmen who would thus make
+known their particular craft or trade.
+
+Crossing the bridge where lies the newer Stockholm, one finds the main
+shopping centre of the capital and the more modern of its streets and
+buildings. Everything here is of an orderly symmetry that is quite
+lacking in our countries of the west, and perhaps a little monotonous.
+The shops are nearly all of uniform size and so similar in their
+outward aspect and in the style of dressing of their windows that it
+is often difficult to differentiate between them; the buildings are
+mostly austere and dignified as befits a Nordic race, but a little
+lacking in that poetry and imagery of line and wealth of architectural
+ornamentation that past standards of architecture have made us love
+and admire.
+
+All these characteristics, coupled with the fact that, compared with
+other large capitals, Stockholm is a little lacking in historic
+monuments of first-rate importance, might well predispose the casual
+observer to regard the Swedish capital mainly as a city whose only
+claim to distinction lies in its beauty of site, atmosphere, and
+accident, if it were not for the new generation of technically
+well-equipped architects who have lately grown up in the country and
+the princely patronage of art that continues to be displayed by the
+Swedish municipalities whenever the embellishment of their cities is in
+question.
+
+Of this new spirit in architecture I. G. Clason and Ferdinand Boberg,
+who is Sweden’s Norman Shaw, and more especially Carl Westman and
+Ragnar Östberg, are the leading exponents, the architecture which they
+preconise being characterised not only by certain distinctive forms
+in towers, panelling, and decorative _motifs_ often borrowed
+wholesale from Swedish scenery, but by the grouping of the chief
+decorative designs round the entrances and a happy blending of old
+Swedish forms and new western tendencies which aims at creating a
+really national style. In many of these modern buildings one notices
+a strongly marked cubic effect, while the dark-toned brick hailing
+from Skåne that is used in their construction gives them a distinction
+and individuality which mark them out among their contemporaries.
+Assuming a measure of encouragement and financial support in any degree
+comparable to that which was so lavishly extended by the municipality
+of Stockholm to the building of their new Town Hall, it would be
+astonishing if the next two or three decades do not witness a striking
+development in Swedish architecture.
+
+Almost equally visible from any part of the city, this tall and
+imposing edifice, with its mighty square bell-tower and splendid
+colonnades evoking the portico of the Doge’s Palace at Venice,
+represents all the best tendencies of the new Swedish style, while
+it seeks to reproduce in many of the details of its exterior, and
+especially in its galleries and Central Court, the old castle of
+Stockholm “Tre Kronor”. Beautifully situated at the most southerly
+point of Kungsholmen, on the shores of Lake Mälar, its building history
+is one of the most remarkable of modern times, Ragnar Östberg, its
+architect, being so determined to make it a living expression of the
+capital’s mystical individuality that its conception long remained
+an arduous one, plan after plan being devised only to be replaced by
+a better one. It has taken over ten years to build and has cost the
+municipality seventeen million crowns, Ragnar Östberg being given
+practically carte blanche in order that he might give of his best.
+Built in the form of a large rectangle, it encloses two beautiful
+courts: one the open and more severe Citizens’ Court, “Borgargården”,
+with its double portico looking out on garden and water, and its three
+gilded statues standing out from the red brick; the other the lighter
+Blue Hall with its glowing red and blue tiled walls and marble floor,
+while the tower which gives unity to the various parts of the building
+is capped by a lantern structure on top of which are the three crowns
+of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
+
+Apart from the general perfection of the building when viewed as a
+whole, which is perhaps its chief claim to distinction, the _clou_
+of the Town Hall is undoubtedly the magnificent frieze under the
+cornice, with its many beautiful gilt reliefs of distinguished citizens
+of the city, though its handsome copper cupolas, engraved with the
+names of their donors, are almost equally memorable. These cupolas,
+and also the warm Tudor-looking red brick used in the building, give
+quite a southern warmth and atmosphere to a monument that in its
+rich-hued and stately style is a reversion in part to Swedish mediæval
+modes, while it is impossible not to commend the superb fashion in
+which Ragnar Östberg has succeeded in poising what is really a massive
+edifice on the most slender and graceful of arcades without these
+appearing even slightly overweighted.
+
+Passing through the arcade into the open gardens, which look out,
+Swedish fashion, on to the water, I saw three of the twelve statues
+which Milles originally contemplated modelling of the famous men who
+have shed lustre and glory on the city of Stockholm, three powerful
+nude live studies of Strindberg, Fröding, and Josephson, representing
+drama, poetry, and painting respectively, and was informed that the
+remaining nine had never been completed, owing to the loud outcry which
+a certain section of the public had raised on the ground of morality.
+This attitude astonished me vastly, as the Swedes, of all citizens
+of the world, are perhaps those who are the least prudish without
+being too immoral. I recalled the perfectly natural way in which any
+visitor to a Swedish hotel can, if he chooses, be scrubbed and rubbed
+down after his bath by women attendants, who not only perform these
+duties most efficiently but appear to run no risk of having their
+moral equilibrium upset by the experience, or the frankly indecent
+(to some) undressed wax figures which can be seen in the shop windows
+of any fashionable Stockholm costumier, posturing in silk stocking or
+aping fashionable gestures, and can only conclude that indecency is a
+question of degree, and that two nations equally moral may have two
+entirely different standards by which to estimate morality or the lack
+of it.
+
+On returning to the central court I was shown a Madonna-looking crowned
+figure in a niche over the main entrance, which on inquiry proved to
+be that of St. Clara, a local saint, the crown having been purchased
+with a substantial money contribution sent by a schoolgirl of the town
+to Ragnar Östberg, who thought this the happiest way of recording her
+gift. After hearing this charming explanation I took the resolution
+never again to disbelieve any old legend which was equally charming. It
+is certain the world never changes.
+
+If the other modern monuments of Stockholm cannot be compared as works
+of art with Ragnar Östberg’s now famous masterpiece, there are several
+which are interesting examples of the same school of architecture,
+and others which illustrate the return to a more rational classicism
+which has only quite lately been seen among the younger generation of
+architects.
+
+Not very far from the Town Hall is the City Court, an immense
+brick edifice with a grey slurred surface and a short squat tower
+rising above the middle of the building, which is crowned by a very
+large copper hood. Almost overwhelming in its massiveness, and as
+austere-looking as the law which is daily transacted within its
+precincts, this uncommon structure aims at expressing, not only in its
+form but even in its decorative scheme, the serious purpose to which it
+was dedicated, and consequently often produces an impression of grim
+inevitableness in the mind of even those who do not pay it a visit to
+undergo trial. I must confess that I found it a little too oppressing
+for my taste, and that I derived much keener pleasure from seeing
+the pieces of equally vigorous and original, but ever so much less
+depressing, statuary by Christian Eriksson which I was shown on the
+portal and in the interior.
+
+Of the other monumental buildings belonging to the same period as
+Westman’s and Ragnar Östberg are Lallerstedt’s Technical High School,
+Grut’s Stadium, which is a happy and original application of the forms
+displayed in the old city walls of Visby, and Östermalm’s Higher State
+Secondary School for boys, perhaps the most notable of the three.
+This is a dark-red brick building with a light-red tiled roof and
+Roman vaulting, which was completed by Ragnar Östberg in 1912 in the
+hope that the precedent which he had created in constructing a school
+that no longer wore the funereal and poverty-stricken aspect hitherto
+considered an indispensable adjunct to every educational establishment,
+would inspire other architects to follow his example. Dignified, and
+possessing a certain ponderous Nordic beauty of its own, this building
+contains a finely proportioned reception hall and staircase which are
+adorned with works of art of exceptional interest; among these Milles’
+marble group entitled “Fanny and Selma”, Prince Eugen’s “The Town in
+Sunshine”, and Törneman’s “Thor’s Battle with the Giants”, this last
+picture a powerful and realistic piece of work.
+
+Typical of the latest movement, the return to classicism to which
+I have already alluded, are a number of modern buildings for whose
+exterior effects golden brown or dark grey roughcast have usually
+been selected and whose principal characteristics, apart from their
+severe and simple symmetry, lies in the often ingenious way in which
+glass and metal work have been put to new artistic effects. Houses by
+Bergsten and Asplund; the churches of Engelbrekts and Högalids, and
+lastly the New Concert Hall, the work of Tengbom, probably one of the
+finest concert halls in existence. Built to resemble a Greek temple
+and with columns that are of pure concrete (this a daring experiment),
+this striking building impresses, not by its size, which is nothing out
+of the common, but by the perfection of its acoustics, lighting, and
+other arrangements, and the originality and varied character of the
+ornamentation—even the candelabra in the vestibule being unique in
+their kind. I particularly admired some beautiful reliefs which were
+the work of Tengbom, and some equally remarkable stucco work of Olsson;
+but what pleased me even more were some little figures in stucco which
+had been designed in wet plaster by Almquist, four live pieces of
+statuary by Milles, the Swedish Epstein, in the corridor, and several
+beautifully inlaid doors in the foyer, all of these in selected Swedish
+woods.
+
+The larger of the two concert halls which are found in this building
+presents many attractive and novel features. It was opened only in
+April 1926, and while it has a seating accommodation of 1490, which is
+considerably less than that of Queen’s Hall, its lighting, stage, and
+other arrangements are perfection itself. A number of columns at the
+back of the stage, which is built in the shape of a Greek temple, give
+an impression of great space, while the lighting that has been obtained
+is so perfect that the spectator has the constant illusion of sitting
+in an open-air theatre and under a sky and setting sun that are so
+realistic that it is almost impossible for him to detect any flaw in
+the make-believe. The other concert hall is more intimate in character,
+and combines ornateness with simplicity. In both these halls I found
+a number of rows that were reserved for the deaf, and provided in
+every case with ear-trumpets. Even in Germany, that great music-loving
+country, I have never seen any theatre or concert hall that provides
+such facilities.
+
+Another sign of the times is the renewed interest that is being taken
+by the Swedes generally in Swedish peasant art and crafts, and several
+museums have been founded which attempt to give the history of Swedish
+civilisation from the earliest days to the present time. Of these the
+Nordiska, or Northern Museum, is perhaps the most interesting; it is
+certainly the most original. Early in the seventies a distinguished
+antiquarian and collector, called Arthur Hazelius, determined to form
+a collection that would be representative of every condition of life
+that had existed in the country since the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, and after many years’ patient industry and labour succeeded
+in forming a collection that as a record of the various stages of
+civilisation which the country went through is unsurpassed in any part
+of the world, many foreign experts holding the view that the clever
+manner in which the exhibits are displayed to the general public might
+with advantage be copied in other countries. In one of the largest
+halls is found the Swedish Royal Armoury, which contains almost as fine
+a collection of old and modern weapons as the Spanish collection in
+Madrid. I saw many flags and banners which had been captured from the
+Russians, Germans, Saxons, Danes and Austrians, and also swords and
+suits of armour which had once been worn by famous Swedish warriors;
+among these was the armour of Gustavus Adolphus, the sword and pistols
+which he carried at the battle of Lützen, and the shirt riddled with
+bullets that he wore in his last battle. The Museum also possesses
+many well-preserved cannon, rifles, and even a mitrailleuse which is
+said to have been invented during the reign of Charles XII., while
+its annexe, the equally celebrated open-air museum of Skansen, also
+a creation of Hazelius, presents scenes typifying Sweden’s life in
+the past and present, and affords the most comprehensive study of old
+Swedish architectural modes and of the life and customs of the varied
+elements constituting the Swedish nation that can be found anywhere.
+Here may be seen many wild and tame animals indigenous to the soil, and
+a number of wooden houses of varied architecture, which have either
+been transported _en bloc_ from their original resting-places
+or constructed on the spot according to plan. Two-storied houses
+from Dalecarlia or turf-roofed stone cabins from Jämshög, these last
+representing a very common type of dwelling among labourers in parts of
+north-eastern Scania; curious-looking straw-roofed four-sided farms
+from Oktorp, or farmyards from Ravlunda covered over with thatched
+roofs and with woven brushwood end-walls; cabins of forest dwellers or
+old mediæval wooden churches, some of these with decorative slatted
+church steeples; pyramidal huts from Lapland, or sepulchral and runic
+monuments. All these are found at Skansen with all the indispensable
+appurtenances of peasant life and inhabited, moreover, by people who
+have either been imported to give the necessary atmosphere or been
+induced to transport their very homes with all their chattels and
+household gods to the wooded plateau in the Djurgården (Deer Park)
+for a financial consideration. I paid a visit to several of these
+attractive peasant dwellings and found them all stocked with old
+implements, vessels, and antique furniture, and was particularly
+impressed by their wall decorations, which in many instances were
+painted direct on the whitewashed wall timbers. Like those which I
+have seen in Dalecarlia, they usually represented scenes from the
+Scriptures, or country scenes that were enclosed in decorated frames
+in rococo, probably after the prototypes of old copper-plate prints.
+If these peasant buildings are not as flamboyantly picturesque as the
+wooden buildings of Norway, they are in their way even more attractive.
+
+Of the many other collections and museums that abound in the city
+only the National Museum, an unattractive building just facing the
+Royal Palace, presents any particular interest. It contains a large
+collection of Scandinavian antiquities and is especially rich in
+objects of the Bronze Age, many of these having been made in Sweden
+over a thousand years before Christ. I was shown jewellery and arms
+that dated from the age of Beowulf, and a beautifully ornamented
+statue of Thomas à Becket dating from the fourteenth century which
+is one of its most cherished art treasures, while the museum, in
+addition to its ceramic sculpture and archæological collections, has
+a picture gallery that is particularly rich in examples of the older
+Dutch masters. Not only Rubens but also Van Dyck (A.), Jordaens, and
+Rembrandt are represented here, the last-named by a striking picture
+entitled “Claudius Civilis,” which was originally painted for the Town
+Hall in Amsterdam in 1662, while I also saw one or two good Cranachs
+and old French masters. The more modern painters include several fine
+Corots, Delacroix, Manets, and an Orpen (a picture of himself painted
+as a jockey), while the modern Swedish school is represented by Zorn
+(painter of portraits), Liljefors, the most powerful Swedish painter
+of animals to-day, Prince Eugen (landscapes), Milles (sculpture),
+Lafiensen (miniaturist), Cederström (the Swedish Detaille), and Carl
+Larsson, whose large _al fresco_ paintings in the vestibule of the
+Museum long held my attention.
+
+[Illustration: DROTTNINGHOLM PALACE, STOCKHOLM]
+
+One of the principal attractions of Stockholm, and the one which
+perhaps lends it its greatest charm, is the system of waterways which
+gives it all the picturesque glamour of an important port. It matters
+little whether the traveller has visited the city once or many times;
+he will rarely tire of loitering amid its many pleasant quays or docks,
+or of watching the rapid ebb and flow of a traffic that is as varied as
+it is picturesque.
+
+Here is the daily market which lies on the very water edge behind
+the royal palace, where the market people can be seen coming by
+boat, tram, or cart to sell their wares; here the docks that are
+frequented by those hundreds of diminutive steamers which maintain
+constant communication between the islands of the Skärgård and the
+metropolis; here the quays where the larger steamers and also the fuel
+and timber boats are berthed, or those past Kastellholmen and near
+Djurgårdsstaden, under whose shelter the great ice-breaking steamers
+lie moored during the summer months. Plying the swiftly flowing waters
+are vessels of every kind, from the tiny ferries, that for a few öre
+will carry you across a strait, to the large looming ships whose very
+lines are redolent with weight and power, while scores of barges
+with high castles apoop are passing through the locks, and wooden
+ships whose graceful lines evoke a time when poetry of motion was not
+confined to pleasure yachts are discharging their cargoes in the very
+centre of the old town. Follow this pleasant shore line where you will
+and you will find an abundance of things to engage and captivate your
+attention, and everywhere you meet something that carries with it a
+subtle suggestion of that remoter Sweden which lies to the north and
+south of the capital.
+
+At least half if not more of the feeling of beauty that is inherent in
+Stockholm lies in the many associations that are evoked in the mind
+by these waterways, and they are always equally beautiful, whether
+one sees them in the early morning as the white skerry steamers are
+speeding out to sea or casting their mooring lines over the stately
+stone stanchions which border the stream, or if viewed in the evening
+when thousands of lights along the shore and from the boats are
+throwing shafts and pools of glimmering brilliance on their dark
+waters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SKERRIES OF STOCKHOLM
+
+
+Interspersed here and there among the countless waterways of
+Stockholm’s Skärgård, and interposing between it and the Baltic, are
+some twelve to thirteen hundred islands, many splendidly wooded, others
+mere rocks, on which the good citizens of the capital have built their
+summer residences. Islands of every conceivable shape and size, some
+uninhabited, the others with picturesque villas and cottages nestling
+among the pines and rocks. A scenery that is typical of Swedish
+landscape at its best with grey-green hilly country on the mainland
+covered here and there with fir and birch and flecked with white or
+even vivid vermilion houses, and pleasant little emerald-green islands,
+among which a vast flotilla of diminutive small steamers are darting to
+and fro, as they link up the many villages and summer residences to the
+capital.
+
+[Illustration: ISLANDS IN THE BALTIC, NEAR STOCKHOLM]
+
+It is from the Stream, the pulsating centre of Stockholm, where large
+vessels come up from the Baltic to dock on the very city street, that
+a passage can be taken on one of those many little passenger steamers
+that cruise about the picturesque littoral of the Skärgård; and whether
+one embarks on a ship whose destination is some locality famous in
+Swedish history or selects haphazard the boat that is to convey you
+east or west, the journey that is taken is worth while, since every
+steamer route that radiates from Stockholm is one of charm and beauty.
+
+Of the many interesting excursions which can thus be made by water from
+Stockholm there are several which should obtain precedence whenever the
+time that can be devoted to them is limited. And taking those which
+can be made in an easterly direction, the first that I would select is
+undoubtedly Saltsjöbaden, the most fashionable watering-place of the
+capital. Here on a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Skärgård
+and along a circular bay luxuriously wooded, commanding views on the
+surrounding islands that are memorable, are large hotels and stately
+villas set in beautiful grounds; an excellent restaurant greatly
+patronised by the gay and fashionable in which late dancing is a
+characteristic feature, and swimming pavilions in which the merchant
+and middle classes of the capital spend their summer months bathing,
+fishing, or boating. Saltsjöbaden is undoubtedly an attractive resort,
+yet what endeared it to me, even more than its charm and animation or
+the beauty of its setting, was the opportunity which it afforded me
+of seeing the city of Stockholm at midnight as we returned to it by
+the watercourses that have given it its unique character. Bathed in
+moonlight and illumined by myriad yellow points of fire whose gleams
+were mirrored in the waters of the Ström, the city seemed transfigured,
+almost unrecognisable, like one of those magic towns that you see in
+dreams. If I remember nothing else about Sweden, I shall remember that
+experience as long as I live.
+
+Of the other beautiful excursions that may be made in the direction of
+the Baltic from the City of Bridges there are two or three which are
+almost equally attractive.
+
+To the south-east of Stockholm is Gustafsberg, a journey of nearly two
+hours through countless watercourses and past many winding canals and
+the large fjord of Baggensfjärden. Gustafsberg, which is beautifully
+situated on Värmdö, the largest island in the archipelago, has the
+oldest and most renowned pottery and china factories to be found in
+Sweden. Inland, and only a short distance from Stockholm, of which
+it was formerly the oldest and most important suburb, is Djursholm,
+now an independent city. Beautifully situated in North Värtan on
+pretty undulating ground among groves of fine oak trees, it is a
+picturesque little town which is in winter a great centre of skating
+and ice-yachting. It formerly belonged to the Banér family, whose old
+palace is still to be seen in a restored condition. Equally distant
+from the capital is Vaxholm, another well-known but less fashionable
+watering-place. A little fishing town of fifteen hundred people
+with several restaurants and hotels, it is patronised largely by
+Swedish-Americans, and is the Mecca of motor-boats and small yachts.
+The old fortress of Vaxholm stands on the foreground on a small island
+in the little Sound two hundred yards from the shore. Built by Gustavus
+Vasa in the middle of the sixteenth century, it has been the scene of
+many historic events and has for centuries guarded the approach to the
+capital.
+
+If the excursions that can be made in a westerly direction from
+Stockholm are not as numerous as those that abound in the Skärgård,
+they certainly make up qualitatively for their quantitative
+deficiencies; and within easy distance from the capital are two
+historic old castles and a city whose historic tombs and monuments
+single out among their fellows.
+
+Five miles from Kungsholmen, and facing Lake Mälar, is Drottningholm,
+a royal castle built in the French style after the designs of the two
+Tessins, father and son, by the old Dowager Queen of Sweden, Hedvig
+Eleonora, the wife of Charles X., in the seventeenth century, which is
+perhaps “the most comprehensive and perfect picture of what Sweden’s
+period of greatness could produce in the field of art”. The main part
+of the building was erected in the decade beginning 1660 by Nicodemus
+Tessin the elder, but remained unfinished till the beginning of the
+next century, when under the active supervision of the old Queen
+it rapidly took on its present form, Nicodemus Tessin the younger
+being responsible for the greater part of the designs. And as in the
+case of the royal castle in the capital, no effort was spared and no
+expenditure thought too great to make the new royal residence worthy
+of the pre-eminence which had been attained by Swedish leadership and
+Swedish armies in the allied fields of diplomacy and war.
+
+Before laying out the park, Nicodemus Tessin the younger made a special
+journey to Versailles to receive instruction in the formal French
+school of gardening from the celebrated Lenotre, Louis XIV.’s garden
+architect, while the staircase, hall and interior were decorated with a
+magnificence hitherto unknown in Sweden.
+
+French influence was at that time strongly marked, French standards
+in furniture and architecture generally predominating; and though
+the Swedes were unable to reproduce all the lightness and elegance
+characterising French house decorations and furniture, they succeeded
+on this occasion in giving their country a royal residence whose
+magnificence almost equalled that of the château of Versailles. The
+furniture which I saw in many of the apartments belonged to the Louis
+XIV. period, with ancient chair coverings, many of these hand-painted
+and in an admirable state of preservation, while the interior, which
+has lately been restored by the best Swedish art experts, is equally
+pleasing. Drottningholm contains many valuable tapestries, paintings,
+and works of art and at least two rooms that are in themselves worth a
+special visit.
+
+Designed by Nicodemus Tessin the younger, who in this instance worked
+in collaboration with Burchardt Precht, the celebrated wood carver,
+Queen Hedvig Eleonara’s bedroom, if a little pompous and over-ornate,
+is decorated with such magnificence that it never fails to extort
+admiration from even those who usually prefer a more simple and sedate
+ornamentation. Profusely adorned with wood carvings, its ceiling and
+walls are set in with paintings by Ehrenstrahl, while it forms a
+complete architectural composition, in which the Queen’s very ornate
+state bed high on an estrade behind high Ionic gilded columns acts as
+unifying centre.
+
+The other room, Queen Louisa Ulrika’s Library, belongs to a later
+period and was executed by the celebrated Swedish cabinet-maker Jean
+Erik Rehn, the founder of the Gustavian Swedish Louis XVI. style.
+Artistically designed and combining ornateness with simplicity, this
+room possesses one of the most artistic interiors which I have seen
+in Sweden, and is in every way worthy of the great name that this
+artist won for himself in the second half of the eighteenth century,
+as pioneer of Swedish art industry, while it certainly bears out the
+words that Tessin engraved, not only in this library, but over one of
+his frescoes in the National Museum of Stockholm, that “By art the
+senses were attuned to mildness and harshness put to flight”. If these
+words faithfully reflect the cultural tendencies of the eighteenth
+century, then certainly Rehn was successful in his aim.
+
+Fifty yards from the Castle and built in the years 1764-1766 for King
+Adolph Frederick, by the Court architect Adelcrantz, is a theatre whose
+collection of theatre costumes and stage _décors_ is perhaps
+unique in the world. This theatre was used for theatrical performances
+during the reign of Gustavus III., but at his death in 1792 was
+converted into a lumber room, in which condition it remained until 1922
+when it was restored to its original state.
+
+The interior is a beautiful example of a style that is a blend of the
+Swedish Gustavian and rococo, and while the auditorium is comparatively
+small, as befits a theatre that was only intended for the Royal Family,
+the Court and their invited guests, the stage, which was decorated by
+Masreliez during the seventeenth century, is unusually deep even for
+the present day (about twenty-two yards), and provided with a set of
+machinery and _décors_ that are of extraordinary interest from
+the artistic and scenic points of view. Both stage and auditorium
+are practically in the same condition as they were in the eighteenth
+century, and even the footlights of that time have been preserved
+and are still in use. The stage mechanism is in perfect working
+order, and there are no less than thirty scenic decorations which are
+of engrossing interest for the light which they cast on the stage
+decorative art of the old regime. Among the stage properties which
+date from that time I noticed, in addition to some of the original
+footlights and a clavecin that could still be played upon, many
+quaint fire appliances and stage weapons such as hatchets, swords, and
+Hercules clubs, as well as the tail and head of a Viking ship which had
+been found in a neighbouring pond.
+
+[Illustration: GRIPSHOLM CASTLE, NEAR STOCKHOLM]
+
+The auditorium, which like the stage has been left untouched, contains
+many attractive cut-glass chandeliers and wall brackets which,
+originally adapted for wax candles, have now been wired for electric
+light, as well as the carefully preserved place-marks which used to
+indicate the seat which every guest was to occupy. The first row
+appears to have been reserved to the Royal Family, the Court and
+diplomatic world; and behind, those of minor degree were seated, from
+the King’s body-guard to his second valets or barbers. As was usual in
+the eighteenth century, the royal party and their invited guests always
+retired for supper to the foyer after the performance, while the ladies
+and gentlemen of the Court strolled or waited about in the top gallery,
+in case their presence should be required by their august masters.
+
+In the rooms adjoining the theatre are several interesting collections
+of pictures and costumes illustrating the history of scenic art from
+mediæval times to the age of Gustavus III. I was shown a number of
+particularly beautiful costume sketches by Primaticcio which had been
+designed for a fête given at the Court of King Francis I. of France,
+and also some original sketches by Desprez, the chief stage painter
+of Gustavus III., and a series of rare Italian and French theatrical
+designs dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which
+undoubtedly constitute invaluable material for the student of stage
+history, yet the clou of the whole collection, in my opinion, lies in
+the exquisite little model theatre which I found relegated in one of
+the smaller rooms. Designed by Tessin some time before the theatre had
+been completed, this little gem reveals this artist at his best and is
+in every sense admirable.
+
+Picturesquely situated on the most southerly shore of Lake Mälar near
+the small town of Mariefred, and within three hours by steamer from the
+capital, is the mighty brick-built fortress of Gripsholm, historically
+and romantically perhaps the finest castle in the whole of Sweden. It
+was originally built by a knight called Bo Jonsson Grip, who was the
+most powerful subject of his time, and was named after the grip or
+griffin which he bore as his arms.
+
+Mirroring its huge tower-crowned walls in the placid waters of
+Mälarviken, this castle embodies in every line the rugged strength of
+its founder, while nowhere in Sweden have I seen an edifice which,
+in its solitary grandeur, stately aloofness from the world and
+picturesqueness of situation, is more pervaded by the atmosphere of the
+remote days when Gustavus Vasa and his successors were carving a nation
+out of chaos and paving the way for the prosperity that was to follow.
+Here Gustavus planned and organised the machinery that was destined
+to bring an almost unparalleled prosperity to his country, and here
+in turn his two sons, Erik and Johan, kept each other prisoner, Erik
+dying ultimately in another prison at Örbyhus in 1577. For centuries,
+in fact, there was little of national importance that was not
+transacted in Gripsholm; and if it had a chequered history, its days of
+glory more than adequately compensated, its heyday probably coinciding
+with the reign of Gustavus III., during the time this monarch was
+expending vast sums in adorning its halls with beautiful frescoes and
+decorations. On the 29th of March 1809, moreover, it was the scene of
+the abdication of Gustavus IV. Adolphus.
+
+The castle has been restored so often, however, that only in portions
+of its exterior and interior does it really date back to the time
+of its founder, while many rooms have been wainscoted and illumined
+with coloured woods and frescoes in order to house the portraits of
+the kings, queens and famous men who contributed to the history of
+the last three centuries. The collection of royal paintings which
+has thus been formed is consequently of unique character, while the
+stately proportions of those parts of the building which have remained
+unchanged since the sixteenth century enable us to imagine what a
+princely effect the whole must have presented when its walls were hung
+with damask and filled with masterpieces of art. As all the rooms
+contain, moreover, many pieces of the original furniture which were
+used by Gustavus Vasa and his successors, it is easy to reconstruct
+in one’s mind the manner in which Swedish royalty lived in those
+remote days. Of the oldest portions of the castle no room impressed
+me more than the one in which lived Duke Charles of Södermanland, the
+younger brother of Princes Erik and Johan, and which is supposed to
+have been fitted up by him as far back as 1596. Practically unchanged
+from those early days, it is an interesting example of an interior of
+the sixteenth century, and while its woodwork is pure Renaissance,
+though very simple in character, the paintings adorning its walls and
+ceilings are by Hans, a painter who hails from the town of Strängnäs,
+the capital of Charles’ duchy. In all the older rooms I noticed window
+recesses which were so long and narrow that they formed almost a
+corridor, the thickness of the walls (usually five to eight or even ten
+feet) often making such recesses a necessity.
+
+[Illustration: THE KINGS’ MOUNDS, UPSALA]
+
+Lying north of the lake and picturesquely situated on the banks of the
+river Fyris is the old town of Upsala, the residence of the Archbishop
+of Sweden and the oldest and most important university town in the
+country. It can be reached in less than five hours by the waterways
+of Lake Mälar or in one hour by train from Stockholm, though a stop
+should certainly be made on the way to it at Skokloster, if only to
+visit the magnificent turreted castle that lies on the forested fringe
+of Lake Mälar. This imposing edifice, which was erected in 1649 on
+the very site of a mediæval monastery which Gustavus Adolphus once
+presented to one of his generals, contains valuable collections of
+furniture, portraits, tapestries and arms which illustrate the Thirty
+Years’ War, its collection of old weapons being probably the largest
+private collection to be found in Europe. Upsala, in addition to
+being a celebrated university town, is also a city that presents many
+attractive features from the antiquarian and artistic points of view.
+A few minutes’ drive from the centre of the town brings you to Old
+Upsala, which was the seat of the early pagan monarchs of the country,
+and here to this day are to be seen tumuli of three kings, the Mounds
+of Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Excavations made during the second half of
+the nineteenth century in the mounds of the first two have brought to
+light remains of charred bodies as well as many gold ornaments, which
+conclusively prove that Odin and Thor were buried here about five
+centuries before the Christian era, while similar excavations made as
+early as the seventeenth century on the alleged site of Upsala Temple,
+the great holy place of the Svea race (as Swedes were once called),
+unearthed bones of horses and ravens that had once been offered by the
+Svea people as expiatory offerings to Freyr, the god of yearly crops.
+Here was held the Witan of the Sveas, when, with great clanging and
+clashing of swords and shields, their leaders would debate and decide
+the wars that they would wage; and here too, not only men and animals
+were offered up to Freyr, but even kings if times were bad or pests
+came to lay waste the land or deplete the nation of its fighting men.
+
+Upsala itself is a pleasant and picturesque town which, if a little
+marred architecturally by the unnecessary restorations that have been
+made to its old Cathedral, the largest church in Sweden, presents many
+attractive and beautiful features. On the highest point of the town
+stands the castle, a huge red-bricked building with two round towers
+erected by Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century, which dominates
+not only the city but also the surrounding countryside, while other
+buildings which are worthy of notice include the somewhat severe but
+attractive neo-classical University Library called Carolina Rediviva,
+the dome-covered building Gustavianum, and Deprez’ Orangery in the
+Botanical Gardens, which was opened in 1807 during the centenary
+celebration of Linnaeus’ birthday. There are also a number of old
+bridges on the river Fyris which have not been replaced by modern ones,
+while the town has generally an old-world atmosphere which predisposes
+the traveller and student to regard it with friendly eyes. Though
+lacking in the architectural beauty that has given Oxford such an
+unique position among the universities of the world, Upsala possesses a
+tradition that is almost as venerated among Swedish students as Oxford
+is among Englishmen.
+
+As will be seen, therefore, there are few capitals that have at their
+doors surroundings more picturesque or more easily accessible than
+Stockholm, the combination of attractions that it affords to the
+traveller, its beautiful site and historic associations, its old-world
+buildings and sparkling waterways being unsurpassed anywhere. There
+is but one thing lacking to the Swedish capital, and that is cheap,
+good accommodation. The town is almost entirely bereft of hotels that
+are both good and inexpensive, and its charm would be immeasurably
+increased by their presence. Many commodities, too, are far dearer
+than in England. Cigarettes, shoes and articles of clothing cost
+nearly twice as much as in London, while whisky and wine are almost
+prohibitive, an ordinary whisky costing as much as one shilling and
+sixpence and being unobtainable if you do not take food with it, though
+in fairness I must add that the quality of the wine, and especially
+the Burgundy, that may be bought in the best hotels is exceptional.
+The best hotel in the capital is the Grand Royal, and while there are
+others that are also first-class there are none which possess as good
+a cuisine; its dining-hall, moreover, being one of the finest in the
+world. The tables are arranged on two sides of a court in the centre
+of what was the old Royal Hotel, and under the high glass roof there
+is a lawn of perpetually green grass with a fountain in the centre and
+flower-beds, palm trees, and shrubs. Sometimes tables are set out on
+the grass. One side of the court is fashioned to represent the tower of
+an old royal castle.
+
+[Illustration: TIMBER ON THE RIVER ÅNGERMAN, HARNÖSAND]
+
+It would be ungracious, however, to insist on a single defect in a spot
+so rich in varied beauties, and throughout the north of Europe it
+would be difficult to find a town so full of attractions as the Swedish
+capital. At the same time the intending visitor will do well to choose
+his time for seeing it. The pleasantest time to visit it is undoubtedly
+June, before the Swedes take their yearly holiday; but in winter, as I
+will show in a subsequent chapter, it may also be seen to advantage,
+the thermometer being usually so low and the sun’s rays so ineffective,
+that winter sports can be practised almost continuously for several
+months of each year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+GOTHLAND
+
+
+Scarcely more than fifty miles from the Swedish mainland, with which
+communication is maintained by comfortably appointed steamers which
+run daily from Nynäshamn, and boasting a mild and delightful climate,
+is an island whose history reads like a romance, and whose many relics
+of a prehistoric culture mark it out among all time. Forgotten by the
+world of commerce and almost unknown to the present-day tourist, the
+town of Visby, capital of the island of Gothland, was once an important
+commercial centre, the splendour of its churches, merchant houses
+and town walls evidencing great wealth, and bearing witness to the
+artistic imagination of Swedish master-masons and builders. And as you
+steam into its harbour you see a city which for picturesque beauty has
+few rivals in the world: tall, graceful spires and city walls built
+on natural rock terraces, whose rugged outline of masonry appear to
+have been fashioned by a giant of fable, and a coast-line which seems
+to rise up in one single sheer cliff, or in terraces with yellow or
+blue-grey rocks that tower like mighty ramparts against the sea.
+
+It is not known when the first city of Visby was built, but
+archæologists tell us that there was a town on the present site more
+than 2000 years before Christ, and only a few years ago men digging in
+the market-place near the ruins of St. Catherine’s Church found large
+blocks of stone, and under these the ruins of another town, evidently
+of the Stone Age.
+
+Long before Visby was born, however, Gothland was already an island
+empire and occupied a position in the trade of the Baltic identical to
+that occupied by Rhodes or Crete in the Mediterranean.
+
+Of this old Visby we have little record apart from a mention that
+is made of it by the Guta Saga when relating certain incidents that
+occurred in Gothland during the tenth century, at the time Christianity
+was first introduced into the island.
+
+“When the Gothlanders were heathen,” the Saga says, “they sailed
+with cargoes to every land, both Christian and heathen. Then saw
+the merchants Christian ways in Christian lands, some of them being
+baptized and even bringing back priests with them to Gothland. Bothair
+of Akeback built a church on the place now called Külstade. But as the
+people of the island would not suffer the church but set fire to it
+and burned it, he built yet another with feasts and sacrifices at Vi,
+which when the people also tried to burn, he climbed upon and said:
+‘If ye will burn the church, then shall ye burn me also’. This the
+people would not do, as Bothair had as wife the daughter of Likkair
+Snälle, who was their ruler at that time, and Likkair enjoined them
+not to do this deed. Whereupon the church was left to stand unburned.
+It was built in the name of All Saints on the place that is now called
+Peter’s Church, and was the first church in Gothland which was left to
+stand....”
+
+Vi means place of sacrifice, and Visby means therefore village by the
+place of sacrifice, it being evident that the village must even before
+this period have enjoyed a certain importance as a religious centre for
+a larger or smaller portion of the island population, its inhabitants
+being the ancestors of those Teutonic races which fifteen hundred years
+ago overthrew the might of imperial Rome and revolutionised the world.
+That Gothland was even then a sea power of considerable importance
+is proved by the vast treasures in gold and silver which have been
+unearthed in the island, and many of the gold coins which have been
+found are minted with the profiles of Greek emperors or inscribed in
+Roman or Arabic, this evidence showing that the Goths were as adept
+in the arts of commerce as they were in those of war. Gothland was
+inhabited by a race of bold sea rovers and traders, who sailed down
+the rivers of Russia, carrying far and wide their cargoes of pitch,
+tar, limestone, and salt, the products of their island. Marauding and
+looting as they went, they were hardly welcome guests in the countries
+which they visited, and accordingly, not only were able to exchange
+or barter their cargoes most profitably for the precious wares, furs,
+skins, and honey of Russia, and the woven fabrics, spices, food-stuffs,
+and silver ware of the east, but also returned home, their war chests
+well replenished with the gold and silver tribute which their unwilling
+hosts had paid to rid themselves of their importunate presence.
+
+Of the treasures thus accumulated, part was melted down and fashioned
+into ornaments and vessels, and part was buried in hiding-places
+in the island, only a small proportion having so far come into the
+possession of archæologists. Of the many tens of thousands of coins
+which have been discovered more than half have been dug up in Gothland,
+the majority of these being of Arabian, Greek, or Roman origin, and the
+remainder of Saxon, Rhine and South German, Turkish, Polish, and even
+Hungarian extraction. Of the English coins many date from the reigns of
+Kings Edgar and Ethelred, and the Cyfic or Arabian coins, of which over
+25,000 have been discovered, were brought from the Caspian Sea during
+the eighth and ninth centuries; they were struck principally at Cufa on
+the Tigranes. As a Chinese cup and a shell from the Indian Ocean have,
+moreover, also been found in graves not far from Visby, it is clear
+that the light Viking barques which set sail periodically from this
+northern island carried out far-reaching and extensive expeditions to
+most parts of the world, and that Gothland can therefore justifiably
+claim to have possessed a prosperity which in its own time unfolded
+itself in almost fabulous splendour.
+
+Of the early history of the island we have, unfortunately, apart from
+what archæology teaches us, nothing but the most hazy traditions,
+though the Guta Saga of the thirteenth century tells us that when
+the population of Gothland reached a certain figure one-third of the
+inhabitants was selected by lot and bidden to leave the country with
+all their goods and chattels. “Then were these loth to go,” so the Saga
+writes, “but went they to Thor’s stronghold and lived there. Then would
+the country not suffer them there but drove them thence. Then went they
+forth to Fårö and remained there a time. Even there, however, they were
+not permitted to remain but went out to an island near Esthonia called
+Dagö, where they lived and built a stronghold for themselves which is
+still to be seen. Also there they were unable to subsist, but went by
+water called Düna up through Russia. And they proceeded so far that
+they finally came to Greece, where they lived until now and still speak
+in a tongue somewhat similar to our own.”
+
+There is a hill which is called Torsburgen (Thor’s stronghold), on
+which one can still see the remains of the castle where the banished
+men of Gothland made their last stand against their countrymen. The
+mountain is broad—a huge plateau which is crowned by a forest; and
+so steep that on three sides of it, it is almost unscaleable. On the
+fourth, approach to it is barred by mighty mile-long walls constructed
+of rough boulders, which represent so prodigious an amount of labour,
+with their hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of stone, that the
+mind is almost staggered by it. In the middle of the forest lies the
+castle of Thor, where the last desperate remnant of the rebels made
+their final stand before being overpowered by force of numbers, a mass
+of fallen stones and boulders and crumbling walls, most of which have
+fallen, testifying to the homeric age of which we possess so little
+record. When these incidents took place we do not know. We have,
+however, been able to estimate that as early as the sixth century
+before Christ at the beginning of the Iron Age, the inhabitants of
+Gothland began to migrate to other countries, the climate of the island
+having suddenly and rapidly become exceedingly cold, and that by the
+third century before Christ the island had become almost entirely
+depopulated. During the next centuries, however, the population
+increased so rapidly that when the Great Migration took place, Gothland
+was able to send thousands of Viking auxiliaries to swell the ranks of
+the mighty armies that were marching south to make a mass attack on
+the Roman Empire.
+
+[Illustration: KALMAR CASTLE]
+
+The Great Age of Gothland did not, however, begin till the twelfth
+century, by which time the commercial supremacy of the island had
+become so firmly established that not only the northern states of
+Europe, but even England, began to adopt the sea laws and coinage
+of the enterprising Gothlanders, while the greater part of the more
+lucrative trade of northern Europe passed into their hands. The old
+steel-yard in London near Blackfriars Bridge was the yard of the
+Gothland merchants where they stored their iron and steel merchandise,
+while merchants from the island are mentioned as purveyors of miniver
+and wax to Henry III. of England. Soon Visby began definitely to take
+up its place as the leading commercial settlement of Gothland, while
+many foreign merchants settled in the town in the hope of rivalling
+the prosperity of the native traders, the Germans coming in such
+numbers that at one time more than half the town council and two of
+the principal magistrates belonged to that nationality. In 1163 Henry
+the Lion, Duke of Lübeck, granted the merchants of Gothland peaceful
+entry into his land and extensive trading privileges on condition that
+his subjects enjoyed similar rights and immunities in theirs, while a
+similar trade alliance was gradually signed between Visby and no less
+than thirty other cities which was ultimately to lead to the formation
+of the Hanseatic League.
+
+There is no doubt that these were halcyon days for Visby, and that
+owing to its position as foremost commercial power in the north it
+was able to exercise an authority and prestige in the Councils of the
+League that made it almost the sole arbiter of its destinies, while its
+wealth was so fabulous that, as an old ballad ran:
+
+  The Gothlanders weighed gold with twenty-pound weights
+  And played with the rarest gems;
+  The pigs ate out of silver troughs,
+  And the women spun with distaffs of gold.
+
+To guard against attack, imposing walls were constructed around the
+city built on natural rock terraces which soon converted Visby into one
+of the strongest fortresses of the age, while it began to rival the
+finest towns in Europe in the splendour of its churches, public and
+private buildings, and the wealth of its merchant princes.
+
+This being the case, it was no wonder that the city soon began to
+attract the cupidity of kings and pirates, and that during these
+centuries there were many occasions on which her burghers were called
+upon to defend their city, though the time was to come when even her
+massive walls and the staunch hearts of her defenders proved inadequate
+to ward off attack. Her decline and fall began as soon as internecine
+strife arose between her citizens and those of the countryside, and
+when open warfare arose between the two camps owing to the resentment
+that was felt by the country merchants against those of the town for
+claiming the exclusive right to the commerce of the island, her fate
+was really sealed. In the spring of 1288 the peasant merchants took up
+arms and marched on Visby, the war that ensued proving so indecisive
+that King Magnus, who had hitherto exercised a purely nominal
+suzerainship on the island, was encouraged to interfere. He invaded it
+with a powerful army, put an end to the war, and converted Gothland
+into a Swedish province after suppressing all its privileges and
+exemptions from taxation. This curtailment of her liberties, coupled
+with the displacement of commercial routes owing to the crusades,
+the rapid rise of Lübeck as mistress of the Baltic, and the further
+wars that were waged against her, hastened the downfall of the city,
+though she continued for a time to mint her own coinage and even to
+oppose successfully (in 1313) by force of arms the attempts made by
+Swedish and other kings to extort fresh taxation from her coffers or
+gain possession of her citadel. Then misfortunes began to crowd in
+upon the town. Smaller and smaller became its commerce, and thinner
+and thinner the streams of silver that poured in from the lands beyond
+the sea, while bitterly cold winters and dry summers came with cattle
+pests and plagues which mowed down rich and poor alike, the dead and
+dying lying in street or square uncared for, polluting the air. Then
+finally the end in 1361, when Valdemar, King of the Danes, determined
+to take possession of Visby and of what still remained of its wealth.
+Landing at Västergarn, where a few hundred peasants who offered
+resistance were defeated, he advanced upon the town between burning
+homesteads, and after slaughtering 1800 peasants who fought to the
+last in defence of the capital, entered the city. Whether or not the
+legend is true according to which the burgomaster’s daughter fell in
+love with the Danish king and delivered up to him the key of the town,
+or that other legend which relates that Valdemar was admitted into
+the city through a breach made by the burghers themselves in the hope
+of so gaining the whole commerce of the island, now that their rural
+competitors had been wiped out, the fact remains that Valdemar looted
+the town in spite of its unconditional surrender and compelled the
+authorities to hand him over three hogsheads filled with gold, silver,
+and precious stones.
+
+[Illustration: RUINS OF BORGHOLM CASTLE, ÖLAND]
+
+In the church of St. Nicholas are two sightless rose windows, each
+of which, so a legend tells us, contained a carbuncle so large and
+luminous that it served as a beacon to mariners as they steered their
+vessels into Visby Harbour. And these King Valdemar carried away with
+him when returning home with his booty, only to encounter a storm off
+the coast of Gothland, when every ship foundered. To this day the
+inhabitants of the island declare that when the sea is calm they have
+seen these carbuncles glowing from their resting-place in the deep.
+
+Visby’s star of destiny now set for ever, though it continued to
+struggle on in the hope of better things, and again and again the
+town was besieged, looted or even burned, Dane, Swede, and pirate
+gradually encompassing its ruin. Faster and faster its power on the
+sea waned and drew to its end, while its ships were taken and plundered
+till none would venture out to sea. At last came the Reformation,
+when the treasures of its churches were confiscated and its convents
+dissolved, while the decayed and ruined churches which had been its
+proud boast were allowed to go to rack and ruin, only the cathedral of
+St. Mary being maintained and restored for the new worship. Gradually
+their roofs blew asunder, their rafters rotted and their arches
+crumbled away, while from the walls stone fell after stone, religious
+iconoclasts completing the ruin that others had begun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of all the mediæval splendour attained by Gothland there are
+consequently nothing but ruins, but these ruins are in themselves so
+wondrous, and the Visby of to-day reflects so many of the features
+of the merchant city of Hanseatic times, that few cities are more
+interesting to visit. With its many picturesque red-tiled houses and
+gables, its many architectural treasures and imposing castellated
+walls, its lovely gardens yielding every summer roses of luxuriant
+abundance, and its mild climate and many recreational facilities,
+Visby is in fact an ideal spot for a holiday.
+
+The first thing that impresses as you land on the island is the mighty
+wall that dominates all the surrounding country and encloses the city
+almost in its original perfection; vast grey battlemented walls,
+mellowed by age and the touch of ivy, with thirty-eight towers which
+rise some of them to a height of 70 feet and recall those of Cracow
+or Carcassonne, and between them a picturesque series of bartizans
+supported by corbels, the whole being among the most perfect specimens
+that are still preserved of mediæval fortress architecture.
+
+Of these walls the west or shoreward are considerably older than the
+others, it being probable that on the land side the town was at first
+only protected by a palisade-crowned rampart which was in course of
+time replaced by a wall with crenellated coping and a banquette along
+the inner side surmounting a row of pointed blind arches, but towards
+the close of the thirteenth century it was still further heightened and
+the greater part of the towers erected, the new superstructure of wall
+between the towers resting upon the parapet and being only broken by
+a series of bartizans. In earlier times, moreover, a number of moats
+partly hewn out of the solid rock provided additional security to the
+city, though few of these water defences are now visible.
+
+The oldest and most interesting of these towers is undoubtedly the
+Powder Tower, the only remaining fortification of the old port, its
+heavy barred vaultings and sturdy walls probably dating back to the
+eleventh century; but the lover of legend should also linger for a
+moment near the Tower of Jungfrutornet, or the Maiden’s Tower, and hear
+how the burgomaster’s daughter fell in love with Valdemar and gave
+him the key of the city which she had stolen at night from under her
+father’s pillow. The story goes that as soon as he sailed for Denmark
+the citizens built this tower and immured her alive as a punishment for
+her treachery.
+
+The wall undoubtedly owes its imposing effect in a large measure to the
+fact that the land outside it is for the most part desolate and devoid
+of vegetation, and its vast grey fortifications, which extend their
+battlemented tops around the town for more than two and a half miles,
+are exceedingly impressive. Before entering the town, however, you
+should pass by a certain field lying just outside the walls, where
+a very old stone cross is to be found, and also pay a visit to the
+mediæval scaffold which is situated to the north of the town near the
+old Lepers’ Church of St. Göran. Both are worth visiting.
+
+[Illustration: THE WALLS OF VISBY]
+
+The first, Valdemar’s Cross, which is engraved with the likeness of the
+Saviour, and a Latin inscription reading as following:
+
+ In the year of our Lord 1361, on the third day after St. James, fell
+ the Gothlanders before the gates of Visby in the hands of the Danes.
+ Here lie they buried. Pray for them,
+
+is in spite of its old age almost in a perfect state of preservation,
+only one arm having been destroyed. It was erected on the very spot
+where the peasants of Gothland made their final stand in defence of
+Visby against the might of the Danish crown, and near it lie buried
+many of the peasants and Danish soldiers who fell on that historic
+occasion. Some twenty years ago excavations in this old burial-place
+brought to light several hundred skeletons in rusted armour, many of
+the shields being pierced with arrows or dented by sword-cuts. It is
+believed that these skeletons are the remains of the Danish invaders,
+as only the Gothlanders were buried under the cross itself.
+
+The second consists of a mediæval scaffold, three stone pillars once
+joined by wooden rafters upon which malefactors were wont to be hanged
+in olden times. Grim and menacing, they stand on a high cliff so that
+all may see, a lasting memorial of an age when evil-doers were exposed
+even in death to the public eye _pour effrayer les autres_.
+
+Between these imposing walls the life of the town, now a ghost of its
+former self, pulses lazily through narrow and crooked cobbled streets
+which are lined with low-eaved and small windowed wooden or stone
+houses;[3] and along these disused byways of travel, whose very name
+is an inspiration, are ruins of churches and abbeys, cathedrals and
+dwellings, that date from the Hanseatic age and attest the glory of
+Visby’s past. The whole effect is extremely picturesque, in spite of
+the intrusion here and there of certain houses, products of more recent
+times; while interspersed among these and brightened, moreover, in
+many places by greenery and the famous rose gardens that you will find
+sandwiched in the most unlikely places, are high and stately gabled
+houses, the residences of the merchant princes of the Middle Ages. And
+the ruins of ten wondrous stone churches, dating from the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries, whose yellow ivy-clad walls and graceful arches and
+columns provide the most convincing of testimonies not only of Visby’s
+former greatness and prosperity but of the hold which religion then
+occupied in the heart of her citizens.
+
+[3] Many of the latter being built from stones taken from the old
+churches.
+
+Of the older houses many are well preserved and had their origin in the
+prosperous days of the town in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
+They are characterised by high narrow façades and gables with corbel
+steps, and arches that span the streets and provide the city with one
+of its characteristic features. The stateliest of these old mansions
+are those that are found along the Strandgatan in close proximity to
+the mediæval harbour, one of their typical features consisting of
+church-like cellars which are canopied by cross vaultings on slender,
+graceful columns, and usually divided into two stories by a flooring of
+beams placed at half the height of the ceiling. The house containing
+the museum of the town, a magnificent collection of Gothlandic mediæval
+art, “Gothlands fornsal,” possesses such a cellar, a portion of the
+floor originally dividing it into two stories having been removed
+to suit the requirements of the museum; but this mansion, unlike
+many of the mediæval buildings of the town, shows nothing on its
+exterior to betray its great age. Among those who have preserved their
+old-world exterior best are the well-known Old Apothecary’s shop “Gamla
+apoteket”, also in the Strandgatan, which dates from the days of King
+John of England, the Liljehorns’ house, and the hotel Visby Börs in the
+same street, and certain groups of houses in Hansgatan, as again the
+woodshed of the bishop’s palace in Drottensgatan and the Burmeister
+House.[4] Many of these mediæval houses were obviously utilised for
+business purposes and occasionally contained as many as eight stories.
+
+[4] Whose wall and ceiling decorations date from 1650.
+
+Even more striking, however, are the ruins of the splendid stone
+churches which are dotted here and there through the irregular streets
+and lanes, the view that these command from their towers being one of
+surpassing loveliness; an interesting cathedral which was consecrated
+in 1225 and is still in use to-day, and ten wonderful old ruins, relics
+of the eleventh and twelfth centuries which represent every style of
+architecture in the Middle Ages except the late Gothic. I doubt if any
+town in Europe of anything like the size of Visby or even much larger
+can present anything architecturally of so engrossing an interest.
+
+The Cathedral of St. Mary was originally built as a basilica,
+_i.e._ with three aisles, of which the middle one was the highest.
+It also had a vaulted transept with an apse adjoining, and was lighted
+by windows which perforated the clerestory above the roof of the side
+aisles. Of this original building only the lower part of the great west
+tower and part of the transept are preserved, the remainder of the
+church having undergone many alterations. Shortly before the middle
+of the thirteenth century the original chancel was replaced by the
+present choir, while the beautiful and still preserved Bridal Porch was
+constructed in the south gable of the transept. New side aisles were
+then substituted for the old, corresponding in height and width with
+the nave, their roofs being so arranged that every vaulted square had
+its own saddle roof with the gable facing the length of the building,
+while every second column separating the aisles was pulled down, these
+changes having the effect of converting the entire interior into a
+single whole except for the chancel and tower chapels. Some time before
+1400 a large hall, whose walls were superimposed directly over the
+colonnades, was erected over the vaulting of the nave and another
+roof laid over it, to whose walls new slanting roofs were joined for
+the side aisles. In this manner the exterior of the cathedral was
+considerably heightened and again looked like a basilica, though
+nothing was changed in the interior of the church itself. About the
+same period the towers, now altogether too low for the remainder of the
+church, were raised to their present height.
+
+Interesting as is the Cathedral of St. Mary, the ruins of the other
+houses of worship that once served the spiritual needs of Visby’s
+thirty thousand people are, in my opinion, infinitely more arresting
+in their loveliness. The force of their appeal lies, I imagine, in the
+picture which they afford of an age when religion was not a hollow
+sham but a reality to which every man readily turned, not only in
+those moments of trial when even the careless remember the claim of
+the Deity, but also in those more prosperous times when men rapidly
+develop an illusory sense of their own power and might. Visby in her
+heyday supported no less than sixteen churches and the island nearly a
+hundred, many of these being vast structures of mediæval splendour, to
+whose adornment many precious metals and jewels had been lavished and
+many great artists had contributed a quota.
+
+Near the walls are the beautiful towers of St. Drotten and St. Lars,
+sister churches which are said to have been built by two maiden sisters
+who hated one another so heartily that each erected her own church in
+order not to sit together in the same place of worship.
+
+St. Drotten has a square tower which is reminiscent of the western
+tower of the cathedral and is built in one piece with an almost
+quadrate nave, while St. Lars, which is cruciform in shape and shows
+a marked Byzantine influence, impresses by virtue of its majestic
+proportions, its characteristically high arched paired windows, and its
+massive vaulted rooms that fill in the corners of the cross and open
+to its arm, no ingenuity having so far accounted for the triforia that
+are hollowed in its walls at various heights and facing the nave of the
+church.
+
+St. Nicholas, which like St. Lars has wonderful long slender windows,
+is a three-aisled church, with a square chancel and a pentagonal apse,
+which was originally built as a basilica, and then so altered that
+the height of the three aisles is now the same. It was taken over by
+the Dominicans about 1220 when they arrived in Visby, the decorative
+sculptures of the doorways being very similar to those found in the
+bridal porch of St. Mary’s.
+
+St. Clement’s, as it stands to-day, also belongs to the same period,
+_i.e._ about the middle of the thirteenth century, but within its
+walls are the foundations of three, if not more, older church edifices,
+the first probably dating back to about 980, a circumstance that speaks
+eloquently of the wealth and love of building that characterised the
+Great Age of Visby, since it is clear that none of these churches were
+destroyed by human agency, this period being then almost the only one
+during which the island remained at peace with the world.
+
+The other ruined churches of Visby include the churches of St. John
+and St. Peter, which was the successor of Botair’s wooden church to
+which I have already alluded, and also St. Olaf’s Tower, which is
+almost identical to the western tower of the cathedral, all these being
+interesting specimens of twelfth-century architecture, but none that
+I have mentioned, except perhaps St. Lars, are as quickening to the
+imagination, or as remarkable for the beauty of their architectural
+features, as the churches of St. Catherine and the Holy Ghost.
+
+[Illustration: THE CITY OF VISBY]
+
+The first, which was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria,
+belonged to the Franciscan friars who settled in Visby in 1233, but
+only acquired its definite form with its graceful columns and lofty
+vaultings in 1413, its beautiful columns and arches remaining to this
+day in an almost perfect state of preservation. The second, which
+belonged to the charitable institution of the Holy Ghost, consists of
+an octagonal tower with two vaulted stories and two separate floors,
+with a common chancel and an apse that is let into its eastern wall.
+Original in conception and better preserved than most of the ruins of
+the city, the Church of the Holy Ghost ranks perhaps as the finest
+church of the island.
+
+Of the hundred or more churches which are to be found in other parts
+of Gothland, the more interesting are undoubtedly those which date
+back to the twelfth century or even further, such as the richly
+decorated wooden church of Hemse, now preserved in the Historical
+Museum at Stockholm, the church Garde with its plain nave and Byzantine
+paintings, the churches of Dalhem and Stånga, and the large Cistercian
+convent church in Roman constructed after the designs of the French
+Cistercians, the simple grandeur of whose arches and columns recall
+those of another Rome; yet even the other more modern churches often
+present interesting features. Distinguished by plain wall surfaces and
+an almost entire lack of the buttress system that characterises Gothic
+architecture in the west, they possess a style that is pure Gothic and
+yet are strongly national in tendency. Their towers are very varied
+in shape, but usually tall and slender, while the interiors convey an
+impression of great spaciousness, thanks to the height of their slender
+columns, the solidity of their vaultings, and the wide span of their
+equally high arches. Speaking for myself, however, I confess to have
+derived greater pleasure from seeing the many wonderful carved portals,
+baptismal fonts, and well-preserved wood carvings, some of these the
+work of the greatest sculptors of the age, that abound in the island,
+many of the roods, figures of the Madonna and statues of saints, which
+have been preserved, possessing a very high artistic value. In this
+respect I rather fancy the little island of Gothland is perhaps richer
+than almost any country in the world save France and Germany, the
+beauty and originality of its wood carvings and decorative sculpture
+providing further proof of the exceedingly high culture attained by
+its citizens in the days of their prosperity. No lover of beauty should
+therefore fail to pay a visit to a few of these old churches, and
+especially to Viklau and Öja. The first possesses the only known wood
+carving attributed to the famous cathedral workers of Chartres, the
+leading sculpture centre in the twelfth century; the second an equally
+beautiful rood that is generally held to be the work of a French
+sculptor of the thirteenth century.
+
+The three masters who are principally responsible for the building
+of the churches of Gothland are Le Frans, Botwid and Sighafr, all
+three justly reputed in their age as leaders of their art; but many
+other talented artists, whose names have purposely remained concealed
+under a _nom de guerre_, have contributed their quota to the
+embellishment and building of these splendid mediæval monuments. It has
+been calculated that over 400 churches would now be left standing in
+this tiny island as a record of the tremendous ecclesiastical building
+activity which took place in Gothland from the earliest Christian times
+to the middle of the fourteenth century, if the Goths had been spared
+the series of catastrophes which was destined to leave them the easy
+prey of pirates and marauders, and I should say that this figure is
+probably underestimated.
+
+There is one further characteristic found in these churches, moreover,
+that should appeal to the lover of folk-lore. It appears that Gothland,
+like Scandinavia and Great Britain, was in the Bronze Age a great
+centre of sun worship, and that this adoration of the Sun god (Bal)
+lingered on in spite of Christianity among the many customs that have
+survived to show a pagan influence.
+
+Many of the dances, for instance, which are given round the Beltane
+fires on Midsummer Eve are 3000 years old and date from that period,
+while the remains of a sun chariot have also been discovered not far
+from Visby; but what is even more interesting is the fact that the
+chief door of practically every church in the island faces south and
+yet lies as near to the west as possible. This has undoubtedly to do
+with the cult of the sun, as the good people of Visby sought in this
+manner to conciliate both their new and old convictions. Even to-day
+the peasants of the island never dance or spin on Thursday (the day of
+Thor, the god of thunder), this being the one day of the week when in
+pagan times they were unable to pay their worship to the Sun god.
+
+[Illustration: SUNDAY AT RÄTTVIK, DALECARLIA]
+
+Apart from the churches and a few well-preserved merchant houses dating
+from Hanseatic times, such as the famous merchant mansion of Kattlunda
+in the south of the island, which was obviously designed for defence
+against an enemy, the interior of Gothland has little to offer in the
+way of scenic attractions, if we except the luxuriantly beautiful
+groves and “leafy meadows” which are found interspersed here and there
+among the desolate fen and woodland, and occasional patches of wheat
+and beet sugar characterising the scenery. With these exceptions,
+everything worth seeing is concentrated along the coasts. Along the
+west are romantically wild cliffs and downs, with here and there a
+pleasant little cove or inlet, and the two lonely Karl islands with
+their steep cliffs and a bird life so varied that it is difficult to
+believe any human being has ever set foot on the island; along the
+east, broad open bays, sandy shores, and rocky promontories worn away
+by the sea and moulded into strange fantastic shapes recalling those
+seen in the wildest parts of the Breton coast or the Giant’s Causeway;
+to the south a low shore and headland fringed with Hoburgen’s mighty
+rocks; and to the north the large island of Fårö with its impressive
+drift sands and the wild-looking Isle of Sandö, where forest and sand
+are ever waging a fight for existence: a scenery, in short, which for
+sheer grandeur and picturesqueness resembles no other in the world, and
+over which I have seen sunsets flaming with almost southern splendour.
+Truly Gothland is an ideal spot for a holiday, and with its many
+imposing ruins of a vanished culture, its wild scenery and coast line,
+its mild climate and its pleasant seaside resorts of Snäckgärdsbaden,
+Kneippbyn and Slite, all easily accessible from Visby by rail or motor,
+combines a sufficiency of attractions that should make it a favourite
+resort for any traveller who is desirous of exploring new and strange
+ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DALECARLIA[5]
+
+[5] Dalarna in Swedish.
+
+I know few parts of Europe where traditions, costumes and customs have
+remained so little affected by the levelling process of civilisation
+as Dalecarlia, and here amid surroundings that reproduce all the
+characteristic features of Swedish scenery, with the exception of
+the mountainous regions of Lapland, is found a race of virile and
+independent men and women characterised by ready wit, good humour, and
+great bodily strength who have contributed more to the shaping of their
+country’s history than all the rest of Sweden put together.
+
+To know Dalecarlia is, therefore, almost as good as knowing Sweden, for
+not only the scenery but also the characteristics of the population
+inhabiting it are typically Swedish.
+
+In the centre of the province are rich smiling pasture and farm-land
+alternating with wooded hills and lakes, great pine forests and birch
+groves; in the south, mining and industrial districts which are among
+the most productive regions of the country. Dalecarlia is intersected
+by the Dalälven river, which flows down from the mountains of the
+border in two branches, Öster Dalälven, its eastern branch, flowing
+through Lake Siljan. Here, and scattered around its pleasantly wooded
+shores, are ten little towns which are each the centre of a distinctive
+community that possess not only remarkable historical memories, but
+individual costumes which their inhabitants have continued to wear
+unchanged from the Middle Ages.
+
+Like all independent and liberty-loving races, the Dalecarlians have
+never been able to tolerate oppression or the yoke of the foreigner,
+and it was this same proud national spirit which has always induced
+them to take the lead, whenever the liberties of their country were at
+stake.
+
+    Manhood, pluck, and hardy men
+    Still are found in old Dale land.
+
+So runs an old Dale song, and again and again the peasants of the
+province have risen to arms to defend the liberties of the Fatherland.
+
+[Illustration: LAKE SILJAN]
+
+In 1435, under the leadership of Engelbrecht, a prominent miner, they
+succeeded in temporarily freeing Sweden from the tyranny and misrule
+of the successors of Queen Margaret of Denmark, their subsequent
+defeat at the hands of their oppressors being more than avenged by
+the remarkable success which crowned their efforts at liberating the
+country in the years immediately following the accession of King
+Christian II. of Denmark to the Swedish crown in 1520. Self-willed and
+obstinate, this able but short-sighted monarch signalised his advent to
+power by treacherously murdering eighty-two leading Swedish noblemen
+who had assembled in the capital for the coronation festivities. This
+cold-blooded murder so fired the imagination of Gustavus Vasa, the son
+of one of its victims, that breaking away from the prison in which he
+had been confined as hostage for Christian’s safe keeping, he dashed
+across to Sweden by way of Lübeck, and started on a long 900-mile tramp
+northward, with the vague idea of rousing his countrymen to arms. Hotly
+pursued by the King of Denmark’s followers, he finally reached the
+district of Lake Siljan in Dalecarlia, and on the last Sunday in Advent
+proceeded to address the good people of Rättvik after the morning
+service, as they were gathering on the shores of the lake. He described
+the incidents which had occurred, and laying stress on the many unjust
+and tyrannical measures which had been perpetrated by the Danish
+monarch, urged them to rally to his standard and free the country from
+its oppressors. The Dalecarlians sympathised with the young leader, but
+refused to do anything definite until they had received confirmation
+of the massacre. Then as Gustavus saw his pursuers closing once again
+upon him, he continued his flight towards the Norwegian frontier and
+had proceeded some ninety miles when he was overtaken by the swift ski
+runners whom the Dalecarlians had sent after him as soon as they had
+received tardy confirmation of the news. He then turned back, and after
+a succession of marvellous escapes that recall the exploits of Alfred
+the Great, succeeded in warding off his pursuers and in organising
+armed resistance to the Danish king.
+
+Backed by a numerous army, whose principal mainstay consisted of the
+peasantry in the district of Rättvik and the mining population of
+the south of Dalecarlia, he declared Sweden independent of Danish
+sovereignty, and by a succession of rapid triumphs on the field of
+battle converted this declaration into a reality, his coronation in
+1528 as King of Sweden inaugurating a new epoch in the history of the
+country and consecrating the rule of a dynasty which was destined to
+produce some of the ablest rulers in Scandinavia.
+
+The district surrounding Lake Siljan is consequently intimately
+associated with the name of Gustavus Vasa, for not only Rättvik, where
+a stately monument has been erected to commemorate his memory, but many
+other towns and villages, can point to homely farms or other buildings
+in which the national hero is supposed to have lain concealed from
+his pursuers. I have seen at Ornäs a well-preserved farmstead with
+overhanging balconies in which the fugitive is said to have taken
+refuge, disguised as a simple labourer, and also the kitchen in which
+he was discovered sitting near the hearth by the pursuing Danes. The
+story relates that the farmer’s wife, seeing that the suspicions of the
+Danes had been awakened, suddenly turned towards Gustavus and, after
+rebuking him violently for his laziness, struck him a hard blow on
+the back with a shovel, this action having the effect of convincing
+the soldiers that the Swedish labourer was not the man whom they were
+looking for. Every year a ski Marathon race is held from Mora to
+commemorate the athletic feat of the ski runner whom the Dalecarlians
+sent post-haste after Gustavus to recall him to Rättvik, and the course
+that is followed by the runners of to-day is almost identically the
+same as that which was followed by the sixteenth-century ski runner.
+The race is the most important sporting event of the year.
+
+Apart from these many historical memories and legends, the district of
+Lake Siljan possesses an appeal which is quite its own and which lies
+not only in the loveliness of its scenery and light salubrious air, but
+in the faithful observance of ancient tradition and the old-world style
+of dress that have ever characterised its people.
+
+Nowhere in Dalecarlia are these characteristics so strongly marked as
+in Siljansdalen, the district surrounding the lake.
+
+Of the ten little towns that lie on its verdant shores the three
+largest and perhaps the most beautiful are Rättvik, Leksand, and Mora.
+
+Rättvik, which lies on an inlet of the most eastern portion of the
+lake, has an exceptionally beautiful situation on the slopes of
+wooded ridges that command a splendid view, its sixteenth-century
+white church being finely placed on a point projecting in the lake and
+being surrounded by so-called ‘Kyrkstallar,’ _i.e._ a number of
+makeshift buildings built of timbers placed roughly one above the other
+which possess no windows but are usually provided with a stove for
+making coffee. These structures, it is interesting to note, are largely
+used as rest-houses on Sundays by those church-goers who have had to
+come many miles by foot, cycle, or horse, in order to attend divine
+service. No visitor to Rättvik should fail to attend one of these
+celebrations, for the opportunities that it will provide him of seeing
+the farmers and townsfolk of the locality coming to worship apparelled
+in their picturesquely becoming national dress. On week-days you may
+occasionally come across workers in the fields or even housewives
+wearing the costume of their forefathers, but on Sundays and feast days
+you will see thousands of men and women each in the costume peculiar to
+his or her own district. These dresses are made by the women themselves
+or are often heirlooms to which each successive generation has afforded
+its quota and, if substantially the same, differ slightly in details,
+certain fixed variations depending on whether the wearer is married or
+single, or on the particular feast day that is being commemorated. In
+imagery of colour and beauty of design, the level of excellence reached
+by these peasant artists often approaches that attained by the Slovaks
+and Roumanians, though they evince less concern for effect and bold
+colouring than either of these two races.
+
+The characteristic dress of the Rättvik peasant women consists of
+a lofty, pointed conical bonnet, a corseted skirt which is usually
+flowered, and a horizontally striped and rainbow-coloured strip that,
+sewn in the front of the skirt, recalls the gaily striped aprons that
+are found in Ragusa, while a flowered kerchief held in front by a
+brooch is fastened around the neck. Extremely fair of complexion and
+with hair that is usually straw-coloured, the good-looking women of
+Rättvik are among the finest specimens of the Swedish race which I have
+seen, and are so strong and energetic that even the hardest manual
+labour presents no difficulty to them.
+
+The costume of the Rättvik men consists of a very long blue coat that
+is very similar to an old-fashioned frock-coat, only that it is cut
+high in the neck and single-breasted; a waistcoat, with two rows of
+brass buttons, of the same colour; yellow leather knee-breeches that
+reach half-way up the waistcoat, and a blue soft felt hat recalling a
+harlequin. Only the older men continue, however, to wear the attractive
+apparel of their ancestors, the younger men preferring the more drab
+fashions of to-day.
+
+Apart from its lovely scenery, its many historical memories, and
+its quaint peasant costumes, Rättvik possesses many attractions.
+Its beautiful pine forests, high bracing situation and invigorating
+air, combine to make it an ideal spot for those who need rest and
+recuperation, while its position half-way down the lake renders it the
+best starting-point for the various excursions which can be made in any
+direction.
+
+Lying at the very northernmost point of Siljan and easily accessible
+from Rättvik by rail or water, the village of Mora is not as famous as
+Rättvik for the beauty of its costumes, but has played as distinguished
+a part in the history of the country. It was the men of Mora who
+were the first to flock to the standard of Gustavus Vasa as soon as
+confirmation of the Swedish massacre had arrived, and it is from here
+that Sweden’s national ski race, the Vasaloppet, is run every year to
+commemorate the stirring athletic feat which undoubtedly started the
+War of Liberation. In Mora church-yard, moreover, can be seen the
+tomb of Anders Zorn, the great Swedish painter, sculptor, and pioneer
+of old Swedish peasant culture, even more than Ankarcrona, who not
+only enriched his native town, and especially its parish church, by
+presenting it with a statue of Gustavus Vasa that is representative
+of the best Swedish sculpture of to-day, but has founded a People’s
+High School which contains a collection of paintings by Prince Eugen,
+Liljefors, Tiren, and other famous Swedish masters that is in every
+respect a notable one.
+
+[Illustration: MORA CHURCH]
+
+Across the lake, and at its most southernmost point, lies Leksand,
+which with Rättvik and Floda shares the distinction of being a centre
+of old mediæval Swedish peasant folklore and costume. The excursion to
+it is particularly interesting on a Sunday morning, if one travels to
+it by the special church boat. On these occasions the steamer calls
+in at various localities on the way to Leksand to collect the more
+distant parishioners, all clothed in their most becoming costumes, and
+her deck soon presents a very picturesque and animated appearance.
+On arrival at Leksand the crowd makes its way to the fine birch-tree
+avenue leading to the quaint Russian-looking steepled church in which
+the service is to be held, and here the visitor should follow them and
+either join the worshippers inside the building, or await them as they
+come out after service. Of the two alternatives I found the second
+infinitely the more agreeable, as a Swedish Protestant service is an
+interminable affair, and sermons of thirty minutes’ duration appear to
+be lasting hours when one does not understand a word of what is being
+spoken. Nowhere, except perhaps in Slovakia and Roumania, have I seen
+such an array of picturesque and colourful costumes as those which are
+to be seen in Leksand on these occasions; and the scene that the people
+present in church as they troop down the nave preliminary to leaving
+it, or the kaleidoscope of colour which they make as they emerge into
+the avenue and stroll about or talk in groups, forms an unforgettable
+picture.
+
+The bodices of the women are mostly fashioned of flowered and
+gaily-coloured velvet or are embroidered with many colours, while the
+apron-looking material which is sewn in the front of the plain cloth
+black or white skirt is often beautifully embroidered, but more
+usually attractively striped in either red, black, or white, there
+appearing to be endless variations of these colours and of the size and
+direction of the stripes; the caps or bonnets are sometimes conical
+with striped trimming, or very similar to a Breton _coiffe_, and
+held together by a black or white embroidered ribbon which is fastened
+with a bow at the back of the head; at other times plain white like
+a hospital nurse’s cap or the same colour but beautifully edged with
+lace. And if the women’s dress is picturesque that of the men wearing
+national costume is almost equally so; blue or plum-coloured is the
+old-fashioned single or double-breasted tunic or frock-coat that is
+cut high in the neck and sometimes reaches to the knee, while yellow
+buckskin knee breeches, blue or red stockings with the most attractive
+red tassels imaginable peering merrily from the turned-up tops, and a
+hat which when not large-brimmed and of felt is red or of an equally
+vivid colour strongly reminiscent of a romantic opera, complete the
+costume. As for the children, they are an exact replica of their elders.
+
+Leksand Church, which was originally built in the Middle Ages and
+given its present form and bulb-shaped dome after a fire in 1709,
+is distinctly Russian in character, its tower having been rebuilt by
+Russian prisoners of war according to a model which Lars Siljeström,
+a military chaplain and the architect who had been entrusted with
+the rebuilding of the church, had brought back from Russia, after
+accompanying Charles XII. to that country.
+
+Dalecarlian peasant art as revealed in the attractive costumes which
+the peasants continue to wear on all festive occasions reveals an
+innate artistic talent and a striving after beauty that mark it out
+among all peasant artistic productions, while it proves how easy it is
+to acquire technique if one only seeks to give faithful expression to
+one’s inspiration. And just as in the peasant art of other countries,
+this striving after beauty shows itself, not only in the painstaking
+and loving care that is lavished in the making and adorning of the
+peasant costumes, but in the equally unstinting thought and labour that
+is devoted to the embellishing of the home and to making life beautiful
+even for the poorest. I visited several small farms and cottages
+and found in even the humblest abode walls that had been adorned
+with peasant drawings and paintings. Produced with house-painter’s
+colours and obviously intended to decorate in conjunction with woven
+material, these quaint and artless paintings often convey an original
+and pleasing effect, while they depict Biblical personages and events
+whose general colour scheme, like those of the costumes, are dictated
+by district and devised with surprising skill.
+
+If Dalecarlia is therefore an ideal land for tourists during every
+season of the year, with its many beautiful excursions and fascinating
+peasant costumes and cottages, the quaintly picturesque customs of its
+people and the opportunities that it offers in winter for every kind
+of winter sports, it is also the home of industries which have long
+been famous in the history of Sweden. There is an old legend which
+relates that about 700 years ago a goat-herd, while tending his goats
+on a mountain in Dalecarlia south of Lake Siljan, noticed that one of
+his flock had suddenly become dyed red, and that the only plausible
+explanation that he could find of the phenomenon lay in the fact that
+the surrounding rock contained quantities of copper which had become
+oxidised by the atmosphere and converted into red ochre by the action
+of a forest fire.
+
+[Illustration: LEKSAND CHURCH] This incident, it is alleged, led to
+the discovery of important copper deposits in the neighbourhood of
+Falun and ultimately to the formation of the Stora Kopparberget, or
+Falun copper mine, one of the most remarkable mining undertakings in
+the world and probably the oldest. Whether this explanation is correct
+or not, the fact remains that the Falun Mine Company was certainly
+founded in 1284, as a purchase deed recording the sale of the mine to
+its present owners has been in existence from that year. And from that
+day it has never changed ownership in spite of the many vicissitudes
+through which it has passed. The first owners floated a company in
+which not only the greatest nobles of the age, but even the miners
+actually employed in the mine, were represented, and very soon the mine
+became the richest copper-producing concern in the world, the industry
+being at its height in the seventeenth century, when it constituted
+Gustavus Adolphus’s principal source of revenue during the Thirty
+Years’ War.
+
+The Falun Mine has been very productive in the past, and up to the year
+1900 there has been mined in it some 35 million tons of copper ore,
+while its extensive galleries are more than twelve miles in length and
+nearly a mile in depth in its deepest part. Its present copper output
+is insignificant, however, as it is no longer copper ore which is mined
+but principally pyrites, this ore constituting raw material for the
+manufacture of sulphuric acid and the other chemical products of the
+company or being utilised in its extensive sulphite pulp industry.
+It is only on the strength of its glorious historical traditions,
+therefore, that one should visit the mine, or for the insight that a
+visit paid to it will afford of the pump-houses, hoisting machinery,
+and other obsolete contrivances that satisfied our ancestors’
+requirements, though an hour spent in the interesting museum of the
+company could be employed far more profitably.
+
+The Stora Kopparberg’s principal activities being only indirectly
+concerned with the Falun mine, we must look elsewhere for an
+explanation of the prominent position which it continues to hold among
+Swedish industrial concerns of this century. Already before the copper
+ore was running short owing to excessive mining, it had started those
+fields of activity which now constitute its principal strength, such as
+iron and steel, forestry and wood, all these industries being located
+in the basin of the river Dalälven.
+
+In 1735 the company built its first ironworks, and by 1870 it possessed
+no less than twenty furnaces and ironworks in different parts of the
+province. The company then established the Domnarvet Iron and Steel
+Works on the Dalälven river south of Falun, and closed down the smaller
+works, with the exception of the Korsa works, which still continued
+to manufacture hammered Lancashire iron. In addition to these works
+the Stora Kopparberg Company owns the Dannemora and over half the
+Grängesberg iron-ore mines in Central Sweden, from which raw material
+is obtained for the iron industry, and enormous forest tracts which
+provide its large sulphate and sulphite pulp mills at Skutskär and
+paper mill at Kvarnsveden with the necessary timber.
+
+Falun itself is a clean and tidy little town which has gradually
+grown up around the mine, in which many attractive-looking workmen’s
+cottages, painted with the red ochre produced from the mine, can be
+seen. It boasts two interesting churches, those of Christine and
+Kopparberg, this last dating from the early Middle Ages, and a Town
+Hall dating from the seventeenth century, but possesses little else of
+interest apart from the collection that is housed in the Head Office
+buildings of the Stora Kopparberg Company in the eastern corner of the
+Market Square, and the museum of the same company, “Stora Gruvstugan”,
+one of the finest industrial museums of its kind to be found in Sweden.
+
+The first contains many notable portraits of Swedish monarchs or of
+distinguished Swedes who at one time or another have been connected
+with the general management of the company; the second, not only a
+number of tools that were used at various times in mining operations
+and a very interesting selection of the copper coins formerly used
+in Sweden (all manufactured from the copper of the Falun mine), and
+among them the huge 10-daler silver coin, the largest in the world and
+weighing over 50 lb., but also many valuable pictures, prints, plans,
+and models illustrating the history of the Stora Kopparberg Company
+from its birth and the subsequent development of the Swedish iron,
+timber, paper, pulp, and water-power industries. The workmen of this
+immense undertaking, which is splendidly organised, possess their own
+club, libraries, wash-houses, technical and evening schools and sport
+grounds, while their wives are trained in house-keeping and children
+management, and the young receive the best education available. I have
+never seen any institution run more efficiently than the Falun Copper
+Company.
+
+[Illustration: SUNDSVALL, A GREAT BALTIC TIMBER PORT]
+
+The surrounding country is fertile and in places almost pretty, except
+in the district immediately surrounding the mine-fields. Here are
+numerous slag-fields, in which the copper ore used to be worked by
+repeated processes of roasting and smelting, the sulphurous fumes that
+were thus generated soon killing off all vegetation and giving the
+neighbouring houses a very scorched appearance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LAPLAND
+
+
+Psychologists tell us that man is naturally of a jealous and envious
+temperament, and that in spite of centuries of civilisation the
+cave man or woman propensity that is manifested whenever a _crime
+passionnel_ takes place is to be found in practically every race and
+at every period of history. This popular conception is, however, only a
+half-truth, for while jealousy may be said to be found generally among
+mankind, there is one race in which it is never met with, and probably
+several others (ethnologically related to it) who rarely manifest
+any sign of it. Scattered over Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway,
+north of the sixth degree of latitude, and therefore well within the
+Arctic circle, are a nomadic people belonging to the Mongolian race,
+the Laplanders, who, like the Red Indians of North America, have been
+in close contact with civilisation for centuries, without being
+more than superficially affected by it. Indeed, the Lapps are among
+the most primitive nations in the world, and, living their lives
+in the uncultured ways of their remote ancestors, have remained so
+fundamentally averse to the ways of civilisation that untimely death
+has almost invariably been the portion of any member of their race who
+has made essay of them. A less discontented nation does not, however,
+exist than the Laplanders, and, unperturbed by the vicissitudes of
+life, good fortune, or weather, they appear to lead serenely happy
+and contented lives, which prove how little happiness has to do with
+material comfort or wealth.
+
+The popular conception of Lapland is that of a vast desolate waste
+in the extreme north, perpetually snow-bound, and of the Lapps as a
+kind of Eskimo whose lot is as hard and cold as the bleak mountains
+where they tend their herds of reindeer. But this is hardly the case.
+Lapland is doubtless one of the parts of the world where the winter is
+the longest and the most trying. The temperature during the greater
+part of the year usually averages thirty or more degrees of frost,
+and for over three months the fleeting gleams of the aurora borealis
+and the light of the moon and the stars are the only substitute for
+sunlight; yet the Lapps are not without a summer, and for a period of
+six weeks the sun never sets, while emerald green meadows and leafy
+woodlands, radiant lakes and wild flowers that are as profuse as they
+are short-lived, bring a little pleasure and respite to a race whose
+existence would otherwise be terribly grey and barren.
+
+A visit to these timid and peace-loving people is a comparatively easy
+matter in this season of the year, as during this time they momentarily
+abandon their nomadic life and erect their huts on the slopes of the
+mountains or the shores of lakes. Here they can be observed living in
+conditions that are almost identical to those under which they were
+existing in the beginning of civilisation.
+
+Short but sturdily built, the Lapps, like all Mongolian races, have
+high cheek-bones, oblique eyes, black hair, and dark complexions. When
+they arrived in Europe is uncertain; probably before the dawn of modern
+history. Their life, which is spent in contact with Nature, gives them
+great endurance and hardihood, but they are not hard workers, and once
+they have made provision for the day or the morrow, they spend most of
+their time sitting in their huts smoking plug tobacco. Before their
+conversion to Christianity they were believed to be wizards and to hold
+dealings with the devil, to whom, and other gods, they were wont to
+sacrifice reindeer.
+
+The welfare of the Laplanders is inseparably bound up with that of
+their flocks, and any dwindling in the number of these cattle is
+invariably attended by a corresponding decrease in their own numbers.
+In the last two decades many Lapps have died owing to the loss of their
+reindeer, which have perished in thousands for want of a suitable
+pasturage. As the last few years have, however, been less arduous, the
+number of reindeer has shown an appreciable increase, and consequently
+the threatened extinction of the Lapp race, which a few years ago
+appeared to be only a question of a few years, has momentarily been
+arrested, the total number of Lapps inhabiting Sweden being 10 per cent
+greater than what it was five years ago (the Lapps have increased from
+6200 to about 7000), this increase in population being occasioned by a
+corresponding increase of 30 per cent among the reindeer. (There are
+over 300,000 reindeer at present in Lapland.)
+
+For the subsistence of a Lapp family a large herd of deer is, however,
+required, and many Laplanders own from 500 to 1000 or more of these
+cattle. The meat and milk constitute their principal food, while the
+hide is tanned for skin and clothes, and many of the smaller household
+requisites are fashioned out of the bones and antlers.
+
+Last year over 60,000 reindeer were sold in North Lapland, with prices
+varying from 45 to 60 crowns, mostly to Southern Sweden, Germany,
+and Hungary, where their meat is highly appreciated. In exchange for
+these animals and their products the Lapps purchase such necessities
+as salt, cloth, coffee, tobacco, and flour, their requirements being
+extraordinarily simple. Their meals consist principally of reindeer
+meat, which they eat sometimes uncooked, but more usually stewed,
+fried, or smoked, coffee which they sprinkle with salt, unfermented
+bread or cake, and brandy, to which some are often immoderately
+addicted.
+
+No race lives as strenuous or hard an existence for the greater part
+of the year as this unfortunate people, over which hangs interminably
+the tragic suggestion of the inevitableness of the grind of life.
+And except for certain months when they have abundant leisure for
+making their articles of reindeer horn and clothing, or for taking
+a well-earned rest basking in the July sunshine, they are almost
+continually on the move, breaking up camp almost daily in order to find
+a suitable grazing ground for their reindeer and the moss without which
+they could not possibly live through the winter. Throughout this period
+and the spring and autumn months they are exposed almost unceasingly
+to the most rigorous of climates and to a cold that is almost lethal,
+their patience and good humour being as exemplary as their fortitude.
+
+Like most nomads, they are treated as a privileged race by the Swedish
+Government, which fully realises the value of their wholly distinctive
+industry in the utilisation of enormous territories that are absolutely
+unsuitable for any other purpose. They consequently pay no taxes or
+rent, are excused military service and political or civil obligations,
+and are allowed to roam or to camp at will within the very extensive
+areas that have been allotted to them, while the most ample protection
+is afforded to their lives and their industry. They have, however,
+often proved a bone of contention among the several northern nations
+in which they are to be found, and regulations have often had to be
+formulated governing the inter-State migrations of their flocks,
+the latter resolutely refusing to confine their wanderings to any
+particular country, while their owners on their side have proved
+equally powerless to prevent their incursions in foreign territory. But
+I must also mention the attempts which have been made to provide the
+Laplanders with a groundwork of education, and the Swedish State has
+appointed teachers, frequently of Lapp birth, who, moving about among
+the nomads and residing with them at their various winter and summer
+encampments, have diligently sought to render them more amenable to
+modern ways.
+
+[Illustration: LULEA, LAPLAND The export harbour for iron ore.]
+
+For over six years, in fact, every Lapp child is now compelled to
+receive instruction in Lapp and Swedish, and is taught the scientific
+raising and management of reindeer and the rudiments of natural
+history, nature study, and hygiene. The Lapps make good and exemplary
+pupils, and frequently reach a higher level of education than Swedish
+children of the same age; but on reaching the age of thirteen their
+mental development suddenly ceases, and they become incapable of
+progressing any further. Their thirst for acquiring knowledge then
+rapidly transforms itself into a tendency to revert to the prejudices
+and customs of their race and a corresponding inability to
+appreciate the benefits of civilisation so complete that no amount
+of persuasion ever succeeds in inducing them to modify their natural
+aversion to water or to cleanliness. The Lapps, in short, live like
+animals, and neither wash nor take off their clothes even at night.
+After their evening meal, and with about as much formality as is
+displayed by a dog which is weary of eating and sinks into sleep,
+they quickly remove their raw-hide moccasins, drop down on the soft
+deerskins that are spread on the ground, and are asleep almost in the
+very act of falling. As their mode of eating is usually characterised,
+moreover, by an equal disdain of refinement and a way of attacking
+the meat or bone that is very reminiscent of a savage devouring his
+food, it is abundantly clear that the great majority of the Laplanders
+have little progressed beyond the first stage of civilisation, and,
+consequently, that it is waste of time trying to induce them to
+modify their traditional way of living. Highly significant, moreover,
+is the fact that the medical authorities of the hospital which has
+been built at Kiruna for those Lapps who are unable to find a cure
+for their ailments only retain their patients for a period of two
+months. They tell me that if a Lapp does not mend in that space of
+time it is useless keeping him any longer, as he invariably succumbs
+after two to three months’ experience of civilisation, or becomes a
+victim to consumption. There is, however, one danger to the race which
+the Swedish authorities are determined to stamp out, and that is the
+heavy child mortality which is prevalent in all Lapp settlements,
+and every effort is being made to induce the Lapp mother to adopt a
+less Spartan and antiquated method of dealing with her progeny. The
+problem offers almost insurmountable difficulties, however, as the Lapp
+mother refuses to countenance modern methods of rearing children, and
+consequently only the hardiest infant continues to survive. The only
+apparent good, therefore, which has so far resulted from the Lapps’
+contact with civilisation has been their conversion to Christianity.
+They are now a deeply religious nation, and hold Sunday in such
+respect that they absolutely refuse to have any money transaction on
+that day, while their standard of morality stands higher than that of
+far more civilised communities. They belong to the Laestadian sect,
+and their Lutheran aversion to graven images is such that they are
+inclined to regard any image wrought by the magic of the camera as
+an insult to the Deity. It is only, however, when they worship their
+god that they cast off all reserve and display any marked exuberance,
+and they should be seen when possible after their services, as they
+sing their folk-songs and talk animatedly together. Laestadianism, if
+a somewhat repellent and sombre creed, would appear, therefore, to
+concord with the prevailing temper of the Laplanders, which probably
+accounts for the fact that it has spread throughout the entire race
+and is the dominating influence in their lives. Such are the principal
+characteristics of the curious people which I have endeavoured to
+describe, and of all the races which I have come across none have
+proved of more engrossing interest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NIGHT IN A LAPP HUT
+
+[Illustration: MIDNIGHT SUN OVER LAKE TORNE TRÄSK, FROM ABISKO]
+
+It was a wonderful night in June when I set out by motor launch one
+evening from Abisko to Pålnoviken, where I was to spend a night in
+a Lapp hut. And as I approached the small jetty that lies at the
+very extremity of the park of the Tourist Hotel, I had once again
+the unforgettable spectacle of the midnight sun, as it crept along
+the mountain crests to the north-west and illumined Lake Torne
+Träsk with a broad shimmering band of gold. The clear atmosphere
+peculiar to Sweden brought out every contour and object so vividly
+that even the most distant mountain summits appeared to be close at
+hand, while rising over the plain behind Abisko, which was covered
+with dense clusters of white-stemmed birch and juniper bushes, were
+the snow-clad Abisko Alps, and the strangely shaped semi-circular
+mountain pass called the Lapgate, through which it is said that
+the Laplanders originally invaded the country. The contrast between
+the dazzling snow and mountain-tops, now coloured blood-red by the
+sun, and the verdant meadows and brawling rivulets, whose gurgling as
+they rolled over the stones was almost the only audible sound, was one
+of exceeding impressiveness, while the realisation that barely one
+hour before midnight conditions of light and sun prevailed identical
+to those existing in broad daylight in western countries created a
+sense of unreality in my mind that was as novel as it was pleasing.
+As we left the shore, however, a cold, bleak polar wind arose, whose
+freezing blast effectively recalled me to reality. It was one of those
+winds which chill you to the marrow; and as I was totally unprepared
+for it, it unmercifully settled on my person, percolated into my
+neck, up my arms and legs, and through my clothes, while it hovered
+persistently and pervasively in my wake. The realisation of the
+glorious sunshine above me, and the engrossing thought of the visit
+that I was contemplating, were too strong, however, to be weakened
+by such minor discomforts. And experiencing some of the sensations
+of virtuousness which are invariably felt whenever one indulges in
+an exceptionally cold bath, I began to stride up and down the minute
+deck of the launch, full of the sense of well-being which is caused by
+reasonable bodily exercise under uncomfortable conditions. After more
+than an hour and a half of this constant buffeting, during which the
+Jake developed all the symptoms of a roughish sea, and the boat began
+to pitch and roll as if to the manner born, the wind suddenly flagged,
+tired, while the rumble and clatter of the engine announced that we
+had arrived. Creeping out of the deck chair into which I had finally
+found refuge and oblivion from the storm, I saw a little cove with a
+meadow in the background that sloped gently towards us, and behind it
+steep mountain-sides that were clothed with pine and birch. Gathering
+up my knapsack, I waited until the captain was ready to land, and
+then, preceded by him, went down the ladder and climbed up the incline
+leading to the meadow above. A hundred yards away were the Lapp huts of
+the settlement which I was to visit, and in almost as short a time as
+it takes to write down these words, we had arrived at the one in which
+I was to spend the night.
+
+Facing me was a hut made of curved birch trunks, set closely together
+and covered with turf and earth, which were kept in place by cross
+beams. And opening a door which swung outwards on a wooden hinge, I
+entered after my guide had acquainted my hosts of my arrival. I found
+myself in a large circular room whose walls sloped inwards, and in
+the centre of which I saw a large open hearth bordered by stones that
+were placed in a circle. Over this fire was a pot which was suspended
+from an iron chain above, while there was a large hole in the roof to
+enable the smoke to escape, and a smaller one on the floor level near
+the door for the dogs to pass in and out. The ground was covered with
+spruce birch twigs on both sides of the hearth, while all around the
+wooden walls I noticed reindeer skins, and there were also two or three
+chests likewise made of birchwood to hold the family trinkets and the
+principal household implements, as well as an inverted wooden box which
+was obviously used as a sideboard, since I noticed lying on it a tin of
+the familiar Lyle’s Golden Syrup, and two china cups and saucers. As
+I entered the hut, my host, N——, a typical Laplander with a hooked
+nose, prominent cheek-bones, and tangled dark hair, courteously waved
+me to a log on the right near the hearth, the place of honour, and I
+sat down, while he began to talk concerning me to the captain. Opposite
+to him and on the left were a woman and two young girls who sat
+cross-legged against the side of the hut, and two youths of indefinite
+age who were smoking pipes made of mazur birch. There were also two
+black Lapp dogs, one of which was watching one of the younger girls as
+she chewed a large chunk of smoked reindeer, which she had sliced off
+a reindeer leg with a clasp-knife, while a large very pale-faced Lapp
+baby, wrapped in mummy-like swaddling-clothes, was lying in a most
+attractive-looking reindeer-skin cradle which was slung from the roof
+and shaped like a miniature poulka (sledge).
+
+Nowhere have I met with a more fantastic and weird-looking costume than
+that which was worn by N—— and his family on this occasion.
+
+N—— himself wore a blue cloth tunic ornamented with red and yellow
+borders and gathered in at the waist by a leather belt, skin-tight
+cloth breeches, moccasins turned up at the toes, and a high pointed cap
+that, decorated with a bright red tassel and worn at a rakish angle,
+gave him the appearance of a court buffoon. His womenfolk were
+attired in blue cloth dresses trimmed with a kind of gold braid, tight
+breeches, I believe, of the same material, coloured kerchiefs which
+were fastened by quaint brooches, and attractive red and blue lace caps.
+
+[Illustration: A LAPP HUT ON LAKE TORNE TRÄSK, MIDNIGHT]
+
+I found N—— quite ready to answer my questions, though some of these
+appeared to cause him vast amusement. On being told that the Laplanders
+were never known to quarrel, I inquired what would happen if two Lapps
+fell in love with the same woman. This question had to be repeated
+several times before N—— realised what I was asking, but when once he
+and his friends understood the drift of my query, they began to laugh
+so uproariously that no answer was forthcoming for at least three or
+four minutes. At last the captain informed me that my question had
+caused the greatest merriment among the natives, as they were totally
+unable to conceive of such a possibility ever arising. Here, then, is a
+community of men and women who, in spite of their comparatively recent
+conversion to Christianity and the attainment by them of a thoroughly
+organised social life, in which the rights of property and marriage
+ties are scrupulously respected, have, emotionally speaking, never
+evolved beyond the state where sex has neither the aureole nor even
+suspected the halo of romance. I say, in spite of their conversion to
+Christianity and their organised life—as it cannot be denied that
+while the primitive man’s possession of woman depends ultimately on
+his power to hold her against any other man, his appreciation and love
+of woman as such, and his capacity of romance, invariably grow with
+every effort made by religion or law to control or check his amatory
+or possessive instincts. Contrary to the general tendency of mankind,
+the Laplanders have, however, little changed from what they were in
+the dawn of civilisation, and they continue to afford the spectacle of
+a race in which, in spite of restrictions, sex attraction is no more
+discriminating than the universal craving for food. I rather fancy that
+when a Lapp takes a wife he uses hardly more judgment than that which
+is shown by the average man or woman who is sampling a piece of bread,
+and that consequently, if only the woman is a fair example of the race,
+such trifles as good looks or complexion, charm or fine physique, are
+absolutely of no consequence.
+
+As I talked to my guide and endeavoured to obtain further information
+with regard to this very strange people, my hosts were proceeding
+unconcernedly with their work. N—— was carving a knife handle out
+of the horn of a reindeer, while his wife was busy fashioning thread
+for sewing the family winter garments out of reindeer sinews, and was
+pulling the strands through her teeth in order to soften them and make
+them more pliable.
+
+Soon the captain rose up to go. He told me that, as had been arranged,
+I would sleep in the hut, also that in accordance with my desires I
+would not be expected to share my host’s evening meal, though the
+latter had expressed the hope that I would accept a cup of coffee
+before retiring to sleep. I replied that I would be pleased to take
+coffee with the family, though I knew that the Lapps were hardly noted
+for their cleanly habits, and while my host’s daughter began to prepare
+it, said good-bye to my guide, who promised to return for me next
+morning.
+
+Unsavoury as have been some of the foods which I have tasted during
+many wanderings, few have proved more repugnant than the compound of
+inferior moka and reindeer milk which was now handed to me, though
+I will allow that the Lapp girl endeavoured to serve it in a clean
+receptacle. Taking one of the cups which had evidently already been
+used by one of the company, she poured in some water and diligently
+started scraping the inside of it with her grubby fingers. Then
+throwing out the water, she wiped and polished the cup, poured in the
+coffee and milk, and handed it to me.
+
+After this experience I was ready for anything, and until bed-time
+amused myself watching the antics of my room-mates as they now started
+to eat their evening meal preliminary to retiring for the night.
+The menu on this occasion consisted of smoked reindeer, unfermented
+bread, and coffee taken with salt instead of sugar, the informality
+which dominated the feast reminding me irresistibly of feeding time at
+the Zoo. Two large reindeer bones were produced, one of which N——
+commandeered as head of the family, while the other went the round of
+the others; and sitting on the ground, they all produced clasp-knives
+and began to munch large chunks of meat which they pared off the bones.
+The dogs ran from one to the other, getting a stray morsel, or when
+sated lay back contentedly by their master, the latter every now and
+then wiping his knife on one of their backs before cutting a fresh
+morsel for himself. Spellbound I watched the orgy until suddenly,
+without any more formality than that which is shown by a dog who tires
+of eating and sinks into sleep, they quickly removed their moccasins
+and dropped down on the deerskins that were nearest them, appearing to
+fall asleep almost in the very act of falling.
+
+It was some time before I began to realise that I too was expected to
+follow the general example; but when looking behind me I saw a large
+reindeer skin that had obviously been placed there for my benefit, I
+gathered up my knapsack and made for my improvised bed. Never shall
+I forget that night, for try as I would I was unable to reconcile
+myself to the strangeness of my surroundings, or to forget the horde of
+insects that had apparently found a home in my rug. The excruciating
+itching which they occasioned, coupled with the occasional visit of the
+very smelly Lapp dogs, who persisted in treating my prostrate body as a
+couch, and the yelping of the baby, whom neither the milk-bottle nor a
+large reindeer bone which was thrust into its mouth was able to pacify,
+converted what would otherwise have been a pleasing experience into a
+long-drawn agony, and it was a very disillusioned and weary traveller
+who greeted the captain on the next morning. Thanking my host for the
+hospitality which he had shown me, I gladly followed my guide to the
+boat and hastened back to Abisko.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+AN IMPRESSION OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
+
+
+As we left the Abisko Tourist Hotel, the solitary birch tree which
+stood as sentinel opposite the main entrance and garden of the
+hotel swayed and rustled in the wind, and fitful gleams of sunshine
+percolated through the grey clouds in the direction of Pålnoviken,
+while the genial manageress wished us God-speed.
+
+It was half-past eight, and we estimated that we would reach the
+summit of Mount Njulja in about three and a quarter hours, that is to
+say, just in time to view the midnight sun, assuming the sky cleared
+sufficiently to enable us to see it. And walking down the path which
+branches off to the right, as you turn your back to the hotel and Lake
+Torne Träsk, we soon reached and crossed the first level crossing
+over the railway, which leads to the mountain. It was not too warm to
+allow of strenuous walking, and not too cool to prevent the dew of
+perspiration from becoming perceptible, but unlike my friend Mr. L——,
+who was accompanying me, I had no spikes to my shoes, a circumstance
+which proved a considerable handicap.
+
+The path which we now followed wound up the mountain slope, through
+a wood which at this season of the year was a perfect dream of wild
+flowers, and to my astonishment I noticed, in addition to the wild
+geranium, several varieties of Alpine flora which I had never expected
+to find in Lapland, such as the primula (primrose) and the deep blue
+_Gentiana carinata_, as well as a fascinating pink flower to
+which I was unable to find a name. After nearly an hour’s strenuous
+going, during which the birch and juniper bushes became gradually more
+and more stunted, we came across several snow-drifts which delayed
+us considerably, the track that we followed proving so insecure that
+I began to stumble repeatedly, and on at least two occasions to find
+myself up to my waist in snow. On reaching a certain point where there
+was a clear view of the valley and lake in all its widening expanse, we
+stopped a moment to enjoy the view, but suddenly perceiving at least
+two other ridges beyond the one immediately above us, decided to
+complete the climb before taking any further rest.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW FROM TOURIST STATION, SALTOLUOKTA, LAPLAND]
+
+“We must hurry,” I said. “We are not even half-way.”
+
+“How high is Njulja?”
+
+“Just over 4000 feet.”
+
+“What is the time?”
+
+“A quarter past ten.”
+
+Feeling that all our labour would be wasted if we were not in time, we
+set out once again over difficult ground which in spite of its arid and
+troublous character was not without a certain grandeur, while we felt
+a magic quality in the atmosphere which drew us on and exhilarated.
+It became a race with the clock, in which, owing to certain muscles
+which I had strained in the snow-drifts, and the lack of proper
+paraphernalia, which caused me usually to be yards behind my friend, we
+should logically have been marked out from the first as second-best,
+yet we trudged on undaunted, the thought of the successive ridges
+remaining to be climbed so dominating our pedestrian world that we made
+no endeavour to talk. I shall never forget that climb, nor the effort
+which I made to disregard the strain which with almost every fresh step
+became gradually more painful, nor finally how, after a period of time
+which, though only three hours, seemed more like six, my friend, who
+was ahead, climbed the last ridge and waved his arm towards me to tell
+me we had reached the summit. More quickly then, and with a spurt of
+almost uncanny energy, I rushed forward to where he stood, a tall slim
+figure silhouetted against the sky, and stumbling forward reached the
+highest point of the mountain. Never shall I forget the radiant glory
+of the vision which gradually began to unfold itself before my eyes,
+and how magically it seemed to dispel all recollection of the fatigue
+and strain which I had undergone.
+
+Before me, and encompassing not only Lake Torne Träsk to the north and
+west but also the Abisko valley to the south, were range after range
+of serrated snow-topped mountains which the clearness and mystery of
+the Swedish air were surrounding with a veil that was almost luminous,
+while above, pure clarity, illimitable, boundless, soared; with in the
+west over Pålnoviken, long bars of grey clouds tipped with gold which
+the night breeze was chasing northward. Suddenly, as if in answer to
+my hidden prayer, a spray of crimson light shot swiftly from behind a
+cloud to the west and glittered through the air. It transformed every
+peak and headland into a glimpse of fairyland and illumined the lake
+with a shimmering band of gold, while the distant peak of Kebnekaise
+began to glow like a pyramid of frosted silver. Speechless I gazed
+spellbound at a sunset which, rivalling the most beautiful southern
+twilights which I have seen, in the glow and variety of colour that it
+displayed, afforded even greater pleasure in that, unlike any other,
+its changing tones did not pass rapidly into darkness, but lasted
+many hours without any real diminution of splendour. Purple and mauve
+and even blood-red was the sky, with here and there an island of
+rosy-tinted cloud which appeared to be floating in the empyrean; and
+as these colours slowly faded or changed to every variation of blue,
+the midnight sun continued to creep along the mountain crests which lay
+to the north-west, and the lake to turn to glittering silver wherever
+it was not shot with gold. It was like the gradual unveiling of a dim
+enchanted region where colours were softer and less troubled than a
+moment’s thought, and the air of so choice and rare a quality that
+one felt strangely invigorated by it. And only the sudden stirring of
+a chilly northern wind which swept along the brow of the mountain
+recalled me to reality. We then remembered that we were cold and weary,
+that I had strained a leg muscle, and accordingly that steep as had
+been the ascent, the descent would probably prove even more arduous.
+And having accepted and drunk a cup of very warming coffee which two
+friendly Swedes, who had also accomplished the climb, insisted on
+forcing on us, we set our faces once more towards the valley and began
+the descent.
+
+[Illustration: STORA SJÖFALLET, GREAT LAKE FALLS, SALTOLUOKTA]
+
+What I suffered on the journey back to Abisko words cannot adequately
+describe, for whereas the thought of what I had set out to accomplish
+when starting out to climb Njulja had enabled me to put up with some
+very real discomfort, not even the enticing prospect of the comfortable
+bed awaiting me on my return sufficed to make me overlook the very
+excruciating pain which my leg occasioned for the greater part of our
+crawl home. I say crawl, for our progress, from being fairly brisk as
+we started out, soon degenerated into a veritable shamble, while we
+were continually obliged to halt in order to rest my foot. I shall
+never forget, however, the glory of the view that opened before us
+when we reached the last ridge before entering the wood which covers
+the lower slope of the mountain, or the vivid contrast that was
+presented between the dazzling snow and mountain-tops now coloured
+blood-red by the sun, and the green clusters of white-stemmed birch and
+juniper and brawling rivulets whose babbling as they hurtled down to
+the lake, and the piping of a solitary bird, were the only perceptible
+sounds. Like the memory of the supreme moment during which the midnight
+sun first pierced the clouds above Pålnoviken, it is one of those
+recollections which the mind always conjures up whenever it would evoke
+beauty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN IMPRESSION OF A SWEDISH CHRISTMAS
+
+
+Cold, bleak, and uninviting is the outlook as my taxi speeds through
+the City towards Millwall Docks, where awaits the steamer that is to
+take me to Sweden, and, wreathed in grey swirls of smoke and rain
+clouds, London seems hardly the kind of city that one should deplore
+leaving, yet as I reach the wharf where lies the _Saga_ and feel
+the full force of the gusty north-east wind that is lashing my face
+like a steel whip, I almost regret my decision to see what a Swedish
+Christmas is like, so distinct are the possibilities of even more
+inclement weather out at sea. It being too late to turn back, however,
+I determine to make the best of a bad job and hurry on board, the
+captain informing me that the crossing is likely to be a good one
+and that, though the force of the wind and the direction in which it
+is blowing are unfavourable, the first is gradually subsiding and
+the second very likely to be changed. I remember many occasions when
+similar prophecies have been as confidently made without justification,
+yet attempt to delude myself into believing that at least this one
+will prove correct, and consequently follow the stewardess to my
+cabin, hoping for the best. As we reach the open sea, however, I soon
+realise that the captain’s optimism has hardly been justified. It is
+a black night with clouds covering the sky and a haze low down on the
+horizon. It is not thick enough for the fog-horns to be sounding, but
+the shore soon becomes invisible, while the wind continues in the same
+unfavourable quarter without showing any sign of diminution.
+
+Like all Swedish Lloyd ships, the _Saga_ is everything that a
+steamer should be where good accommodation and cuisine are concerned,
+but, unlike the majority of boats belonging to the same line, she is
+hardly an ideal vessel to be on under adverse conditions, and very
+soon I become acutely conscious of a rolling and pitching that send me
+flying down to my berth, while the boat begins to slow down appreciably
+owing to the head-wind that is blowing against us. For the first
+twelve hours, however, apart from the rolling and pitching, which are
+sufficiently prolonged to spell disaster to any traveller at all prone
+to sea-sickness, the discomfort which I experience is neither greater
+nor less than that which usually characterises a crossing of the North
+Sea undertaken in winter. But a few hours before daybreak the gale
+increases in volume and intensity, and the boat begins to sway and rock
+much as I have seen a row-boat do when among breakers, while the waves
+start beating violently against the boat, booming like heavy guns, and
+the hull quivers as if sorely hit. It is impossible to sleep and nearly
+as difficult to take any nourishment, as the slightest movement that
+I make from recumbency is immediately followed by rapidly increasing
+nausea, and, impotent to do aught but suffer patiently, I await until
+such moment as the fury of the wind and storm will have spent itself,
+while fog-horn and wave combine to make a music whose clamour is so
+incessant that even the most seasoned traveller would, I fancy, find
+it difficult to sleep soundly through it all. Then, on the morning
+of the third day, as the first sickly light of morn is streaking the
+dingy, pallid sky, the wind suddenly flags. I look out from my porthole
+and see that, though the waves are still rather too boisterous for
+my liking, there is every prospect of a quieter termination to our
+journey. Arising, I go up on deck, hoping to hear that we are nearing
+Gothenburg, but am told that owing to the adverse wind of the previous
+day there is no possibility of reaching the Swedish port until about
+seven that evening, which means to say that I shall have to travel
+nearly twenty-four hours across country and without a break if I wish
+to be in time for the Christmas festivities. Deploring my ill-fortune,
+I turned to the Swedish Bradshaw and with the assistance of sympathetic
+Swedes try to devise a way or means of reaching Rättvik in a more
+expeditious fashion, but, soon realising that there is no alternative
+route, decide to spend the day as pleasantly as possible, and so
+beguile the time whenever not occupied in partaking of the generous
+meals that are such a feature of life on board a Swedish steamer,
+playing bridge with my Swedish friends, a game that they usually play
+with variations that make it as great a gamble as cut-throat bridge.
+And so the day passes pleasantly enough, the sea growing calmer and
+calmer from the moment we come in sight of the Danish coast, though we
+naturally resent the way in which the North Sea has added insult to
+injury by not only providing us with one of the roughest passages of
+the year, but also robbing us of the one redeeming feature that would
+have made us forget our sufferings—that is to say, made it impossible
+for any of us to see the approach to Gothenburg, which is that city’s
+chief claim to beauty.
+
+Soon the _Saga_ reaches the rocky archipelago of the Skärgård and
+begins to forge her way through the innumerable islands that lie at
+the mouth of the river Göta älv, with a fair wind to help and a white
+ribbon of foam trailing from both her sides. Then, after exchanging
+signals with the shore, we pass various lighthouses and are soon fast
+to a large wharf with lights gleaming all about us. Lights fringing the
+river and harbour or running up the low-lying hills that surround the
+city; shipping of every kind, from great, imposing liners to freight
+steamers or fishing-smacks; whistles sounding, bells ringing, while
+all around is that mysterious undercurrent of sound that attests the
+presence of a large city. Quickly we land and notice the snow that lies
+thick on the ground, while there is a nippiness in the dry night air
+so invigorating that, though I realise the temperature is considerably
+below freezing-point, I am hardly conscious of it. And, following my
+porter, I hail a taxi and hasten to the main station to take the night
+train to Stockholm.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Half a dozen coaches, all spotlessly clean and splendidly heated, with
+doors and windows that shut so hermetically that it is impossible for
+any draught to penetrate, most of these third class with corridors and
+even sleepers, where for an inconsiderable sum even the poorest can
+be assured of a comfortable berth; a profusion of water-jugs whose
+water is changed every two or three hours and that are within easy
+reach of every carriage; rails that are so well laid that there is as
+little jolting as on the best English or American lines, and, coupled
+with this, a number of second-class Pullman carriages that are as
+comfortable as any in England, and a service that is run efficiently
+and up to time. Though the train starts at an hour when the majority
+of people are just beginning to think of dinner, I retire almost
+immediately, in view of the very early hour at which I have to change
+trains at Hallsberg, and after a restful night am awakened in good time
+and alight without being unduly hurried at the junction, where I am to
+take another train for the north. It is too dark to see the country,
+but the line, quays, and station are thick with snow, and I see to the
+left of the main station building a huge Christmas tree that is already
+lit with many electric candles and gaily decorated with a profusion
+of tiny Swedish flags and the customary Christmas ornaments. I then
+remember that the next day is Christmas Eve, the great day in Sweden,
+and congratulate myself on my foresight in having wasted so little time
+in Gothenburg. It is considerably colder than when I left the steamer,
+but as I follow my porter to the train which is to convey me to Krylbo
+I feel a dryness in the air that is so exhilarating that the prospect
+of even lower temperatures to be encountered in Dalecarlia no longer
+frightens me, and so remain for a time on the platform watching the
+fur-coated and fur-capped Swedes who are passing to and fro.
+
+For the greater part of the next day we travel through a countryside
+whose soil is now chilled to stone and yet resplendent with the imagery
+of the snow that is covering it, snow as dazzling as white marble
+and with the sheen of satin, inconceivably pure and exquisite in its
+transparency. We pass innumerable forests of silver-boled birches,
+pines and fir trees, to which the snow has lent the most fantastic
+shapes, and over great streams that are frozen on either bank with only
+a narrow ribbon of open water. And interspersed at comparatively rare
+intervals—for Sweden is one of the most thinly populated countries in
+Europe—are small towns and villages with red houses that gleam out
+from among the snow. At every station the customary Christmas tree,
+brilliantly illuminated, greets us, and the impression is left me of
+a robust race of men and women whose vital spark feeds on the frozen
+air in which it lives, while shortly after three I see the sun setting
+in the east and tier upon tier of trees and forest-clad hill that are
+tinged with rose-pink. A memorable sight. Then shortly after sunset I
+enter Dalecarlia, and after two and a half hours’ further journey reach
+my destination.
+
+To my left is the wide frozen expanse of Lake Siljan, looking eerie
+and mysterious in the moonlight, and to the right and running up
+low wooded hills of firs and pines the villas and town of Rättvik,
+picturesquely situated on an inlet of the lake. And as soon as I
+alight from the train an old coachman in white sheepskin and fur cap
+comes forward to greet me. A few words are exchanged between us that
+neither can understand, but very soon he realises that I am indeed
+the traveller whom he is expecting, and seizing my handbag he bids me
+follow to where a low sledge is waiting, a long flat box on runners, in
+which I am asked to lie full length and then enveloped in a Dalecarlian
+fur-lined rug. A crack of the whip and soon we are driving down an
+avenue of snow-laden trees, among which I see the lights of houses
+twinkling at every turn, while the horse’s bells are jingling merrily,
+and the transforming touch of snow and moon is so magical that every
+object that we pass becomes imbued with indescribable beauty and
+poetry. In ten minutes we turn sharply to the left and, following a
+short drive, see some thirty yards before us a brilliantly illuminated
+log-built house whose inmates are evidently expecting me, for as soon
+as the sledge draws up before the front door it is immediately opened
+and a woman whom I guess to be my hostess steps forward to greet me
+with a smile that is so infectious that I immediately feel at home.
+From the drawing-room just opposite the entrance hall I hear the sound
+of merry laughter, and am told that everybody is lending a helping hand
+in decorating the Christmas tree for the evening, and that if I am not
+too tired they would be delighted if I came down to help after going
+to my room. And hearing that it is a time-honoured Swedish custom, I
+express my pleasure and readiness to do so, and after going upstairs
+to repair the damages of the journey, return to the drawing-room.
+As I enter, the laughter subsides for a time, and very formally
+presentations are made, the men invariably standing up stiffly, putting
+out their hands, bowing, and giving their surnames, the girls, equally
+formally but with far more grace, extending their hands towards me
+as I am presented to them. Then, the claims of ceremony having been
+satisfied, I approach the Christmas tree and am handed a seal and some
+sealing-wax and several small packages, obviously Christmas gifts,
+which I am asked to seal as neatly as possible. All, I notice, are
+accompanied by dedications in verse, and hearing that no present can be
+offered at Christmas without a rhymed dedication, thank my stars that
+I have no present to offer. By this time the Christmas tree is almost
+fully dressed, and my charming hostess informs me that except for the
+Christmas gifts that are decorating its branches it will remain much as
+it is at present until twenty days after Christmas. We then go up to
+our respective rooms and dress for dinner, while I recall to mind the
+many conflicting reports which I have heard with regard to a Swedish
+Christmas Eve meal and fervently hope I shall not have too many novel
+dishes to sample, so great is my fear of offending the susceptibilities
+of my hostess. Half an hour later and we are all assembled in the
+dining-room, and I have my first taste of the Christmas fare of the
+country. The first course is a kind of soup that evokes familiar
+memories but to which I am unable to give a name, then the _pièce de
+résistance_ is brought in, a large fish called lutfish, which is
+prepared from a species of stockfish that is caught in large numbers in
+the North Sea. It is usually eaten boiled, and is taken with Russian
+green peas, _sauté_ potatoes and white sauce, being greatly
+appreciated in the south of Sweden. Pleasant to the taste and slightly
+reminiscent of the cod, of which it is a kind of cousin, it is kept
+in water and soda and steeped in lye or wood-ash for a period of at
+least two and a half weeks, and is afterwards taken out two days before
+eating and laid in a cold-water bath, where it remains until required.
+Following the fish course is the traditional ham and sausage, which in
+Scandinavian countries usually takes the place of the turkey or goose
+of the West, the meal concluding with a kind of porridge made of rice,
+a wonderful concoction of sugar and eggs that is called spettekaka,
+or spit-cake, and an abundant dessert in which nuts and raisins
+predominate.
+
+As accompaniment or subsequent to the above, the inevitable
+_snaps_ cocktail at the beginning of dinner, followed by a
+light French wine with the fish, Swedish punsch at the coffee stage,
+and a very delectable hot beverage called glögg, which is almost as
+comforting a drink to take after a long, cold outing as the mulled
+claret for which the high table of St. John’s College, Oxford, has
+become so famous. Compounded of wine, sugar, brandy, almonds and
+raisins, and flavoured with nejlika, or pinks, glögg is, of the many
+gastronomic experiments that I have made abroad, one of the few which I
+have really appreciated.
+
+After dinner we proceed to the drawing-room and the presents are duly
+handed to each in turn, after which young and old link hands and dance
+round the tree, the son of my hostess suddenly breaking the chain apart
+and conducting us in a mad, frenzied chase through the house, up and
+down the stairs, and past corridors, which only terminates when all are
+breathless with laughter and exhaustion. Recalling certain opinions
+which I had often heard being expressed regarding the inability of
+the Swedes to enjoy their pleasures in any way but sadly, I marvel at
+the facility with which such misconceptions arise, and conclude that
+those who created them had never visited Sweden at Christmas-time nor
+even watched Swedes at play, a more jolly and amusing party than that
+which I am attending it being impossible to imagine. Then, hearing
+that Christmas Day opens with a service in the town church that is
+to take place at an hour when most people are still sound asleep
+and that it is imperative that I should be present, if only to see
+the Dalecarlian peasants wearing their national costumes, plead the
+fatigue of the journey and retire to my room, my sleep being long
+haunted by memories of the merry throng which I have left dancing in
+the room below. Early next morning, and before the stars have paled
+in the sky, I am awakened by a loud knock at the door, and, dressing
+hurriedly, find steaming hot coffee awaiting me in the dining-room,
+while the choice is given me of going to church by horse or chair
+sledge, ski-ing being out of the question owing to my lack of the
+proper paraphernalia. I recall the wonderful drive of the previous
+evening, but feel that it is up to me to essay every kind of vehicle,
+and accordingly decide to utilise the chair sleigh as soon as I gather
+that it presents no particular difficulties—in fact, that it is very
+similar to a glorified hobby-horse. Then fur coats and skis are
+produced, and we sally forth in the direction of Rättvik, my hostess’s
+son staying behind to show me the way. And, like my guide, I place the
+left foot on the pedal of one of the runners of my chair and start
+kicking backwards repeatedly with my right, the sledge moving forward
+with every kick that I give. Obviously, the kick sleigh is almost as
+great a necessity in Scandinavian countries as the ski itself, and
+though it cannot be compared to the latter as a sport and even less as
+a vehicle, in spite of the considerable speed at which it will carry
+you downhill unaided, it is much used by the very old and the very
+young, as it can always be checked when proceeding too rapidly by the
+brakes with which it is provided, or by simply trailing the foot on
+the ground. In about a quarter of an hour we reach the town of Rättvik
+and, turning to the right, suddenly hear the bells of the old white
+church summoning the people to worship. And as we draw nearer we see
+that the greater part of the congregation has already gathered near
+Gustavus Vasa’s monument, most of them clad in old-world costume, the
+scarlet, green and gold worn by the women standing out in vivid patches
+of colour against the snow and lending the scene an air of pageantry
+and romance. Prominent among these are the women of Rättvik with their
+embroidered green bodices, dark blue skirts, quaintly striped aprons,
+and picturesque peaked caps, while among the men the most striking are
+those hailing from the same town, half a dozen sturdy peasants who are
+wearing as costume a long dark blue coat cut high in the neck, yellow
+chamois knee-breeches, a blue waistcoat edged with bright red piping,
+and red stockings held up by rosetted garters. And though the moon
+is shining brightly we all proceed to church to the flare of large
+torches which are held up high by the men, and after hearing a long and
+wearisome sermon, during which I doze repeatedly and even dream that
+I, too, am wearing Dalecarlian dress, return once again to the large
+granite stone inscribed in gold whence Gustavus Vasa had summoned the
+Dales to arms. On the way back to the house, and just before ascending
+the last slope leading to it, I stop to watch the sun rising over the
+hills, and for a few minutes enjoy an unforgettable sight. Cresting the
+ridge that the sun is now illuminating are tier upon tier of pines,
+all of such exquisite fineness that for at least two degrees on each
+side of the sun they become transfigured into trees of light that are
+not only clearly outlined in flame against the sky behind them, but
+that are almost as dazzling as the sun itself, while the snow that is
+mantling the countryside begins to assume a blue transparency and the
+pines among which we are standing to appear almost olive wherever their
+branches are not hung with great white nightcaps. Then, hearing that
+a deliciously hot glögg is awaiting us at the house, I automatically
+replace one foot on one of the runners of the chair sledge and with the
+other impel my vehicle into movement.
+
+After so early a beginning to our day I am hardly surprised to find
+life moving a little more leisurely. And for the greater part of the
+day even the more active of our party content themselves with making
+the best of the rich fare that characterises a Swedish Christmas and
+doing one or two hours’ ski-ing in the neighbourhood. Once again I
+make essay of chair sledging, and as I proceed, again accompanied by my
+guide, in a northerly direction towards Mora, come across a veritable
+army of men, women, and children sallying forth on their slender,
+feathery skis up the dales and through the forest glades. Everywhere
+I see ski tracks that are crossing one another and laughing parties
+of merrymakers who are inquiring the way, while the gaiety is so
+infectious that I soon begin to realise the charm and fascination that
+lie in ski-ing on the level. Here is a favoured district which, if not
+comparable to Jämtland or Switzerland for the joy of a swift descent
+with a possible death waiting on every side that is so characteristic
+of these more celebrated ski-ing countries, affords, nevertheless, the
+most delightful and varied possibilities of lengthy ski tours on the
+level or in forest country without the smallest risk of avalanches or
+bad-weather dangers, this form of ski-ing being not only conducive to
+the development of initiative by the constant call that it makes on
+even the most nervous novice if he would avoid the many pitfalls that
+lie in his path, but that is equally exhilarating and utilitarian. If
+once a sportsman really becomes bitten with its craze, he often ends
+by preferring it to any other form of ski-ing.
+
+Though space forbids my making more than casual mention of the other
+charming dances and excursions which my hostess and other Swedish
+friends kindly arranged for my benefit during the happy days that I was
+privileged to remain in Dalecarlia, one of the pleasantest memories
+which I will ever retain of a Swedish Christmas will always centre
+around the “släd parti” to which I was invited on Boxing Day by Miss
+Rehnström, of Persborg, an unforgettable drive in horse sledges that,
+conveying some thirty of the guests of her hotel and myself to a picnic
+lunch at Röjeråsen, a little village that lies some twenty or more
+miles west of Rättvik, conducted us across a magnificent snow-bound
+pine and fir forest whose humblest tree and shrub the touch of the sun
+had transformed into fanciful beings such as children conjure up when
+dreaming of Fairyland, while equally eerie and mysterious was the drive
+back by torchlight and the wreaths of frost mist that I saw gliding
+through the pine glades just after the sun had set across the lake. Of
+the many novel and delightful excursions which I have made in Sweden,
+there are few which have left me with as happy memories, and none that
+have so effectively stilled the little hidden craving for novelty and
+change which I share with most mortals. For any traveller, therefore,
+who looks for these things when taking a holiday, I can imagine none
+that is more attractive than those which I have endeavoured to portray
+in these pages.
+
+[Illustration: LAKE AND VILLAGE OF ÅRE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+SWEDISH WINTER SPORTS
+
+
+Never have more English ski runners visited Switzerland or shown
+greater excellence in winter sports than during the last two or three
+years, and all those who like myself have tasted the joys of Davos or
+Pontresina will hardly cavil at either the exodus or the proficiency
+attained, sun and sport together forming a combination that is not
+only conducive to boisterous health, but very likely to restore that
+contentment of mind which any prolonged experience of an English
+winter usually causes you to lose utterly. That those who have means,
+leisure, and robustness should take up ski-ing is not, therefore, any
+more surprising than that Switzerland should enjoy the reputation of
+being the homeland of winter sports, the secret of Swiss supremacy
+lying as much in efficient organisation and propaganda as in natural
+attractions. But Switzerland has many serious rivals which all ski
+runners should make a point of visiting, and Sweden in particular
+possesses many excellent winter sport resorts in which good ski-ing
+can be practised much as it is done in the Alps, though the visitor
+should not expect to find there the material comforts, hotels de luxe,
+and even the funiculars that are so characteristic of Switzerland. The
+country will commend itself, however, to all those who have a craving
+for novelty and change, and any ski runner who visits it will not only
+come into touch with the greatest exponents of the art, but will obtain
+an insight into certain forms and schools of ski-ing that demand just
+as specialised a technique as those which he will have studied in the
+Alps.
+
+There are three great centres of winter sport in Sweden: Rättvik
+in Dalecarlia, Stockholm and Åre in Jämtland, each with its own
+distinctive variant of winter sport; and I had far rather spend a
+winter in any of these three than in either Davos or St. Moritz. This
+may seem to argue a certain inexpertness on skis which I would be the
+last to deny, but your master of the Cresta run would be a mere novice
+at Rättvik.
+
+Through the country roads, leaving the furrows of their skis in the
+snow of shallow dales and gently sloping plateaux—furrows which
+vanish into the pine woods on the hills or wind among the silver-boled
+birches fringing the frozen lake of Siljan—a multitude of men, women,
+and children are swiftly gliding. Some are using their skis for the
+utilitarian purpose of getting from place to place, but many of them
+are making lengthy ski tours across country or through the forests;
+and the gaiety and spontaneous enjoyment of each little party is one
+of the most exhilarating things that I have ever witnessed. One of the
+pleasantest memories which I retain of Sweden undoubtedly centres round
+a particular cross-country ski-ing expedition to which I was invited by
+some Swedish friends during my stay in Rättvik this winter, of which I
+will now proceed to give a description. On joining the party of some
+dozen men and women, all in male attire, I was surprised to see horse
+sleighs, but I supposed that these would go ahead and wait for us at
+some rendezvous.
+
+My experience on skis at Davos and Pontresina had made me somewhat
+contemptuous of the use of sticks—of course every one had a stick in
+each hand—I had thought of them merely as supports; but as soon as we
+moved off, I found I had a great deal to learn. Before we had reached
+the end of the drive of my host’s house, I had realised that the use of
+sticks is an art in itself.
+
+The skiers started off using their sticks in a way that reminded me
+of punting; and though the horses set off at a brisk trot, several of
+the more energetic young people shot ahead on their skis, leaving the
+sledges behind. I toiled painfully in the rear, my host and a fair
+Swedish girl who spoke English politely keeping me company. I was
+particularly mortified when my host’s daughter, aged ten, shot blithely
+alongside one of the horse-drawn sledges.
+
+I could see across the immense ice sheet of Lake Siljan, fringed with
+silver-stemmed birches, as we made our way down the drive, but when we
+came out into the road at the end, we turned away from it into the pine
+forest. The sleighs were by this time out of sight, the sound of their
+bells had faded on the frosty air; and we followed over the deep snow
+carpet, beside their trails.
+
+My calves and ankles were already beginning to ache, and I was as
+far as ever from using my sticks properly; the pace was very slow.
+It was so slow indeed that my host, with charming courtesy, asked if
+ski-ing was new to me, and in the same breath complimented me on
+picking up the art so quickly. I alluded casually to the ski runs at
+Pontresina, but I am afraid my host was not impressed. The fact is that
+cross-country ski-ing is as difficult to master as ski-ing down hill,
+and that whereas the average Swiss trained ski runner is averse to
+using his sticks and proud of being able to control his skis without
+their use, the Swedes have raised the science of using sticks to a fine
+art. Cross-country ski-ing, as it is practised in Sweden, would of
+course be an impossibility in Switzerland, which accounts, I fancy, for
+the rudimentary knowledge which the Swiss skiers often display of the
+manner in which sticks should be used, and also for their consequent
+condemnation of them. The speed at which Swedes travel on the level
+with the help of their sticks is amazing, and I noticed time after time
+skiers who could keep pace with a horse trotting at fair speed.
+
+Fortunately for me, a horse-drawn sledge had started late, and my
+host, seeing my exhausted condition, shouted a few words as it swept
+up beside us. I was intensely relieved to exchange my skis for a
+seat, or rather a couch in the sledge. In this position I made much
+better speed, while my host swept forward with the sledge’s previous
+occupants, the girl who spoke English keeping me company, to rejoin the
+party before us.
+
+I was now in a position to appreciate half the joy of cross-country
+ski-ing, my previous efforts having blinded me to the surrounding
+scenery. The snow-laden trees between which we were gliding assumed
+the most fanciful shapes. There were aisles leading into mysterious
+caverns, where the olive of the pines mingled with the virgin whiteness
+and blue transparency of the snow. Bushes took on the shapes of
+prehistoric monsters, glades of small trees became an eerie army of
+ghosts; there must have been goblins and sprites....
+
+When we arrived at the log-built house that was our destination, there
+was glögg served steaming hot ... and it was nectar.
+
+But ski-ing across country is not by any means the only winter sport
+of Dalecarlia, for besides tolkning or being towed on skis behind a
+horse or its sledge, there are good toboggan runs and ski jumps on
+fairly steep country; and for the lazily inclined long-distance drives
+in horse-drawn sledges such as I have described, through forest glades
+of enchanting beauty. Of all these delights, however, there is none to
+compare with cross-country ski tours; and I should certainly prefer
+them to the pastime of one Swedish ski runner who for a wager was towed
+on skis behind the train from Rättvik to the next station ... and
+arrived intact.
+
+Åre combines the fascination of Swedish winter sports with the thrill
+peculiar to the Swiss; and while the surrounding country is almost
+as suitable for cross-country ski-ing as Dalecarlia, it possesses
+the additional advantage of enabling the winter sport enthusiast to
+practise almost every variant of ski-ing and winter game. At Storlien,
+Snasahögarna, and Merakar, there are gradients of every kind, the
+steepest of these rivalling those of Davos. Åre in certain respects
+recalls Swiss resorts. Like Davos, it is situated in a mountainous
+country with high mountain tops in the immediate vicinity. From the
+lake at the base of Mount Åreskutan (4600 feet) a funicular railway
+runs up 600 feet, and from this point a bobsleigh run three-quarters of
+a mile long, with curves as sharp as those of the Cresta, winds down to
+the hotels below. There are slopes here for every taste: rounded hills,
+steep slopes, and the famous Tännforsen waterfall, one of the finest in
+Europe, all within easy distance.
+
+Wandering about here I came upon a lovely place: before me a sheet
+of ice opened into a broad white field, hard and dry, forming a
+majestic causeway paved as with white marble. It was evening, and in
+those solitudes were caverns of deep blue ice lit with the twilight’s
+after-glow; in the distance, mountains, sombre with pines or glittering
+white with snow, raised gleaming turrets and dark pyramids up to the
+smoke-blue sky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Stockholm lacks nothing. Within forty-five minutes’ walk is the
+famous jumping course of Fiskartorpet and the ski and toboggan runs
+of Saltsjöbaden in the Stockholm Archipelago, while the winter-sport
+enthusiast will find at Djursholm, and within easy distance of the
+capital, two variants of winter sports that are particularly indigenous
+to the soil and unknown to other countries. The Ice Yachting and Skate
+Sailing clubs are located in a greatly indented and island dotted bay,
+where even the most blasé winter-sport enthusiast may reckon to regain
+some of the lost thrills of his novitiate. There he may cling to the
+stern sheets of an ice-boat, heeling over to the sea breeze and driving
+along at 50 knots an hour, while a fearless Swedish girl sits astride
+the stern and laughs at the tiller, with the main sheet in one hand,
+and another leans out to windward as she tends the fore sheet.
+
+[Illustration: THE TÄNNFORSEN WATERFALL, ÅRE]
+
+Ice-yachting has its risks, but the novice learns the art by starting
+as a passenger, or at least by obeying orders at the fore sheet.
+Skate-sailing is like a leap in the dark: there can be no passenger on
+one pair of skates. Armed with ice-pole and life-line, the skier sets
+forth on his maiden voyage clinging to an unmanageable kite-shaped
+sail, while he tries to use his body as a mast, at the mercy of the
+elements.
+
+The great difficulty lies, of course, in trimming the sail to the wind,
+and I found that the best way to learn was by practising sailing to
+windward, tacking. The yard, which stretches from the apex of the kite
+to its truncated tail, is held over the left shoulder, the right arm
+extending backwards till the hand grips the yard, the left hand holding
+on to one of the two cross-pieces. To trim the sail the yard must be
+pushed forward or backward across the shoulder, just as you trim a boat
+by increasing the area of the foresail to the wind. When the wind blows
+the sail round, it must be pushed back until the weight is behind, and
+the foretip of the yard must be held down to prevent it slipping off.
+When a gust blows aslant, filling the sail, you must drive to windward
+till the sail flies into the wind.
+
+This sport requires great physical strength and prompt judgment. The
+expert skate sailors whom I watched attained speeds approaching those
+of the ice yachts; but to reach such a state of perfection a man must
+be in the finest physical condition and have tendons and muscles of the
+ankles greatly strengthened by constant practice of such figures as the
+Salchow rocking turn.
+
+I do not think I would have attempted this sport if there had been
+much wind; but throughout my stay in Stockholm there was the usual dry
+sunny weather with only the lightest of breezes. Of all winter sports
+skate-sailing is perhaps the most exhilarating, and if once a skier
+masters its technique, he will probably end by preferring it to any
+other form of winter sport.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abisko, 176, 187, 190, 192
+
+  Adelcrantz, 107
+
+  Adolph Frederick, King, 107
+
+  Almquist, 91
+
+  America, 14
+
+  Amsterdam, 74, 96
+
+  Ankarcrona, 156
+
+  Ansgarius, 68
+
+  Archæological remains, 9
+
+  Architecture, Swedish, 27, 28, 29, 73, 84, 106, 107, 136-144
+
+  Åre, 214, 219, 220
+
+  Åreskutan, Mount, 219
+
+  Arkö Sound, 64
+
+  Art Gallery, Gothenburg, 28
+
+  Arvidsberg, 64
+
+  Askanäs, 69
+
+  Asplången, 62
+
+  Asplund, 91
+
+  Atlantic, 6
+
+
+  Baggensfjärden, 102
+
+  Baltic Sea, 11, 46, 47, 63, 67, 70
+
+  Banérs, 79, 103
+
+  Bathing, 41, 42
+
+  Baths, Swedish, 88
+
+  Becket, Thomas à, 96
+
+  Beer, 19
+
+  Belvedere, 26
+
+  Bengt, Bishop, 62
+
+  Bennet family, 79
+
+  Beowulf, 32, 34, 35, 96
+
+  Bergamote pears, 60
+
+  Bergsten, 91
+
+  Bernadotte, 55, 56, 78
+
+  Birger Jarl, 62, 71, 76
+
+  Birger Magnusson, 63
+
+  Björkö, island, 68
+
+  Blekinge, 13
+
+  Blood Bath, 76
+
+  Blue Church, Vadstena, 60
+
+  Boberg, Ferdinand, 27, 84
+
+  Bockholm Sound, 68
+
+  Bohus Castle, 48, 49
+
+  Bohuslän, 4, 9, 23, 29, 32-43, 67
+
+  Bonde, Count, 82
+
+  Boren, Lake, 60
+
+  Borensberg, 60
+
+  Borgargärden, 86
+
+  Bothair, of Akeback, 120, 140
+
+  Botwid, 143
+
+  Brask, 46
+
+  Brask’s Ditch, 46
+
+  Bråviken Bay, 64
+
+  Bridge, how played in Sweden, 197
+
+  Brinkeberg Hill, 50
+
+  Bruce family, 79
+
+  Bulgerin, 58
+
+  Burgundy, 116
+
+  Burmeister House, Visby, 136
+
+  Byfjord, 43
+
+
+  Carcassonne, 131
+
+  Castles in Sweden, 9
+
+  Cattegat, 47
+
+  Caucasus, 10
+
+  Cederström, 97
+
+  Characteristics, Swedish, 14, 15, 146, 148
+
+  Charles X., 104
+
+  Charles XII., 13, 42, 46, 74, 75, 78,
+
+  Christian II. of Denmark, 149
+
+  Christianity in Lapland, 174, 175, 181, 182
+
+  City Court, Stockholm, 89
+
+  Clason, 27, 84
+
+  Climate, 5, 6
+
+  Continental blockade, 23
+
+  Copper mines, 161, 162
+
+  Corot, 96
+
+  Costumes, Swedish, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 180, 181, 208
+
+  Cracow, 131
+
+  Cranach, 96
+
+  Cresta Run, 214, 219
+
+
+  Dagö, 123
+
+  Dalälven River, 148
+
+  Dalarna, 10, 147-165, 201
+
+  Dalecarlia, 10, 94, 95, 147-165, 201, 218
+
+  Dalecarlians, 12, 13
+
+  Dalhem Church, Gothland, 141
+
+  Danes, 12, 46, 94
+
+  Dantzig, 76
+
+  Davos, 213, 214, 219
+
+  Delacroix, 96
+
+  Desprez, 109, 115
+
+  Djurgården, 95
+
+  Djurgårdestaden, 98
+
+  Djursholm, 103, 220
+
+  Dolmens, 9
+
+  Domnarvet, 163
+
+  Douglas family, 61
+
+  Drottningholm, 104, 105
+
+  Düna, 123
+
+
+  East India Company, 22, 23
+
+  Edinburgh, 74
+
+  Efficiency, Swedish, 14, 24
+
+  Ehrenstrahl, 79, 106
+
+  Eken, 52
+
+  Eleonora, Hedvig, 104, 106
+
+  Emerson, 42
+
+  Engelbrekt, 64, 149
+
+  Engelbrekts Church, 91
+
+  Eogtheow, 34
+
+  Erik, Prince, 110, 112
+
+  Erik XIV., 48
+
+  Eriksson, Christian, 89
+
+  Epstein, 91
+
+  Estbröte, 69
+
+  Etter Sound, 64
+
+  Eugen, Prince, 90, 97, 156
+
+
+  Fågelö, 69
+
+  Falun, 161-165
+
+  Falun Museum, 164
+
+  Fårö, 123, 145
+
+  Finns, 13
+
+  Fiskatorpet, 220
+
+  Fiskebäckskil, 5, 42
+
+  Flight of Gustavus Vasa, 149, 150
+
+  Flora, 9
+
+  Folkunge, Johan, 69
+
+  Food in Lapland, 183, 184
+
+  Francis I. of France, 109
+
+  Frederikshald, 42
+
+  French influence, 72, 73, 105
+
+  Freyr, 113, 114
+
+  Fröding, 87
+
+  Fyris, 112, 115
+
+
+  Gallows of Visby, 134
+
+  Gamla Lödöse, 50
+
+  Gamlestaden, 50, 79
+
+  Garde Church, 141
+
+  Gardeners, 25
+
+  Geology, 7
+
+  Glögg, 205
+
+  Göta älv, 19, 20, 198
+
+  Göta Canal, 9, 21, 44-69
+
+  Götaplatsen, 28
+
+  Göteborg, 16-31
+
+  Gothenburg, 9, 12, 16-31, 35, 43, 46, 47, 50
+
+  Gothland, 11, 76, 118-146
+
+  Goths, 12;
+    history of, 122-130
+
+  Grämunkeholmen, 77
+
+  Greenland, 6
+
+  Grendel, 34
+
+  Grip, Bo Jonsson, 110
+
+  Gripsholm, 110, 111
+
+  Grut, 90
+
+  Gulf Stream, 6
+
+  Gullmar Fjord, 41
+
+  Gustafsberg, 102, 103
+
+  Gustavianum, 115
+
+  Gustavus Adolphus, 21, 77, 78, 94, 113, 161
+
+  Gustavus I., 46, 50, 63
+
+  Gustavus III., 79, 107, 109, 111
+
+  Gustavus IV. Adolphus, 11
+
+  Gustavus Vasa, 58, 59, 80, 103, 112, 149, 150, 151, 152, 155, 156
+
+  Guta Saga, 119, 120, 123
+
+  Gymnastics, Swedish, 5
+
+
+  Hahr, Augustus, 58
+
+  Halland, 9
+
+  Halleberg, 52
+
+  Hällekis, 53
+
+  Hållsfjärden, 66
+
+  Hamilton, 79
+
+  Hans of Denmark, 59
+
+  Hans, painter, 112
+
+  Hanseatic League, 126, 130
+
+  Hansgatan, Visby, 136
+
+  Hazelius, 93, 94
+
+  Helena, Queen, 61
+
+  Hemse, 141
+
+  Henry III. of England, 125
+
+  Henry the Lion, 125
+
+  Herring fisheries, 23, 37
+
+  Hisingen, 49
+
+  Hoburgen, 145
+
+  Högalids, 91
+
+  Holy Ghost, Church of, 140, 141
+
+  Hotels, Swedish, 29, 116, 117
+
+  Hronesnass, 35
+
+  Hrothgar, 34
+
+  Hygelacs, 34
+
+
+  Ice-yachting, 3, 221
+
+  Idrott, 2
+
+  Inge, 61
+
+  Iron mines, 7, 163
+
+
+  Jämshög, 94
+
+  Jämtland, 4, 13, 214
+
+  Johan, Prince, 110, 112
+
+  John of England, 136
+
+  John III., 63
+
+  Jönköping, 66, 57, 58
+
+  Jordaens, 96
+
+  Jordfallet, 48
+
+  Josephson, 87
+
+
+  Karl Island, 145
+
+  Karlsberg, 55
+
+  Kastellholmen, 98
+
+  Kattlunda, 145
+
+  Kebnekaise, 191
+
+  Kettilmundsson, 64
+
+  Kew Gardens, 26
+
+  Kinnekulle, Mt., 53
+
+  Kiruna, 7, 8, 173
+
+  Knutsson VIII., Charles, 64
+
+  Knarnsveden paper mills, 163
+
+  Kneippbyn, 146
+
+  Koön, 39
+
+  Kopparberg (Stora), 162, 163
+
+  Kristine Church, 29
+
+  Krylbo, 200
+
+  Kulstade, 120
+
+  Kungalv, 39, 49
+
+  Kungshatt, 69
+
+  Kungsholmen, 85, 104
+
+  Kyrkstallen, 153
+
+
+  Laduslås, Magnus, King, 77, 78
+
+  Lafiensen, 97
+
+  Lallerstedt, 90
+
+  Land and people, 1-15
+
+  Långholmen, 69
+
+  Lapgate, 177
+
+  Lapland, 6, 10, 11, 13, 166-193
+
+  Lapp customs, 173, 180-186
+
+  Lapp dogs, 185, 180-186
+
+  Lapp hut, night in a, 176-186
+
+  Lapp huts, 178, 179
+
+  Lapps, 13, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 179, 180-186
+
+  Larsson, 97
+
+  Le Frans, 143
+
+  Lejonbacken, 74
+
+  Leksand, 153, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160
+
+  Lenotre, 105
+
+  Lepers’ Church, 133
+
+  Leslie, 179
+
+  Lewenhaupt, 79
+
+  Lewis, 79
+
+  Lighthouses, 64, 65
+
+  Likkair Snälle, 120
+
+  Liljefors, 97
+
+  Liljehorn’s House, 136
+
+  Linde, Van, 82
+
+  Ling, P. H., 3, 5
+
+  Linköping, 46, 62
+
+  Louis XIV. of France, 104
+
+  Lübeck, 71, 72, 80, 127
+
+  Lund University, 5
+
+  Lützen, 94
+
+  Lysekil, 5, 41, 42, 43
+
+
+  Madrid, 93
+
+  Magnus, 59, 77, 78, 127
+
+  Magnusson, Håkon, 48
+
+  Maiden’s Tower, 132
+
+  Majorna, 29
+
+  Marathon, 152, 156
+
+  Mälar, 67, 70, 85, 109, 110, 113
+
+  Manet, 96
+
+  Mariefred, 110
+
+  Margaret, Queen, 59
+
+  Margaret, Queen of Denmark, 149
+
+  Marstrand, 5, 38, 39, 43
+
+  Masreliez, 75, 107
+
+  Masthuggs Kyrka, 20, 29
+
+  Mem, 63
+
+  Merakar, 219
+
+  Midnight sun, 176, 177, 187-193
+
+  Milles, 87, 90, 91, 97
+
+  Mongolians, 13
+
+  Mora, 152, 153, 155
+
+  Motala, 60
+
+  Munkbron, 82
+
+
+  Naess, 32
+
+  Napoleon, 23
+
+  National Museum, 96
+
+  New Concert Hall, Stockholm, 91, 92
+
+  Nilsson, Magnus, 61
+
+  Njulja, Mt., 189
+
+  Nordiska, 93
+
+  Norrbro, 74
+
+  Norrköping, 46, 66
+
+  Norrland, 10, 13
+
+  Norrmalm, 72
+
+  Norrström, 70
+
+  Norsborg, 68
+
+  Norsholm, 46, 62
+
+  North Sea, 34, 46
+
+  Norway, 10, 96
+
+  Norwegians, 12, 13
+
+  Notke (Bernt), 77
+
+  Nynäshamn, 118
+
+
+  Odin, 113, 114
+
+  Öja Church, 143
+
+  Oktorp, 95
+
+  Old Apothecary Shop, 136
+
+  Old Houses, Visby, 135, 186, 145
+
+  Old superstitions, 144
+
+  Olympic Games, 5
+
+  Omberg, 57
+
+  Örbyhus, 111
+
+  Ornäs, 151
+
+  Orpen, 96
+
+  Örsbaken, 66
+
+  Östberg, Ragnar, 28, 84, 85, 87, 88-90
+
+  Östergotland, 45
+
+  Österlånggatan, 82
+
+  Östermalm, 90
+
+  Oxel trees, 55
+
+  Oxelösund, 64, 65
+
+  Oxford, 115
+
+
+  Palnoviken, 187, 190, 192
+
+  Passenger steamers, 16, 17
+
+  Patriotism in Sweden, 11
+
+  Peace, Congress of, 49, 110
+
+  Peasant Art, 159, 160
+
+  People, 11
+
+  Petersen, 82
+
+  Platen, von Baltzar, 47, 48, 60
+
+  Polhem, 46, 47
+
+  Pontresina, 213, 215
+
+  Porla, 7
+
+  Post Office, Gothenburg, 29
+
+  Powder Tower, 132
+
+  Precht, Burchardt, 77, 106
+
+  Public gardens, 25
+
+  Pussyfoot, 19
+
+
+  Queen’s Hall, 92
+
+
+  Railways, Swedish, 199, 200
+
+  Ramunderhäll, 63
+
+  Ratibur, King of the Wends, 49
+
+  Rättvik, 150, 152, 153, 154, 201-212, 214
+
+  Ravlunda, 95
+
+  Reception Hall, Stockholm, 90
+
+  Rehn, J. Erik, 106, 107
+
+  Reindeer in Lapland, 169
+
+  Rembrandt, 96
+
+  Restaurants, Swedish, 40, 41, 101
+
+  Riddarholmen, 77, 79
+
+  Riddarholmskyrkan, 77
+
+  Riddarhuset, 73, 81
+
+  Röjeråsen, 211
+
+  Roman Church, 141
+
+  Roos, 13
+
+  Routes to Sweden, 16
+
+  Roxen, 62
+
+  Royal Armoury, 93
+
+  Royal Hotel, Stockholm, 41, 116
+
+  Royal Palace, 74, 75
+
+  Royal Theatre, 108, 109
+
+  Rubens, 96
+
+  Russian steppes, 10
+
+
+  Saga, 16, 195, 196, 198
+
+  St. Bridget, Swedish saint, 58, 59
+
+  St. Catherine’s Church, 119, 140, 141
+
+  St. Clara, 88
+
+  St. Clement’s Church, 140
+
+  St. Drotten’s, 139
+
+  St. Goran’s Church, 133
+
+  St. John’s Church, 140
+
+  St. Lars’ Church, 139
+
+  St. Mary’s Church, 130, 137, 138
+
+  St. Moritz, 214
+
+  St. Nicholas Church, 129, 139
+
+  St. Olaf’s Tower, 140
+
+  St. Pancras Station, 16
+
+  St. Peter’s Church, 25, 140
+
+  Saltsjöbaden, 101, 220
+
+  Sandö, 146
+
+  Särö, 5
+
+  Scenery, 8, 9, 10, 33, 190, 193, 200, 201, 208, 209, 218, 220
+
+  Shaw, Norman, 84
+
+  Shop fronts in Sweden, 83
+
+  Sighafr, 143
+
+  Sigtuna, 70
+
+  Siljan, 13, 148, 149, 152, 201, 216
+
+  Siljeström (Lars), 159
+
+  Skåne, 7, 8, 12, 13, 85, 94
+
+  Skansen, 94, 95
+
+  Skärgård, 4, 19, 33, 68, 100, 101, 104, 198
+
+  Skate sailors, 221, 222
+
+  Skerries of Stockholm, 100-117
+
+  Ski-ing, 3, 210, 214, 215, 217
+
+  Skutskär pulp-mills, 163
+
+  Slagstaholmen, 69
+
+  Slite, 146
+
+  Slottskogen, 26
+
+  Småland, 12, 13
+
+  Smörgåsbord, 17, 18, 19
+
+  Snäckgärdsbaden, 146
+
+  Snaps, Swedish cocktail, 18, 19
+
+  Snasahögarna, 219
+
+  Söderköping, 63
+
+  Södermanland, Duke Charles of, 112
+
+  Södertälje, 66, 67
+
+  Södertörn, 67, 68
+
+  Sophia, Queen, 61
+
+  Sound, the, 46
+
+  Spetsnäset, 54
+
+  Sport, Swedish love of, 1
+
+  Stadium, 90
+
+  Stadsholmen, 71
+
+  Stadshus, Stockholm, 28, 85
+
+  Stage, Swedish, 108, 109
+
+  Standard of living, 15
+
+  Stånga Church, 141
+
+  Stegeborg, 63
+
+  Sten Sture, 64
+
+  Stenbock, Catherine, 59
+
+  Stendörren, 66
+
+  Stewart, 79
+
+  Stockholm, 4, 6, 28, 63, 67, 68, 69, 70-100, 214, 220, 221, 222
+
+  Stockholm Archipelago, 45
+
+  Storkyrkan, 76
+
+  Storlien, 219
+
+  Stortorget, 76
+
+  Strandgatan, 136
+
+  Strängnäs, 112
+
+  Stream, the, 101
+
+  Strindberg, 87
+
+  Ström, the, 102
+
+  Strömmen, 82
+
+  Strömstad, 42
+
+  Sturehof, 68
+
+  Summer in Lapland, 168
+
+  Sun worship in Gothland, 144
+
+  Sveas, 12
+
+  Sverkersson, King Charles, 61
+
+  Swedenborg, 42
+
+  Swedish characteristics, 14, 15, 148
+
+  Swedish Christmas, 194-212
+
+  Swedish East India Company, 28
+
+  Swedish gardens, 25
+
+  Swedish hospitality, 15
+
+  Swedish Lloyd, 16
+
+  Swedish meals, 16-19, 204, 205
+
+  Swedish steamers, 44, 45, 54, 55
+
+  Switzerland, 213
+
+
+  Tännforsen Waterfalls, 219
+
+  Technical High School, Stockholm, 90
+
+  Tengbom, 91
+
+  Tessin brothers, 73, 75, 78, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 112, 124, 125
+
+  Thirty Years’ War, 113
+
+  Thor, 113, 114, 123
+
+  Thorstenson, 79
+
+  Timber, 7, 8
+
+  Tiren, 156
+
+  Torne Träsk Lake, 176, 187, 190
+
+  Törneman, 90
+
+  Torsburgen, 123, 124
+
+  Trädgårdsföreningen Park, 26
+
+  Trees, Christmas, 200, 201, 203
+
+  Trollhättan, 50, 51
+
+
+  Uddevalla, 42, 43
+
+  Ulrika, Queen Louise, 106
+
+  United States, 15
+
+  University Library, Upsala, 115
+
+  Upland, 35
+
+  Upsala, 70, 112-115
+
+
+  Väderhatt, King Erik, 69
+
+  Vadstena, 58, 59, 60
+
+  Valdemar, 61, 128, 129, 132
+
+  Vallée, De la, 79
+
+  Van Dyck, A., 96
+
+  Vänern, 12, 51, 53
+
+  Vänersborg, 52
+
+  Vasaloppet, 152, 156
+
+  Värmdö, 103
+
+  Värtan, North, 103
+
+  Västergarn, 128
+
+  Västerlånggatan, 82
+
+  Västergotland, 53
+
+  Västgöte, Arvid, 64
+
+  Vättern, 12, 55, 56
+
+  Vaxholm, 103
+
+  Versailles, 74, 105
+
+  Viken, 13, 54, 55
+
+  Vikings, 2, 12, 34
+
+  Viklau Church, 143
+
+  Visby, 90, 118-141, 148
+
+  Visby Börs Hotel, 136
+
+  Visby Museum, 135, 136
+
+  Vising Island, 57, 58
+
+  Vreta Abbey, 61, 62
+
+
+  Walls of Visby, 130, 131, 132
+
+  Waterfalls, 10, 219
+
+  Westman, Carl, 84, 90
+
+  Winter sports, 3, 210, 211, 212, 213, 222
+
+
+  Zorn, 97, 156
+
+
+_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED,
+_Edinburgh_.
+
+Transcriber’s Notes
+
+Page 224—changed Djurgårdsstaden to =Djurgårdestaden=
+Page 226—changed Orbyhus to =Örbyhus=
+Page 227—changed Rojeråsen to =Röjeråsen=
+Page 227—changed Sten Stura to =Sten Sture=
+Page 228—changed Trädgardsföreningen to =Trädgårdsförengen=
+Page 228—changed Västgote to =Västgöte=
+Page 228—changed Västerlanggatan to =Västerlånggatan=
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76905 ***
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+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      Sweden | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76905 ***</div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter width563 x-ebookmaker-drop" id="cover-small">
+<img src="images/cover-small.jpg" alt="">
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_008">
+<img src="images/i_008.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="650">
+<p class="caption center">THE TOWN HALL, STOCKHOLM</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_002">
+<img src="images/i_002.jpg" alt="title page" width="434" height="650">
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="title-page">
+<h1>    SWEDEN</h1>
+<p class="center p80"> BY</p>
+<p class="center p80"> DUDLEY·HEATHCOTE</p>
+<p class="center p80">    WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</p>
+<p class="center p80">    A·HEATON·COOPER</p>
+
+<p class="center p80">    A&amp;C BLACK LTD</p>
+<p class="center p60">     4.5.6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1.</p>
+
+<p class="center">    <i>Published in 1927</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">    Printed in Great Britain</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">    TO</p>
+
+<p class="center">    LOUISA BLANDFORD</p>
+
+<p class="center">    IN TOKEN OF ESTEEM
+</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>NOTE</p>
+
+<p>I record my acknowledgement to the Editors of the following journals in
+which a few of the chapters of this book have already appeared: <i>The
+Fortnightly Review</i>, <i>The Spectator</i>, <i>The Field</i>, <i>The
+Westminster Gazette</i>, <i>Eve</i>, <i>Country Life</i>.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">DUDLEY HEATHCOTE.</span><br>
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table><tr>
+<th class="chap"><span class="allsmcap">CHAP.</span></th>
+<th class="chn"></th>
+<th class="pag"><small><small>PAGE</small></small></th>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">I.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Land and People </span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">II.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Gothenburg</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">III.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Bohuslän </span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">IV.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Göta Canal</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">V.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Stockholm</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">VI.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">The Skerries of Stockholm</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">VII.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Gothland</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">VIII.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Dalecarlia</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">IX.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Lapland</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">X.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">A Night in a Lapp Hut</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">XI.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">An Impression of the Midnight Sun</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">XII.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">An Impression of a Swedish Christmas</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn">XIII.</td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Swedish Winter Sports</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+<td class="cht"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<p class="center">IN COLOUR</p>
+</div>
+
+<table class="toi">
+<tr>
+  <td class="chn">1.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Town Hall, Stockholm  </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#i_008"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="pag p60">FACING PAGE</td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">2.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Kullen Rocks, Mölle, on the Kattegatt</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">3.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Arild, a Fishing Village near Mölle</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">4.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Gothenburg, the Harbour</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">5.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Gothenburg, the City </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">6.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Marstrand </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">7.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Trollhättan Falls </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">8.</td>
+  <td class="cht"> Sjötorp Locks, Göta Canal</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">9.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Jönköping</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">10.</td>
+  <td class="cht"> Vadstena Castle, Lake Vättern</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">11.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Royal Palace, Stockholm</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">12.</td>
+  <td class="cht"> Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">13.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Islands in the Baltic, near Stockholm</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">14.</td>
+  <td class="cht">  Gripsholm Castle, near Stockholm</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">15.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Kings’ Mounds, Upsala</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">16.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Timber on the River Ångerman, Harnösand</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">17.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Kalmar Castle</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">18.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Ruins of Borgholm Castle, Öland </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">19.</td>
+  <td class="cht"> The Walls of Visby</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">20.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The City of Visby </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">21.</td>
+  <td class="cht"> Sunday at Rättvik, Dalecarlia</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">22.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Lake Siljan </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">23.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Mora Church </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_156">156</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">24.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Leksand Church </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">25.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Sundsvall, a Great Baltic Timber Port</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">26.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Luleå, Lapland</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">27.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Midnight Sun over Lake Torne Träsk, from Abisko</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">28.</td>
+  <td class="cht">A Lapp Hut on Lake Torne Träsk, Midnight</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">29.</td>
+  <td class="cht">View from Tourist Station, Saltoluokta, Lapland</td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">30.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Stora Sjöfallet, Great Lake Falls, Saltoluokta</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">31.</td>
+  <td class="cht">Lake and Village of Åre </td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="chn">32.</td>
+  <td class="cht">The Tännforsen Waterfall, Åre</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td></td>
+  <td class="ccn"> <i>Sketch Map on page xii</i></td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_xii">xii</a></td>
+  </tr>
+ </table>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_009">
+<img src="images/i_009.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="700">
+<p class="caption center">SKETCH MAP OF SWEDEN</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="SWEDEN">SWEDEN</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="tb x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">THE LAND AND PEOPLE</p>
+
+
+<p>For those who wish to wander a little further afield than France,
+Belgium, or Italy, there are few more delightful places in which to
+spend a holiday than Sweden, for not only is this country a paradise
+for the lover of open-air life and every kind of summer and winter
+sport, but it is a land especially favoured in the variety and beauty
+of its scenery and unique character of its climate and geological
+formation, the peculiar charm of its atmospheric effects, and the
+appeal that lies in its strong national characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>The Swedes hold of course that they were the originators of the various
+kinds of sport that are practised in Europe to-day, though they confess
+that the supremacy which they originally exercised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> in this field of
+human activity soon passed to other countries; in fact, that it is only
+comparatively of recent years that they have made any serious attempts
+to regain their lost laurels. Idrott, or sport, is an old Swedish name,
+and it cannot be denied that among the ancestors of the present-day
+Swedes sports were in vogue even in times beyond the reach of history,
+no ancient literature in the world containing so many descriptions
+of sport as the old Norse sagas. We read that greater assiduity was
+shown by the Vikings in perfecting themselves in strength, suppleness
+of limb, and courage than in promoting the culture of their mind by
+“exercise in the art of poetry and jurisprudence”. Their principal
+sports consisted of racing (either with or without armour), running
+and leaping of various kinds, wrestling, ski-running, tugs-of-war and
+throwing the spear, skating, swimming, riding, archery, and fencing
+with sword and shield play, and also many ball games. Every one of
+these sports, and also such typically British games as Association
+football and ice or ground hockey, are now played extensively in their
+proper season, the great importance that is attached to athletics
+being more than justified by the brilliant results which Swedish
+athletes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> have lately been attaining in the Olympic games. More truly
+characteristic of Swedish life, however, than any field game, or even
+than pure athletics, are certain branches of sport which perhaps thrive
+in Sweden better than in any other country in Europe owing to her
+peculiar climatic and geographical conditions; and also that system of
+physical culture which is associated with the name of P. H. Ling, the
+creator of modern movement therapeutics.</p>
+
+<p>Sweden, thanks to the severity of her winter, is perhaps the country
+in Europe where winter sports can be practised to the best advantage;
+and not only is ski-ing the Swedes’ national pastime even more truly
+than it is that of the Swiss, through it having become in many
+northern provinces of their country the only method by which the
+people can conveniently travel from one district to another, but it
+can be practised with even greater frequency than in any part of the
+Swiss Alps, and for a far longer period in the year. The Swedes also
+excel in figure-skating, tobogganing, and bobsleighing, while I have
+seen nothing as exhilarating as ice-yachting among the skerries of
+the Baltic when a good breeze is blowing, the speed attained by the
+ice-yachts often<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> exceeding that of any express train. To mention only
+a few places where Swedish winter sports can be played under ideal
+conditions, the ski-ing on the fjells of Jämtland, the skate and ice
+yachting among the skerries of Stockholm, rival, if they do not excel,
+any that can be found in other regions of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to her long indented coast-line, tideless seas, and a
+superabundance of large inland lakes, on the other hand, Sweden can
+offer ideal conditions during the summer months to those who like an
+open-air life and are not in need of the usual conventional amusements;
+and not only the Skärgård and the extensive Stockholm archipelago, but
+the coast of Bohuslän, stretching right up to the coast of Norway,
+provide ideal water playgrounds for those who are fond of swimming,
+boating, and yachting, the innumerable rocky islands surrounding
+the southern coast being perhaps unsurpassed for the opportunities
+which they offer in these respects. As sailing and motor boats can,
+moreover, easily be hired, and the air is magnificent, an extended stay
+during the summer months in this part of Sweden has much to recommend
+it, while there is always plenty of good and not too expensive
+accommodation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> to be found at such seaside resorts as Marstrand,
+Särö, Lysekil, or Fiskebäckskil, if only the prospective visitor
+applies for it in seasonable time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_015">
+<img src="images/i_015.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="600">
+<p class="caption center">THE KULLEN ROCKS, MÖLLE, ON THE KATTEGATT</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the domain of gymnastics proper, lastly, the Swedes have long
+exercised supremacy, and not only has the system of physical culture
+which Ling devised during the time that he was teaching fencing and
+gymnastics at Lund University proved to be one of the main contributory
+causes of Sweden’s subsequent athletic prowess, but it has been
+generally adopted in other countries of the world, and more especially
+in this country and the United States, Swedish gymnastics having come
+to be recognised as the most efficient and valuable physical culture
+system so far devised by man. Physical culturists, in fact, hold the
+name of Ling in such esteem that when the Olympic Games were last held
+at Stockholm many of the foreign and all the Swedish athletes who had
+flocked to the Swedish capital to participate in the games paid a
+special visit to his grave in order to offer their floral tributes of
+affection and regard.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Sweden is almost unique. Lying between the 55th and 69th
+degrees of latitude, it stretches nearly two hundred miles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> north of
+the Arctic circle and in line with the south of Greenland, while its
+most southerly point is not far north of Hamburg, and somewhat lower
+than parts of Northumberland, this length of coast implying great
+extremes of climate; yet so magical is the potency of the Gulf Stream,
+which fortunately flows in a north-eastern direction right across the
+Atlantic towards Scandinavia, that the lower layers of air are able to
+absorb sufficient heat to make even the extreme north habitable in the
+winter months, the weather north of the Arctic circle being, moreover,
+often delightfully warm during the summer. The average July temperature
+in Kiruna, the most northerly town in Sweden, for instance, is well
+over 55 degrees: that is to say, equal to the mean May temperature
+in England; and the sun never sets here or in Northern Lapland for
+a period of six weeks. Stockholm, on the other hand, has days which
+last nearly eighteen hours in June, with a temperature equalling that
+found in Paris at the same time of the year. Swedish climate possesses
+consequently the dual advantage of being sufficiently warm in summer
+to attract even the most exacting lover of sunshine and warmth, and
+yet of being cold enough in winter to provide an ideal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> playground for
+winter sports of every description, the period during which these can
+be safely practised being appreciably longer than in Switzerland or any
+other region of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Geologically, too, Sweden is one of the oldest parts of the world,
+its formation differing materially from that found in other European
+countries. It is, generally speaking, a very rich land, but its wealth
+usually entails a considerable amount of work to become productive,
+as the greater part of it consists of granite, timber, lime, and
+iron-stone. Everywhere, except perhaps in the south of Skåne, you will
+come across towns that are built on granite or even iron-stone rock,
+there being such a profusion of the latter that there are actually some
+localities like Kiruna where the iron mines serving as foundation do
+not consist of underground veins, but of mountains of ore from which
+the iron has to be blasted from the surface almost in its natural
+state. The spring water issuing from these rocks is strongly tonifying,
+moreover, and at such places as Porla has been converted to practical
+uses, its healing and curative qualities in all cases of debility or
+anæmia being remarkable. Next to iron, Sweden’s greatest asset lies
+in her timber<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> land, and dense forests abound which cover an area
+greater than the British Isles. It is estimated that over 52 per cent
+of the soil is covered by trees the greater part of which consist of
+pine, fir, and birch, while immense quantities of timber are cut every
+year for the wood pulp and other industries. Much more than the above
+might here usefully be written concerning Sweden’s great industrial
+resources, but as the writer of the present volume is not concerned
+with writing a book on Swedish industries but is merely seeking to
+offer some illustration and account of the many beauties and points of
+interest, artistic, historic, and social, of this little-known country,
+we will readily leave off considering such matters to find ourselves
+upon more congenial and, we will venture to say, more artistic ground.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest appeal which Sweden makes on all those who pay it a visit,
+however, lies in the beauty of its scenery, this being as varied as the
+climate or the character and appearance of the people that are found on
+its shores.</p>
+
+<p>Fringing the southern coast are the principal seaside resorts of the
+country, mostly in the province of Skåne, this province being the most
+fertile and thickly populated district of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> kingdom. Skåne, which
+is called the granary of Sweden, not only produces enough sugar-beets
+to supply the whole of Sweden with sugar, but boasts a vegetation
+and flora that are usually only found in more southern climes, its
+climate being so mild that peaches, apricots, and even grapes are
+found ripening to perfection, while it also abounds in old historic
+castles and manor-houses as well as dolmens and archæological remains
+that, like those found in Brittany and Cornwall, evoke prehistoric
+ages. Further north we come to Bohuslän and Halland, provinces that
+if a little barren in vegetation nevertheless possess a coast-line
+whose rugged wildness of scenery never fails to make a special appeal
+to the mind of those who are attuned to its beauty: dense groups of
+bare and often treeless red granite islands which when illumined by
+the setting sun become visions of beauty and hold the eye as surely as
+does the silver of the moon on running water. North of these provinces
+is Gothenburg, the second city of the kingdom and the starting-place
+of the famous Göta Canal that takes you through the very heart of
+the country, linking up in one continuous waterway of river and
+lake the capital of Sweden with the west coast; an idyllic journey
+that,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> lasting three days, conveys you along peaceful rivers, across
+shimmering lakes and past lush meadows overgreen from the bounty of the
+waterways near by. Then, after passing Stockholm, most beautifully
+situated of all cities, we proceed north through Dalecarlia, the home
+of folk-lore and peasant costume, a smiling, fertile country of rich
+farm-land and pleasant homesteads, until we reach the province of
+Norrland with its great wide valleys and undulating plains, boundless
+forests, roaring waterfalls, and barren mountain-tops on whose surface
+the colours of the sunset are ever playing in constantly varying
+flushes of crimson and rose, silver or grey. Here is the home of
+the timber industry, and here too winter sports and game of every
+description abound, the landscape evoking in turn the endlessness of
+the Russian steppes or the mountain scenery prevailing in Canada or
+Norway. And continuing our way north we finally reach the province of
+Lapland, a vast barren country of high mountains and immense forests,
+iron hills and foaming waterfalls, where live the strangest and perhaps
+the most primitive people to be found west of the Caucasus, and where,
+incidentally, a nine months’ bleak and bitter winter is followed by a
+delightful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> summer, during six weeks of which the sun never sets.</p>
+
+<p>Of such is Swedish scenery, its main appeal lying, I fancy, not so
+much in the contour of its landscapes, beautiful though they be, as
+in the peculiar clearness of atmosphere that appears to endow every
+object with an almost magical quality of colour; and whether you visit
+the more southern regions and the enchanted island of Gothland in the
+Baltic, or travel north to Lapland, you will invariably find, not only
+sunsets whose beauty so transfigure every crag, island, or peak, that
+you begin to feel as if you have been transported from the common world
+into some wondrous world of phantasy, but a crystalline limpidity of
+atmosphere that makes every detail and contour of the most distant
+landscape stand out with faultless definition. It is this continual
+drama of surprise and delight that captures one’s very soul and that
+gives a visit to Sweden its characteristic charm.</p>
+
+<p>Almost as great a diversity is seen, however, among the people who
+inhabit this country as in the scenery which I have just described; and
+though no other nation surpasses the Swedes in the patriotism, pride,
+and love of country which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> have always been some of their dominant
+characteristics, few present as many different racial features.</p>
+
+<p>In South-west Sweden, and especially in the province of Skåne, we find
+a population which strongly resembles the Danes living across the
+Sound in physique and character, the two races having for centuries
+constituted one political unit. Further north, and extending from
+Gothenburg to the Norwegian frontier, is a race of Goths who, like
+the sturdy inhabitants of Gothland in the Baltic, claim descent from
+the Vikings, the greater number of these famous sea-rovers having
+hailed from these two localities (this province is now called Viken).
+Further inland and to the north of the lake district of Vättern,
+Vänern, are the Sveas, a race of Swedes who, like the Dalecarlians and
+the men of Småland, constitute an element of the Swedish nation whose
+ethnological purity has been little affected by either Norwegian or
+Dane. The Sveas, unlike their southern neighbours, are distinguished
+by a liveliness and pleasure-loving temperament that makes them ideal
+hosts and boon companions, and also by a love of art and beauty which
+they share in common with the Dalecarlians. Like the inhabitants<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> of
+Skåne and Viken, however, they are an easy-going and industrious folk,
+but extremely combative and stubborn if roused. Even more attractive
+in disposition are the Dalecarlians, who are found clustering on the
+shores of Lake Siljan, and nowhere in Sweden will you come across a
+finer race of peasantry or one less spoilt by the modern spirit of
+industrialism.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_024">
+<img src="images/i_024.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="493">
+<p class="caption center">ARILD, A FISHING VILLAGE NEAR MÖLLE</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>As for the other branches of the Swedish nation, if exception has
+been made of the Roos Swedes who are found about the capital, and the
+men of Småland, to the north of Blekinge, whose proverbial honesty,
+truthfulness, and hardihood are as pronounced to-day as they were
+in the days of Charles XII., none can be said to be of pure Swedish
+stock. Norrland is inhabited by a race which either strongly resemble
+their Norwegian neighbours (in Jämtland) or ethnologically are not
+unrelated to the Finns and Lapps, with whom there has been some slight
+intermarriage; while you meet in Lapland a Mongolian people that are
+entirely alien to the remainder of Sweden in both manner of living and
+race.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of ethnological distinctions which, it should be stressed,
+are in any case not any more strongly marked than those at present
+existing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> in the British Isles, the Swedish nation remains to-day as
+of old one of the most united countries in the world as well as one of
+the most distinctive, its highly marked national characteristics never
+failing to impress the visitor.</p>
+
+<p>If I were now asked for the dominating impressions which the Swedish
+nation generally leaves on the mind of people visiting their country,
+I would say that the first is of a highly practical, hard-working,
+and cultured race, which not only considers efficiency as one of the
+cardinal virtues, but also manages to ensure such a quality being the
+one outstanding characteristic which any foreign observer never fails
+to remark whenever he comes into contact with Swedish national or
+civil life. I strongly question whether towns more efficiently run,
+and citizens more profoundly imbued with civic or public spirit, are
+to be found anywhere in either Europe or America than in this country,
+the result being a husbanding of resources and a co-ordination of
+public and private activities that certainly makes for prosperity and
+contentment. Nowhere have I seen cleaner or more orderly streets,
+tramway or telephone and public services better run, public squares or
+parks more beautifully laid out, educational and cultural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> institutions
+better designed to promote the welfare of the race; hospitals, prisons,
+and public institutions better organised or conducted, and public
+buildings and business undertakings conceived on a larger scale. The
+second impression, of a general standard of living vastly superior
+to that found in any country in the world outside the United States,
+with the additional advantage of a comparatively small difference
+between the standards attained by the rich and poor respectively; and
+the third, of a people that combines an almost excessive formality of
+manners with the most lavish and whole-hearted hospitality, there being
+few countries, moreover, where an Englishman is more certain of being
+well received wherever he may go.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">GOTHENBURG<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> In Swedish, <i>Göteborg</i>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The two principal ways of reaching Sweden from England are: the first
+via the Continent and the Sassnitz Trälleborg train ferry route, the
+second by steamer across the North Sea; and for those who are not
+subject to sea-sickness the sea route is by far the more comfortable of
+the two. I travelled direct to Gothenburg in one of the Swedish Lloyd
+Company’s boats, the <i>Saga</i>, and found both boat and crossing
+a pleasant experience. There is a special train from St. Pancras to
+Tilbury in connection with the steamers, and the crossing takes about
+forty-five hours, instead of the long railway journey, and endless
+passport formalities, which all take place, however, in the comfortable
+through carriages. Swedish passenger steamers are invariably replete
+with every comfort and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> convenience, and the <i>Saga</i> was no
+exception to the rule, her cheery captain proving not only an ideal
+skipper, but a host whose gaiety and <i>entrain</i> were so infectious
+that even those passengers who were beginning to be adversely affected
+by the strongly dipping and rolling boat were beguiled into making
+light of their troubles. The two great events of the day on board a
+Swedish boat are always the two principal meals, and in this respect a
+Swedish steamer is much like other boats, but the thing that marks out
+the Swedish meal from its fellows, whether taken on land or sea, is
+the Smörgåsbord (the bread-and-butter table, literally butter-goose)
+which almost invariably opens the meal. Prominently exposed on the
+various sideboards that greet you as you enter the dining-saloon are a
+large selection of dishes flanked by tall stands upon which enormous
+pats of butter and a most varied assortment of breads are heaped:
+black bread, white bread, honey bread, wheaten bread; and as soon
+as the gong has sounded for luncheon (or dinner) the guests make a
+massed attack on these dishes, after arming themselves with a large
+plate, knife, and fork. You first help yourself handsomely to butter
+out of a huge central stand and also to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> the species of bread which
+you fancy, and then proceed to fill up your plate with as large a
+choice of edibles as possible, there being no fixed rule as to the
+sequence in which these are to be eaten. Around you are eggs in every
+conceivable form, olives, tomatoes and sardines, anchovies, cucumber in
+sweet sauces, cold fried fish and strömming salmon, hams and cheeses
+hailing from many lands, sausages and Swedish caviar, fish in aspic,
+pâtés and minces, as well as the great national delicacy called “sill”,
+consisting of slices of herring floating in sweetened vinegar and
+plentifully flavoured with spices and onion, which the Swedes consume
+before anything else. This ambulatory portion of the meal is apt to
+last a considerable time, as a Swede who is in form is rarely satisfied
+with one journey to the Smörgås table, but the inexperienced should
+abstain from following his example, however enticing the lure that lies
+in novel gastronomic experiments, in view of the very liberal meal that
+they are expected to consume after it, and of which the Smörgåsbord
+constitute only a preliminary <i>coup d’essai</i>. As accompaniment to
+these somewhat strenuous <i>hors-d’œuvre</i>, a species of cocktail
+called <i>snaps</i>, consisting of pure alcohol flavoured with a kind
+of carroway, is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> invariably swallowed in one gulp before attacking the
+Smörgåsbord or immediately after that operation has been completed.
+This beverage is certainly a better appetiser than any commonly drunk
+in England, which may possibly account for the ease with which the
+average Swede is able to demolish an almost infinite selection of
+smörgås without either his capacity appearing to be strained or his
+curiosity to be sated, while he then proceeds to wash down the meal
+proper that follows with plentiful draughts of a Pilsener (No. 2 or 3)
+that are so innocuous that even Pussyfoot Johnson would drink of it
+without polluting his immortal soul.</p>
+
+<p>The approach to Gothenburg from the sea is exceptionally beautiful,
+and the traveller should make a point of being up early on the morning
+of arrival to see the ship as it forges its path through the rocky
+archipelago of the Skärgård lying at the mouth of the river Göta älv.
+Here are thousands of islands, many of these bare of trees and without
+the slightest vegetation, whose red granite boulders, if seen in summer
+with the sun and waves beating upon them, possess a fascination that no
+artist as yet has adequately been able to convey on his canvas. They
+are the favourite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> haunts of the inhabitants of Gothenburg, and like
+the skerries of Stockholm, are admirably adapted for bathing, yachting,
+and living the simple life, the whole coast right up to the Norwegian
+frontier providing almost equal facilities for this form of sport. The
+first object that comes into view of the town proper, however, as you
+pass the last group of islands of the archipelago (and even before that
+if the day is at all clear) is the tall high tower of the Masthuggs
+Kyrka, which is one of the best-known landmarks on the coast; and then
+as the boat draws nearer to the harbour mouth the whole panorama of
+Gothenburg appears before you in all its splendour. Here the busy,
+humming port, crowded with shipping of every kind, from the massive
+ocean liner to the smaller coasting vessel, fishing smack, or miniature
+passenger steamer; there enormous floating docks and shipbuilding
+yards whose unceasing activity attests Gothenburg’s prosperity, with
+as background to the whole scene the city itself with its many fine
+buildings and towers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_035">
+<img src="images/i_035.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="446">
+<p class="caption center">GOTHENBURG—THE HARBOUR</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Built largely on a foundation of rock and situated about five miles
+from the river Göta älv at the foot of low-lying hills that are almost
+equally rocky, the city of Gothenburg probably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> owes not a little
+of its reputation to the fact that it stands on the threshold of a
+district which is not only one of the best known and most popular of
+any in Sweden, owing to it being the starting-point of the famous
+Göta Canal route, but which also possesses an almost inexhaustible
+store of interests at the disposal of the student of mediæval history,
+folk-lore, and geology.</p>
+
+<p>Like many other Swedish towns, Gothenburg is comparatively a modern
+city, but it stands on a site that is a veritable storehouse of legend
+and history, the adjoining territory having frequently changed hands
+or provided a battle-ground for those nations or piratical bands that
+were usually found contending for its possession. It was founded in
+1621 by Gustavus Adolphus, after a visit which this enterprising and
+far-sighted monarch paid to the mouth of the river Göta älv early in
+that same year with the object of seeing if a commercial port could
+not conveniently be erected as close to the main ocean highways as
+possible to ensure his country becoming a factor in the world trade of
+the future. We are told that as he was deliberating on the matter, a
+bird who was being pursued by an eagle dropped suddenly at his feet,
+and that looking down at the utterly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> exhausted bird he remarked that
+he could not look for a more promising omen.</p>
+
+<p>“Here I shall build the town,” he declared; and acting on these words,
+he selected the present site of the city and entrusted its planning and
+building to some Dutch mercantile experts whose help he had solicited.
+The town was accordingly laid out in the Dutch manner, with many
+artificial canals and straight streets, and was also fortified and
+surrounded by a large moat. Ultimately the walls were razed to make
+way for a beautiful esplanade, while the moat was converted into a
+picturesque artificial waterway with high trees, bordered vernal banks,
+which winding in and out through the very heart of the town, have
+invested those portions traversed by it with a scenic charm that they
+would hardly have possessed otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>The subsequent history of the town soon demonstrated the wisdom which
+had dictated Gustavus Adolphus’ selection of a site, for the city not
+only received large influxes of colonists, mostly German, Dutch, and
+Scotch, who materially contributed to its welfare by the important
+and fast-growing volume of trade which followed in their wake, but
+very quickly became an important trade centre for eastern commodities.
+The East<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> India Company, which was established here about this time,
+was for a long time one of Sweden’s most flourishing concerns, while
+the herring fisheries on the coast of Bohuslän became sufficiently
+productive to allow large quantities of this fish to be exported to
+foreign lands. Further impetus was given to the commerce of the town,
+moreover, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, by Napoleon’s
+attempt to enforce a continental blockade of Great Britain in 1806,
+this short-sighted measure having the effect of converting the Swedish
+city into the principal emporium and transit mart of all English goods
+in North Europe, while its subsequent progress has been almost equally
+marked. During the War it enjoyed a period of tremendous prosperity
+which, though followed by an unavoidable slump, has nevertheless
+persisted to this day, Gothenburg having by now entirely superseded
+Stockholm as the leading exporting and shipping centre, while it has
+also become the second most populated town in Sweden, as well as an
+important educational and cultural centre, and one of the most thriving
+commercial and industrial cities of the kingdom. Gothenburg owes these
+advantages, however, almost as much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> to the tireless energy, business
+acumen, and flair which her inhabitants appear to have inherited from
+their Swedish, German, and Dutch ancestors as to her favoured position
+in the world markets; and in no other town in Europe of equal size
+will the traveller find a more hard-working or efficient <i>corps
+commercial</i> or a population whose civic pride and public spirit
+so strongly impel them to insist on superefficiency. The town has
+consequently a well-ordered aspect which appears to apply to even the
+most out-of-the-way path and little lane, while its administration has
+been raised to so fine an art that, apart from the town fire brigade,
+which seems to have been a little overlooked, the whole machinery runs
+on model lines. You may wander in the town when and where you will,
+and yet never find a street that is not clean or devoid of refuse,
+the local scavengers apparently fulfilling their duties at such an
+early hour and so unobtrusively that you will rarely come across them,
+while the public gardens and parks are so perfectly kept and become
+in May and June such dreams of beauty, that you are found most often
+calculating the lavish expenditure and imposing staffs that alone
+can have ensured such excellence. Indeed in no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> town in Europe have
+I found public gardens better or more artistically laid out than in
+Gothenburg, the Swedish gardeners often possessing not only an ample
+<i>expertise</i> and a sufficiency in botanical knowledge that marks
+them out among the gardeners of the world, but a natural taste of an
+order high enough to justify appeal being made to them in questions
+dealing with the designing of ornamental and formal gardens.</p>
+
+<p>To visit Gothenburg without seeing its gardens is therefore as
+unthinkable as if you passed through Rome without seeing St. Peter’s;
+and though every visitor should, almost as soon as he has landed,
+first take a stroll over by the water front (this being the obvious
+thing to do) in order to steep his mind with an adequate sense of the
+town’s importance as a commercial and shipping centre (which should be
+his principal dominating impression), he must immediately afterwards,
+and before seeing anything else, stroll even more leisurely along the
+delightful artificial waterway that has given Gothenburg its peculiar
+resemblance to a Dutch city; and after passing by the picturesque
+market thronged by lusty market women who can daily be seen selling
+their baskets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> of fruit and flowers along the very water edge, linger
+for a while in the beautiful Slottskogen and Trädgårdsföreningen parks,
+on whose upkeep and embellishment many municipalities have expended
+lavish sums. In the summer months these gardens are a dream of delight
+and colour, while they are so beautifully kept and well ordered that
+though frequently invaded by festive crowds there appears to be an
+almost entire lack of that careless abandon that so often impels the
+British holiday-maker to litter even the most pleasant garden with
+paper bags and food refuse. Of the two parks the Trädgårdsföreningen
+is perhaps the finer and more restful, and it contains incidentally
+one of the finest hot-houses for tropical plants that are to be found
+in Northern Europe after those in Kew Gardens, as well as a very good
+restaurant and theatre; but the Slottskogen park contains almost as
+many pleasing features, although its principal charms are to be found
+in the natural beauty that it possesses or in the magnificent view
+that can be obtained of the city and surrounding country from its
+Belvedere, rather than in the number, variety, and orderly beauty of
+its flower-beds, which are not to be compared to those of the other
+park.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p>
+
+<p>Having thus briefly surveyed the various vicissitudes through which
+Gothenburg has passed in the course of its somewhat short life as a
+city, and given some account of its parks and general aspect, we may
+now proceed to consider some of the principal characteristics of the
+town itself, its monuments and other public buildings, and then deal
+with the surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p>Like many other Swedish towns, Gothenburg impresses from the first
+as a city in which every street and building form integral parts of
+a general scheme. The thoroughfares are mostly ample in size and the
+buildings nearly all modern structures of stone and plaster in which
+the new school of Swedish architecture has sought to express a purely
+Swedish style of architectural expression. As I intend in a subsequent
+chapter to treat this subject more fully, I will content myself with
+saying that though the public buildings of Gothenburg undoubtedly
+reflect the art that was preconised by such masters as Clason and
+Ferdinand Boberg in the way in which the principal ornamental designs
+centre around the entrances, and also in the very distinctive form of
+panelling and decorative <i>motifs</i> which characterise them, they
+should not be taken as typical examples of a style<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> which can only be
+studied to advantage in the capital. I should therefore advise all
+lovers of architecture, whose first view of Sweden is by way of this
+city, to suspend all judgment of Swedish architecture until they have
+arrived in Stockholm and seen Ragnar Östberg’s famous masterpiece, the
+new Stadshus.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_044">
+<img src="images/i_044.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="476">
+<p class="caption center">GOTHENBURG—THE CITY</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Of the many new buildings of Gothenburg which have been inspired by
+the new school, the most pretentious and interesting is the New Art
+Gallery, which was opened to the public last year at Götaplatsen, a
+big, massive building containing a fine handsome loggia with seven high
+round arches, which, though awaiting completion, possesses a certain
+massive dignity that is not without charm. Of the other numerous
+buildings that are to be found in the town, which incidentally probably
+contains a greater number of scholastic institutions, technical
+colleges, and hospitals than any other city of its size in the world,
+there are few which deserve any special mention. A visit should,
+however, be made to the old seventeenth-century building on the Harbour
+Canal in which the Swedish East India Company once had their offices
+and warehouses, where very interesting ethnographical and sociological
+historical collections<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> can be seen, and also to the new General
+Post Office, which is probably the largest post office to be found
+in the north of Europe. As for the churches of Gothenburg, there are
+only one or two that are in any way out of the common, and none that
+should detain the tourist for any appreciable length of time, except
+perhaps the Masthuggs Church, situated in the suburb of Majorna, whose
+red-bricked tower certainly possesses quite a distinctive air of its
+own, and also the Kristine or German Church on the Harbour Canal. The
+remainder are devoid of any special interest.</p>
+
+<p>Before passing on to consider the many pleasant excursions that can
+be made from Gothenburg along the coast of Bohuslän, a few remarks
+concerning the hotels and restaurants of the town may not fall amiss;
+and while I have little further to add to the description which I gave
+in the earlier pages of this chapter of a typical Swedish meal (the
+luncheon which I described being characteristic not only of Swedish
+steamers but also of Swedish towns generally), it may be useful to
+point out that the hotels of Gothenburg mostly belong to the expensive
+category, and that travellers should not therefore base their estimate
+of costs on this city alone, Gothenburg and Stockholm<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> being probably
+the two most expensive towns in the whole of Sweden. Swedish hotels are
+invariably clean and comfortable, however, and though a traveller may
+at first experience a certain shock at finding that the stalwart and
+often prepossessing chambermaid whom he has requested to prepare his
+matutinal bath will not only prepare it most adequately, but will also
+look very aggrieved if he does not allow her to scrub and generally rub
+him down much as his nurse used to do in the days of his childhood, he
+will find little else that differs materially from his experience of
+English hotels. Swedish rule of behaviour must, however, be acquired
+by any visitor who intends to make a protracted stay in the country,
+as Swedish table manners differ considerably from our own; and one of
+the first rules that must be mastered is never to drink any wine at a
+dinner or luncheon party without first toasting somebody: it does not
+matter who it is so long as it is not your hostess. As this book is not
+intended to be a Swedish etiquette manual, we will now pass on to other
+subjects, after contenting ourselves with saying that though the custom
+referred to is the one which the ignorant Englishman is the most likely
+to break, there are many others that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> should try to assimilate,
+especially if he happens to be one of those luckless individuals who
+are always doing the wrong thing. In no other country in Europe has
+a <i>gaffeur</i> more opportunities for showing off this particular
+failing.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">BOHUSLÄN</p>
+
+
+<p>A more weather-worn and scarred coast than Bohuslän is difficult to
+find, for the waves have cut so deeply into its shore that it presents
+the appearance of a huge and abnormally uneven comb with countless
+jagged teeth or “Naess”, between whose steep and precipitous banks
+equally innumerable and winding fjords have eaten deeply into the land.
+In winter, when both sky and rock are bleakly grey and repellent, it
+brings suggestions of desolateness and strife, and affords foreboding
+vistas of innumerable clusters of bare rock often separated by the
+narrowest of channels, which some primordial giant of fable has
+scattered all along the coast to protect the mainland from the
+onslaughts of tide and breakers, and so maintain the integrity of the
+rugged country over which Beowulf once held sway. This forbidding coast
+has, however, many compensating advantages,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> and if only you explore
+it during the summer months with a certain amount of thoroughness it
+will never fail to appeal to any one who loves wild scenery. To see
+it at its best you should of course visit it when the sky is azure
+blue and the waves are beating against the rocky red granite islands
+of the Skärgård, encircling them with snow-white foam, while the sun
+is transfiguring even their most forbidding boulder into a dream of
+beauty. But even if conditions are not as favourable, you may, if you
+wander a little far afield, find concealed here and there among the
+fjords and skerries many enchanting valleys and little coves where
+trees grow luxuriantly and which are so protected from wind and storm
+that even the most exacting lover of warmth and sunshine will in summer
+imagine he has been transported to a more southern clime, without
+too much stretching of his imagination. Arid and grey-looking as the
+greater part of the mountain landscape may be, the restful green of
+pine and fir is never entirely absent; and while there is also the
+cool grey of crag and peak to delight the eye, even the wildest and
+most rugged mountain feature feels ever companionably close—not
+immeasurably distant and unattainable as the desert.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span></p>
+
+<p>Of all the provinces of Sweden, Bohuslän is perhaps one of the earliest
+inhabited, while the entire coast is stamped with memories, memories of
+Viking days when in the fjords of the coast the Sea Kings fitted out
+their fleets for voyages across the North Sea, or legends concerning
+the great Beowulf, King of the Western Goths, whose name is so bound up
+with Bohuslän that I cannot refrain from describing his most legendary
+exploit more or less fully.</p>
+
+<p>For many years Bohuslän had been looted and ravaged by Grendel the sea
+monster without being able to retaliate, when very unexpectedly there
+arrived in the land a strange boat full of armed men whose tall and
+fair leader was brought before Hrothgar, the King of the Danes (who was
+then ruling Bohuslän), and asked to account for his visit.</p>
+
+<p>“We are of the Goths kin,” he replied, “Hygelac’s hearth sharers; my
+father is widely known; he is the high-born lord Eogtheow.” Hrothgar
+recognised him as Beowulf, and bidding him warmly welcome, escorted
+him to his castle. That same night, as the King was sleeping, the sea
+monster crept into the palace and seizing one of the sleeping knights,
+“bit him through the body,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> drank his blood, and tore off his flesh
+in great strips”. Then he advanced towards Beowulf, and would have
+treated him in similar fashion if that knight had not forestalled him
+by immediately attacking. Seizing the monster with his two hands,
+Beowulf tore his shoulder open with a superhuman effort, and breaking
+his sinews rendered him powerless. Grendel limped away mortally wounded
+and made for the cavern at the bottom of the lake which acted as
+his lair, leaving a trail of blood behind him, but succumbed to his
+injuries while seeking to reach the bottom of the water. Next night
+his infuriated mother left the cavern to avenge her son, and creeping
+surreptitiously into the palace succeeded in killing one of the Danes
+before Beowulf could prevent her. The sea monster then fled back to her
+lair, with Beowulf following hard upon her. Reaching the lake he dived
+to the bottom, and though seized by the monster as he reached it, was
+able to draw his magic sword and slay his opponent. He then cut off
+Grendel’s head, and returning to the surface took the trophy back to
+the palace and laid it at the King’s feet. Some say that this legendary
+hero is buried on a headland at Hronesnass near Gothenburg; others that
+Upland<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> was his last resting-place, while objects similar to those that
+are depicted in the Beowulf Anglo-Saxon epic are shown to this day in
+both places purporting to have been discovered in the near vicinity.</p>
+
+<p>We should be too obviously departing from the legitimate scope of this
+volume were we to enter upon any detailed account of the many other
+legends which deal with Beowulf and his exploits. They are legion. It
+must suffice to say that the student of folklore and mythology will
+find in Bohuslän an almost inexhaustible fund of old legends at his
+disposal, as well as an unusually rich store of relics from even the
+earliest period of antiquity. I have been shown burial chambers and
+vaults that were 4000 years old, and also inscriptions on slabs of
+rocks dating from 1500 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> which purported to reproduce human
+forms or animals, while the whole district also abounds in cairns and
+grave finds of stone, bronze, and iron, many of these dating from the
+Stone, Bronze, and Iron epochs, as well as numerous caverns and islands
+that are popularly supposed to have been the favourite resorts of sea
+monsters akin to Grendel.</p>
+
+<p>As for the people of Bohuslän, they are in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> every respect worthy
+descendants of their Viking ancestors, and while their lives are not
+as equally colourful and picturesque, they are almost as constantly
+exposed to danger both on land and sea. A hardy and energetic race that
+turns to a seafaring life as by a natural instinct, they make ideal
+sailors, deep-sea fishing with its accompanying sister industries of
+salting and canning being one of their principal and most productive
+occupations, while those who are not employed in fishing earn their
+living quarrying granite, of which there are enormous quantities all
+along the coast, and shipping it to foreign countries. This occupation,
+though even more remunerative than that of herring fishing, entails
+even more risks, owing to the unfortunate tendency that charges of
+dynamite occasionally manifest of exploding at the wrong moment, large
+blocks of stone having frequently been known to crash down on groups of
+unfortunate workmen at the most unexpected moments.</p>
+
+<p>While there are many pleasant excursions that can be made along the
+coast of Bohuslän and among the islands of the Skärgård, there are none
+which will give the visitor a more comprehensive idea of the coast in
+as short a time as that which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> may be made by taking one of those many
+small steamers that ply regularly from Gothenburg to Marstrand and
+Lysekil, and then returning on the following day by the Uddevalla route.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Gothenburg, the steamer turns sharply northward, and after
+passing a lighthouse enters the archipelago of the Skärgård, through
+which it now proceeds to thread its way, stopping occasionally in
+front of islands on which you see grouped near a landing-stage a
+number of fishermen’s wooden houses, all painted red. Nothing very
+distinctive about the scenery apart from its almost entire lack of
+trees or vegetation, but many of the skerries are so protected from the
+wind, and they evidently offer such remarkable facilities for boating,
+yachting, and swimming, that you soon begin to realise the cause of
+their popularity during the summer months, while the scenery and
+conditions which they present are of so novel a character that you find
+yourself enjoying every minute of your leisurely progress through the
+channels and straits that separate them.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_038">
+<img src="images/i_038.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="447">
+<p class="caption center">MARSTRAND</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After about two hours’ journey you arrive at Marstrand, one of the most
+popular bathing resorts of the whole coast, and further meditations are
+cut short by the captain’s announcement that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> you have barely three
+hours for obtaining some food and also for seeing the town.</p>
+
+<p>Marstrand is a city of great antiquity, perhaps the oldest in the
+province after Kungälv (a town with which we will make acquaintance as
+we proceed on our way to Stockholm by the Göta Canal route), and like
+many towns that have enjoyed great prosperity, has little to suggest
+its former greatness, apart from a few old seals and documents. Two
+centuries ago it was one of the richest cities in Sweden, owing to its
+thriving herring fishing industry, though an old writer informs us
+that “the herrings suddenly began to disappear owing to the ungodly
+ways of the fisherfolk, after which it rapidly declined and sank into
+poverty and oblivion”. It has recovered, however, much of its former
+prosperity, and in the summer months is thronged with visitors, mostly
+Swedes and Swedish-Americans, who delight in its excellent boating and
+yachting.</p>
+
+<p>Built on a small island that is separated from another called Koön
+that immediately faces it by a narrow strait, it is dominated by an
+old dismantled fortress with a massive circular granite tower which
+dates from the seventeenth century and affords a splendid view of the
+skerries and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> surrounding country. As it entirely lacks even the most
+conventional form of amusement, it will hardly appeal, I fancy, to
+that class of tourist whose only conception of a seaside resort is
+based on their experience of English or French watering-places, and
+should therefore be avoided by any visitor who does not consider a
+bracing air, excellent bathing, yachting, and camping-out facilities as
+indispensable adjuncts to a holiday. In these respects, at any rate,
+few seaside resorts excel Marstrand, which incidentally possesses the
+additional inducement of a scenery that is almost unique in character,
+while its hotels are comfortable and their proprietors so up-to-date
+in their methods that almost before I had set foot on the island I
+found myself being rushed off to a particular hostelry (the Grand) and
+induced to order the most expensive and elaborate of meals. As Swedish
+hotel managers all appear to possess an equally ingratiating manner, I
+strongly advise people travelling with a light purse to fight shy of
+any but the cheaper hotels. In justice to the particular restaurant
+in which I was so dexterously inveigled I must add that, expensive as
+was the bill with which I was presented, the luncheon which I consumed
+was so excellently cooked as to almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> justify the expenditure that
+it incurred, the genial manager informing me that he had served a long
+apprenticeship in France before the War, and that nowhere in Sweden
+except at the Royal Hotel in Stockholm would I find a more delectable
+and recherché cuisine. Judging from the many restaurants whose food I
+subsequently sampled during my stay in this country, I rather fancy he
+was right.</p>
+
+<p>Passing on our way we then come to Lysekil, a busy little fishing town
+whose herring industry ranks next to that of Marstrand in importance.
+Like most Swedish cities of this part of Sweden its red-tiled houses
+are nearly all built of wood, but it is picturesquely situated at the
+mouth of the Gullmar Fjord and is not devoid of a certain charm, while
+it is equally celebrated for the efficacy of its medicinal waters
+and the excellence of its boating and bathing. Near the quays are
+innumerable sailing boats specially built to accommodate parties of
+twelve or more, in which one can comfortably cruise about the adjacent
+fjords for the whole or part of a day at a price that is obtainable
+nowhere in England, while the lover of sea-bathing will find every
+facility that he can desire, not only in the octagonal wooden bathing
+establishments that are to be found near the quays, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> in the many
+clear pools that abound among the rocks, the Swedish Mrs. Grundy being
+very tolerant with regard to the costume that may be worn on these
+occasions. But Lysekil possesses many other attractions, and is not
+only an ideal place for fishing whether out at sea or in the fjords,
+but the centre for many interesting excursions in the neighbourhood.
+Over across the bay is the picturesque little village of Fiskebäckskil,
+while further north is the seaside resort of Strömstad, quite near to
+the Norwegian frontier, and beyond it the fortress of Frederikshald,
+where Charles XII. was killed as he was attempting to invade Norway.
+Near this fort, incidentally, is a small cove where this Swedish king
+launched his galleys “after having had them dragged twelve English
+miles across the land from Strömstad”, a feat which, according to
+Emerson, was only rendered possible by the material help and advice of
+Swedenborg.</p>
+
+<p>The first part of the excursion being now completed, we then take
+the train for Uddevalla, and after a short journey, during which the
+scenery gradually loses its barren character, soon arrive at our
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>Delightfully situated at the foot of wooded hills and in a countryside
+whose luxuriant fertility is a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> pleasant contrast to the barren
+wildness of other parts of Bohuslän, Uddevalla is a busy little place
+with a large paper-mill and other industries that was originally
+founded by Dutch settlers. And like Marstrand and Lysekil, it is
+thronged in summer by Swedish holiday-makers, its principal appeal,
+apart from its pretty setting, lying in the splendid opportunities for
+open-air life that, like other Swedish summer resorts, it is able to
+offer to the visitor. Boarding the Gothenburg steamer, we then pass
+through the Byfjord and begin a journey that if taken so as to include
+a sunset will often present you with entrancing vistas of promontories
+and rocky islands that appear to have been especially designed as
+settings for the sun. And plodding our way among islands that by this
+time have lost all sign of vegetation we deposit portions of our cargo
+at various ports and pass countless granite boulders strewn along the
+coast that, seen in a fading light, look like huge sea monsters on
+whose bare backs the waves are beating in vain. Slowly the darkness
+deepens, and as the sky assumes its many shifting colours the beams
+from the lighthouses of Gothenburg come into view and very soon we
+reach our moorings in the harbour.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">THE GÖTA CANAL</p>
+
+
+<p>For those who are not pressed for time I can hardly imagine a more
+enjoyable trip than that of travelling from Gothenburg to Stockholm
+by the combination of river, lake, and canal known as the Göta Canal,
+a leisurely journey of two days and a half that takes you through the
+heart of the country, from coast to coast, on a line of steamers that,
+though bearing much the same relationship to an ordinary passenger boat
+as a Pomeranian to a wolf-hound, are models in miniature of what a
+river vessel should be, accommodation, cooking, and service being all
+that could be desired. The charm of this trip does not lie so much in
+the beauty of the castles, churches, and lake scenery that characterise
+it, as in the way in which it brings you into constant touch with the
+heart-beat of the country. At times the boat glides along fertile
+fields and meadows, and within sight of ancient<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> churches, pleasant
+villages, or old castle ruins; at others it makes its way across
+wide shimmering lakes or passes locks innumerable that afford ample
+opportunities for exercise to those desiring it. I shall not easily
+forget the enjoyable days that I spent in this manner seeing mile after
+mile of the most varied scenery unfolding itself before me, as I sat
+lazily complacent in a comfortable deck-chair, almost hoping that
+the journey would have no end. This passage across the very centre
+of Sweden is so assuaging that I most heartily recommend it to all
+those who hold with me that every traveller who would duly appreciate
+a country that is to him virgin soil should only visit it with mind
+attuned to the world, and consequently that the Göta Canal should
+be regarded as a kind of portal to the more arduous Sweden which is
+disclosed to the senses as soon as the last lake of Östergötland and
+the Stockholm Archipelago will have been traversed. Used both as an
+entrance and as an exit to Sweden, however, it is alike admirable,
+since in the first instance it predisposes the mind to view everything
+favourably, in the second it soon consoles the disillusioned traveller
+for any shortcomings and deceptions that he will have discovered in the
+rest of the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span></p>
+
+<p>The credit of building a system of waterways linking up Sweden’s many
+large lakes, and even the Baltic and North Sea, belongs to no modern
+engineer but to a certain Catholic bishop called Brask of Linköping,
+a town found on this route, who in 1525 advocated this canal in a
+letter to King Gustavus I. as a means of escaping the duties that were
+exacted by the Danes on shipping passing through the Sound. The work
+was actually begun at a place called Norsholm, and advanced so far
+that signs of it are still visible at Brask’s Ditch: only the King’s
+extensive commitments in other directions preventing further progress
+being made. And from that moment there was hardly a Swedish monarch
+who did not recommend the project, though nothing much was achieved
+until the reign of Charles XII., when Christopher Polhem finally
+obtained permission from the Swedish King to “construct a passage
+between Gothenburg and Norrköping by using the natural waterways as
+far as possible”. The Swedish Government was to be responsible for the
+financial part of the undertaking, and according to the terms of the
+contract that was now signed between the King and Polhem on January 17,
+1718, this engineer was to complete the canal in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> five years, a sum
+of 40,000 silver daler being allowed him annually for expenses, with
+a stipulation that any eventual deficiency would be made good by the
+King. The length of the sluices was fixed at that time at 180 feet and
+the breadth at 38 feet. The great engineering project was immediately
+started from the side of Gothenburg, but Polhem was compelled to
+abandon the enterprise at the King’s death in December of the same
+year, the Council declaring that the entire project was useless, as it
+was only a product of Polhem’s egoism and that it would therefore have
+to be abandoned. The completion of the canal was subsequently delayed
+for many years, owing to difficulties which arose attendant upon the
+construction of several of the locks, and it was only in the early part
+of the nineteenth century that a really concerted effort was made to
+complete the work, this ultimately leading to the opening of the route
+from the Cattegat to the Baltic in 1832, a result that was in the main
+due to Baltzar von Platen’s extraordinary energy and driving power. The
+cost incurred in completing the canal, as well as the time that was
+spent in building it, were so much beyond the estimates made at the
+time that there is good reason to assume that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> von Platen deliberately
+handed in an erroneous estimate from the very beginning, so keen was
+his resolve to allow no consideration to interfere with the carrying
+out of his plan, and so firm his conviction that a more correct
+estimate would only have torpedoed his scheme; this misrepresentation
+giving Sweden a canal that, though possessing far less importance as
+trade route or for war operations than many later canal constructions,
+is, as a piece of engineering work, ahead of even the Suez Canal.</p>
+
+<p>During the first stage of the journey the steamer proceeds slowly up
+the Göta river, and after passing Jordfallet, arrives in sight of
+the picturesque ruins of Bohus Castle, which dominate the two arms
+of the river. Erected in 1308 by Håkon Magnusson, King of Norway,
+this fortress long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most
+formidable strongholds of Scandinavia, and was also the scene of
+innumerable sieges and counter-sieges in which the attacking party
+invariably came off second best. King Eric XIV. invested it for over
+a year and a half, only to find his best armies and most experienced
+generals recoiling in defeat before its massive walls and equally
+stout-hearted defenders, and it continued to live up to its proud
+reputation of impregnability until<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> the beginning of the eighteenth
+century, when it was condemned as a fortress and left to fall to wrack
+and ruin. Only two of its towers remain, the <i>Fars hatt och mors
+mössa</i> (the father’s hat and the mother’s cap), of which the first
+is an interesting and well-preserved example of mediæval fortress
+architecture.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_067">
+<img src="images/i_067.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="445">
+<p class="caption center">THE TROLLHÄTTAN FALLS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the opposite shore, and immediately facing Bohus, is the little
+town of Kungälv, now an unimportant village, but at one time a large
+and thriving city which appears to have been the Scandinavian Geneva
+of its age. Here the rulers of the three Nordic nations used to meet
+in conference, and it was here again that the famous Peace Congress
+of 1101 held its meetings. Kungälv did not, however, long retain its
+exalted position, and after having been partly destroyed by Ratibur,
+King of the Wends, at the close of the twelfth century, quickly
+relapsed into comparative obscurity. Though shorn of all its former
+importance, Kungälv is an attractive place to visit, especially during
+the summer, and is picturesquely situated at the foot of a steep and
+thickly wooded hill from which interesting views can be obtained of the
+neighbouring country. Beyond Bohus are the green fields and marshes
+of Hisingen island and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> in the far distance the chimneys and church
+steeples of Gothenburg. After passing Gamla Lödöse (Old Lödöse), of
+which a story relates that by command of Gustavus I. its inhabitants
+removed to another locality twenty miles nearer the mouth of the river
+and there built a new town on the spot now called Gamlestaden, the
+steamer reaches Trollhättan and the first series of sluices that lead
+up to Brinkeberg Hill, the time spent in negotiating this uphill climb
+providing ample opportunity and leisure for seeing the Trollhättan
+Falls and electric power station. The Falls are six in number, and
+the sight of the great masses of water as they hurtle and leap down
+from one rocky shelf to the other, impetuously forging their way
+between rocky canyons in a frenzied descent of over a hundred feet,
+is impressive to a degree. The accumulated force of this water is
+more than 270,000 horse-power, of which over 170,000 have been turned
+to practical use by the huge electric power station that has been
+installed in the vicinity of the cataract; while of the current thus
+generated part has been transformed into electricity for the lighting
+of a 300-mile area and also for the Stockholm-Gothenburg railway,
+and part consumed by the numerous saw and wood-pulp<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> mills, smelting
+furnaces and ironworks which have been set up near the falls. For sheer
+grandeur of scenery Trollhättan compares favourably with any other
+place in Sweden, and abounds with beautiful walks in the surrounding
+woods, from whence magnificent views can be obtained in all directions.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after leaving Trollhättan the steamer begins what is to many
+by far the most attractive portion of the journey, for lake after
+lake are now traversed that, if lacking the dreamy voluptuous charm,
+soft atmosphere, and luxuriant vegetation of southern lakes, are
+almost equally pleasing for the exquisite loveliness of their sunsets
+and the beauty of their skies. Surrounded by low-lying hills and
+pine woods that often extend to the very water edge, these lakes are
+strongly evocative of Canadian scenery, and from early dawn to that
+golden twilight which in June is the nearest approach to night that
+is obtainable in these northern latitudes, present a slowly changing
+kaleidoscope of colour so rich and varied that not only does the eye
+rarely weary of watching it, but even the mind refuses to do aught but
+unquestioningly admire.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer first glides into Lake Vänern, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> largest inland lake
+in Sweden, and the biggest in Europe outside of Russia. Over 2000
+square miles in area, this lake is divided into two parts by two long
+necks of land, each with an archipelago. Dotted here and there are
+many beautiful islands and skerries, of which many call for careful
+navigation, compasses being often at a discount owing to the ore lying
+at the bottom of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>From Vänersborg, the first port of call in the lake, we motor or drive
+to Halleberg, a strange-looking hill that is now separated by a deep
+valley from Hunneberg, a sister hill which was originally one with it.
+Exceedingly steep and difficult of access, but equally picturesque,
+Halleberg is crowned by a large plateau in which lonely waste land
+alternates with small lakes and pine woods, where, if luck favours
+you, giant elks evoking prehistoric times may occasionally be seen
+crashing through the encircling branches. Like many other hills found
+in the vicinity of these lakes, Halleberg possesses many interesting
+geological features and affords a good idea of the type of Swedish
+scenery that characterises this part of Sweden.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_073">
+<img src="images/i_073.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="440">
+<p class="caption center">SJÖTORP LOCKS, GÖTA CANAL</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The steamer from here proceeds north, and after reaching the Eken
+archipelago, a labyrinth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> of small islands and skerries which present
+considerable difficulties to the navigator, rounds the promontory and
+turning south calls at Hällekis, a village that is most picturesquely
+situated at the foot of Mt. Kinnekulle. Towering over all the
+surrounding country, this mountain is not only so extraordinarily
+fertile that in early spring and summer it becomes a garden of wild
+flowers, but it possesses geological characteristics that in themselves
+would justify making it a special visit, there being no less than three
+distinct layers of rock strata below the diorite that once covered the
+entire hill. Surrounded by many pleasing valleys and woods, Kinnekulle
+is during the summer months an inland rural paradise and an ideal place
+for dreaming away an hour in quiet contemplation of the landscape.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Kinnekulle the steamer then proceeds north and at Sjötorp
+begins a long uphill climb along the canal leading out of Lake Vänern
+into the province of Västergötland. From lock to lock the boat is
+gradually raised until it is more than 150 feet above Lake Vänern, this
+providing a unique opportunity for getting down on shore and having a
+look at the country people working in the fields. I thoroughly enjoyed
+the experience,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> but found few fellow-passengers energetic enough to
+follow my example, the great majority seeming to prefer to remain on
+deck, from which they could occasionally be heard making those vapid
+exclamations of admiration that pass for appreciation of beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Comfortably reclining in deck-chairs and basking in the sun, it was
+clear that their thoughts were little concerned with the rustic beauty
+of the landscape through which they were passing, and that they only
+regarded the journey in the light of a rest cure. For this regrettable
+state of affairs I rather fancy the Göta Canal Company is in part
+responsible, for the diminutive little steamers in which the journey
+from Gothenburg is taken are so crammed full with comfort and so
+similar to miniature hotels that it is perhaps not to be wondered at
+that so many travellers succumb to their attractions and lazily allow
+life to slip by without worrying over such trifles as scenery or old
+and historic buildings. <i>On le ferait à moins.</i></p>
+
+<p>Quietly and almost unobtrusively, then, the steamer glides along
+fertile fields and rural landscapes, the canal being at times so narrow
+that at one place after passing Lake Viken (Spetsnäset or Pointed
+Ness) branches can actually be broken<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> off the trees lining the banks.
+Nothing very distinctive about the scenery, apart from its general
+pleasantness, but I noticed, in addition to innumerable silver birches,
+a profusion of unfamiliar trees of the ash variety lining the banks
+of the canal, which I was informed were called oxel or beam trees.
+Covered with white blossoms they made a pretty picture, though their
+general effect was rather marred by the very pungent and sickly perfume
+which emanated from their flowers, and of which I became unpleasantly
+conscious as I approached nearer to the trees. I made various attempts
+to bring back some of these sprays of white blossoms to the boat, but
+on every occasion elected to throw away those which I had picked, owing
+to their offensive and almost nauseating odour.</p>
+
+<p>After crossing Lake Viken, a typical forest lake of great natural
+beauty studded with rocks and small wooded islands, the steamer
+proceeds down the canal, and near the point where it enters Lake
+Vättern passes the powerful fortress of Karlsborg. Begun as far back
+as 1820 to serve as a final base of operations against a potential
+invader, this fortress was part of a scheme of defence which Carl
+Johan Bernadotte, the founder of the present<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> Royal House of Sweden,
+organised just after the Napoleonic campaigns in order to make good
+the wastage caused by a very exhaustive series of wars. It was thought
+at the time that the fortress would take ten years to build, and
+the probability is that it would have taken no longer a time if the
+military authorities had not been so anxious to make it outshine every
+other fortress in Europe. The result was that though any amount of work
+was put into building it the Swedish military authorities submitted
+so many plans and counter-plans that little was done that was not
+immediately undone, in view of a possible improvement, this policy
+causing the work to drag on till 1909, when the principal fort was at
+last completed. Passing on from Karlsborg we then enter Lake Vättern,
+the second largest lake in Sweden and perhaps the most beautiful.
+Shaped somewhat like a spindle, Vättern is fed almost entirely by
+subaqueous springs of purest quality which would account incidentally
+for the limpidity of its waters, and possesses so many legends and
+historic memories of the past that it has become invested with a charm
+and attraction that are quite its own. Our next objective being the
+town of Jönköping, at the southern extremity of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> lake, the steamer
+now takes a southerly direction, and after a few hours arrives in sight
+of the mysterious Vising Island, a visit to which is almost obligatory
+upon any visitor to the lake. It contains an old abbey and a castle
+which was for centuries the residence of the Swedish kings, as well
+as a number of runic stones that were erected in the Viking age to
+the memory of warriors who had fallen in distant lands. Apart from
+Mt. Omberg, with its lovely grottos and its wooded heights recalling
+Kinnekulle, however, we pass nothing else of special interest until we
+reach the extremity of the lake and the town of Jönköping.</p>
+
+<p>An important commercial city and the centre of the match industry,
+Jönköping is less frequented by tourists than the other parts of the
+lake because it is not on the direct line between Gothenburg and
+Stockholm and consequently is very often overlooked by English and
+American tourists. It is, however, well worth visiting, if only for the
+beautiful park which the municipality has had planted on the shores of
+the lake and a very interesting wooden church dating from the Middle
+Ages, in which I saw many quaint wall-paintings and carvings as well as
+an old portal that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> was simply riddled with Danish bullets. Jönköping
+is the most convenient headquarters for making excursions to either
+Visingsö, Vadstena, or St. Bridget, while it is within easy distance
+from the iron mountain of Taberg, the surrounding country being very
+typical of Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>Turning north again the steamer then proceeds to Vadstena, perhaps one
+of the most interesting historical places in Sweden, and certainly one
+of the oldest.</p>
+
+<p>Dominating the town is a large sixteenth-century Renaissance castle,
+built for Gustavus Vasa by Joakim Bulgerin, the best fortress architect
+of his age, as a defence against Danish Sweden, an imposing edifice
+forming one side of a rectangle, the others consisting of ramparts and
+four circular bastions bristling with cannon embrasures, which are
+surrounded by one of the widest moats that I have ever seen. A little
+too massive for my taste, yet not without a certain air, and replete,
+moreover, with historical memories, this building is typical of what
+Augustus Hahr calls “business-like architecture or utility buildings”.
+You feel that it was only constructed for a utilitarian purpose and
+that Bulgerin’s principal concern was to make a fortress that would
+resist<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> both the attacks of time and those of its enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Here many Swedish monarchs had their residence, including Gustavus
+Vasa, who was married here to Catharine Stenbock, and Magnus, who in
+a fit of madness hurled himself out of a window in order to “seize
+a beautiful girl whom he had seen rising out of the waters of the
+lake”. Here again many Parliaments were held, including that of 1501,
+when Hans of Denmark was dethroned. Vadstena owes its proud position
+as royal city almost equally to the convent which the same Magnus
+Eriksson had built on the shores of the lake in 1370 for St. Bridget
+and the religious order which she founded—the most influential and
+respected association of the north at that time. And especially after
+St. Bridget’s canonisation in 1391 the town increased in population
+and in importance sufficiently to enable Queen Margaret to give it
+full civic rights, while it was also entirely re-planned. Very little
+remains to-day of the original convent buildings erected by Magnus,
+but within the precincts of the lunatic asylum which now stands on the
+old site are still to be seen one or two nuns’ cells, and also the
+private chapel of the Abbess, while of the original gardens<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> there
+remain a few old pear trees dating from those early days on which the
+first Bergamote pears had been grown. Apart from the castle and convent
+there is little else of interest to be seen in Vadstena except the Blue
+Church, an attractive towerless building of bluish-grey limestone in
+which the bones of the saint and many memorials of the Middle Ages can
+be seen.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_082">
+<img src="images/i_082.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="479">
+<p class="caption center">JÖNKÖPING</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Passing on from Vadstena we next come to the town of Motala at the most
+easterly extremity of the lake, and re-entering the canal begin our
+gradual descent to the Baltic, after passing the stone memorial which
+the townspeople of Motala erected in the early part of the nineteenth
+century to Baltzar von Platen, the founder of the canal. Made of one
+solid block of stone, this monument is typical of early Victorian
+architecture, and a blur on the landscape. More pleasing and typical
+of a scenery which from this moment is perhaps the prettiest of any
+found on this journey are the many fine estates now seen on both sides
+of the canal and on the shores of Boren, the next lake that we meet.
+And after making its way across this very attractively wooded lake
+the steamer re-enters the canal at Borensberg and there begins a slow
+progression down fifteen locks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> in the short distance of two miles,
+a feat that, taking nearly two hours to accomplish, affords a splendid
+opportunity for walking to Vreta Abbey church situated near by. Built
+in the twelfth century, in the reign of King Charles Sverkersson, this
+old church has undergone many vicissitudes, and after being burned
+to the ground in the middle of the thirteenth century was repeatedly
+built over and even considerably altered in form and dimension. In
+1915, however, the church was restored and excavations made, in the
+course of which large parts of the old walls of the monastery building
+were brought to light and freed from the thick layer of soil that had
+covered them for centuries. Inside the Abbey are numerous graves of the
+Middle Ages, in which are treasured the relics of the old dynasties of
+the country, the most noticeable of these being the tombs of King Inge
+and his queen Helena, those of Kings Magnus Nilsson and Valdemar and
+Queen Sophia, and the well-preserved mortuary chapel in which members
+of the Douglas family lie buried. Like most of their countrymen who
+emigrated to foreign countries in the Middle Ages, the Scotch soldiers
+of fortune who came over to Sweden at various moments of her history to
+earn renown not only<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> made good but rendered signal and distinguished
+service to the country of their adoption, there being few fields of
+activity in which they were not soon prominent.</p>
+
+<p>From Vreta the journey now proceeds through Lake Roxen, there
+being, however, little to detain us beyond the pleasing character
+of the scenery and the town of Linköping on the southern side of
+the lake, where a visit should be made, if time permits, to the
+thirteenth-century Gothic cathedral which has been attributed to Bishop
+Bengt, brother of the mighty Birger Jarl.</p>
+
+<p>Richly decorated, this old church is one of the best examples of
+fifteenth-century Gothic architecture to be found in Sweden. After
+passing Norsholm, where tourists who are pressed for time can break
+the journey and proceed to the capital by train, we then cross one of
+the most enjoyable parts of the Göta Canal, the scenery being not only
+extremely attractive but equally varied. At one moment we glide through
+a lake (Asplången) whose banks are pleasantly wooded or studded with
+picturesque country houses; at another we follow the sinuosities of a
+canal that, winding its tortuous way through a most fertile landscape
+or passing between high banks of trees whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> branches sweep the
+very deck of our boat, is a revelation of what engineering can do.
+And passing lock after lock we reach Söderköping, once an important
+commercial centre and coronation city, now one of Sweden’s principal
+watering-places. Picturesquely situated almost on the shores of the
+Baltic, this town abounds in enjoyable excursions, the finest of
+these being the delightful though steep ascent that may be made of
+the heights of Ramunderhäll on the other side of the canal. An hour
+later, and as the steamer glides gently into an arm of the Baltic Sea
+at Mem, the water trip across the mainland of Sweden may be said to be
+completed, yet the remainder of the journey to Stockholm is no less
+enjoyable than that spent along the canal. We first pass the ruins of
+Stegeborg on our right, a solitary tower on the water edge dominating
+the surrounding country, which is the last remnant of a castle in which
+Gustavus I. and his son John III. are said to have passed the greater
+part of their lives. Stegeborg has had an interesting history, and by
+some authorities is declared to be of unknown antiquity, by others to
+date back to the twelfth century. All, however, agree that King Birger
+Magnusson held his court here at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> the beginning of the fourteenth
+century and that after his flight it underwent many vicissitudes.</p>
+
+<p>It was first captured by Mats Kettilmundsson, and then besieged in turn
+by Engelbrekt, Charles Knutsson VIII., Sten Sture, and Gustavus Vasa’s
+famous leader, Arvid Västgöte; the estates ultimately passing into the
+possession of certain noble families connected with the Vasa dynasty,
+only to be then dismantled and allowed to fall to rack and ruin.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_088">
+<img src="images/i_088.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="581">
+<p class="caption center">VADSTENA CASTLE, LAKE VÄTTERN</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From here the steamer proceeds past Etter Sound and the deserted
+copper mine of Arvidsberg along the wooded shore of the mainland
+until the Arkö Sound is reached, when it cuts right across Bråviken
+Bay and steers north in the direction of Oxelösund, the first of
+the Archipelago lighthouses (the <i>Femörehufvud</i> or Half-penny
+Lighthouse) being passed shortly before reaching this port. These
+lighthouses are not exceptionally striking to look at, but possess
+a lighting apparatus that is so exceptional that I am not afraid of
+wearying my readers by describing them with some detail. Around a
+petroleum flame 14 inches in diameter, whose glare is intensified by a
+powerful lens and driven by the heat generated by it, there revolves a
+rotary plate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> which ensures that the flame is adequately hidden at
+regular intervals from any given point, frames of coloured glass, red
+or green, in the body of the lighthouse itself but interposed between
+the flame and the outside world, causing that light to appear red or
+green according to the position in which the observer is then standing.
+This enables the position of the vessel to be correctly estimated.
+These lights are so distinct that no person who is not absolutely
+colour-blind should ever make a mistake as to their character, and
+so carefully adjusted that as you stand on one part of the deck of
+the steamer one colour is visible, while another can be observed if
+you shift your position in any appreciable degree. When the course is
+clear the light appears white. The archipelago is strewn with so many
+rocks and skerries, however, that even with the help of these splendid
+light towers the most expert navigator crossing it would be courting
+inevitable danger if to his skill was not added great local knowledge
+of the shoals and rocks lying in his course.</p>
+
+<p>Oxelösund itself is a very thriving industrial town possessing every
+natural advantage for the facilitation of transport both by land and
+water, in addition to being the terminus of the Flen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> Oxelösund railway
+and the port to which converges for transporting purposes practically
+all the iron ore mined in Central Sweden. The harbour is deep and
+capacious enough for the largest steamers, and enormous quantities of
+iron ore are shipped from here not only to other parts of the country,
+but also to Germany and Great Britain, where the high-grade Swedish
+iron is in great demand for the manufacture of heavy ordnance and
+plate armour. From this town, moreover, many delightful excursions can
+conveniently be made, especially in the direction of Norrköping.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing our journey, we then cruise in and out of narrow straits
+and among skerries and rocks that are at times so close that you could
+almost jump on to them from the steamer as you pass them by, there
+being one particular strait called Stendörren, or Stone Door, reached
+shortly after entering Örsbaken, that is so narrow and winding that
+only the exercise of the greatest caution and the firmest of hands
+at the helm can negotiate it successfully. From this point until
+Hållsfjärden, where the boat enters the Södertälje Canal, we then
+pass the most delightful scenery, the archipelago simply abounding
+in picturesque pine-clad islands<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> and rocks and furnishing endless
+subjects for an artist’s canvas, while the clearness of the atmosphere
+appears to endow every object with the most exquisite colouring.
+These skerries, like those found in Bohuslän and in the Baltic around
+Stockholm, are ideal places for fishing, boating, and yachting, and
+in summer become the happy hunting-ground of numbers of Swedish men,
+women, and children, who can be seen daily yachting or darting in
+and out among the islands in those very light motor-boats that have
+become so common a feature of Swedish life of to-day. As the islands
+number many thousands, however, there are hundreds which are still
+unfrequented, this ensuring a complete absence of those unpleasant
+elements which tourists are apt to bring in their train, there being
+countless beauty spots where even the most retiring traveller is
+certain of finding peaceful solitude and oblivion from the world.</p>
+
+<p>After passing through Södertälje Canal—which, incidentally, is so
+narrow that even steamers as diminutive as the canal-boats belonging
+to the Göta Canal Company cannot pass one another when crossing
+it—the steamer follows the coast line of Södertörn and soon reaches
+Lake Mälar,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> our course now taking us eastward in the direction of
+Stockholm, through scores of channels and past even more numerous
+islands set with pine and dotted with attractive red wooden houses or
+with the more imposing stone castles of the aristocracy. The scenery
+here recalls that seen in the archipelago of the Skärgård, with the
+one distinction that the shore line that we continue to hug until we
+reach the capital is no longer uniformly pine-green in colouring, this
+typically Swedish landscape colour being now frequently splashed with
+the more genial green tints peculiar to the elm, maple, and other less
+sombre deciduous trees. A very pleasant part of the journey this last
+stage. Steaming lazily along, we first come to the island of Björkö
+(Birch Island) on our left, where Christianity was first preached in
+Sweden by Ansgarius, in whose memory a granite cross in old Gothic
+style was erected on a prominent part of the island in 1834, and then
+swinging eastward follow the coast line of Södertörn, first crossing
+the narrow Bockholm Sound (Buck Island Sound), perhaps the most
+beautiful strait in the country. On our right we notice several fine
+estates, among these the beautifully situated Sturehof Castle, and
+Norsborg with its numerous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> graves purporting to contain the bodies
+of old Swedish giants, while we pass several islands on our left
+concerning which interesting legends have lingered on to this day
+attesting the part which they played in the early annals of the country
+or locality. Thus Estbröte recalls the history of Johan Knutsson
+Folkunge, whom the Esthonians treacherously attacked and killed on
+his family estate of Askanäs, only in their turn to be annihilated by
+his avenging wife when they had returned to their island lair, while
+Kungshatt (King’s Hat), one of the next islands that we come to, evokes
+the days of King Erik Väderhatt. Stuck on the top of a high pole that
+is visible from any part of the straits is a large hat which this
+warrior king is supposed to have flung aside as he jumped down from
+the rocks into the lake and with his horse swam across to the opposite
+shore when escaping from his foes. Then after passing Fågelö (Bird
+Island) and the islands of Långholmen (Long Island) and Slagstaholmen,
+whose shores are lined with villas and summer residences, we obtain
+our first view of the quays of Stockholm glimmering white in the water
+and of the city itself, beautifully situated amid encircling and
+intersecting waterways.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">STOCKHOLM</p>
+
+
+<p>Of all the capitals of Europe there are few which are more beautifully
+situated, or that have grown up by a more natural process, than
+Stockholm, and yet none that appear at first sight to have been built
+more deliberately on a site especially chosen for its beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Very little is known of its early history before the thirteenth
+century, except that the heathen monarchs of Svea then holding sway
+over the greater part of central Sweden erected a stronghold on one
+of a group of three islands found on the banks of the Norrström, that
+foaming stream hardly three-quarters of a mile long, which serves as
+connecting link between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic, and that around
+this fortress, originally constructed as a defence for the important
+merchant centres of Upsala and Sigtuna, a village<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> community arose that
+was destined to become the capital of the land.</p>
+
+<p>It was on these three islands, and in the midst of the watercourses
+connecting Lake Mälar with the Baltic, that Duke Birger Jarl, a
+powerful chieftain who was then ruler of Sweden, elected to build
+his capital in 1255. And taking into account the way in which the
+surrounding islands were being repeatedly harassed and laid waste by
+the rovers and pirates then infesting these seas, he strongly fortified
+the site of his new city, and so made it secure from any molestation.</p>
+
+<p>Stockholm soon outgrew the site of Birger Jarl’s original settlement.
+First the wall which had been built around it was moved outward
+until it eventually encompassed the whole of Stadsholmen; then other
+islands were included within the city, which by the Middle Ages had
+become a typical fortified town of the age, its commerce being now
+controlled by German merchants who obeyed the ruling of the Hanseatic
+town of Lübeck. It was only under the Vasa dynasty, however, that
+Stockholm freed itself from the tutelage of the foreigner, and almost
+concurrently with the further expansion of the town, whose old wall was
+now destroyed as the city began to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> encroach on the mainland on its
+northern side, Norrmalm, Gustavus Vasa liberated the country from its
+Danish oppressors, broke away from Lübeck, and laid the foundations of
+Stockholm’s greatness. The seventeenth century was the Great Age of
+the new capital, and during this period the town grew so rapidly that
+it had to be laid out afresh, while her citizens made every effort and
+sacrifice to convert their city into a really splendid capital town;
+a task which, given the almost unequalled situation of Stockholm,
+afforded unlimited possibilities. The city, which then occupied more
+than a dozen islands connected one with another by bridges, now
+witnessed a period of extraordinary building activity, and with the aid
+of the great riches which the victorious Swedish armies had brought
+home from the Continent, many stately buildings were erected which were
+in the main inspired from foreign models.</p>
+
+<p>As was natural in an age when Italy and France exercised a supremacy
+in the world of manners, art, and architecture that was almost
+unquestioned, the ambitious city magnates turned almost exclusively to
+these two countries for their architectural ideas. In 1641 was begun
+the building of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> Riddarhuset, the Assembly Hall of the nobility,
+one of the most exquisite Franco-Dutch Renaissance buildings which can
+be seen in Sweden, while towards the close of the century Nicodemus
+Tessin drew up the plans for a new late Renaissance palace which on
+its completion was acclaimed by all as Sweden’s and Tessin’s proudest
+architectural masterpiece.</p>
+
+<p>In the latter half of the nineteenth century, and following a period
+when architecture was at a low ebb, the city of Stockholm entered
+upon a new stage of development. The plan of the town was revised
+and numerous magnificent buildings projected which sought to create
+a purely national style of architecture as well as to make good an
+undeniable deficiency in monuments of first-rate artistic importance.
+Only during the Renaissance have municipalities or other public bodies
+expended on art and public buildings sums in any way comparable to
+those which the Stockholm municipality now lavishly began to devote
+to the embellishment of their city. In modern times it has never been
+equalled.</p>
+
+<p>The best way to approach Stockholm is from the sea, and the view that
+one then has of it is memorable. On the left, the southern part of
+the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> city rising perpendicularly from the water towers like another
+Edinburgh, while between the northern and southern sides the Old Town,
+with its many quaint Hanseatic buildings and old palaces, recalls parts
+of old Amsterdam. Dominating the whole and facing the new Stockholm is
+the imposing Royal Palace, a massive rectangular Italian Renaissance
+pile of grey stone with a central courtyard and lower wings projecting
+east and west, which many architects consider the most beautiful
+building in Scandinavia.</p>
+
+<p>It faces the water and the North Bridge, “Norrbro”, from which approach
+is made to it by a stately carriage drive that is called Lejonbacken
+from the two massive bronze lions that adorn it, and in its Carolean
+sternness of exterior seeks to give expression to the very spirit of
+the country and to the express wish of its royal builder, Charles XII.,
+even if the thought behind it was borrowed from Versailles, while its
+lavish interior decoration and its Gobelin tapestries evoke the days
+when strong bonds of friendship united the Royal Houses of France and
+Sweden. Its northern façade is almost entirely without decoration,
+yet strangely impressive by virtue of that very simplicity, while its
+southern façade,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> which, like the western, is richly decorated, has in
+its centre a triumphal arch with six massive columns, and also four
+groups of statuary in bronze, and a row of niches containing statues of
+distinguished Swedes on both sides of the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The original designs of the palace were drawn up by Nicodemus Tessin
+the younger, the greatest architect which northern Europe has produced,
+but the building operations, owing to the delays inseparable from an
+almost constant state of warfare, had constantly to be suspended, with
+the result that the Royal Family was only able to move into their
+new quarters about the middle of the eighteenth century. During all
+this period, however, and in spite of the unrest and turmoil that
+characterised this age, which incidentally was almost entirely due
+to Charles XII.’s romantic and adventurous temperament, the Royal
+Family and the nation as a whole continued to manifest so absorbing
+an interest in the building of the New Palace that everything was
+done to make it really representative of the best Swedish art and art
+industries of the period, while an equal measure of love, industry,
+and discrimination was lavished on its interior decoration, of which
+Masreliez was the principal designer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span></p>
+
+<p>Severe and solemn-looking, this massive building possesses a
+<i>cachet</i> and beauty of its own, while it certainly gives the city
+that transforming touch without which it would hardly have the aspect
+of a capital.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the Palace is the Stortorget, or Great Market, which
+is flanked by interesting old gabled houses recalling those seen in
+Dantzig. On the façade of one of these, and below the doorway on which
+the builder’s coat of arms and the year 1650 are sculptured, are a
+number of iron crosses which are said to be a relic of the famous Blood
+Bath of 1520, in which over eighty Swedish noblemen were beheaded. Each
+one of these crosses enshrines the memory of one of the noblemen who
+died as a martyr for his country.</p>
+
+<p>Almost everything worth seeing is found in this ancient quarter of
+Stockholm, and within easy distance from the Palace are a number of old
+churches and buildings that are among the best which Sweden possesses
+architecturally, if the island of Gothland is excepted. At the top
+of the Palace Hill is Storkyrkan, Stockholm’s oldest and principal
+church, supposed to have been founded by Birger Jarl in 1264, although
+the present building was renovated in 1736. This is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> an attractive
+red brick edifice in which I especially noted a somewhat ornate but
+interesting baroque pulpit in the Royal Chapel, with canopy which was
+the work of Burchardt Precht, and a group of statuary called “St.
+George and the Dragon”, the masterpiece of Bernt Notke of Lübeck,
+which commemorates the victory won over the Danes at Brunkeberg in
+1471, when Sweden was freed from her long subjection to the national
+enemy. Crossing over to Riddarholmen, the Knights’ Island (formerly
+called Gråmunkeholmen, the Grey Friars’ Isle, after the monastery of
+that order which was founded here by King Magnus Ladulås at the end
+of the thirteenth century), I see immediately facing the city between
+the bridges the old Riddarholmskyrkan (the Church of the Knights),
+originally built in 1280 by the Franciscans—a plain red brick
+three-aisled building, with a long polygonal choir and a number of
+burial chapels on its northern and southern aspects, that was built
+during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which all the great
+men of Sweden and all her kings have been buried since the reign of
+Gustavus Adolphus.</p>
+
+<p>Here are tombs innumerable, enclosed in exquisite chapels and
+shrines, in which are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> treasured the relics of the old dynasties and
+patrician families of the country, while the floor of the church is
+almost entirely paved with the gravestones of its illustrious dead.
+I found much to admire in the beautiful green marble sarcophagus of
+Gustavus Adolphus, or in the almost equally attractive crypt of the
+Bernadottes, where lie buried the departed members of the present
+dynasty; but I confess that my footsteps quickly led me to forsake
+their historical appeal after I had seen Charles XII.’s chapel, on
+the north side, a stately and pompous baroque mortuary chapel with
+sandstone columns and copper-covered cupola, in which I was shown the
+grey-black marbled sarcophagus in which the much-loved hero knight of
+the Swedish people lies buried, his head shot through and through. The
+lid of this sarcophagus is adorned with a lion’s skin, a laurel wreath
+in hammered gilt bronze, and a Hercules club; and while Nicodemus
+Tessin the younger himself was responsible for the designs, the stone
+and bronze work were executed in Holland, where the sarcophagus was
+finally completed about 1735. Among the other chapels and sarcophagi
+which abound in the Swedish Pantheon are those belonging to King
+Magnus Ladulås,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> the ill-starred Gustavus III., and many other kings,
+while such families as the Banérs, Lewenhaupts, and Thorstensons, all
+connected with the Great Age of Swedish history, are represented.</p>
+
+<p>Close by and lying almost opposite Riddarholmen in the north-west
+corner of Gamla Staden is the House of Knights, also built by Gustavus
+Adolphus, an imposing building which, in spite of some pavilions that
+were added to it in 1672 that are architecturally poor, remains a fine
+example of Franco-Dutch late Renaissance style and the most exquisite
+seventeenth-century building in Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>Begun in 1641 from the designs of the two brothers De La Vallée,
+the Palace contains among several finely proportioned rooms a
+very spacious ceremonial hall with a beautiful ceiling painted by
+Ehrenstrahl, on whose walls I saw displayed among other relics the
+coats of arms of nearly 3000 Swedish noble families, quite a fair
+proportion of these being of Scotch descent. Here can be seen the
+armouries of the Hamilton, Lewis, Bruce, Leslie, Stewart and Bennet
+families, descendants of the many Scotch soldiers of fortune who had
+distinguished themselves on many a Swedish battle-field, while a few
+hail from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> England, their ancestors having fled from that country after
+the Wars of the Roses.</p>
+
+<p>In no ancestral picture gallery have I felt so supremely conscious
+of the prestige and glamour inherent in long lineage as when I was
+confronted by these countless coats of arms insolently blazoning the
+privileges and eminence which their holders had won in olden times
+through superior valour or might, good fortune or statecraft. Even
+the beautifully carved ivory arm-chair occupied by the Speaker of the
+House and originally presented to Gustavus Vasa by the town of Lübeck,
+and the long rows of comfortable velvet chairs facing the Presidential
+throne, seemed to possess an air and a dignity which were quite their
+own. One felt that one was walking on almost sacred ground, and that
+the plebeian foot that would tread it unceremoniously would probably
+be seized by the spirit of the place and hurled ignominiously from
+the hallowed precincts. The Assembly of the Knights is, however, only
+a shadow of its old self, and of the original 2890 families whose
+arms are displayed in its Hall only 660 remain to-day. It has lost,
+moreover, all its right and privileges except that which its members
+still possess of being able to claim death by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> sword instead of
+by the more contumelious hanging or guillotine,<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> while it now only
+meets once every three years to discuss economic affairs or to render
+help to those of its members who require financial assistance.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Capital punishment was abolished in Sweden in 1921, but
+the last capital execution took place long before that date.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_107">
+<img src="images/i_107.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="448">
+<p class="caption center">THE ROYAL PALACE, STOCKHOLM</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Though the Riddarhuset is consequently only a survival of an age that
+is no more, it is impossible to visit it without feeling supremely
+conscious of the sense of continuity that is bred by old institutions,
+even when, like the Assembly of Knights, they have outlived their
+utility, while in few buildings have I felt so close to the past or
+experienced a keener regret at that past being gone for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Old Stockholm, and especially “the City between the two bridges”,
+contains a number of old fifteenth- and sixteenth-century houses which
+remain much as they were when originally erected, but fire has swept
+this old city so many times during the past four hundred years that
+the greater part of the old timber buildings which gave distinction
+to its streets have made way for the stone and plaster structures
+of a later period. Among the interesting older buildings that were
+spared by fire in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> this part of the town the most noteworthy are
+the Palace of Count Bonde (the old Rådhuset) near Strömmen, and the
+house belonging to the Petersen family in Munkbron, erected in the
+middle of the seventeenth century in the Dutch style, while there are
+a number of gabled houses pointing to a later Hanseatic period in
+Västerlånggatan and Österlånggatan, two narrow and tortuous streets
+which are well worth visiting. These thoroughfares are so narrow and
+their houses so high that you feel when walking through them almost as
+if you were traversing a deep canyon, while their many windings and the
+innumerable equally crooked and narrow alleys which are continually
+crossing them have proved the downfall of these imprudent travellers
+who elect to put their trust in their own bump of locality rather
+than in a guide. The doorways of many of these houses are surmounted
+by interesting sculptured coats of arms and other decorative details
+bearing testimony to the artistic taste of these times, and there is a
+certain seventeenth-century house in Västerlånggatan, erected by the
+wealthy burgher Van Linde, whose carved portal is perhaps the finest
+and best-preserved memorial of the period to be found in Stockholm.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span></p>
+
+<p>Another characteristic of this part of the town is the number of small
+shops which indicate the nature of their calling by the quaint symbolic
+signs that are displayed over their doorways or shop fronts. Here a
+pewter pot indicates a café or beer-house, and a pair of wings topping
+a pole that is itself entwined with diminutive serpents, a bakery;
+there a maiden milking her cow suggests a dairy, and a gold pretzel
+a pastry-cook or confectioner. There appears in reality to be no end
+to the ingenuity that is shown by those tradesmen who would thus make
+known their particular craft or trade.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the bridge where lies the newer Stockholm, one finds the main
+shopping centre of the capital and the more modern of its streets and
+buildings. Everything here is of an orderly symmetry that is quite
+lacking in our countries of the west, and perhaps a little monotonous.
+The shops are nearly all of uniform size and so similar in their
+outward aspect and in the style of dressing of their windows that it
+is often difficult to differentiate between them; the buildings are
+mostly austere and dignified as befits a Nordic race, but a little
+lacking in that poetry and imagery of line and wealth of architectural
+ornamentation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> that past standards of architecture have made us love
+and admire.</p>
+
+<p>All these characteristics, coupled with the fact that, compared with
+other large capitals, Stockholm is a little lacking in historic
+monuments of first-rate importance, might well predispose the casual
+observer to regard the Swedish capital mainly as a city whose only
+claim to distinction lies in its beauty of site, atmosphere, and
+accident, if it were not for the new generation of technically
+well-equipped architects who have lately grown up in the country and
+the princely patronage of art that continues to be displayed by the
+Swedish municipalities whenever the embellishment of their cities is in
+question.</p>
+
+<p>Of this new spirit in architecture I. G. Clason and Ferdinand Boberg,
+who is Sweden’s Norman Shaw, and more especially Carl Westman and
+Ragnar Östberg, are the leading exponents, the architecture which they
+preconise being characterised not only by certain distinctive forms
+in towers, panelling, and decorative <i>motifs</i> often borrowed
+wholesale from Swedish scenery, but by the grouping of the chief
+decorative designs round the entrances and a happy blending of old
+Swedish forms and new western tendencies which aims at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> creating a
+really national style. In many of these modern buildings one notices
+a strongly marked cubic effect, while the dark-toned brick hailing
+from Skåne that is used in their construction gives them a distinction
+and individuality which mark them out among their contemporaries.
+Assuming a measure of encouragement and financial support in any degree
+comparable to that which was so lavishly extended by the municipality
+of Stockholm to the building of their new Town Hall, it would be
+astonishing if the next two or three decades do not witness a striking
+development in Swedish architecture.</p>
+
+<p>Almost equally visible from any part of the city, this tall and
+imposing edifice, with its mighty square bell-tower and splendid
+colonnades evoking the portico of the Doge’s Palace at Venice,
+represents all the best tendencies of the new Swedish style, while
+it seeks to reproduce in many of the details of its exterior, and
+especially in its galleries and Central Court, the old castle of
+Stockholm “Tre Kronor”. Beautifully situated at the most southerly
+point of Kungsholmen, on the shores of Lake Mälar, its building history
+is one of the most remarkable of modern times, Ragnar Östberg, its
+architect, being so determined to make it a living<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> expression of the
+capital’s mystical individuality that its conception long remained
+an arduous one, plan after plan being devised only to be replaced by
+a better one. It has taken over ten years to build and has cost the
+municipality seventeen million crowns, Ragnar Östberg being given
+practically carte blanche in order that he might give of his best.
+Built in the form of a large rectangle, it encloses two beautiful
+courts: one the open and more severe Citizens’ Court, “Borgargården”,
+with its double portico looking out on garden and water, and its three
+gilded statues standing out from the red brick; the other the lighter
+Blue Hall with its glowing red and blue tiled walls and marble floor,
+while the tower which gives unity to the various parts of the building
+is capped by a lantern structure on top of which are the three crowns
+of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the general perfection of the building when viewed as a
+whole, which is perhaps its chief claim to distinction, the <i>clou</i>
+of the Town Hall is undoubtedly the magnificent frieze under the
+cornice, with its many beautiful gilt reliefs of distinguished citizens
+of the city, though its handsome copper cupolas, engraved with the
+names<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> of their donors, are almost equally memorable. These cupolas,
+and also the warm Tudor-looking red brick used in the building, give
+quite a southern warmth and atmosphere to a monument that in its
+rich-hued and stately style is a reversion in part to Swedish mediæval
+modes, while it is impossible not to commend the superb fashion in
+which Ragnar Östberg has succeeded in poising what is really a massive
+edifice on the most slender and graceful of arcades without these
+appearing even slightly overweighted.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through the arcade into the open gardens, which look out,
+Swedish fashion, on to the water, I saw three of the twelve statues
+which Milles originally contemplated modelling of the famous men who
+have shed lustre and glory on the city of Stockholm, three powerful
+nude live studies of Strindberg, Fröding, and Josephson, representing
+drama, poetry, and painting respectively, and was informed that the
+remaining nine had never been completed, owing to the loud outcry which
+a certain section of the public had raised on the ground of morality.
+This attitude astonished me vastly, as the Swedes, of all citizens
+of the world, are perhaps those who are the least prudish without
+being too immoral. I recalled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> the perfectly natural way in which any
+visitor to a Swedish hotel can, if he chooses, be scrubbed and rubbed
+down after his bath by women attendants, who not only perform these
+duties most efficiently but appear to run no risk of having their
+moral equilibrium upset by the experience, or the frankly indecent
+(to some) undressed wax figures which can be seen in the shop windows
+of any fashionable Stockholm costumier, posturing in silk stocking or
+aping fashionable gestures, and can only conclude that indecency is a
+question of degree, and that two nations equally moral may have two
+entirely different standards by which to estimate morality or the lack
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to the central court I was shown a Madonna-looking crowned
+figure in a niche over the main entrance, which on inquiry proved to
+be that of St. Clara, a local saint, the crown having been purchased
+with a substantial money contribution sent by a schoolgirl of the town
+to Ragnar Östberg, who thought this the happiest way of recording her
+gift. After hearing this charming explanation I took the resolution
+never again to disbelieve any old legend which was equally charming. It
+is certain the world never changes.</p>
+
+<p>If the other modern monuments of Stockholm<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> cannot be compared as works
+of art with Ragnar Östberg’s now famous masterpiece, there are several
+which are interesting examples of the same school of architecture,
+and others which illustrate the return to a more rational classicism
+which has only quite lately been seen among the younger generation of
+architects.</p>
+
+<p>Not very far from the Town Hall is the City Court, an immense
+brick edifice with a grey slurred surface and a short squat tower
+rising above the middle of the building, which is crowned by a very
+large copper hood. Almost overwhelming in its massiveness, and as
+austere-looking as the law which is daily transacted within its
+precincts, this uncommon structure aims at expressing, not only in its
+form but even in its decorative scheme, the serious purpose to which it
+was dedicated, and consequently often produces an impression of grim
+inevitableness in the mind of even those who do not pay it a visit to
+undergo trial. I must confess that I found it a little too oppressing
+for my taste, and that I derived much keener pleasure from seeing
+the pieces of equally vigorous and original, but ever so much less
+depressing, statuary by Christian Eriksson which I was shown on the
+portal and in the interior.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span></p>
+
+<p>Of the other monumental buildings belonging to the same period as
+Westman’s and Ragnar Östberg are Lallerstedt’s Technical High School,
+Grut’s Stadium, which is a happy and original application of the forms
+displayed in the old city walls of Visby, and Östermalm’s Higher State
+Secondary School for boys, perhaps the most notable of the three.
+This is a dark-red brick building with a light-red tiled roof and
+Roman vaulting, which was completed by Ragnar Östberg in 1912 in the
+hope that the precedent which he had created in constructing a school
+that no longer wore the funereal and poverty-stricken aspect hitherto
+considered an indispensable adjunct to every educational establishment,
+would inspire other architects to follow his example. Dignified, and
+possessing a certain ponderous Nordic beauty of its own, this building
+contains a finely proportioned reception hall and staircase which are
+adorned with works of art of exceptional interest; among these Milles’
+marble group entitled “Fanny and Selma”, Prince Eugen’s “The Town in
+Sunshine”, and Törneman’s “Thor’s Battle with the Giants”, this last
+picture a powerful and realistic piece of work.</p>
+
+<p>Typical of the latest movement, the return to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> classicism to which
+I have already alluded, are a number of modern buildings for whose
+exterior effects golden brown or dark grey roughcast have usually
+been selected and whose principal characteristics, apart from their
+severe and simple symmetry, lies in the often ingenious way in which
+glass and metal work have been put to new artistic effects. Houses by
+Bergsten and Asplund; the churches of Engelbrekts and Högalids, and
+lastly the New Concert Hall, the work of Tengbom, probably one of the
+finest concert halls in existence. Built to resemble a Greek temple
+and with columns that are of pure concrete (this a daring experiment),
+this striking building impresses, not by its size, which is nothing out
+of the common, but by the perfection of its acoustics, lighting, and
+other arrangements, and the originality and varied character of the
+ornamentation—even the candelabra in the vestibule being unique in
+their kind. I particularly admired some beautiful reliefs which were
+the work of Tengbom, and some equally remarkable stucco work of Olsson;
+but what pleased me even more were some little figures in stucco which
+had been designed in wet plaster by Almquist, four live pieces of
+statuary by Milles, the Swedish Epstein, in the corridor, and several<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>
+beautifully inlaid doors in the foyer, all of these in selected Swedish
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>The larger of the two concert halls which are found in this building
+presents many attractive and novel features. It was opened only in
+April 1926, and while it has a seating accommodation of 1490, which is
+considerably less than that of Queen’s Hall, its lighting, stage, and
+other arrangements are perfection itself. A number of columns at the
+back of the stage, which is built in the shape of a Greek temple, give
+an impression of great space, while the lighting that has been obtained
+is so perfect that the spectator has the constant illusion of sitting
+in an open-air theatre and under a sky and setting sun that are so
+realistic that it is almost impossible for him to detect any flaw in
+the make-believe. The other concert hall is more intimate in character,
+and combines ornateness with simplicity. In both these halls I found
+a number of rows that were reserved for the deaf, and provided in
+every case with ear-trumpets. Even in Germany, that great music-loving
+country, I have never seen any theatre or concert hall that provides
+such facilities.</p>
+
+<p>Another sign of the times is the renewed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> interest that is being taken
+by the Swedes generally in Swedish peasant art and crafts, and several
+museums have been founded which attempt to give the history of Swedish
+civilisation from the earliest days to the present time. Of these the
+Nordiska, or Northern Museum, is perhaps the most interesting; it is
+certainly the most original. Early in the seventies a distinguished
+antiquarian and collector, called Arthur Hazelius, determined to form
+a collection that would be representative of every condition of life
+that had existed in the country since the beginning of the sixteenth
+century, and after many years’ patient industry and labour succeeded
+in forming a collection that as a record of the various stages of
+civilisation which the country went through is unsurpassed in any part
+of the world, many foreign experts holding the view that the clever
+manner in which the exhibits are displayed to the general public might
+with advantage be copied in other countries. In one of the largest
+halls is found the Swedish Royal Armoury, which contains almost as fine
+a collection of old and modern weapons as the Spanish collection in
+Madrid. I saw many flags and banners which had been captured from the
+Russians, Germans, Saxons,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> Danes and Austrians, and also swords and
+suits of armour which had once been worn by famous Swedish warriors;
+among these was the armour of Gustavus Adolphus, the sword and pistols
+which he carried at the battle of Lützen, and the shirt riddled with
+bullets that he wore in his last battle. The Museum also possesses
+many well-preserved cannon, rifles, and even a mitrailleuse which is
+said to have been invented during the reign of Charles XII., while
+its annexe, the equally celebrated open-air museum of Skansen, also
+a creation of Hazelius, presents scenes typifying Sweden’s life in
+the past and present, and affords the most comprehensive study of old
+Swedish architectural modes and of the life and customs of the varied
+elements constituting the Swedish nation that can be found anywhere.
+Here may be seen many wild and tame animals indigenous to the soil, and
+a number of wooden houses of varied architecture, which have either
+been transported <i>en bloc</i> from their original resting-places
+or constructed on the spot according to plan. Two-storied houses
+from Dalecarlia or turf-roofed stone cabins from Jämshög, these last
+representing a very common type of dwelling among labourers in parts of
+north-eastern Scania; curious-looking straw-roofed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> four-sided farms
+from Oktorp, or farmyards from Ravlunda covered over with thatched
+roofs and with woven brushwood end-walls; cabins of forest dwellers or
+old mediæval wooden churches, some of these with decorative slatted
+church steeples; pyramidal huts from Lapland, or sepulchral and runic
+monuments. All these are found at Skansen with all the indispensable
+appurtenances of peasant life and inhabited, moreover, by people who
+have either been imported to give the necessary atmosphere or been
+induced to transport their very homes with all their chattels and
+household gods to the wooded plateau in the Djurgården (Deer Park)
+for a financial consideration. I paid a visit to several of these
+attractive peasant dwellings and found them all stocked with old
+implements, vessels, and antique furniture, and was particularly
+impressed by their wall decorations, which in many instances were
+painted direct on the whitewashed wall timbers. Like those which I
+have seen in Dalecarlia, they usually represented scenes from the
+Scriptures, or country scenes that were enclosed in decorated frames
+in rococo, probably after the prototypes of old copper-plate prints.
+If these peasant buildings are not as flamboyantly picturesque as the
+wooden<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> buildings of Norway, they are in their way even more attractive.</p>
+
+<p>Of the many other collections and museums that abound in the city
+only the National Museum, an unattractive building just facing the
+Royal Palace, presents any particular interest. It contains a large
+collection of Scandinavian antiquities and is especially rich in
+objects of the Bronze Age, many of these having been made in Sweden
+over a thousand years before Christ. I was shown jewellery and arms
+that dated from the age of Beowulf, and a beautifully ornamented
+statue of Thomas à Becket dating from the fourteenth century which
+is one of its most cherished art treasures, while the museum, in
+addition to its ceramic sculpture and archæological collections, has
+a picture gallery that is particularly rich in examples of the older
+Dutch masters. Not only Rubens but also Van Dyck (A.), Jordaens, and
+Rembrandt are represented here, the last-named by a striking picture
+entitled “Claudius Civilis,” which was originally painted for the Town
+Hall in Amsterdam in 1662, while I also saw one or two good Cranachs
+and old French masters. The more modern painters include several fine
+Corots, Delacroix, Manets, and an Orpen (a picture of himself painted
+as a jockey),<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> while the modern Swedish school is represented by Zorn
+(painter of portraits), Liljefors, the most powerful Swedish painter
+of animals to-day, Prince Eugen (landscapes), Milles (sculpture),
+Lafiensen (miniaturist), Cederström (the Swedish Detaille), and Carl
+Larsson, whose large <i>al fresco</i> paintings in the vestibule of the
+Museum long held my attention.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_124">
+<img src="images/i_124.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="508">
+<p class="caption center">DROTTNINGHOLM PALACE, STOCKHOLM</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of the principal attractions of Stockholm, and the one which
+perhaps lends it its greatest charm, is the system of waterways which
+gives it all the picturesque glamour of an important port. It matters
+little whether the traveller has visited the city once or many times;
+he will rarely tire of loitering amid its many pleasant quays or docks,
+or of watching the rapid ebb and flow of a traffic that is as varied as
+it is picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the daily market which lies on the very water edge behind
+the royal palace, where the market people can be seen coming by
+boat, tram, or cart to sell their wares; here the docks that are
+frequented by those hundreds of diminutive steamers which maintain
+constant communication between the islands of the Skärgård and the
+metropolis; here the quays where the larger steamers and also the fuel
+and timber boats are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> berthed, or those past Kastellholmen and near
+Djurgårdsstaden, under whose shelter the great ice-breaking steamers
+lie moored during the summer months. Plying the swiftly flowing waters
+are vessels of every kind, from the tiny ferries, that for a few öre
+will carry you across a strait, to the large looming ships whose very
+lines are redolent with weight and power, while scores of barges
+with high castles apoop are passing through the locks, and wooden
+ships whose graceful lines evoke a time when poetry of motion was not
+confined to pleasure yachts are discharging their cargoes in the very
+centre of the old town. Follow this pleasant shore line where you will
+and you will find an abundance of things to engage and captivate your
+attention, and everywhere you meet something that carries with it a
+subtle suggestion of that remoter Sweden which lies to the north and
+south of the capital.</p>
+
+<p>At least half if not more of the feeling of beauty that is inherent in
+Stockholm lies in the many associations that are evoked in the mind
+by these waterways, and they are always equally beautiful, whether
+one sees them in the early morning as the white skerry steamers are
+speeding out to sea or casting their mooring lines over the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> stately
+stone stanchions which border the stream, or if viewed in the evening
+when thousands of lights along the shore and from the boats are
+throwing shafts and pools of glimmering brilliance on their dark
+waters.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">THE SKERRIES OF STOCKHOLM</p>
+
+
+<p>Interspersed here and there among the countless waterways of
+Stockholm’s Skärgård, and interposing between it and the Baltic, are
+some twelve to thirteen hundred islands, many splendidly wooded, others
+mere rocks, on which the good citizens of the capital have built their
+summer residences. Islands of every conceivable shape and size, some
+uninhabited, the others with picturesque villas and cottages nestling
+among the pines and rocks. A scenery that is typical of Swedish
+landscape at its best with grey-green hilly country on the mainland
+covered here and there with fir and birch and flecked with white or
+even vivid vermilion houses, and pleasant little emerald-green islands,
+among which a vast flotilla of diminutive small steamers are darting to
+and fro, as they link up the many villages and summer residences to the
+capital.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_131">
+<img src="images/i_131.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="447">
+<p class="caption center">ISLANDS IN THE BALTIC, NEAR STOCKHOLM</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is from the Stream, the pulsating centre of Stockholm, where large
+vessels come up from the Baltic to dock on the very city street, that
+a passage can be taken on one of those many little passenger steamers
+that cruise about the picturesque littoral of the Skärgård; and whether
+one embarks on a ship whose destination is some locality famous in
+Swedish history or selects haphazard the boat that is to convey you
+east or west, the journey that is taken is worth while, since every
+steamer route that radiates from Stockholm is one of charm and beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Of the many interesting excursions which can thus be made by water from
+Stockholm there are several which should obtain precedence whenever the
+time that can be devoted to them is limited. And taking those which
+can be made in an easterly direction, the first that I would select is
+undoubtedly Saltsjöbaden, the most fashionable watering-place of the
+capital. Here on a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Skärgård
+and along a circular bay luxuriously wooded, commanding views on the
+surrounding islands that are memorable, are large hotels and stately
+villas set in beautiful grounds; an excellent restaurant greatly
+patronised by the gay and fashionable in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> which late dancing is a
+characteristic feature, and swimming pavilions in which the merchant
+and middle classes of the capital spend their summer months bathing,
+fishing, or boating. Saltsjöbaden is undoubtedly an attractive resort,
+yet what endeared it to me, even more than its charm and animation or
+the beauty of its setting, was the opportunity which it afforded me
+of seeing the city of Stockholm at midnight as we returned to it by
+the watercourses that have given it its unique character. Bathed in
+moonlight and illumined by myriad yellow points of fire whose gleams
+were mirrored in the waters of the Ström, the city seemed transfigured,
+almost unrecognisable, like one of those magic towns that you see in
+dreams. If I remember nothing else about Sweden, I shall remember that
+experience as long as I live.</p>
+
+<p>Of the other beautiful excursions that may be made in the direction of
+the Baltic from the City of Bridges there are two or three which are
+almost equally attractive.</p>
+
+<p>To the south-east of Stockholm is Gustafsberg, a journey of nearly two
+hours through countless watercourses and past many winding canals and
+the large fjord of Baggensfjärden. Gustafsberg,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> which is beautifully
+situated on Värmdö, the largest island in the archipelago, has the
+oldest and most renowned pottery and china factories to be found in
+Sweden. Inland, and only a short distance from Stockholm, of which
+it was formerly the oldest and most important suburb, is Djursholm,
+now an independent city. Beautifully situated in North Värtan on
+pretty undulating ground among groves of fine oak trees, it is a
+picturesque little town which is in winter a great centre of skating
+and ice-yachting. It formerly belonged to the Banér family, whose old
+palace is still to be seen in a restored condition. Equally distant
+from the capital is Vaxholm, another well-known but less fashionable
+watering-place. A little fishing town of fifteen hundred people
+with several restaurants and hotels, it is patronised largely by
+Swedish-Americans, and is the Mecca of motor-boats and small yachts.
+The old fortress of Vaxholm stands on the foreground on a small island
+in the little Sound two hundred yards from the shore. Built by Gustavus
+Vasa in the middle of the sixteenth century, it has been the scene of
+many historic events and has for centuries guarded the approach to the
+capital.</p>
+
+<p>If the excursions that can be made in a westerly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> direction from
+Stockholm are not as numerous as those that abound in the Skärgård,
+they certainly make up qualitatively for their quantitative
+deficiencies; and within easy distance from the capital are two
+historic old castles and a city whose historic tombs and monuments
+single out among their fellows.</p>
+
+<p>Five miles from Kungsholmen, and facing Lake Mälar, is Drottningholm,
+a royal castle built in the French style after the designs of the two
+Tessins, father and son, by the old Dowager Queen of Sweden, Hedvig
+Eleonora, the wife of Charles X., in the seventeenth century, which is
+perhaps “the most comprehensive and perfect picture of what Sweden’s
+period of greatness could produce in the field of art”. The main part
+of the building was erected in the decade beginning 1660 by Nicodemus
+Tessin the elder, but remained unfinished till the beginning of the
+next century, when under the active supervision of the old Queen
+it rapidly took on its present form, Nicodemus Tessin the younger
+being responsible for the greater part of the designs. And as in the
+case of the royal castle in the capital, no effort was spared and no
+expenditure thought too great to make the new royal residence worthy
+of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> pre-eminence which had been attained by Swedish leadership and
+Swedish armies in the allied fields of diplomacy and war.</p>
+
+<p>Before laying out the park, Nicodemus Tessin the younger made a special
+journey to Versailles to receive instruction in the formal French
+school of gardening from the celebrated Lenotre, Louis XIV.’s garden
+architect, while the staircase, hall and interior were decorated with a
+magnificence hitherto unknown in Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>French influence was at that time strongly marked, French standards
+in furniture and architecture generally predominating; and though
+the Swedes were unable to reproduce all the lightness and elegance
+characterising French house decorations and furniture, they succeeded
+on this occasion in giving their country a royal residence whose
+magnificence almost equalled that of the château of Versailles. The
+furniture which I saw in many of the apartments belonged to the Louis
+XIV. period, with ancient chair coverings, many of these hand-painted
+and in an admirable state of preservation, while the interior, which
+has lately been restored by the best Swedish art experts, is equally
+pleasing. Drottningholm contains many valuable tapestries, paintings,
+and works of art and at least<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> two rooms that are in themselves worth a
+special visit.</p>
+
+<p>Designed by Nicodemus Tessin the younger, who in this instance worked
+in collaboration with Burchardt Precht, the celebrated wood carver,
+Queen Hedvig Eleonara’s bedroom, if a little pompous and over-ornate,
+is decorated with such magnificence that it never fails to extort
+admiration from even those who usually prefer a more simple and sedate
+ornamentation. Profusely adorned with wood carvings, its ceiling and
+walls are set in with paintings by Ehrenstrahl, while it forms a
+complete architectural composition, in which the Queen’s very ornate
+state bed high on an estrade behind high Ionic gilded columns acts as
+unifying centre.</p>
+
+<p>The other room, Queen Louisa Ulrika’s Library, belongs to a later
+period and was executed by the celebrated Swedish cabinet-maker Jean
+Erik Rehn, the founder of the Gustavian Swedish Louis XVI. style.
+Artistically designed and combining ornateness with simplicity, this
+room possesses one of the most artistic interiors which I have seen
+in Sweden, and is in every way worthy of the great name that this
+artist won for himself in the second half of the eighteenth century,
+as pioneer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> of Swedish art industry, while it certainly bears out the
+words that Tessin engraved, not only in this library, but over one of
+his frescoes in the National Museum of Stockholm, that “By art the
+senses were attuned to mildness and harshness put to flight”. If these
+words faithfully reflect the cultural tendencies of the eighteenth
+century, then certainly Rehn was successful in his aim.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty yards from the Castle and built in the years 1764-1766 for King
+Adolph Frederick, by the Court architect Adelcrantz, is a theatre whose
+collection of theatre costumes and stage <i>décors</i> is perhaps
+unique in the world. This theatre was used for theatrical performances
+during the reign of Gustavus III., but at his death in 1792 was
+converted into a lumber room, in which condition it remained until 1922
+when it was restored to its original state.</p>
+
+<p>The interior is a beautiful example of a style that is a blend of the
+Swedish Gustavian and rococo, and while the auditorium is comparatively
+small, as befits a theatre that was only intended for the Royal Family,
+the Court and their invited guests, the stage, which was decorated by
+Masreliez during the seventeenth century, is unusually deep even for
+the present day (about twenty-two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> yards), and provided with a set of
+machinery and <i>décors</i> that are of extraordinary interest from
+the artistic and scenic points of view. Both stage and auditorium
+are practically in the same condition as they were in the eighteenth
+century, and even the footlights of that time have been preserved
+and are still in use. The stage mechanism is in perfect working
+order, and there are no less than thirty scenic decorations which are
+of engrossing interest for the light which they cast on the stage
+decorative art of the old regime. Among the stage properties which
+date from that time I noticed, in addition to some of the original
+footlights and a clavecin that could still be played upon, many
+quaint fire appliances and stage weapons such as hatchets, swords, and
+Hercules clubs, as well as the tail and head of a Viking ship which had
+been found in a neighbouring pond.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_140">
+<img src="images/i_140.jpg" alt="" width="581" height="600">
+<p class="caption center">GRIPSHOLM CASTLE, NEAR STOCKHOLM</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The auditorium, which like the stage has been left untouched, contains
+many attractive cut-glass chandeliers and wall brackets which,
+originally adapted for wax candles, have now been wired for electric
+light, as well as the carefully preserved place-marks which used to
+indicate the seat which every guest was to occupy. The first row
+appears to have been reserved to the Royal Family, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> Court and
+diplomatic world; and behind, those of minor degree were seated, from
+the King’s body-guard to his second valets or barbers. As was usual in
+the eighteenth century, the royal party and their invited guests always
+retired for supper to the foyer after the performance, while the ladies
+and gentlemen of the Court strolled or waited about in the top gallery,
+in case their presence should be required by their august masters.</p>
+
+<p>In the rooms adjoining the theatre are several interesting collections
+of pictures and costumes illustrating the history of scenic art from
+mediæval times to the age of Gustavus III. I was shown a number of
+particularly beautiful costume sketches by Primaticcio which had been
+designed for a fête given at the Court of King Francis I. of France,
+and also some original sketches by Desprez, the chief stage painter
+of Gustavus III., and a series of rare Italian and French theatrical
+designs dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which
+undoubtedly constitute invaluable material for the student of stage
+history, yet the clou of the whole collection, in my opinion, lies in
+the exquisite little model theatre which I found relegated in one of
+the smaller rooms. Designed by Tessin some time before the theatre had
+been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> completed, this little gem reveals this artist at his best and is
+in every sense admirable.</p>
+
+<p>Picturesquely situated on the most southerly shore of Lake Mälar near
+the small town of Mariefred, and within three hours by steamer from the
+capital, is the mighty brick-built fortress of Gripsholm, historically
+and romantically perhaps the finest castle in the whole of Sweden. It
+was originally built by a knight called Bo Jonsson Grip, who was the
+most powerful subject of his time, and was named after the grip or
+griffin which he bore as his arms.</p>
+
+<p>Mirroring its huge tower-crowned walls in the placid waters of
+Mälarviken, this castle embodies in every line the rugged strength of
+its founder, while nowhere in Sweden have I seen an edifice which,
+in its solitary grandeur, stately aloofness from the world and
+picturesqueness of situation, is more pervaded by the atmosphere of the
+remote days when Gustavus Vasa and his successors were carving a nation
+out of chaos and paving the way for the prosperity that was to follow.
+Here Gustavus planned and organised the machinery that was destined
+to bring an almost unparalleled prosperity to his country, and here
+in turn his two sons, Erik and Johan, kept each other prisoner, Erik
+dying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> ultimately in another prison at Örbyhus in 1577. For centuries,
+in fact, there was little of national importance that was not
+transacted in Gripsholm; and if it had a chequered history, its days of
+glory more than adequately compensated, its heyday probably coinciding
+with the reign of Gustavus III., during the time this monarch was
+expending vast sums in adorning its halls with beautiful frescoes and
+decorations. On the 29th of March 1809, moreover, it was the scene of
+the abdication of Gustavus IV. Adolphus.</p>
+
+<p>The castle has been restored so often, however, that only in portions
+of its exterior and interior does it really date back to the time
+of its founder, while many rooms have been wainscoted and illumined
+with coloured woods and frescoes in order to house the portraits of
+the kings, queens and famous men who contributed to the history of
+the last three centuries. The collection of royal paintings which
+has thus been formed is consequently of unique character, while the
+stately proportions of those parts of the building which have remained
+unchanged since the sixteenth century enable us to imagine what a
+princely effect the whole must have presented when its walls were hung
+with damask and filled with masterpieces of art. As<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> all the rooms
+contain, moreover, many pieces of the original furniture which were
+used by Gustavus Vasa and his successors, it is easy to reconstruct
+in one’s mind the manner in which Swedish royalty lived in those
+remote days. Of the oldest portions of the castle no room impressed
+me more than the one in which lived Duke Charles of Södermanland, the
+younger brother of Princes Erik and Johan, and which is supposed to
+have been fitted up by him as far back as 1596. Practically unchanged
+from those early days, it is an interesting example of an interior of
+the sixteenth century, and while its woodwork is pure Renaissance,
+though very simple in character, the paintings adorning its walls and
+ceilings are by Hans, a painter who hails from the town of Strängnäs,
+the capital of Charles’ duchy. In all the older rooms I noticed window
+recesses which were so long and narrow that they formed almost a
+corridor, the thickness of the walls (usually five to eight or even ten
+feet) often making such recesses a necessity.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_147">
+<img src="images/i_147.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="451">
+<p class="caption center">THE KINGS’ MOUNDS, UPSALA</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lying north of the lake and picturesquely situated on the banks of the
+river Fyris is the old town of Upsala, the residence of the Archbishop
+of Sweden and the oldest and most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> important university town in the
+country. It can be reached in less than five hours by the waterways
+of Lake Mälar or in one hour by train from Stockholm, though a stop
+should certainly be made on the way to it at Skokloster, if only to
+visit the magnificent turreted castle that lies on the forested fringe
+of Lake Mälar. This imposing edifice, which was erected in 1649 on
+the very site of a mediæval monastery which Gustavus Adolphus once
+presented to one of his generals, contains valuable collections of
+furniture, portraits, tapestries and arms which illustrate the Thirty
+Years’ War, its collection of old weapons being probably the largest
+private collection to be found in Europe. Upsala, in addition to
+being a celebrated university town, is also a city that presents many
+attractive features from the antiquarian and artistic points of view.
+A few minutes’ drive from the centre of the town brings you to Old
+Upsala, which was the seat of the early pagan monarchs of the country,
+and here to this day are to be seen tumuli of three kings, the Mounds
+of Odin, Thor, and Freyr. Excavations made during the second half of
+the nineteenth century in the mounds of the first two have brought to
+light remains of charred bodies as well as many gold<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> ornaments, which
+conclusively prove that Odin and Thor were buried here about five
+centuries before the Christian era, while similar excavations made as
+early as the seventeenth century on the alleged site of Upsala Temple,
+the great holy place of the Svea race (as Swedes were once called),
+unearthed bones of horses and ravens that had once been offered by the
+Svea people as expiatory offerings to Freyr, the god of yearly crops.
+Here was held the Witan of the Sveas, when, with great clanging and
+clashing of swords and shields, their leaders would debate and decide
+the wars that they would wage; and here too, not only men and animals
+were offered up to Freyr, but even kings if times were bad or pests
+came to lay waste the land or deplete the nation of its fighting men.</p>
+
+<p>Upsala itself is a pleasant and picturesque town which, if a little
+marred architecturally by the unnecessary restorations that have been
+made to its old Cathedral, the largest church in Sweden, presents many
+attractive and beautiful features. On the highest point of the town
+stands the castle, a huge red-bricked building with two round towers
+erected by Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century, which dominates
+not only the city but also the surrounding countryside, while other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>
+buildings which are worthy of notice include the somewhat severe but
+attractive neo-classical University Library called Carolina Rediviva,
+the dome-covered building Gustavianum, and Deprez’ Orangery in the
+Botanical Gardens, which was opened in 1807 during the centenary
+celebration of Linnaeus’ birthday. There are also a number of old
+bridges on the river Fyris which have not been replaced by modern ones,
+while the town has generally an old-world atmosphere which predisposes
+the traveller and student to regard it with friendly eyes. Though
+lacking in the architectural beauty that has given Oxford such an
+unique position among the universities of the world, Upsala possesses a
+tradition that is almost as venerated among Swedish students as Oxford
+is among Englishmen.</p>
+
+<p>As will be seen, therefore, there are few capitals that have at their
+doors surroundings more picturesque or more easily accessible than
+Stockholm, the combination of attractions that it affords to the
+traveller, its beautiful site and historic associations, its old-world
+buildings and sparkling waterways being unsurpassed anywhere. There
+is but one thing lacking to the Swedish capital, and that is cheap,
+good accommodation.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> The town is almost entirely bereft of hotels that
+are both good and inexpensive, and its charm would be immeasurably
+increased by their presence. Many commodities, too, are far dearer
+than in England. Cigarettes, shoes and articles of clothing cost
+nearly twice as much as in London, while whisky and wine are almost
+prohibitive, an ordinary whisky costing as much as one shilling and
+sixpence and being unobtainable if you do not take food with it, though
+in fairness I must add that the quality of the wine, and especially
+the Burgundy, that may be bought in the best hotels is exceptional.
+The best hotel in the capital is the Grand Royal, and while there are
+others that are also first-class there are none which possess as good
+a cuisine; its dining-hall, moreover, being one of the finest in the
+world. The tables are arranged on two sides of a court in the centre
+of what was the old Royal Hotel, and under the high glass roof there
+is a lawn of perpetually green grass with a fountain in the centre and
+flower-beds, palm trees, and shrubs. Sometimes tables are set out on
+the grass. One side of the court is fashioned to represent the tower of
+an old royal castle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_153">
+<img src="images/i_153.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="448">
+<p class="caption center">TIMBER ON THE RIVER ÅNGERMAN, HARNÖSAND</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would be ungracious, however, to insist on a single defect in a spot
+so rich in varied beauties,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> and throughout the north of Europe it
+would be difficult to find a town so full of attractions as the Swedish
+capital. At the same time the intending visitor will do well to choose
+his time for seeing it. The pleasantest time to visit it is undoubtedly
+June, before the Swedes take their yearly holiday; but in winter, as I
+will show in a subsequent chapter, it may also be seen to advantage,
+the thermometer being usually so low and the sun’s rays so ineffective,
+that winter sports can be practised almost continuously for several
+months of each year.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">GOTHLAND</p>
+
+
+<p>Scarcely more than fifty miles from the Swedish mainland, with which
+communication is maintained by comfortably appointed steamers which
+run daily from Nynäshamn, and boasting a mild and delightful climate,
+is an island whose history reads like a romance, and whose many relics
+of a prehistoric culture mark it out among all time. Forgotten by the
+world of commerce and almost unknown to the present-day tourist, the
+town of Visby, capital of the island of Gothland, was once an important
+commercial centre, the splendour of its churches, merchant houses
+and town walls evidencing great wealth, and bearing witness to the
+artistic imagination of Swedish master-masons and builders. And as you
+steam into its harbour you see a city which for picturesque beauty has
+few rivals in the world: tall, graceful spires and city walls built
+on natural rock terraces, whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> rugged outline of masonry appear to
+have been fashioned by a giant of fable, and a coast-line which seems
+to rise up in one single sheer cliff, or in terraces with yellow or
+blue-grey rocks that tower like mighty ramparts against the sea.</p>
+
+<p>It is not known when the first city of Visby was built, but
+archæologists tell us that there was a town on the present site more
+than 2000 years before Christ, and only a few years ago men digging in
+the market-place near the ruins of St. Catherine’s Church found large
+blocks of stone, and under these the ruins of another town, evidently
+of the Stone Age.</p>
+
+<p>Long before Visby was born, however, Gothland was already an island
+empire and occupied a position in the trade of the Baltic identical to
+that occupied by Rhodes or Crete in the Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>Of this old Visby we have little record apart from a mention that
+is made of it by the Guta Saga when relating certain incidents that
+occurred in Gothland during the tenth century, at the time Christianity
+was first introduced into the island.</p>
+
+<p>“When the Gothlanders were heathen,” the Saga says, “they sailed
+with cargoes to every land, both Christian and heathen. Then saw
+the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> merchants Christian ways in Christian lands, some of them being
+baptized and even bringing back priests with them to Gothland. Bothair
+of Akeback built a church on the place now called Külstade. But as the
+people of the island would not suffer the church but set fire to it
+and burned it, he built yet another with feasts and sacrifices at Vi,
+which when the people also tried to burn, he climbed upon and said:
+‘If ye will burn the church, then shall ye burn me also’. This the
+people would not do, as Bothair had as wife the daughter of Likkair
+Snälle, who was their ruler at that time, and Likkair enjoined them
+not to do this deed. Whereupon the church was left to stand unburned.
+It was built in the name of All Saints on the place that is now called
+Peter’s Church, and was the first church in Gothland which was left to
+stand....”</p>
+
+<p>Vi means place of sacrifice, and Visby means therefore village by the
+place of sacrifice, it being evident that the village must even before
+this period have enjoyed a certain importance as a religious centre for
+a larger or smaller portion of the island population, its inhabitants
+being the ancestors of those Teutonic races which fifteen hundred years
+ago overthrew the might of imperial<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> Rome and revolutionised the world.
+That Gothland was even then a sea power of considerable importance
+is proved by the vast treasures in gold and silver which have been
+unearthed in the island, and many of the gold coins which have been
+found are minted with the profiles of Greek emperors or inscribed in
+Roman or Arabic, this evidence showing that the Goths were as adept
+in the arts of commerce as they were in those of war. Gothland was
+inhabited by a race of bold sea rovers and traders, who sailed down
+the rivers of Russia, carrying far and wide their cargoes of pitch,
+tar, limestone, and salt, the products of their island. Marauding and
+looting as they went, they were hardly welcome guests in the countries
+which they visited, and accordingly, not only were able to exchange
+or barter their cargoes most profitably for the precious wares, furs,
+skins, and honey of Russia, and the woven fabrics, spices, food-stuffs,
+and silver ware of the east, but also returned home, their war chests
+well replenished with the gold and silver tribute which their unwilling
+hosts had paid to rid themselves of their importunate presence.</p>
+
+<p>Of the treasures thus accumulated, part was melted down and fashioned
+into ornaments and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> vessels, and part was buried in hiding-places
+in the island, only a small proportion having so far come into the
+possession of archæologists. Of the many tens of thousands of coins
+which have been discovered more than half have been dug up in Gothland,
+the majority of these being of Arabian, Greek, or Roman origin, and the
+remainder of Saxon, Rhine and South German, Turkish, Polish, and even
+Hungarian extraction. Of the English coins many date from the reigns of
+Kings Edgar and Ethelred, and the Cyfic or Arabian coins, of which over
+25,000 have been discovered, were brought from the Caspian Sea during
+the eighth and ninth centuries; they were struck principally at Cufa on
+the Tigranes. As a Chinese cup and a shell from the Indian Ocean have,
+moreover, also been found in graves not far from Visby, it is clear
+that the light Viking barques which set sail periodically from this
+northern island carried out far-reaching and extensive expeditions to
+most parts of the world, and that Gothland can therefore justifiably
+claim to have possessed a prosperity which in its own time unfolded
+itself in almost fabulous splendour.</p>
+
+<p>Of the early history of the island we have, unfortunately, apart from
+what archæology teaches<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> us, nothing but the most hazy traditions,
+though the Guta Saga of the thirteenth century tells us that when
+the population of Gothland reached a certain figure one-third of the
+inhabitants was selected by lot and bidden to leave the country with
+all their goods and chattels. “Then were these loth to go,” so the Saga
+writes, “but went they to Thor’s stronghold and lived there. Then would
+the country not suffer them there but drove them thence. Then went they
+forth to Fårö and remained there a time. Even there, however, they were
+not permitted to remain but went out to an island near Esthonia called
+Dagö, where they lived and built a stronghold for themselves which is
+still to be seen. Also there they were unable to subsist, but went by
+water called Düna up through Russia. And they proceeded so far that
+they finally came to Greece, where they lived until now and still speak
+in a tongue somewhat similar to our own.”</p>
+
+<p>There is a hill which is called Torsburgen (Thor’s stronghold), on
+which one can still see the remains of the castle where the banished
+men of Gothland made their last stand against their countrymen. The
+mountain is broad—a huge plateau which is crowned by a forest; and
+so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> steep that on three sides of it, it is almost unscaleable. On the
+fourth, approach to it is barred by mighty mile-long walls constructed
+of rough boulders, which represent so prodigious an amount of labour,
+with their hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of stone, that the
+mind is almost staggered by it. In the middle of the forest lies the
+castle of Thor, where the last desperate remnant of the rebels made
+their final stand before being overpowered by force of numbers, a mass
+of fallen stones and boulders and crumbling walls, most of which have
+fallen, testifying to the homeric age of which we possess so little
+record. When these incidents took place we do not know. We have,
+however, been able to estimate that as early as the sixth century
+before Christ at the beginning of the Iron Age, the inhabitants of
+Gothland began to migrate to other countries, the climate of the island
+having suddenly and rapidly become exceedingly cold, and that by the
+third century before Christ the island had become almost entirely
+depopulated. During the next centuries, however, the population
+increased so rapidly that when the Great Migration took place, Gothland
+was able to send thousands of Viking auxiliaries to swell the ranks of
+the mighty armies<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> that were marching south to make a mass attack on
+the Roman Empire.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_162">
+<img src="images/i_162.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="488">
+<p class="caption center">KALMAR CASTLE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Great Age of Gothland did not, however, begin till the twelfth
+century, by which time the commercial supremacy of the island had
+become so firmly established that not only the northern states of
+Europe, but even England, began to adopt the sea laws and coinage
+of the enterprising Gothlanders, while the greater part of the more
+lucrative trade of northern Europe passed into their hands. The old
+steel-yard in London near Blackfriars Bridge was the yard of the
+Gothland merchants where they stored their iron and steel merchandise,
+while merchants from the island are mentioned as purveyors of miniver
+and wax to Henry III. of England. Soon Visby began definitely to take
+up its place as the leading commercial settlement of Gothland, while
+many foreign merchants settled in the town in the hope of rivalling
+the prosperity of the native traders, the Germans coming in such
+numbers that at one time more than half the town council and two of
+the principal magistrates belonged to that nationality. In 1163 Henry
+the Lion, Duke of Lübeck, granted the merchants of Gothland peaceful
+entry into his land and extensive trading<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> privileges on condition that
+his subjects enjoyed similar rights and immunities in theirs, while a
+similar trade alliance was gradually signed between Visby and no less
+than thirty other cities which was ultimately to lead to the formation
+of the Hanseatic League.</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that these were halcyon days for Visby, and that
+owing to its position as foremost commercial power in the north it
+was able to exercise an authority and prestige in the Councils of the
+League that made it almost the sole arbiter of its destinies, while its
+wealth was so fabulous that, as an old ballad ran:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Gothlanders weighed gold with twenty-pound weights</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And played with the rarest gems;</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The pigs ate out of silver troughs,</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the women spun with distaffs of gold.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>To guard against attack, imposing walls were constructed around the
+city built on natural rock terraces which soon converted Visby into one
+of the strongest fortresses of the age, while it began to rival the
+finest towns in Europe in the splendour of its churches, public and
+private buildings, and the wealth of its merchant princes.</p>
+
+<p>This being the case, it was no wonder that the city soon began to
+attract the cupidity of kings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> and pirates, and that during these
+centuries there were many occasions on which her burghers were called
+upon to defend their city, though the time was to come when even her
+massive walls and the staunch hearts of her defenders proved inadequate
+to ward off attack. Her decline and fall began as soon as internecine
+strife arose between her citizens and those of the countryside, and
+when open warfare arose between the two camps owing to the resentment
+that was felt by the country merchants against those of the town for
+claiming the exclusive right to the commerce of the island, her fate
+was really sealed. In the spring of 1288 the peasant merchants took up
+arms and marched on Visby, the war that ensued proving so indecisive
+that King Magnus, who had hitherto exercised a purely nominal
+suzerainship on the island, was encouraged to interfere. He invaded it
+with a powerful army, put an end to the war, and converted Gothland
+into a Swedish province after suppressing all its privileges and
+exemptions from taxation. This curtailment of her liberties, coupled
+with the displacement of commercial routes owing to the crusades,
+the rapid rise of Lübeck as mistress of the Baltic, and the further
+wars that were waged against her,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> hastened the downfall of the city,
+though she continued for a time to mint her own coinage and even to
+oppose successfully (in 1313) by force of arms the attempts made by
+Swedish and other kings to extort fresh taxation from her coffers or
+gain possession of her citadel. Then misfortunes began to crowd in
+upon the town. Smaller and smaller became its commerce, and thinner
+and thinner the streams of silver that poured in from the lands beyond
+the sea, while bitterly cold winters and dry summers came with cattle
+pests and plagues which mowed down rich and poor alike, the dead and
+dying lying in street or square uncared for, polluting the air. Then
+finally the end in 1361, when Valdemar, King of the Danes, determined
+to take possession of Visby and of what still remained of its wealth.
+Landing at Västergarn, where a few hundred peasants who offered
+resistance were defeated, he advanced upon the town between burning
+homesteads, and after slaughtering 1800 peasants who fought to the
+last in defence of the capital, entered the city. Whether or not the
+legend is true according to which the burgomaster’s daughter fell in
+love with the Danish king and delivered up to him the key of the town,
+or that other legend which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> relates that Valdemar was admitted into
+the city through a breach made by the burghers themselves in the hope
+of so gaining the whole commerce of the island, now that their rural
+competitors had been wiped out, the fact remains that Valdemar looted
+the town in spite of its unconditional surrender and compelled the
+authorities to hand him over three hogsheads filled with gold, silver,
+and precious stones.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_168">
+<img src="images/i_168.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="453">
+<p class="caption center">RUINS OF BORGHOLM CASTLE, ÖLAND</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the church of St. Nicholas are two sightless rose windows, each
+of which, so a legend tells us, contained a carbuncle so large and
+luminous that it served as a beacon to mariners as they steered their
+vessels into Visby Harbour. And these King Valdemar carried away with
+him when returning home with his booty, only to encounter a storm off
+the coast of Gothland, when every ship foundered. To this day the
+inhabitants of the island declare that when the sea is calm they have
+seen these carbuncles glowing from their resting-place in the deep.</p>
+
+<p>Visby’s star of destiny now set for ever, though it continued to
+struggle on in the hope of better things, and again and again the
+town was besieged, looted or even burned, Dane, Swede, and pirate
+gradually encompassing its ruin. Faster and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> faster its power on the
+sea waned and drew to its end, while its ships were taken and plundered
+till none would venture out to sea. At last came the Reformation,
+when the treasures of its churches were confiscated and its convents
+dissolved, while the decayed and ruined churches which had been its
+proud boast were allowed to go to rack and ruin, only the cathedral of
+St. Mary being maintained and restored for the new worship. Gradually
+their roofs blew asunder, their rafters rotted and their arches
+crumbled away, while from the walls stone fell after stone, religious
+iconoclasts completing the ruin that others had begun.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Of all the mediæval splendour attained by Gothland there are
+consequently nothing but ruins, but these ruins are in themselves so
+wondrous, and the Visby of to-day reflects so many of the features
+of the merchant city of Hanseatic times, that few cities are more
+interesting to visit. With its many picturesque red-tiled houses and
+gables, its many architectural treasures and imposing castellated
+walls, its lovely gardens yielding every summer roses of luxuriant
+abundance, and its mild climate and many recreational<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> facilities,
+Visby is in fact an ideal spot for a holiday.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that impresses as you land on the island is the mighty
+wall that dominates all the surrounding country and encloses the city
+almost in its original perfection; vast grey battlemented walls,
+mellowed by age and the touch of ivy, with thirty-eight towers which
+rise some of them to a height of 70 feet and recall those of Cracow
+or Carcassonne, and between them a picturesque series of bartizans
+supported by corbels, the whole being among the most perfect specimens
+that are still preserved of mediæval fortress architecture.</p>
+
+<p>Of these walls the west or shoreward are considerably older than the
+others, it being probable that on the land side the town was at first
+only protected by a palisade-crowned rampart which was in course of
+time replaced by a wall with crenellated coping and a banquette along
+the inner side surmounting a row of pointed blind arches, but towards
+the close of the thirteenth century it was still further heightened and
+the greater part of the towers erected, the new superstructure of wall
+between the towers resting upon the parapet and being only broken by
+a series of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> bartizans. In earlier times, moreover, a number of moats
+partly hewn out of the solid rock provided additional security to the
+city, though few of these water defences are now visible.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest and most interesting of these towers is undoubtedly the
+Powder Tower, the only remaining fortification of the old port, its
+heavy barred vaultings and sturdy walls probably dating back to the
+eleventh century; but the lover of legend should also linger for a
+moment near the Tower of Jungfrutornet, or the Maiden’s Tower, and hear
+how the burgomaster’s daughter fell in love with Valdemar and gave
+him the key of the city which she had stolen at night from under her
+father’s pillow. The story goes that as soon as he sailed for Denmark
+the citizens built this tower and immured her alive as a punishment for
+her treachery.</p>
+
+<p>The wall undoubtedly owes its imposing effect in a large measure to the
+fact that the land outside it is for the most part desolate and devoid
+of vegetation, and its vast grey fortifications, which extend their
+battlemented tops around the town for more than two and a half miles,
+are exceedingly impressive. Before entering the town, however, you
+should pass by a certain field lying just outside<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> the walls, where
+a very old stone cross is to be found, and also pay a visit to the
+mediæval scaffold which is situated to the north of the town near the
+old Lepers’ Church of St. Göran. Both are worth visiting.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_175">
+<img src="images/i_175.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450">
+<p class="caption center">THE WALLS OF VISBY</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The first, Valdemar’s Cross, which is engraved with the likeness of the
+Saviour, and a Latin inscription reading as following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>In the year of our Lord 1361, on the third day after St. James, fell
+the Gothlanders before the gates of Visby in the hands of the Danes.
+Here lie they buried. Pray for them,</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>is in spite of its old age almost in a perfect state of preservation,
+only one arm having been destroyed. It was erected on the very spot
+where the peasants of Gothland made their final stand in defence of
+Visby against the might of the Danish crown, and near it lie buried
+many of the peasants and Danish soldiers who fell on that historic
+occasion. Some twenty years ago excavations in this old burial-place
+brought to light several hundred skeletons in rusted armour, many of
+the shields being pierced with arrows or dented by sword-cuts. It is
+believed that these skeletons are the remains of the Danish invaders,
+as only the Gothlanders were buried under the cross itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p>
+
+<p>The second consists of a mediæval scaffold, three stone pillars once
+joined by wooden rafters upon which malefactors were wont to be hanged
+in olden times. Grim and menacing, they stand on a high cliff so that
+all may see, a lasting memorial of an age when evil-doers were exposed
+even in death to the public eye <i>pour effrayer les autres</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Between these imposing walls the life of the town, now a ghost of its
+former self, pulses lazily through narrow and crooked cobbled streets
+which are lined with low-eaved and small windowed wooden or stone
+houses;<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and along these disused byways of travel, whose very name
+is an inspiration, are ruins of churches and abbeys, cathedrals and
+dwellings, that date from the Hanseatic age and attest the glory of
+Visby’s past. The whole effect is extremely picturesque, in spite of
+the intrusion here and there of certain houses, products of more recent
+times; while interspersed among these and brightened, moreover, in
+many places by greenery and the famous rose gardens that you will find
+sandwiched in the most unlikely places, are high and stately gabled
+houses, the residences of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> merchant princes of the Middle Ages. And
+the ruins of ten wondrous stone churches, dating from the eleventh and
+twelfth centuries, whose yellow ivy-clad walls and graceful arches and
+columns provide the most convincing of testimonies not only of Visby’s
+former greatness and prosperity but of the hold which religion then
+occupied in the heart of her citizens.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Many of the latter being built from stones taken from the
+old churches.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the older houses many are well preserved and had their origin in the
+prosperous days of the town in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
+They are characterised by high narrow façades and gables with corbel
+steps, and arches that span the streets and provide the city with one
+of its characteristic features. The stateliest of these old mansions
+are those that are found along the Strandgatan in close proximity to
+the mediæval harbour, one of their typical features consisting of
+church-like cellars which are canopied by cross vaultings on slender,
+graceful columns, and usually divided into two stories by a flooring of
+beams placed at half the height of the ceiling. The house containing
+the museum of the town, a magnificent collection of Gothlandic mediæval
+art, “Gothlands fornsal,” possesses such a cellar, a portion of the
+floor originally dividing it into two stories having been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> removed
+to suit the requirements of the museum; but this mansion, unlike
+many of the mediæval buildings of the town, shows nothing on its
+exterior to betray its great age. Among those who have preserved their
+old-world exterior best are the well-known Old Apothecary’s shop “Gamla
+apoteket”, also in the Strandgatan, which dates from the days of King
+John of England, the Liljehorns’ house, and the hotel Visby Börs in the
+same street, and certain groups of houses in Hansgatan, as again the
+woodshed of the bishop’s palace in Drottensgatan and the Burmeister
+House.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Many of these mediæval houses were obviously utilised for
+business purposes and occasionally contained as many as eight stories.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Whose wall and ceiling decorations date from 1650.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Even more striking, however, are the ruins of the splendid stone
+churches which are dotted here and there through the irregular streets
+and lanes, the view that these command from their towers being one of
+surpassing loveliness; an interesting cathedral which was consecrated
+in 1225 and is still in use to-day, and ten wonderful old ruins, relics
+of the eleventh and twelfth centuries which represent every style of
+architecture in the Middle Ages except the late Gothic. I doubt if any
+town<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> in Europe of anything like the size of Visby or even much larger
+can present anything architecturally of so engrossing an interest.</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral of St. Mary was originally built as a basilica,
+<i>i.e.</i> with three aisles, of which the middle one was the highest.
+It also had a vaulted transept with an apse adjoining, and was lighted
+by windows which perforated the clerestory above the roof of the side
+aisles. Of this original building only the lower part of the great west
+tower and part of the transept are preserved, the remainder of the
+church having undergone many alterations. Shortly before the middle
+of the thirteenth century the original chancel was replaced by the
+present choir, while the beautiful and still preserved Bridal Porch was
+constructed in the south gable of the transept. New side aisles were
+then substituted for the old, corresponding in height and width with
+the nave, their roofs being so arranged that every vaulted square had
+its own saddle roof with the gable facing the length of the building,
+while every second column separating the aisles was pulled down, these
+changes having the effect of converting the entire interior into a
+single whole except for the chancel and tower chapels. Some time before
+1400 a large hall, whose walls were superimposed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> directly over the
+colonnades, was erected over the vaulting of the nave and another
+roof laid over it, to whose walls new slanting roofs were joined for
+the side aisles. In this manner the exterior of the cathedral was
+considerably heightened and again looked like a basilica, though
+nothing was changed in the interior of the church itself. About the
+same period the towers, now altogether too low for the remainder of the
+church, were raised to their present height.</p>
+
+<p>Interesting as is the Cathedral of St. Mary, the ruins of the other
+houses of worship that once served the spiritual needs of Visby’s
+thirty thousand people are, in my opinion, infinitely more arresting
+in their loveliness. The force of their appeal lies, I imagine, in the
+picture which they afford of an age when religion was not a hollow
+sham but a reality to which every man readily turned, not only in
+those moments of trial when even the careless remember the claim of
+the Deity, but also in those more prosperous times when men rapidly
+develop an illusory sense of their own power and might. Visby in her
+heyday supported no less than sixteen churches and the island nearly a
+hundred, many of these being vast structures of mediæval splendour, to
+whose adornment many<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> precious metals and jewels had been lavished and
+many great artists had contributed a quota.</p>
+
+<p>Near the walls are the beautiful towers of St. Drotten and St. Lars,
+sister churches which are said to have been built by two maiden sisters
+who hated one another so heartily that each erected her own church in
+order not to sit together in the same place of worship.</p>
+
+<p>St. Drotten has a square tower which is reminiscent of the western
+tower of the cathedral and is built in one piece with an almost
+quadrate nave, while St. Lars, which is cruciform in shape and shows
+a marked Byzantine influence, impresses by virtue of its majestic
+proportions, its characteristically high arched paired windows, and its
+massive vaulted rooms that fill in the corners of the cross and open
+to its arm, no ingenuity having so far accounted for the triforia that
+are hollowed in its walls at various heights and facing the nave of the
+church.</p>
+
+<p>St. Nicholas, which like St. Lars has wonderful long slender windows,
+is a three-aisled church, with a square chancel and a pentagonal apse,
+which was originally built as a basilica, and then so altered that
+the height of the three aisles is now the same. It was taken over by
+the Dominicans about 1220<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> when they arrived in Visby, the decorative
+sculptures of the doorways being very similar to those found in the
+bridal porch of St. Mary’s.</p>
+
+<p>St. Clement’s, as it stands to-day, also belongs to the same period,
+<i>i.e.</i> about the middle of the thirteenth century, but within its
+walls are the foundations of three, if not more, older church edifices,
+the first probably dating back to about 980, a circumstance that speaks
+eloquently of the wealth and love of building that characterised the
+Great Age of Visby, since it is clear that none of these churches were
+destroyed by human agency, this period being then almost the only one
+during which the island remained at peace with the world.</p>
+
+<p>The other ruined churches of Visby include the churches of St. John
+and St. Peter, which was the successor of Botair’s wooden church to
+which I have already alluded, and also St. Olaf’s Tower, which is
+almost identical to the western tower of the cathedral, all these being
+interesting specimens of twelfth-century architecture, but none that
+I have mentioned, except perhaps St. Lars, are as quickening to the
+imagination, or as remarkable for the beauty of their architectural
+features, as the churches of St. Catherine and the Holy Ghost.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_184">
+<img src="images/i_184.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="486">
+<p class="caption center">THE CITY OF VISBY</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span></p>
+
+<p>The first, which was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria,
+belonged to the Franciscan friars who settled in Visby in 1233, but
+only acquired its definite form with its graceful columns and lofty
+vaultings in 1413, its beautiful columns and arches remaining to this
+day in an almost perfect state of preservation. The second, which
+belonged to the charitable institution of the Holy Ghost, consists of
+an octagonal tower with two vaulted stories and two separate floors,
+with a common chancel and an apse that is let into its eastern wall.
+Original in conception and better preserved than most of the ruins of
+the city, the Church of the Holy Ghost ranks perhaps as the finest
+church of the island.</p>
+
+<p>Of the hundred or more churches which are to be found in other parts
+of Gothland, the more interesting are undoubtedly those which date
+back to the twelfth century or even further, such as the richly
+decorated wooden church of Hemse, now preserved in the Historical
+Museum at Stockholm, the church Garde with its plain nave and Byzantine
+paintings, the churches of Dalhem and Stånga, and the large Cistercian
+convent church in Roman constructed after the designs of the French
+Cistercians, the simple grandeur of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> whose arches and columns recall
+those of another Rome; yet even the other more modern churches often
+present interesting features. Distinguished by plain wall surfaces and
+an almost entire lack of the buttress system that characterises Gothic
+architecture in the west, they possess a style that is pure Gothic and
+yet are strongly national in tendency. Their towers are very varied
+in shape, but usually tall and slender, while the interiors convey an
+impression of great spaciousness, thanks to the height of their slender
+columns, the solidity of their vaultings, and the wide span of their
+equally high arches. Speaking for myself, however, I confess to have
+derived greater pleasure from seeing the many wonderful carved portals,
+baptismal fonts, and well-preserved wood carvings, some of these the
+work of the greatest sculptors of the age, that abound in the island,
+many of the roods, figures of the Madonna and statues of saints, which
+have been preserved, possessing a very high artistic value. In this
+respect I rather fancy the little island of Gothland is perhaps richer
+than almost any country in the world save France and Germany, the
+beauty and originality of its wood carvings and decorative sculpture
+providing further proof of the exceedingly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> high culture attained by
+its citizens in the days of their prosperity. No lover of beauty should
+therefore fail to pay a visit to a few of these old churches, and
+especially to Viklau and Öja. The first possesses the only known wood
+carving attributed to the famous cathedral workers of Chartres, the
+leading sculpture centre in the twelfth century; the second an equally
+beautiful rood that is generally held to be the work of a French
+sculptor of the thirteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>The three masters who are principally responsible for the building
+of the churches of Gothland are Le Frans, Botwid and Sighafr, all
+three justly reputed in their age as leaders of their art; but many
+other talented artists, whose names have purposely remained concealed
+under a <i>nom de guerre</i>, have contributed their quota to the
+embellishment and building of these splendid mediæval monuments. It has
+been calculated that over 400 churches would now be left standing in
+this tiny island as a record of the tremendous ecclesiastical building
+activity which took place in Gothland from the earliest Christian times
+to the middle of the fourteenth century, if the Goths had been spared
+the series of catastrophes which was destined to leave them the easy
+prey of pirates and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> marauders, and I should say that this figure is
+probably underestimated.</p>
+
+<p>There is one further characteristic found in these churches, moreover,
+that should appeal to the lover of folk-lore. It appears that Gothland,
+like Scandinavia and Great Britain, was in the Bronze Age a great
+centre of sun worship, and that this adoration of the Sun god (Bal)
+lingered on in spite of Christianity among the many customs that have
+survived to show a pagan influence.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the dances, for instance, which are given round the Beltane
+fires on Midsummer Eve are 3000 years old and date from that period,
+while the remains of a sun chariot have also been discovered not far
+from Visby; but what is even more interesting is the fact that the
+chief door of practically every church in the island faces south and
+yet lies as near to the west as possible. This has undoubtedly to do
+with the cult of the sun, as the good people of Visby sought in this
+manner to conciliate both their new and old convictions. Even to-day
+the peasants of the island never dance or spin on Thursday (the day of
+Thor, the god of thunder), this being the one day of the week when in
+pagan times they were unable to pay their worship to the Sun god.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_191">
+<img src="images/i_191.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="491">
+<p class="caption center">SUNDAY AT RÄTTVIK, DALECARLIA</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span></p>
+
+<p>Apart from the churches and a few well-preserved merchant houses dating
+from Hanseatic times, such as the famous merchant mansion of Kattlunda
+in the south of the island, which was obviously designed for defence
+against an enemy, the interior of Gothland has little to offer in the
+way of scenic attractions, if we except the luxuriantly beautiful
+groves and “leafy meadows” which are found interspersed here and there
+among the desolate fen and woodland, and occasional patches of wheat
+and beet sugar characterising the scenery. With these exceptions,
+everything worth seeing is concentrated along the coasts. Along the
+west are romantically wild cliffs and downs, with here and there a
+pleasant little cove or inlet, and the two lonely Karl islands with
+their steep cliffs and a bird life so varied that it is difficult to
+believe any human being has ever set foot on the island; along the
+east, broad open bays, sandy shores, and rocky promontories worn away
+by the sea and moulded into strange fantastic shapes recalling those
+seen in the wildest parts of the Breton coast or the Giant’s Causeway;
+to the south a low shore and headland fringed with Hoburgen’s mighty
+rocks; and to the north the large island of Fårö with its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> impressive
+drift sands and the wild-looking Isle of Sandö, where forest and sand
+are ever waging a fight for existence: a scenery, in short, which for
+sheer grandeur and picturesqueness resembles no other in the world, and
+over which I have seen sunsets flaming with almost southern splendour.
+Truly Gothland is an ideal spot for a holiday, and with its many
+imposing ruins of a vanished culture, its wild scenery and coast line,
+its mild climate and its pleasant seaside resorts of Snäckgärdsbaden,
+Kneippbyn and Slite, all easily accessible from Visby by rail or motor,
+combines a sufficiency of attractions that should make it a favourite
+resort for any traveller who is desirous of exploring new and strange
+ground.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">DALECARLIA<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Dalarna in Swedish.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>I know few parts of Europe where traditions, costumes and customs have
+remained so little affected by the levelling process of civilisation
+as Dalecarlia, and here amid surroundings that reproduce all the
+characteristic features of Swedish scenery, with the exception of
+the mountainous regions of Lapland, is found a race of virile and
+independent men and women characterised by ready wit, good humour, and
+great bodily strength who have contributed more to the shaping of their
+country’s history than all the rest of Sweden put together.</p>
+
+<p>To know Dalecarlia is, therefore, almost as good as knowing Sweden, for
+not only the scenery but also the characteristics of the population
+inhabiting it are typically Swedish.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the province are rich smiling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> pasture and farm-land
+alternating with wooded hills and lakes, great pine forests and birch
+groves; in the south, mining and industrial districts which are among
+the most productive regions of the country. Dalecarlia is intersected
+by the Dalälven river, which flows down from the mountains of the
+border in two branches, Öster Dalälven, its eastern branch, flowing
+through Lake Siljan. Here, and scattered around its pleasantly wooded
+shores, are ten little towns which are each the centre of a distinctive
+community that possess not only remarkable historical memories, but
+individual costumes which their inhabitants have continued to wear
+unchanged from the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>Like all independent and liberty-loving races, the Dalecarlians have
+never been able to tolerate oppression or the yoke of the foreigner,
+and it was this same proud national spirit which has always induced
+them to take the lead, whenever the liberties of their country were at
+stake.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">Manhood, pluck, and hardy men</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Still are found in old Dale land.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>So runs an old Dale song, and again and again the peasants of the
+province have risen to arms to defend the liberties of the Fatherland.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_197">
+<img src="images/i_197.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="451">
+<p class="caption center">LAKE SILJAN</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span></p>
+
+<p>In 1435, under the leadership of Engelbrecht, a prominent miner, they
+succeeded in temporarily freeing Sweden from the tyranny and misrule
+of the successors of Queen Margaret of Denmark, their subsequent
+defeat at the hands of their oppressors being more than avenged by
+the remarkable success which crowned their efforts at liberating the
+country in the years immediately following the accession of King
+Christian II. of Denmark to the Swedish crown in 1520. Self-willed and
+obstinate, this able but short-sighted monarch signalised his advent to
+power by treacherously murdering eighty-two leading Swedish noblemen
+who had assembled in the capital for the coronation festivities. This
+cold-blooded murder so fired the imagination of Gustavus Vasa, the son
+of one of its victims, that breaking away from the prison in which he
+had been confined as hostage for Christian’s safe keeping, he dashed
+across to Sweden by way of Lübeck, and started on a long 900-mile tramp
+northward, with the vague idea of rousing his countrymen to arms. Hotly
+pursued by the King of Denmark’s followers, he finally reached the
+district of Lake Siljan in Dalecarlia, and on the last Sunday in Advent
+proceeded to address<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> the good people of Rättvik after the morning
+service, as they were gathering on the shores of the lake. He described
+the incidents which had occurred, and laying stress on the many unjust
+and tyrannical measures which had been perpetrated by the Danish
+monarch, urged them to rally to his standard and free the country from
+its oppressors. The Dalecarlians sympathised with the young leader, but
+refused to do anything definite until they had received confirmation
+of the massacre. Then as Gustavus saw his pursuers closing once again
+upon him, he continued his flight towards the Norwegian frontier and
+had proceeded some ninety miles when he was overtaken by the swift ski
+runners whom the Dalecarlians had sent after him as soon as they had
+received tardy confirmation of the news. He then turned back, and after
+a succession of marvellous escapes that recall the exploits of Alfred
+the Great, succeeded in warding off his pursuers and in organising
+armed resistance to the Danish king.</p>
+
+<p>Backed by a numerous army, whose principal mainstay consisted of the
+peasantry in the district of Rättvik and the mining population of
+the south of Dalecarlia, he declared Sweden independent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> of Danish
+sovereignty, and by a succession of rapid triumphs on the field of
+battle converted this declaration into a reality, his coronation in
+1528 as King of Sweden inaugurating a new epoch in the history of the
+country and consecrating the rule of a dynasty which was destined to
+produce some of the ablest rulers in Scandinavia.</p>
+
+<p>The district surrounding Lake Siljan is consequently intimately
+associated with the name of Gustavus Vasa, for not only Rättvik, where
+a stately monument has been erected to commemorate his memory, but many
+other towns and villages, can point to homely farms or other buildings
+in which the national hero is supposed to have lain concealed from
+his pursuers. I have seen at Ornäs a well-preserved farmstead with
+overhanging balconies in which the fugitive is said to have taken
+refuge, disguised as a simple labourer, and also the kitchen in which
+he was discovered sitting near the hearth by the pursuing Danes. The
+story relates that the farmer’s wife, seeing that the suspicions of the
+Danes had been awakened, suddenly turned towards Gustavus and, after
+rebuking him violently for his laziness, struck him a hard blow on
+the back with a shovel, this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> action having the effect of convincing
+the soldiers that the Swedish labourer was not the man whom they were
+looking for. Every year a ski Marathon race is held from Mora to
+commemorate the athletic feat of the ski runner whom the Dalecarlians
+sent post-haste after Gustavus to recall him to Rättvik, and the course
+that is followed by the runners of to-day is almost identically the
+same as that which was followed by the sixteenth-century ski runner.
+The race is the most important sporting event of the year.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from these many historical memories and legends, the district of
+Lake Siljan possesses an appeal which is quite its own and which lies
+not only in the loveliness of its scenery and light salubrious air, but
+in the faithful observance of ancient tradition and the old-world style
+of dress that have ever characterised its people.</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere in Dalecarlia are these characteristics so strongly marked as
+in Siljansdalen, the district surrounding the lake.</p>
+
+<p>Of the ten little towns that lie on its verdant shores the three
+largest and perhaps the most beautiful are Rättvik, Leksand, and Mora.</p>
+
+<p>Rättvik, which lies on an inlet of the most eastern portion of the
+lake, has an exceptionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> beautiful situation on the slopes of
+wooded ridges that command a splendid view, its sixteenth-century
+white church being finely placed on a point projecting in the lake and
+being surrounded by so-called ‘Kyrkstallar,’ <i>i.e.</i> a number of
+makeshift buildings built of timbers placed roughly one above the other
+which possess no windows but are usually provided with a stove for
+making coffee. These structures, it is interesting to note, are largely
+used as rest-houses on Sundays by those church-goers who have had to
+come many miles by foot, cycle, or horse, in order to attend divine
+service. No visitor to Rättvik should fail to attend one of these
+celebrations, for the opportunities that it will provide him of seeing
+the farmers and townsfolk of the locality coming to worship apparelled
+in their picturesquely becoming national dress. On week-days you may
+occasionally come across workers in the fields or even housewives
+wearing the costume of their forefathers, but on Sundays and feast days
+you will see thousands of men and women each in the costume peculiar to
+his or her own district. These dresses are made by the women themselves
+or are often heirlooms to which each successive generation has afforded
+its quota and, if substantially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> the same, differ slightly in details,
+certain fixed variations depending on whether the wearer is married or
+single, or on the particular feast day that is being commemorated. In
+imagery of colour and beauty of design, the level of excellence reached
+by these peasant artists often approaches that attained by the Slovaks
+and Roumanians, though they evince less concern for effect and bold
+colouring than either of these two races.</p>
+
+<p>The characteristic dress of the Rättvik peasant women consists of
+a lofty, pointed conical bonnet, a corseted skirt which is usually
+flowered, and a horizontally striped and rainbow-coloured strip that,
+sewn in the front of the skirt, recalls the gaily striped aprons that
+are found in Ragusa, while a flowered kerchief held in front by a
+brooch is fastened around the neck. Extremely fair of complexion and
+with hair that is usually straw-coloured, the good-looking women of
+Rättvik are among the finest specimens of the Swedish race which I have
+seen, and are so strong and energetic that even the hardest manual
+labour presents no difficulty to them.</p>
+
+<p>The costume of the Rättvik men consists of a very long blue coat that
+is very similar to an old-fashioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> frock-coat, only that it is cut
+high in the neck and single-breasted; a waistcoat, with two rows of
+brass buttons, of the same colour; yellow leather knee-breeches that
+reach half-way up the waistcoat, and a blue soft felt hat recalling a
+harlequin. Only the older men continue, however, to wear the attractive
+apparel of their ancestors, the younger men preferring the more drab
+fashions of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from its lovely scenery, its many historical memories, and
+its quaint peasant costumes, Rättvik possesses many attractions.
+Its beautiful pine forests, high bracing situation and invigorating
+air, combine to make it an ideal spot for those who need rest and
+recuperation, while its position half-way down the lake renders it the
+best starting-point for the various excursions which can be made in any
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>Lying at the very northernmost point of Siljan and easily accessible
+from Rättvik by rail or water, the village of Mora is not as famous as
+Rättvik for the beauty of its costumes, but has played as distinguished
+a part in the history of the country. It was the men of Mora who
+were the first to flock to the standard of Gustavus Vasa as soon as
+confirmation of the Swedish massacre had arrived,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> and it is from here
+that Sweden’s national ski race, the Vasaloppet, is run every year to
+commemorate the stirring athletic feat which undoubtedly started the
+War of Liberation. In Mora church-yard, moreover, can be seen the
+tomb of Anders Zorn, the great Swedish painter, sculptor, and pioneer
+of old Swedish peasant culture, even more than Ankarcrona, who not
+only enriched his native town, and especially its parish church, by
+presenting it with a statue of Gustavus Vasa that is representative
+of the best Swedish sculpture of to-day, but has founded a People’s
+High School which contains a collection of paintings by Prince Eugen,
+Liljefors, Tiren, and other famous Swedish masters that is in every
+respect a notable one.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_206">
+<img src="images/i_206.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="555">
+<p class="caption center">MORA CHURCH</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Across the lake, and at its most southernmost point, lies Leksand,
+which with Rättvik and Floda shares the distinction of being a centre
+of old mediæval Swedish peasant folklore and costume. The excursion to
+it is particularly interesting on a Sunday morning, if one travels to
+it by the special church boat. On these occasions the steamer calls
+in at various localities on the way to Leksand to collect the more
+distant parishioners, all clothed in their most becoming costumes, and
+her deck soon presents a very picturesque and animated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> appearance.
+On arrival at Leksand the crowd makes its way to the fine birch-tree
+avenue leading to the quaint Russian-looking steepled church in which
+the service is to be held, and here the visitor should follow them and
+either join the worshippers inside the building, or await them as they
+come out after service. Of the two alternatives I found the second
+infinitely the more agreeable, as a Swedish Protestant service is an
+interminable affair, and sermons of thirty minutes’ duration appear to
+be lasting hours when one does not understand a word of what is being
+spoken. Nowhere, except perhaps in Slovakia and Roumania, have I seen
+such an array of picturesque and colourful costumes as those which are
+to be seen in Leksand on these occasions; and the scene that the people
+present in church as they troop down the nave preliminary to leaving
+it, or the kaleidoscope of colour which they make as they emerge into
+the avenue and stroll about or talk in groups, forms an unforgettable
+picture.</p>
+
+<p>The bodices of the women are mostly fashioned of flowered and
+gaily-coloured velvet or are embroidered with many colours, while the
+apron-looking material which is sewn in the front of the plain cloth
+black or white skirt is often beautifully<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> embroidered, but more
+usually attractively striped in either red, black, or white, there
+appearing to be endless variations of these colours and of the size and
+direction of the stripes; the caps or bonnets are sometimes conical
+with striped trimming, or very similar to a Breton <i>coiffe</i>, and
+held together by a black or white embroidered ribbon which is fastened
+with a bow at the back of the head; at other times plain white like
+a hospital nurse’s cap or the same colour but beautifully edged with
+lace. And if the women’s dress is picturesque that of the men wearing
+national costume is almost equally so; blue or plum-coloured is the
+old-fashioned single or double-breasted tunic or frock-coat that is
+cut high in the neck and sometimes reaches to the knee, while yellow
+buckskin knee breeches, blue or red stockings with the most attractive
+red tassels imaginable peering merrily from the turned-up tops, and a
+hat which when not large-brimmed and of felt is red or of an equally
+vivid colour strongly reminiscent of a romantic opera, complete the
+costume. As for the children, they are an exact replica of their elders.</p>
+
+<p>Leksand Church, which was originally built in the Middle Ages and
+given its present form and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> bulb-shaped dome after a fire in 1709,
+is distinctly Russian in character, its tower having been rebuilt by
+Russian prisoners of war according to a model which Lars Siljeström,
+a military chaplain and the architect who had been entrusted with
+the rebuilding of the church, had brought back from Russia, after
+accompanying Charles XII. to that country.</p>
+
+<p>Dalecarlian peasant art as revealed in the attractive costumes which
+the peasants continue to wear on all festive occasions reveals an
+innate artistic talent and a striving after beauty that mark it out
+among all peasant artistic productions, while it proves how easy it is
+to acquire technique if one only seeks to give faithful expression to
+one’s inspiration. And just as in the peasant art of other countries,
+this striving after beauty shows itself, not only in the painstaking
+and loving care that is lavished in the making and adorning of the
+peasant costumes, but in the equally unstinting thought and labour that
+is devoted to the embellishing of the home and to making life beautiful
+even for the poorest. I visited several small farms and cottages
+and found in even the humblest abode walls that had been adorned
+with peasant drawings and paintings. Produced with house-painter’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>
+colours and obviously intended to decorate in conjunction with woven
+material, these quaint and artless paintings often convey an original
+and pleasing effect, while they depict Biblical personages and events
+whose general colour scheme, like those of the costumes, are dictated
+by district and devised with surprising skill.</p>
+
+<p>If Dalecarlia is therefore an ideal land for tourists during every
+season of the year, with its many beautiful excursions and fascinating
+peasant costumes and cottages, the quaintly picturesque customs of its
+people and the opportunities that it offers in winter for every kind
+of winter sports, it is also the home of industries which have long
+been famous in the history of Sweden. There is an old legend which
+relates that about 700 years ago a goat-herd, while tending his goats
+on a mountain in Dalecarlia south of Lake Siljan, noticed that one of
+his flock had suddenly become dyed red, and that the only plausible
+explanation that he could find of the phenomenon lay in the fact that
+the surrounding rock contained quantities of copper which had become
+oxidised by the atmosphere and converted into red ochre by the action
+of a forest fire.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_212">
+<img src="images/i_212.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="470">
+<p class="caption center">LEKSAND CHURCH</p>
+</div>
+
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>
+
+<p>This incident, it is alleged, led to the discovery of important
+copper deposits in the neighbourhood of Falun and ultimately to the
+formation of the Stora Kopparberget, or Falun copper mine, one of
+the most remarkable mining undertakings in the world and probably
+the oldest. Whether this explanation is correct or not, the fact
+remains that the Falun Mine Company was certainly founded in 1284, as
+a purchase deed recording the sale of the mine to its present owners
+has been in existence from that year. And from that day it has never
+changed ownership in spite of the many vicissitudes through which it
+has passed. The first owners floated a company in which not only the
+greatest nobles of the age, but even the miners actually employed in
+the mine, were represented, and very soon the mine became the richest
+copper-producing concern in the world, the industry being at its height
+in the seventeenth century, when it constituted Gustavus Adolphus’s
+principal source of revenue during the Thirty Years’ War.</p>
+
+<p>The Falun Mine has been very productive in the past, and up to the year
+1900 there has been mined in it some 35 million tons of copper ore,
+while its extensive galleries are more than twelve miles in length and
+nearly a mile in depth in its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> deepest part. Its present copper output
+is insignificant, however, as it is no longer copper ore which is mined
+but principally pyrites, this ore constituting raw material for the
+manufacture of sulphuric acid and the other chemical products of the
+company or being utilised in its extensive sulphite pulp industry.
+It is only on the strength of its glorious historical traditions,
+therefore, that one should visit the mine, or for the insight that a
+visit paid to it will afford of the pump-houses, hoisting machinery,
+and other obsolete contrivances that satisfied our ancestors’
+requirements, though an hour spent in the interesting museum of the
+company could be employed far more profitably.</p>
+
+<p>The Stora Kopparberg’s principal activities being only indirectly
+concerned with the Falun mine, we must look elsewhere for an
+explanation of the prominent position which it continues to hold among
+Swedish industrial concerns of this century. Already before the copper
+ore was running short owing to excessive mining, it had started those
+fields of activity which now constitute its principal strength, such as
+iron and steel, forestry and wood, all these industries being located
+in the basin of the river Dalälven.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p>
+
+<p>In 1735 the company built its first ironworks, and by 1870 it possessed
+no less than twenty furnaces and ironworks in different parts of the
+province. The company then established the Domnarvet Iron and Steel
+Works on the Dalälven river south of Falun, and closed down the smaller
+works, with the exception of the Korsa works, which still continued
+to manufacture hammered Lancashire iron. In addition to these works
+the Stora Kopparberg Company owns the Dannemora and over half the
+Grängesberg iron-ore mines in Central Sweden, from which raw material
+is obtained for the iron industry, and enormous forest tracts which
+provide its large sulphate and sulphite pulp mills at Skutskär and
+paper mill at Kvarnsveden with the necessary timber.</p>
+
+<p>Falun itself is a clean and tidy little town which has gradually
+grown up around the mine, in which many attractive-looking workmen’s
+cottages, painted with the red ochre produced from the mine, can be
+seen. It boasts two interesting churches, those of Christine and
+Kopparberg, this last dating from the early Middle Ages, and a Town
+Hall dating from the seventeenth century, but possesses little else of
+interest apart from the collection that is housed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> in the Head Office
+buildings of the Stora Kopparberg Company in the eastern corner of the
+Market Square, and the museum of the same company, “Stora Gruvstugan”,
+one of the finest industrial museums of its kind to be found in Sweden.</p>
+
+<p>The first contains many notable portraits of Swedish monarchs or of
+distinguished Swedes who at one time or another have been connected
+with the general management of the company; the second, not only a
+number of tools that were used at various times in mining operations
+and a very interesting selection of the copper coins formerly used
+in Sweden (all manufactured from the copper of the Falun mine), and
+among them the huge 10-daler silver coin, the largest in the world and
+weighing over 50 lb., but also many valuable pictures, prints, plans,
+and models illustrating the history of the Stora Kopparberg Company
+from its birth and the subsequent development of the Swedish iron,
+timber, paper, pulp, and water-power industries. The workmen of this
+immense undertaking, which is splendidly organised, possess their own
+club, libraries, wash-houses, technical and evening schools and sport
+grounds, while their wives are trained in house-keeping<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> and children
+management, and the young receive the best education available. I have
+never seen any institution run more efficiently than the Falun Copper
+Company.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_219">
+<img src="images/i_219.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="472">
+<p class="caption center">SUNDSVALL, A GREAT BALTIC TIMBER PORT</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The surrounding country is fertile and in places almost pretty, except
+in the district immediately surrounding the mine-fields. Here are
+numerous slag-fields, in which the copper ore used to be worked by
+repeated processes of roasting and smelting, the sulphurous fumes that
+were thus generated soon killing off all vegetation and giving the
+neighbouring houses a very scorched appearance.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">LAPLAND</p>
+
+
+<p>Psychologists tell us that man is naturally of a jealous and envious
+temperament, and that in spite of centuries of civilisation the
+cave man or woman propensity that is manifested whenever a <i>crime
+passionnel</i> takes place is to be found in practically every race and
+at every period of history. This popular conception is, however, only a
+half-truth, for while jealousy may be said to be found generally among
+mankind, there is one race in which it is never met with, and probably
+several others (ethnologically related to it) who rarely manifest
+any sign of it. Scattered over Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway,
+north of the sixth degree of latitude, and therefore well within the
+Arctic circle, are a nomadic people belonging to the Mongolian race,
+the Laplanders, who, like the Red Indians of North America, have been
+in close contact with civilisation for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> centuries, without being
+more than superficially affected by it. Indeed, the Lapps are among
+the most primitive nations in the world, and, living their lives
+in the uncultured ways of their remote ancestors, have remained so
+fundamentally averse to the ways of civilisation that untimely death
+has almost invariably been the portion of any member of their race who
+has made essay of them. A less discontented nation does not, however,
+exist than the Laplanders, and, unperturbed by the vicissitudes of
+life, good fortune, or weather, they appear to lead serenely happy
+and contented lives, which prove how little happiness has to do with
+material comfort or wealth.</p>
+
+<p>The popular conception of Lapland is that of a vast desolate waste
+in the extreme north, perpetually snow-bound, and of the Lapps as a
+kind of Eskimo whose lot is as hard and cold as the bleak mountains
+where they tend their herds of reindeer. But this is hardly the case.
+Lapland is doubtless one of the parts of the world where the winter is
+the longest and the most trying. The temperature during the greater
+part of the year usually averages thirty or more degrees of frost,
+and for over three months the fleeting gleams of the aurora borealis
+and the light of the moon and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> the stars are the only substitute for
+sunlight; yet the Lapps are not without a summer, and for a period of
+six weeks the sun never sets, while emerald green meadows and leafy
+woodlands, radiant lakes and wild flowers that are as profuse as they
+are short-lived, bring a little pleasure and respite to a race whose
+existence would otherwise be terribly grey and barren.</p>
+
+<p>A visit to these timid and peace-loving people is a comparatively easy
+matter in this season of the year, as during this time they momentarily
+abandon their nomadic life and erect their huts on the slopes of the
+mountains or the shores of lakes. Here they can be observed living in
+conditions that are almost identical to those under which they were
+existing in the beginning of civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>Short but sturdily built, the Lapps, like all Mongolian races, have
+high cheek-bones, oblique eyes, black hair, and dark complexions. When
+they arrived in Europe is uncertain; probably before the dawn of modern
+history. Their life, which is spent in contact with Nature, gives them
+great endurance and hardihood, but they are not hard workers, and once
+they have made provision for the day or the morrow, they spend most of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>
+their time sitting in their huts smoking plug tobacco. Before their
+conversion to Christianity they were believed to be wizards and to hold
+dealings with the devil, to whom, and other gods, they were wont to
+sacrifice reindeer.</p>
+
+<p>The welfare of the Laplanders is inseparably bound up with that of
+their flocks, and any dwindling in the number of these cattle is
+invariably attended by a corresponding decrease in their own numbers.
+In the last two decades many Lapps have died owing to the loss of their
+reindeer, which have perished in thousands for want of a suitable
+pasturage. As the last few years have, however, been less arduous, the
+number of reindeer has shown an appreciable increase, and consequently
+the threatened extinction of the Lapp race, which a few years ago
+appeared to be only a question of a few years, has momentarily been
+arrested, the total number of Lapps inhabiting Sweden being 10 per cent
+greater than what it was five years ago (the Lapps have increased from
+6200 to about 7000), this increase in population being occasioned by a
+corresponding increase of 30 per cent among the reindeer. (There are
+over 300,000 reindeer at present in Lapland.)</p>
+
+<p>For the subsistence of a Lapp family a large<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> herd of deer is, however,
+required, and many Laplanders own from 500 to 1000 or more of these
+cattle. The meat and milk constitute their principal food, while the
+hide is tanned for skin and clothes, and many of the smaller household
+requisites are fashioned out of the bones and antlers.</p>
+
+<p>Last year over 60,000 reindeer were sold in North Lapland, with prices
+varying from 45 to 60 crowns, mostly to Southern Sweden, Germany,
+and Hungary, where their meat is highly appreciated. In exchange for
+these animals and their products the Lapps purchase such necessities
+as salt, cloth, coffee, tobacco, and flour, their requirements being
+extraordinarily simple. Their meals consist principally of reindeer
+meat, which they eat sometimes uncooked, but more usually stewed,
+fried, or smoked, coffee which they sprinkle with salt, unfermented
+bread or cake, and brandy, to which some are often immoderately
+addicted.</p>
+
+<p>No race lives as strenuous or hard an existence for the greater part
+of the year as this unfortunate people, over which hangs interminably
+the tragic suggestion of the inevitableness of the grind of life.
+And except for certain months when they have abundant leisure for
+making their articles of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> reindeer horn and clothing, or for taking
+a well-earned rest basking in the July sunshine, they are almost
+continually on the move, breaking up camp almost daily in order to find
+a suitable grazing ground for their reindeer and the moss without which
+they could not possibly live through the winter. Throughout this period
+and the spring and autumn months they are exposed almost unceasingly
+to the most rigorous of climates and to a cold that is almost lethal,
+their patience and good humour being as exemplary as their fortitude.</p>
+
+<p>Like most nomads, they are treated as a privileged race by the Swedish
+Government, which fully realises the value of their wholly distinctive
+industry in the utilisation of enormous territories that are absolutely
+unsuitable for any other purpose. They consequently pay no taxes or
+rent, are excused military service and political or civil obligations,
+and are allowed to roam or to camp at will within the very extensive
+areas that have been allotted to them, while the most ample protection
+is afforded to their lives and their industry. They have, however,
+often proved a bone of contention among the several northern nations
+in which they are to be found, and regulations have often had to be
+formulated governing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> the inter-State migrations of their flocks,
+the latter resolutely refusing to confine their wanderings to any
+particular country, while their owners on their side have proved
+equally powerless to prevent their incursions in foreign territory. But
+I must also mention the attempts which have been made to provide the
+Laplanders with a groundwork of education, and the Swedish State has
+appointed teachers, frequently of Lapp birth, who, moving about among
+the nomads and residing with them at their various winter and summer
+encampments, have diligently sought to render them more amenable to
+modern ways.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_228">
+<img src="images/i_228.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="402">
+<p class="caption center">LULEA, LAPLAND The export harbour for iron ore.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For over six years, in fact, every Lapp child is now compelled to
+receive instruction in Lapp and Swedish, and is taught the scientific
+raising and management of reindeer and the rudiments of natural
+history, nature study, and hygiene. The Lapps make good and exemplary
+pupils, and frequently reach a higher level of education than Swedish
+children of the same age; but on reaching the age of thirteen their
+mental development suddenly ceases, and they become incapable of
+progressing any further. Their thirst for acquiring knowledge then
+rapidly transforms itself into a tendency to revert to the prejudices
+and customs<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> of their race and a corresponding inability to
+appreciate the benefits of civilisation so complete that no amount
+of persuasion ever succeeds in inducing them to modify their natural
+aversion to water or to cleanliness. The Lapps, in short, live like
+animals, and neither wash nor take off their clothes even at night.
+After their evening meal, and with about as much formality as is
+displayed by a dog which is weary of eating and sinks into sleep,
+they quickly remove their raw-hide moccasins, drop down on the soft
+deerskins that are spread on the ground, and are asleep almost in the
+very act of falling. As their mode of eating is usually characterised,
+moreover, by an equal disdain of refinement and a way of attacking
+the meat or bone that is very reminiscent of a savage devouring his
+food, it is abundantly clear that the great majority of the Laplanders
+have little progressed beyond the first stage of civilisation, and,
+consequently, that it is waste of time trying to induce them to
+modify their traditional way of living. Highly significant, moreover,
+is the fact that the medical authorities of the hospital which has
+been built at Kiruna for those Lapps who are unable to find a cure
+for their ailments only retain their patients for a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> period of two
+months. They tell me that if a Lapp does not mend in that space of
+time it is useless keeping him any longer, as he invariably succumbs
+after two to three months’ experience of civilisation, or becomes a
+victim to consumption. There is, however, one danger to the race which
+the Swedish authorities are determined to stamp out, and that is the
+heavy child mortality which is prevalent in all Lapp settlements,
+and every effort is being made to induce the Lapp mother to adopt a
+less Spartan and antiquated method of dealing with her progeny. The
+problem offers almost insurmountable difficulties, however, as the Lapp
+mother refuses to countenance modern methods of rearing children, and
+consequently only the hardiest infant continues to survive. The only
+apparent good, therefore, which has so far resulted from the Lapps’
+contact with civilisation has been their conversion to Christianity.
+They are now a deeply religious nation, and hold Sunday in such
+respect that they absolutely refuse to have any money transaction on
+that day, while their standard of morality stands higher than that of
+far more civilised communities. They belong to the Laestadian sect,
+and their Lutheran aversion to graven images is such that they are
+inclined to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span> regard any image wrought by the magic of the camera as
+an insult to the Deity. It is only, however, when they worship their
+god that they cast off all reserve and display any marked exuberance,
+and they should be seen when possible after their services, as they
+sing their folk-songs and talk animatedly together. Laestadianism, if
+a somewhat repellent and sombre creed, would appear, therefore, to
+concord with the prevailing temper of the Laplanders, which probably
+accounts for the fact that it has spread throughout the entire race
+and is the dominating influence in their lives. Such are the principal
+characteristics of the curious people which I have endeavoured to
+describe, and of all the races which I have come across none have
+proved of more engrossing interest.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">A NIGHT IN A LAPP HUT</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_235">
+<img src="images/i_235.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="452">
+<p class="caption center">MIDNIGHT SUN OVER LAKE TORNE TRÄSK, FROM ABISKO</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was a wonderful night in June when I set out by motor launch one
+evening from Abisko to Pålnoviken, where I was to spend a night in
+a Lapp hut. And as I approached the small jetty that lies at the
+very extremity of the park of the Tourist Hotel, I had once again
+the unforgettable spectacle of the midnight sun, as it crept along
+the mountain crests to the north-west and illumined Lake Torne
+Träsk with a broad shimmering band of gold. The clear atmosphere
+peculiar to Sweden brought out every contour and object so vividly
+that even the most distant mountain summits appeared to be close at
+hand, while rising over the plain behind Abisko, which was covered
+with dense clusters of white-stemmed birch and juniper bushes, were
+the snow-clad Abisko Alps, and the strangely shaped semi-circular
+mountain pass called the Lapgate, through<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> which it is said that
+the Laplanders originally invaded the country. The contrast between
+the dazzling snow and mountain-tops, now coloured blood-red by the
+sun, and the verdant meadows and brawling rivulets, whose gurgling as
+they rolled over the stones was almost the only audible sound, was one
+of exceeding impressiveness, while the realisation that barely one
+hour before midnight conditions of light and sun prevailed identical
+to those existing in broad daylight in western countries created a
+sense of unreality in my mind that was as novel as it was pleasing.
+As we left the shore, however, a cold, bleak polar wind arose, whose
+freezing blast effectively recalled me to reality. It was one of those
+winds which chill you to the marrow; and as I was totally unprepared
+for it, it unmercifully settled on my person, percolated into my
+neck, up my arms and legs, and through my clothes, while it hovered
+persistently and pervasively in my wake. The realisation of the
+glorious sunshine above me, and the engrossing thought of the visit
+that I was contemplating, were too strong, however, to be weakened
+by such minor discomforts. And experiencing some of the sensations
+of virtuousness which are invariably felt whenever one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> indulges in
+an exceptionally cold bath, I began to stride up and down the minute
+deck of the launch, full of the sense of well-being which is caused by
+reasonable bodily exercise under uncomfortable conditions. After more
+than an hour and a half of this constant buffeting, during which the
+Jake developed all the symptoms of a roughish sea, and the boat began
+to pitch and roll as if to the manner born, the wind suddenly flagged,
+tired, while the rumble and clatter of the engine announced that we
+had arrived. Creeping out of the deck chair into which I had finally
+found refuge and oblivion from the storm, I saw a little cove with a
+meadow in the background that sloped gently towards us, and behind it
+steep mountain-sides that were clothed with pine and birch. Gathering
+up my knapsack, I waited until the captain was ready to land, and
+then, preceded by him, went down the ladder and climbed up the incline
+leading to the meadow above. A hundred yards away were the Lapp huts of
+the settlement which I was to visit, and in almost as short a time as
+it takes to write down these words, we had arrived at the one in which
+I was to spend the night.</p>
+
+<p>Facing me was a hut made of curved birch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> trunks, set closely together
+and covered with turf and earth, which were kept in place by cross
+beams. And opening a door which swung outwards on a wooden hinge, I
+entered after my guide had acquainted my hosts of my arrival. I found
+myself in a large circular room whose walls sloped inwards, and in
+the centre of which I saw a large open hearth bordered by stones that
+were placed in a circle. Over this fire was a pot which was suspended
+from an iron chain above, while there was a large hole in the roof to
+enable the smoke to escape, and a smaller one on the floor level near
+the door for the dogs to pass in and out. The ground was covered with
+spruce birch twigs on both sides of the hearth, while all around the
+wooden walls I noticed reindeer skins, and there were also two or three
+chests likewise made of birchwood to hold the family trinkets and the
+principal household implements, as well as an inverted wooden box which
+was obviously used as a sideboard, since I noticed lying on it a tin of
+the familiar Lyle’s Golden Syrup, and two china cups and saucers. As
+I entered the hut, my host, N——, a typical Laplander with a hooked
+nose, prominent cheek-bones, and tangled dark hair, courteously waved
+me to a log on the right near<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> the hearth, the place of honour, and I
+sat down, while he began to talk concerning me to the captain. Opposite
+to him and on the left were a woman and two young girls who sat
+cross-legged against the side of the hut, and two youths of indefinite
+age who were smoking pipes made of mazur birch. There were also two
+black Lapp dogs, one of which was watching one of the younger girls as
+she chewed a large chunk of smoked reindeer, which she had sliced off
+a reindeer leg with a clasp-knife, while a large very pale-faced Lapp
+baby, wrapped in mummy-like swaddling-clothes, was lying in a most
+attractive-looking reindeer-skin cradle which was slung from the roof
+and shaped like a miniature poulka (sledge).</p>
+
+<p>Nowhere have I met with a more fantastic and weird-looking costume than
+that which was worn by N—— and his family on this occasion.</p>
+
+<p>N—— himself wore a blue cloth tunic ornamented with red and yellow
+borders and gathered in at the waist by a leather belt, skin-tight
+cloth breeches, moccasins turned up at the toes, and a high pointed cap
+that, decorated with a bright red tassel and worn at a rakish angle,
+gave him the appearance of a court buffoon. His womenfolk<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> were
+attired in blue cloth dresses trimmed with a kind of gold braid, tight
+breeches, I believe, of the same material, coloured kerchiefs which
+were fastened by quaint brooches, and attractive red and blue lace caps.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_241">
+<img src="images/i_241.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="493">
+<p class="caption center">A LAPP HUT ON LAKE TORNE TRÄSK, MIDNIGHT</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I found N—— quite ready to answer my questions, though some of these
+appeared to cause him vast amusement. On being told that the Laplanders
+were never known to quarrel, I inquired what would happen if two Lapps
+fell in love with the same woman. This question had to be repeated
+several times before N—— realised what I was asking, but when once he
+and his friends understood the drift of my query, they began to laugh
+so uproariously that no answer was forthcoming for at least three or
+four minutes. At last the captain informed me that my question had
+caused the greatest merriment among the natives, as they were totally
+unable to conceive of such a possibility ever arising. Here, then, is a
+community of men and women who, in spite of their comparatively recent
+conversion to Christianity and the attainment by them of a thoroughly
+organised social life, in which the rights of property and marriage
+ties are scrupulously respected, have, emotionally speaking, never
+evolved beyond<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> the state where sex has neither the aureole nor even
+suspected the halo of romance. I say, in spite of their conversion to
+Christianity and their organised life—as it cannot be denied that
+while the primitive man’s possession of woman depends ultimately on
+his power to hold her against any other man, his appreciation and love
+of woman as such, and his capacity of romance, invariably grow with
+every effort made by religion or law to control or check his amatory
+or possessive instincts. Contrary to the general tendency of mankind,
+the Laplanders have, however, little changed from what they were in
+the dawn of civilisation, and they continue to afford the spectacle of
+a race in which, in spite of restrictions, sex attraction is no more
+discriminating than the universal craving for food. I rather fancy that
+when a Lapp takes a wife he uses hardly more judgment than that which
+is shown by the average man or woman who is sampling a piece of bread,
+and that consequently, if only the woman is a fair example of the race,
+such trifles as good looks or complexion, charm or fine physique, are
+absolutely of no consequence.</p>
+
+<p>As I talked to my guide and endeavoured to obtain further information
+with regard to this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> very strange people, my hosts were proceeding
+unconcernedly with their work. N—— was carving a knife handle out
+of the horn of a reindeer, while his wife was busy fashioning thread
+for sewing the family winter garments out of reindeer sinews, and was
+pulling the strands through her teeth in order to soften them and make
+them more pliable.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the captain rose up to go. He told me that, as had been arranged,
+I would sleep in the hut, also that in accordance with my desires I
+would not be expected to share my host’s evening meal, though the
+latter had expressed the hope that I would accept a cup of coffee
+before retiring to sleep. I replied that I would be pleased to take
+coffee with the family, though I knew that the Lapps were hardly noted
+for their cleanly habits, and while my host’s daughter began to prepare
+it, said good-bye to my guide, who promised to return for me next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>Unsavoury as have been some of the foods which I have tasted during
+many wanderings, few have proved more repugnant than the compound of
+inferior moka and reindeer milk which was now handed to me, though
+I will allow that the Lapp girl endeavoured to serve it in a clean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>
+receptacle. Taking one of the cups which had evidently already been
+used by one of the company, she poured in some water and diligently
+started scraping the inside of it with her grubby fingers. Then
+throwing out the water, she wiped and polished the cup, poured in the
+coffee and milk, and handed it to me.</p>
+
+<p>After this experience I was ready for anything, and until bed-time
+amused myself watching the antics of my room-mates as they now started
+to eat their evening meal preliminary to retiring for the night.
+The menu on this occasion consisted of smoked reindeer, unfermented
+bread, and coffee taken with salt instead of sugar, the informality
+which dominated the feast reminding me irresistibly of feeding time at
+the Zoo. Two large reindeer bones were produced, one of which N——
+commandeered as head of the family, while the other went the round of
+the others; and sitting on the ground, they all produced clasp-knives
+and began to munch large chunks of meat which they pared off the bones.
+The dogs ran from one to the other, getting a stray morsel, or when
+sated lay back contentedly by their master, the latter every now and
+then wiping his knife on one of their backs before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> cutting a fresh
+morsel for himself. Spellbound I watched the orgy until suddenly,
+without any more formality than that which is shown by a dog who tires
+of eating and sinks into sleep, they quickly removed their moccasins
+and dropped down on the deerskins that were nearest them, appearing to
+fall asleep almost in the very act of falling.</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before I began to realise that I too was expected to
+follow the general example; but when looking behind me I saw a large
+reindeer skin that had obviously been placed there for my benefit, I
+gathered up my knapsack and made for my improvised bed. Never shall
+I forget that night, for try as I would I was unable to reconcile
+myself to the strangeness of my surroundings, or to forget the horde of
+insects that had apparently found a home in my rug. The excruciating
+itching which they occasioned, coupled with the occasional visit of the
+very smelly Lapp dogs, who persisted in treating my prostrate body as a
+couch, and the yelping of the baby, whom neither the milk-bottle nor a
+large reindeer bone which was thrust into its mouth was able to pacify,
+converted what would otherwise have been a pleasing experience into a
+long-drawn agony, and it was a very disillusioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> and weary traveller
+who greeted the captain on the next morning. Thanking my host for the
+hospitality which he had shown me, I gladly followed my guide to the
+boat and hastened back to Abisko.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">AN IMPRESSION OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN</p>
+
+
+<p>As we left the Abisko Tourist Hotel, the solitary birch tree which
+stood as sentinel opposite the main entrance and garden of the
+hotel swayed and rustled in the wind, and fitful gleams of sunshine
+percolated through the grey clouds in the direction of Pålnoviken,
+while the genial manageress wished us God-speed.</p>
+
+<p>It was half-past eight, and we estimated that we would reach the
+summit of Mount Njulja in about three and a quarter hours, that is to
+say, just in time to view the midnight sun, assuming the sky cleared
+sufficiently to enable us to see it. And walking down the path which
+branches off to the right, as you turn your back to the hotel and Lake
+Torne Träsk, we soon reached and crossed the first level crossing
+over the railway, which leads to the mountain. It was not too warm to
+allow of strenuous walking, and not too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> cool to prevent the dew of
+perspiration from becoming perceptible, but unlike my friend Mr. L——,
+who was accompanying me, I had no spikes to my shoes, a circumstance
+which proved a considerable handicap.</p>
+
+<p>The path which we now followed wound up the mountain slope, through
+a wood which at this season of the year was a perfect dream of wild
+flowers, and to my astonishment I noticed, in addition to the wild
+geranium, several varieties of Alpine flora which I had never expected
+to find in Lapland, such as the primula (primrose) and the deep blue
+<i>Gentiana carinata</i>, as well as a fascinating pink flower to
+which I was unable to find a name. After nearly an hour’s strenuous
+going, during which the birch and juniper bushes became gradually more
+and more stunted, we came across several snow-drifts which delayed
+us considerably, the track that we followed proving so insecure that
+I began to stumble repeatedly, and on at least two occasions to find
+myself up to my waist in snow. On reaching a certain point where there
+was a clear view of the valley and lake in all its widening expanse, we
+stopped a moment to enjoy the view, but suddenly perceiving at least
+two other ridges beyond the one immediately above us,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> decided to
+complete the climb before taking any further rest.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_250">
+<img src="images/i_250.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450">
+<p class="caption center">VIEW FROM TOURIST STATION, SALTOLUOKTA, LAPLAND</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>“We must hurry,” I said. “We are not even half-way.”</p>
+
+<p>“How high is Njulja?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just over 4000 feet.”</p>
+
+<p>“What is the time?”</p>
+
+<p>“A quarter past ten.”</p>
+
+<p>Feeling that all our labour would be wasted if we were not in time, we
+set out once again over difficult ground which in spite of its arid and
+troublous character was not without a certain grandeur, while we felt
+a magic quality in the atmosphere which drew us on and exhilarated.
+It became a race with the clock, in which, owing to certain muscles
+which I had strained in the snow-drifts, and the lack of proper
+paraphernalia, which caused me usually to be yards behind my friend, we
+should logically have been marked out from the first as second-best,
+yet we trudged on undaunted, the thought of the successive ridges
+remaining to be climbed so dominating our pedestrian world that we made
+no endeavour to talk. I shall never forget that climb, nor the effort
+which I made to disregard the strain which with almost every fresh step
+became gradually more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> painful, nor finally how, after a period of time
+which, though only three hours, seemed more like six, my friend, who
+was ahead, climbed the last ridge and waved his arm towards me to tell
+me we had reached the summit. More quickly then, and with a spurt of
+almost uncanny energy, I rushed forward to where he stood, a tall slim
+figure silhouetted against the sky, and stumbling forward reached the
+highest point of the mountain. Never shall I forget the radiant glory
+of the vision which gradually began to unfold itself before my eyes,
+and how magically it seemed to dispel all recollection of the fatigue
+and strain which I had undergone.</p>
+
+<p>Before me, and encompassing not only Lake Torne Träsk to the north and
+west but also the Abisko valley to the south, were range after range
+of serrated snow-topped mountains which the clearness and mystery of
+the Swedish air were surrounding with a veil that was almost luminous,
+while above, pure clarity, illimitable, boundless, soared; with in the
+west over Pålnoviken, long bars of grey clouds tipped with gold which
+the night breeze was chasing northward. Suddenly, as if in answer to
+my hidden prayer, a spray of crimson light shot swiftly from behind a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>
+cloud to the west and glittered through the air. It transformed every
+peak and headland into a glimpse of fairyland and illumined the lake
+with a shimmering band of gold, while the distant peak of Kebnekaise
+began to glow like a pyramid of frosted silver. Speechless I gazed
+spellbound at a sunset which, rivalling the most beautiful southern
+twilights which I have seen, in the glow and variety of colour that it
+displayed, afforded even greater pleasure in that, unlike any other,
+its changing tones did not pass rapidly into darkness, but lasted
+many hours without any real diminution of splendour. Purple and mauve
+and even blood-red was the sky, with here and there an island of
+rosy-tinted cloud which appeared to be floating in the empyrean; and
+as these colours slowly faded or changed to every variation of blue,
+the midnight sun continued to creep along the mountain crests which lay
+to the north-west, and the lake to turn to glittering silver wherever
+it was not shot with gold. It was like the gradual unveiling of a dim
+enchanted region where colours were softer and less troubled than a
+moment’s thought, and the air of so choice and rare a quality that
+one felt strangely invigorated by it. And only the sudden stirring of
+a chilly northern wind which swept<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> along the brow of the mountain
+recalled me to reality. We then remembered that we were cold and weary,
+that I had strained a leg muscle, and accordingly that steep as had
+been the ascent, the descent would probably prove even more arduous.
+And having accepted and drunk a cup of very warming coffee which two
+friendly Swedes, who had also accomplished the climb, insisted on
+forcing on us, we set our faces once more towards the valley and began
+the descent.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_256">
+<img src="images/i_256.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450">
+<p class="caption center">STORA SJÖFALLET, GREAT LAKE FALLS, SALTOLUOKTA</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>What I suffered on the journey back to Abisko words cannot adequately
+describe, for whereas the thought of what I had set out to accomplish
+when starting out to climb Njulja had enabled me to put up with some
+very real discomfort, not even the enticing prospect of the comfortable
+bed awaiting me on my return sufficed to make me overlook the very
+excruciating pain which my leg occasioned for the greater part of our
+crawl home. I say crawl, for our progress, from being fairly brisk as
+we started out, soon degenerated into a veritable shamble, while we
+were continually obliged to halt in order to rest my foot. I shall
+never forget, however, the glory of the view that opened before us
+when we reached the last ridge before entering the wood which covers
+the lower<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> slope of the mountain, or the vivid contrast that was
+presented between the dazzling snow and mountain-tops now coloured
+blood-red by the sun, and the green clusters of white-stemmed birch and
+juniper and brawling rivulets whose babbling as they hurtled down to
+the lake, and the piping of a solitary bird, were the only perceptible
+sounds. Like the memory of the supreme moment during which the midnight
+sun first pierced the clouds above Pålnoviken, it is one of those
+recollections which the mind always conjures up whenever it would evoke
+beauty.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">AN IMPRESSION OF A SWEDISH CHRISTMAS</p>
+
+
+<p>Cold, bleak, and uninviting is the outlook as my taxi speeds through
+the City towards Millwall Docks, where awaits the steamer that is to
+take me to Sweden, and, wreathed in grey swirls of smoke and rain
+clouds, London seems hardly the kind of city that one should deplore
+leaving, yet as I reach the wharf where lies the <i>Saga</i> and feel
+the full force of the gusty north-east wind that is lashing my face
+like a steel whip, I almost regret my decision to see what a Swedish
+Christmas is like, so distinct are the possibilities of even more
+inclement weather out at sea. It being too late to turn back, however,
+I determine to make the best of a bad job and hurry on board, the
+captain informing me that the crossing is likely to be a good one
+and that, though the force of the wind and the direction in which it
+is blowing are unfavourable, the first is gradually subsiding and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>
+the second very likely to be changed. I remember many occasions when
+similar prophecies have been as confidently made without justification,
+yet attempt to delude myself into believing that at least this one
+will prove correct, and consequently follow the stewardess to my
+cabin, hoping for the best. As we reach the open sea, however, I soon
+realise that the captain’s optimism has hardly been justified. It is
+a black night with clouds covering the sky and a haze low down on the
+horizon. It is not thick enough for the fog-horns to be sounding, but
+the shore soon becomes invisible, while the wind continues in the same
+unfavourable quarter without showing any sign of diminution.</p>
+
+<p>Like all Swedish Lloyd ships, the <i>Saga</i> is everything that a
+steamer should be where good accommodation and cuisine are concerned,
+but, unlike the majority of boats belonging to the same line, she is
+hardly an ideal vessel to be on under adverse conditions, and very
+soon I become acutely conscious of a rolling and pitching that send me
+flying down to my berth, while the boat begins to slow down appreciably
+owing to the head-wind that is blowing against us. For the first
+twelve hours, however, apart from the rolling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> and pitching, which are
+sufficiently prolonged to spell disaster to any traveller at all prone
+to sea-sickness, the discomfort which I experience is neither greater
+nor less than that which usually characterises a crossing of the North
+Sea undertaken in winter. But a few hours before daybreak the gale
+increases in volume and intensity, and the boat begins to sway and rock
+much as I have seen a row-boat do when among breakers, while the waves
+start beating violently against the boat, booming like heavy guns, and
+the hull quivers as if sorely hit. It is impossible to sleep and nearly
+as difficult to take any nourishment, as the slightest movement that
+I make from recumbency is immediately followed by rapidly increasing
+nausea, and, impotent to do aught but suffer patiently, I await until
+such moment as the fury of the wind and storm will have spent itself,
+while fog-horn and wave combine to make a music whose clamour is so
+incessant that even the most seasoned traveller would, I fancy, find
+it difficult to sleep soundly through it all. Then, on the morning
+of the third day, as the first sickly light of morn is streaking the
+dingy, pallid sky, the wind suddenly flags. I look out from my porthole
+and see that, though the waves are still rather too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> boisterous for
+my liking, there is every prospect of a quieter termination to our
+journey. Arising, I go up on deck, hoping to hear that we are nearing
+Gothenburg, but am told that owing to the adverse wind of the previous
+day there is no possibility of reaching the Swedish port until about
+seven that evening, which means to say that I shall have to travel
+nearly twenty-four hours across country and without a break if I wish
+to be in time for the Christmas festivities. Deploring my ill-fortune,
+I turned to the Swedish Bradshaw and with the assistance of sympathetic
+Swedes try to devise a way or means of reaching Rättvik in a more
+expeditious fashion, but, soon realising that there is no alternative
+route, decide to spend the day as pleasantly as possible, and so
+beguile the time whenever not occupied in partaking of the generous
+meals that are such a feature of life on board a Swedish steamer,
+playing bridge with my Swedish friends, a game that they usually play
+with variations that make it as great a gamble as cut-throat bridge.
+And so the day passes pleasantly enough, the sea growing calmer and
+calmer from the moment we come in sight of the Danish coast, though we
+naturally resent the way in which the North Sea has added insult to
+injury<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> by not only providing us with one of the roughest passages of
+the year, but also robbing us of the one redeeming feature that would
+have made us forget our sufferings—that is to say, made it impossible
+for any of us to see the approach to Gothenburg, which is that city’s
+chief claim to beauty.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the <i>Saga</i> reaches the rocky archipelago of the Skärgård and
+begins to forge her way through the innumerable islands that lie at
+the mouth of the river Göta älv, with a fair wind to help and a white
+ribbon of foam trailing from both her sides. Then, after exchanging
+signals with the shore, we pass various lighthouses and are soon fast
+to a large wharf with lights gleaming all about us. Lights fringing the
+river and harbour or running up the low-lying hills that surround the
+city; shipping of every kind, from great, imposing liners to freight
+steamers or fishing-smacks; whistles sounding, bells ringing, while
+all around is that mysterious undercurrent of sound that attests the
+presence of a large city. Quickly we land and notice the snow that lies
+thick on the ground, while there is a nippiness in the dry night air
+so invigorating that, though I realise the temperature is considerably
+below<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span> freezing-point, I am hardly conscious of it. And, following my
+porter, I hail a taxi and hasten to the main station to take the night
+train to Stockholm.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Half a dozen coaches, all spotlessly clean and splendidly heated, with
+doors and windows that shut so hermetically that it is impossible for
+any draught to penetrate, most of these third class with corridors and
+even sleepers, where for an inconsiderable sum even the poorest can
+be assured of a comfortable berth; a profusion of water-jugs whose
+water is changed every two or three hours and that are within easy
+reach of every carriage; rails that are so well laid that there is as
+little jolting as on the best English or American lines, and, coupled
+with this, a number of second-class Pullman carriages that are as
+comfortable as any in England, and a service that is run efficiently
+and up to time. Though the train starts at an hour when the majority
+of people are just beginning to think of dinner, I retire almost
+immediately, in view of the very early hour at which I have to change
+trains at Hallsberg, and after a restful night am awakened in good time
+and alight without being unduly hurried at the junction, where I am to
+take another train for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> north. It is too dark to see the country,
+but the line, quays, and station are thick with snow, and I see to the
+left of the main station building a huge Christmas tree that is already
+lit with many electric candles and gaily decorated with a profusion
+of tiny Swedish flags and the customary Christmas ornaments. I then
+remember that the next day is Christmas Eve, the great day in Sweden,
+and congratulate myself on my foresight in having wasted so little time
+in Gothenburg. It is considerably colder than when I left the steamer,
+but as I follow my porter to the train which is to convey me to Krylbo
+I feel a dryness in the air that is so exhilarating that the prospect
+of even lower temperatures to be encountered in Dalecarlia no longer
+frightens me, and so remain for a time on the platform watching the
+fur-coated and fur-capped Swedes who are passing to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>For the greater part of the next day we travel through a countryside
+whose soil is now chilled to stone and yet resplendent with the imagery
+of the snow that is covering it, snow as dazzling as white marble
+and with the sheen of satin, inconceivably pure and exquisite in its
+transparency. We pass innumerable forests of silver-boled birches,
+pines<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> and fir trees, to which the snow has lent the most fantastic
+shapes, and over great streams that are frozen on either bank with only
+a narrow ribbon of open water. And interspersed at comparatively rare
+intervals—for Sweden is one of the most thinly populated countries in
+Europe—are small towns and villages with red houses that gleam out
+from among the snow. At every station the customary Christmas tree,
+brilliantly illuminated, greets us, and the impression is left me of
+a robust race of men and women whose vital spark feeds on the frozen
+air in which it lives, while shortly after three I see the sun setting
+in the east and tier upon tier of trees and forest-clad hill that are
+tinged with rose-pink. A memorable sight. Then shortly after sunset I
+enter Dalecarlia, and after two and a half hours’ further journey reach
+my destination.</p>
+
+<p>To my left is the wide frozen expanse of Lake Siljan, looking eerie
+and mysterious in the moonlight, and to the right and running up
+low wooded hills of firs and pines the villas and town of Rättvik,
+picturesquely situated on an inlet of the lake. And as soon as I
+alight from the train an old coachman in white sheepskin and fur cap
+comes forward to greet me. A few words are exchanged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> between us that
+neither can understand, but very soon he realises that I am indeed
+the traveller whom he is expecting, and seizing my handbag he bids me
+follow to where a low sledge is waiting, a long flat box on runners, in
+which I am asked to lie full length and then enveloped in a Dalecarlian
+fur-lined rug. A crack of the whip and soon we are driving down an
+avenue of snow-laden trees, among which I see the lights of houses
+twinkling at every turn, while the horse’s bells are jingling merrily,
+and the transforming touch of snow and moon is so magical that every
+object that we pass becomes imbued with indescribable beauty and
+poetry. In ten minutes we turn sharply to the left and, following a
+short drive, see some thirty yards before us a brilliantly illuminated
+log-built house whose inmates are evidently expecting me, for as soon
+as the sledge draws up before the front door it is immediately opened
+and a woman whom I guess to be my hostess steps forward to greet me
+with a smile that is so infectious that I immediately feel at home.
+From the drawing-room just opposite the entrance hall I hear the sound
+of merry laughter, and am told that everybody is lending a helping hand
+in decorating the Christmas tree for the evening,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> and that if I am not
+too tired they would be delighted if I came down to help after going
+to my room. And hearing that it is a time-honoured Swedish custom, I
+express my pleasure and readiness to do so, and after going upstairs
+to repair the damages of the journey, return to the drawing-room.
+As I enter, the laughter subsides for a time, and very formally
+presentations are made, the men invariably standing up stiffly, putting
+out their hands, bowing, and giving their surnames, the girls, equally
+formally but with far more grace, extending their hands towards me
+as I am presented to them. Then, the claims of ceremony having been
+satisfied, I approach the Christmas tree and am handed a seal and some
+sealing-wax and several small packages, obviously Christmas gifts,
+which I am asked to seal as neatly as possible. All, I notice, are
+accompanied by dedications in verse, and hearing that no present can be
+offered at Christmas without a rhymed dedication, thank my stars that
+I have no present to offer. By this time the Christmas tree is almost
+fully dressed, and my charming hostess informs me that except for the
+Christmas gifts that are decorating its branches it will remain much as
+it is at present until twenty days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span> after Christmas. We then go up to
+our respective rooms and dress for dinner, while I recall to mind the
+many conflicting reports which I have heard with regard to a Swedish
+Christmas Eve meal and fervently hope I shall not have too many novel
+dishes to sample, so great is my fear of offending the susceptibilities
+of my hostess. Half an hour later and we are all assembled in the
+dining-room, and I have my first taste of the Christmas fare of the
+country. The first course is a kind of soup that evokes familiar
+memories but to which I am unable to give a name, then the <i>pièce de
+résistance</i> is brought in, a large fish called lutfish, which is
+prepared from a species of stockfish that is caught in large numbers in
+the North Sea. It is usually eaten boiled, and is taken with Russian
+green peas, <i>sauté</i> potatoes and white sauce, being greatly
+appreciated in the south of Sweden. Pleasant to the taste and slightly
+reminiscent of the cod, of which it is a kind of cousin, it is kept
+in water and soda and steeped in lye or wood-ash for a period of at
+least two and a half weeks, and is afterwards taken out two days before
+eating and laid in a cold-water bath, where it remains until required.
+Following the fish course is the traditional ham<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> and sausage, which in
+Scandinavian countries usually takes the place of the turkey or goose
+of the West, the meal concluding with a kind of porridge made of rice,
+a wonderful concoction of sugar and eggs that is called spettekaka,
+or spit-cake, and an abundant dessert in which nuts and raisins
+predominate.</p>
+
+<p>As accompaniment or subsequent to the above, the inevitable
+<i>snaps</i> cocktail at the beginning of dinner, followed by a
+light French wine with the fish, Swedish punsch at the coffee stage,
+and a very delectable hot beverage called glögg, which is almost as
+comforting a drink to take after a long, cold outing as the mulled
+claret for which the high table of St. John’s College, Oxford, has
+become so famous. Compounded of wine, sugar, brandy, almonds and
+raisins, and flavoured with nejlika, or pinks, glögg is, of the many
+gastronomic experiments that I have made abroad, one of the few which I
+have really appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner we proceed to the drawing-room and the presents are duly
+handed to each in turn, after which young and old link hands and dance
+round the tree, the son of my hostess suddenly breaking the chain apart
+and conducting us in a mad, frenzied chase through the house, up and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>
+down the stairs, and past corridors, which only terminates when all are
+breathless with laughter and exhaustion. Recalling certain opinions
+which I had often heard being expressed regarding the inability of
+the Swedes to enjoy their pleasures in any way but sadly, I marvel at
+the facility with which such misconceptions arise, and conclude that
+those who created them had never visited Sweden at Christmas-time nor
+even watched Swedes at play, a more jolly and amusing party than that
+which I am attending it being impossible to imagine. Then, hearing
+that Christmas Day opens with a service in the town church that is
+to take place at an hour when most people are still sound asleep
+and that it is imperative that I should be present, if only to see
+the Dalecarlian peasants wearing their national costumes, plead the
+fatigue of the journey and retire to my room, my sleep being long
+haunted by memories of the merry throng which I have left dancing in
+the room below. Early next morning, and before the stars have paled
+in the sky, I am awakened by a loud knock at the door, and, dressing
+hurriedly, find steaming hot coffee awaiting me in the dining-room,
+while the choice is given me of going to church by horse or chair
+sledge, ski-ing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> being out of the question owing to my lack of the
+proper paraphernalia. I recall the wonderful drive of the previous
+evening, but feel that it is up to me to essay every kind of vehicle,
+and accordingly decide to utilise the chair sleigh as soon as I gather
+that it presents no particular difficulties—in fact, that it is very
+similar to a glorified hobby-horse. Then fur coats and skis are
+produced, and we sally forth in the direction of Rättvik, my hostess’s
+son staying behind to show me the way. And, like my guide, I place the
+left foot on the pedal of one of the runners of my chair and start
+kicking backwards repeatedly with my right, the sledge moving forward
+with every kick that I give. Obviously, the kick sleigh is almost as
+great a necessity in Scandinavian countries as the ski itself, and
+though it cannot be compared to the latter as a sport and even less as
+a vehicle, in spite of the considerable speed at which it will carry
+you downhill unaided, it is much used by the very old and the very
+young, as it can always be checked when proceeding too rapidly by the
+brakes with which it is provided, or by simply trailing the foot on
+the ground. In about a quarter of an hour we reach the town of Rättvik
+and, turning to the right, suddenly hear the bells<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> of the old white
+church summoning the people to worship. And as we draw nearer we see
+that the greater part of the congregation has already gathered near
+Gustavus Vasa’s monument, most of them clad in old-world costume, the
+scarlet, green and gold worn by the women standing out in vivid patches
+of colour against the snow and lending the scene an air of pageantry
+and romance. Prominent among these are the women of Rättvik with their
+embroidered green bodices, dark blue skirts, quaintly striped aprons,
+and picturesque peaked caps, while among the men the most striking are
+those hailing from the same town, half a dozen sturdy peasants who are
+wearing as costume a long dark blue coat cut high in the neck, yellow
+chamois knee-breeches, a blue waistcoat edged with bright red piping,
+and red stockings held up by rosetted garters. And though the moon
+is shining brightly we all proceed to church to the flare of large
+torches which are held up high by the men, and after hearing a long and
+wearisome sermon, during which I doze repeatedly and even dream that
+I, too, am wearing Dalecarlian dress, return once again to the large
+granite stone inscribed in gold whence Gustavus Vasa had summoned the
+Dales to arms. On the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> way back to the house, and just before ascending
+the last slope leading to it, I stop to watch the sun rising over the
+hills, and for a few minutes enjoy an unforgettable sight. Cresting the
+ridge that the sun is now illuminating are tier upon tier of pines,
+all of such exquisite fineness that for at least two degrees on each
+side of the sun they become transfigured into trees of light that are
+not only clearly outlined in flame against the sky behind them, but
+that are almost as dazzling as the sun itself, while the snow that is
+mantling the countryside begins to assume a blue transparency and the
+pines among which we are standing to appear almost olive wherever their
+branches are not hung with great white nightcaps. Then, hearing that
+a deliciously hot glögg is awaiting us at the house, I automatically
+replace one foot on one of the runners of the chair sledge and with the
+other impel my vehicle into movement.</p>
+
+<p>After so early a beginning to our day I am hardly surprised to find
+life moving a little more leisurely. And for the greater part of the
+day even the more active of our party content themselves with making
+the best of the rich fare that characterises a Swedish Christmas and
+doing one or two hours’ ski-ing in the neighbourhood.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> Once again I
+make essay of chair sledging, and as I proceed, again accompanied by my
+guide, in a northerly direction towards Mora, come across a veritable
+army of men, women, and children sallying forth on their slender,
+feathery skis up the dales and through the forest glades. Everywhere
+I see ski tracks that are crossing one another and laughing parties
+of merrymakers who are inquiring the way, while the gaiety is so
+infectious that I soon begin to realise the charm and fascination that
+lie in ski-ing on the level. Here is a favoured district which, if not
+comparable to Jämtland or Switzerland for the joy of a swift descent
+with a possible death waiting on every side that is so characteristic
+of these more celebrated ski-ing countries, affords, nevertheless, the
+most delightful and varied possibilities of lengthy ski tours on the
+level or in forest country without the smallest risk of avalanches or
+bad-weather dangers, this form of ski-ing being not only conducive to
+the development of initiative by the constant call that it makes on
+even the most nervous novice if he would avoid the many pitfalls that
+lie in his path, but that is equally exhilarating and utilitarian. If
+once a sportsman really becomes bitten with its craze, he often<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> ends
+by preferring it to any other form of ski-ing.</p>
+
+<p>Though space forbids my making more than casual mention of the other
+charming dances and excursions which my hostess and other Swedish
+friends kindly arranged for my benefit during the happy days that I was
+privileged to remain in Dalecarlia, one of the pleasantest memories
+which I will ever retain of a Swedish Christmas will always centre
+around the “släd parti” to which I was invited on Boxing Day by Miss
+Rehnström, of Persborg, an unforgettable drive in horse sledges that,
+conveying some thirty of the guests of her hotel and myself to a picnic
+lunch at Röjeråsen, a little village that lies some twenty or more
+miles west of Rättvik, conducted us across a magnificent snow-bound
+pine and fir forest whose humblest tree and shrub the touch of the sun
+had transformed into fanciful beings such as children conjure up when
+dreaming of Fairyland, while equally eerie and mysterious was the drive
+back by torchlight and the wreaths of frost mist that I saw gliding
+through the pine glades just after the sun had set across the lake. Of
+the many novel and delightful excursions which I have made in Sweden,
+there are few which have left<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> me with as happy memories, and none that
+have so effectively stilled the little hidden craving for novelty and
+change which I share with most mortals. For any traveller, therefore,
+who looks for these things when taking a holiday, I can imagine none
+that is more attractive than those which I have endeavoured to portray
+in these pages.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_279">
+<img src="images/i_279.jpg" alt="" width="607" height="650">
+<p class="caption center">LAKE AND VILLAGE OF ÅRE</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">SWEDISH WINTER SPORTS</p>
+
+
+<p>Never have more English ski runners visited Switzerland or shown
+greater excellence in winter sports than during the last two or three
+years, and all those who like myself have tasted the joys of Davos or
+Pontresina will hardly cavil at either the exodus or the proficiency
+attained, sun and sport together forming a combination that is not
+only conducive to boisterous health, but very likely to restore that
+contentment of mind which any prolonged experience of an English
+winter usually causes you to lose utterly. That those who have means,
+leisure, and robustness should take up ski-ing is not, therefore, any
+more surprising than that Switzerland should enjoy the reputation of
+being the homeland of winter sports, the secret of Swiss supremacy
+lying as much in efficient organisation and propaganda as in natural
+attractions. But Switzerland has many serious rivals<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> which all ski
+runners should make a point of visiting, and Sweden in particular
+possesses many excellent winter sport resorts in which good ski-ing
+can be practised much as it is done in the Alps, though the visitor
+should not expect to find there the material comforts, hotels de luxe,
+and even the funiculars that are so characteristic of Switzerland. The
+country will commend itself, however, to all those who have a craving
+for novelty and change, and any ski runner who visits it will not only
+come into touch with the greatest exponents of the art, but will obtain
+an insight into certain forms and schools of ski-ing that demand just
+as specialised a technique as those which he will have studied in the
+Alps.</p>
+
+<p>There are three great centres of winter sport in Sweden: Rättvik
+in Dalecarlia, Stockholm and Åre in Jämtland, each with its own
+distinctive variant of winter sport; and I had far rather spend a
+winter in any of these three than in either Davos or St. Moritz. This
+may seem to argue a certain inexpertness on skis which I would be the
+last to deny, but your master of the Cresta run would be a mere novice
+at Rättvik.</p>
+
+<p>Through the country roads, leaving the furrows of their skis in the
+snow of shallow dales and gently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> sloping plateaux—furrows which
+vanish into the pine woods on the hills or wind among the silver-boled
+birches fringing the frozen lake of Siljan—a multitude of men, women,
+and children are swiftly gliding. Some are using their skis for the
+utilitarian purpose of getting from place to place, but many of them
+are making lengthy ski tours across country or through the forests;
+and the gaiety and spontaneous enjoyment of each little party is one
+of the most exhilarating things that I have ever witnessed. One of the
+pleasantest memories which I retain of Sweden undoubtedly centres round
+a particular cross-country ski-ing expedition to which I was invited by
+some Swedish friends during my stay in Rättvik this winter, of which I
+will now proceed to give a description. On joining the party of some
+dozen men and women, all in male attire, I was surprised to see horse
+sleighs, but I supposed that these would go ahead and wait for us at
+some rendezvous.</p>
+
+<p>My experience on skis at Davos and Pontresina had made me somewhat
+contemptuous of the use of sticks—of course every one had a stick in
+each hand—I had thought of them merely as supports; but as soon as we
+moved off, I found I had a great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> deal to learn. Before we had reached
+the end of the drive of my host’s house, I had realised that the use of
+sticks is an art in itself.</p>
+
+<p>The skiers started off using their sticks in a way that reminded me
+of punting; and though the horses set off at a brisk trot, several of
+the more energetic young people shot ahead on their skis, leaving the
+sledges behind. I toiled painfully in the rear, my host and a fair
+Swedish girl who spoke English politely keeping me company. I was
+particularly mortified when my host’s daughter, aged ten, shot blithely
+alongside one of the horse-drawn sledges.</p>
+
+<p>I could see across the immense ice sheet of Lake Siljan, fringed with
+silver-stemmed birches, as we made our way down the drive, but when we
+came out into the road at the end, we turned away from it into the pine
+forest. The sleighs were by this time out of sight, the sound of their
+bells had faded on the frosty air; and we followed over the deep snow
+carpet, beside their trails.</p>
+
+<p>My calves and ankles were already beginning to ache, and I was as
+far as ever from using my sticks properly; the pace was very slow.
+It was so slow indeed that my host, with charming courtesy, asked if
+ski-ing was new to me, and in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> the same breath complimented me on
+picking up the art so quickly. I alluded casually to the ski runs at
+Pontresina, but I am afraid my host was not impressed. The fact is that
+cross-country ski-ing is as difficult to master as ski-ing down hill,
+and that whereas the average Swiss trained ski runner is averse to
+using his sticks and proud of being able to control his skis without
+their use, the Swedes have raised the science of using sticks to a fine
+art. Cross-country ski-ing, as it is practised in Sweden, would of
+course be an impossibility in Switzerland, which accounts, I fancy, for
+the rudimentary knowledge which the Swiss skiers often display of the
+manner in which sticks should be used, and also for their consequent
+condemnation of them. The speed at which Swedes travel on the level
+with the help of their sticks is amazing, and I noticed time after time
+skiers who could keep pace with a horse trotting at fair speed.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for me, a horse-drawn sledge had started late, and my
+host, seeing my exhausted condition, shouted a few words as it swept
+up beside us. I was intensely relieved to exchange my skis for a
+seat, or rather a couch in the sledge. In this position I made much
+better speed, while my host swept forward with the sledge’s previous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>
+occupants, the girl who spoke English keeping me company, to rejoin the
+party before us.</p>
+
+<p>I was now in a position to appreciate half the joy of cross-country
+ski-ing, my previous efforts having blinded me to the surrounding
+scenery. The snow-laden trees between which we were gliding assumed
+the most fanciful shapes. There were aisles leading into mysterious
+caverns, where the olive of the pines mingled with the virgin whiteness
+and blue transparency of the snow. Bushes took on the shapes of
+prehistoric monsters, glades of small trees became an eerie army of
+ghosts; there must have been goblins and sprites....</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at the log-built house that was our destination, there
+was glögg served steaming hot ... and it was nectar.</p>
+
+<p>But ski-ing across country is not by any means the only winter sport
+of Dalecarlia, for besides tolkning or being towed on skis behind a
+horse or its sledge, there are good toboggan runs and ski jumps on
+fairly steep country; and for the lazily inclined long-distance drives
+in horse-drawn sledges such as I have described, through forest glades
+of enchanting beauty. Of all these delights, however, there is none to
+compare with cross-country<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> ski tours; and I should certainly prefer
+them to the pastime of one Swedish ski runner who for a wager was towed
+on skis behind the train from Rättvik to the next station ... and
+arrived intact.</p>
+
+<p>Åre combines the fascination of Swedish winter sports with the thrill
+peculiar to the Swiss; and while the surrounding country is almost
+as suitable for cross-country ski-ing as Dalecarlia, it possesses
+the additional advantage of enabling the winter sport enthusiast to
+practise almost every variant of ski-ing and winter game. At Storlien,
+Snasahögarna, and Merakar, there are gradients of every kind, the
+steepest of these rivalling those of Davos. Åre in certain respects
+recalls Swiss resorts. Like Davos, it is situated in a mountainous
+country with high mountain tops in the immediate vicinity. From the
+lake at the base of Mount Åreskutan (4600 feet) a funicular railway
+runs up 600 feet, and from this point a bobsleigh run three-quarters of
+a mile long, with curves as sharp as those of the Cresta, winds down to
+the hotels below. There are slopes here for every taste: rounded hills,
+steep slopes, and the famous Tännforsen waterfall, one of the finest in
+Europe, all within easy distance.</p>
+
+<p>Wandering about here I came upon a lovely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> place: before me a sheet
+of ice opened into a broad white field, hard and dry, forming a
+majestic causeway paved as with white marble. It was evening, and in
+those solitudes were caverns of deep blue ice lit with the twilight’s
+after-glow; in the distance, mountains, sombre with pines or glittering
+white with snow, raised gleaming turrets and dark pyramids up to the
+smoke-blue sky.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Stockholm lacks nothing. Within forty-five minutes’ walk is the
+famous jumping course of Fiskartorpet and the ski and toboggan runs
+of Saltsjöbaden in the Stockholm Archipelago, while the winter-sport
+enthusiast will find at Djursholm, and within easy distance of the
+capital, two variants of winter sports that are particularly indigenous
+to the soil and unknown to other countries. The Ice Yachting and Skate
+Sailing clubs are located in a greatly indented and island dotted bay,
+where even the most blasé winter-sport enthusiast may reckon to regain
+some of the lost thrills of his novitiate. There he may cling to the
+stern sheets of an ice-boat, heeling over to the sea breeze and driving
+along at 50 knots an hour, while a fearless Swedish girl sits astride
+the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> stern and laughs at the tiller, with the main sheet in one hand,
+and another leans out to windward as she tends the fore sheet.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" id="i_288">
+<img src="images/i_288.jpg" alt="" width="393" height="600">
+<p class="caption center">THE TÄNNFORSEN WATERFALL, ÅRE</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ice-yachting has its risks, but the novice learns the art by starting
+as a passenger, or at least by obeying orders at the fore sheet.
+Skate-sailing is like a leap in the dark: there can be no passenger on
+one pair of skates. Armed with ice-pole and life-line, the skier sets
+forth on his maiden voyage clinging to an unmanageable kite-shaped
+sail, while he tries to use his body as a mast, at the mercy of the
+elements.</p>
+
+<p>The great difficulty lies, of course, in trimming the sail to the wind,
+and I found that the best way to learn was by practising sailing to
+windward, tacking. The yard, which stretches from the apex of the kite
+to its truncated tail, is held over the left shoulder, the right arm
+extending backwards till the hand grips the yard, the left hand holding
+on to one of the two cross-pieces. To trim the sail the yard must be
+pushed forward or backward across the shoulder, just as you trim a boat
+by increasing the area of the foresail to the wind. When the wind blows
+the sail round, it must be pushed back until the weight is behind, and
+the foretip of the yard must be held down to prevent it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> slipping off.
+When a gust blows aslant, filling the sail, you must drive to windward
+till the sail flies into the wind.</p>
+
+<p>This sport requires great physical strength and prompt judgment. The
+expert skate sailors whom I watched attained speeds approaching those
+of the ice yachts; but to reach such a state of perfection a man must
+be in the finest physical condition and have tendons and muscles of the
+ankles greatly strengthened by constant practice of such figures as the
+Salchow rocking turn.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think I would have attempted this sport if there had been
+much wind; but throughout my stay in Stockholm there was the usual dry
+sunny weather with only the lightest of breezes. Of all winter sports
+skate-sailing is perhaps the most exhilarating, and if once a skier
+masters its technique, he will probably end by preferring it to any
+other form of winter sport.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li class="ifrst">  Abisko, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Adelcrantz, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Adolph Frederick, King, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Almquist, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  America, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Amsterdam, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ankarcrona, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ansgarius, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Archæological remains, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Architecture, Swedish, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136-144</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Åre, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Åreskutan, Mount, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Arkö Sound, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Art Gallery, Gothenburg, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Arvidsberg, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Askanäs, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Asplången, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Asplund, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Atlantic, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Baggensfjärden, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Baltic Sea, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Banérs, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bathing, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Baths, Swedish, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Becket, Thomas à, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Beer, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Belvedere, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bengt, Bishop, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bennet family, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Beowulf, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bergamote pears, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bergsten, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bernadotte, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Birger Jarl, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Birger Magnusson, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Björkö, island, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Blekinge, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Blood Bath, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Blue Church, Vadstena, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Boberg, Ferdinand, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bockholm Sound, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bohus Castle, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bohuslän, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32-43</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bonde, Count, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Boren, Lake, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Borensberg, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Borgargärden, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bothair, of Akeback, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Botwid, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Brask, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Brask’s Ditch, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bråviken Bay, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bridge, how played in Sweden, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Brinkeberg Hill, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bruce family, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Bulgerin, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Burgundy, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Burmeister House, Visby, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Byfjord, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Carcassonne, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Castles in Sweden, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Cattegat, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Caucasus, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Cederström, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Characteristics, Swedish, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Charles X., <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Charles XII., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>,</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>  Christian II. of Denmark, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Christianity in Lapland, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  City Court, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Clason, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Climate, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Continental blockade, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Copper mines, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Corot, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Costumes, Swedish, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Cracow, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Cranach, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Cresta Run, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Dagö, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dalälven River, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dalarna, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147-165</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dalecarlia, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147-165</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dalecarlians, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dalhem Church, Gothland, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Danes, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dantzig, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Davos, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Delacroix, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Desprez, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Djurgården, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Djurgårdestaden, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Djursholm, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Dolmens, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Domnarvet, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Douglas family, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Drottningholm, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Düna, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  East India Company, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Efficiency, Swedish, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ehrenstrahl, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Eken, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Eleonora, Hedvig, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Emerson, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Engelbrekt, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Engelbrekts Church, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Eogtheow, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Erik, Prince, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Erik XIV., <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Eriksson, Christian, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Epstein, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Estbröte, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Etter Sound, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Eugen, Prince, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Fågelö, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Falun, <a href="#Page_161">161-165</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Falun Museum, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Fårö, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Finns, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Fiskatorpet, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Fiskebäckskil, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Flight of Gustavus Vasa, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Flora, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Folkunge, Johan, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Food in Lapland, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Francis I. of France, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Frederikshald, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  French influence, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Freyr, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Fröding, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Fyris, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Gallows of Visby, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gamla Lödöse, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gamlestaden, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Garde Church, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gardeners, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Geology, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Glögg, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Göta älv, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Göta Canal, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44-69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Götaplatsen, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Göteborg, <a href="#Page_16">16-31</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gothenburg, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16-31</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gothland, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-146</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Goths, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li>
+<li class="isub2">history of, <a href="#Page_122">122-130</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Grämunkeholmen, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Greenland, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Grendel, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Grip, Bo Jonsson, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gripsholm, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Grut, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gulf Stream, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>  Gullmar Fjord, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustafsberg, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavianum, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavus Adolphus, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavus I., <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavus III., <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavus IV. Adolphus, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gustavus Vasa, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_149">149</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Guta Saga, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Gymnastics, Swedish, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Hahr, Augustus, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Halland, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Halleberg, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hällekis, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hållsfjärden, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hamilton, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hans of Denmark, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hans, painter, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hanseatic League, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hansgatan, Visby, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hazelius, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Helena, Queen, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hemse, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Henry III. of England, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Henry the Lion, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Herring fisheries, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hisingen, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hoburgen, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Högalids, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Holy Ghost, Church of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hotels, Swedish, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hronesnass, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hrothgar, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Hygelacs, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Ice-yachting, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Idrott, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Inge, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Iron mines, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Jämshög, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Jämtland, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Johan, Prince, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  John of England, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  John III., <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Jönköping, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Jordaens, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Jordfallet, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Josephson, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Karl Island, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Karlsberg, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kastellholmen, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kattlunda, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kebnekaise, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kettilmundsson, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kew Gardens, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kinnekulle, Mt., <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kiruna, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Knutsson VIII., Charles, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Knarnsveden paper mills, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kneippbyn, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Koön, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kopparberg (Stora), <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kristine Church, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Krylbo, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kulstade, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kungalv, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kungshatt, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kungsholmen, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Kyrkstallen, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Laduslås, Magnus, King, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lafiensen, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lallerstedt, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Land and people, <a href="#Page_1">1-15</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Långholmen, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapgate, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapland, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166-193</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapp customs, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180-186</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapp dogs, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180-186</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapp hut, night in a, <a href="#Page_176">176-186</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapp huts, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lapps, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180-186</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Larsson, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Le Frans, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lejonbacken, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Leksand, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lenotre, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>  Lepers’ Church, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Leslie, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lewenhaupt, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lewis, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lighthouses, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Likkair Snälle, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Liljefors, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Liljehorn’s House, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Linde, Van, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ling, P. H., <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Linköping, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Louis XIV. of France, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lübeck, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lund University, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lützen, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Lysekil, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Madrid, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Magnus, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Magnusson, Håkon, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Maiden’s Tower, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Majorna, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Marathon, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Mälar, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Manet, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Mariefred, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Margaret, Queen, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Margaret, Queen of Denmark, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Marstrand, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Masreliez, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Masthuggs Kyrka, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Mem, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Merakar, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Midnight sun, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187-193</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Milles, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Mongolians, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Mora, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Motala, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Munkbron, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Naess, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Napoleon, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  National Museum, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  New Concert Hall, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Nilsson, Magnus, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Njulja, Mt., <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Nordiska, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norrbro, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norrköping, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norrland, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norrmalm, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norrström, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norsborg, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norsholm, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  North Sea, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norway, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Norwegians, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Notke (Bernt), <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Nynäshamn, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Odin, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Öja Church, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Oktorp, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Old Apothecary Shop, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Old Houses, Visby, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Old superstitions, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Olympic Games, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Omberg, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Örbyhus, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ornäs, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Orpen, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Örsbaken, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Östberg, Ragnar, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88-90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Östergotland, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Österlånggatan, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Östermalm, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Oxel trees, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Oxelösund, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Oxford, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Palnoviken, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Passenger steamers, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Patriotism in Sweden, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Peace, Congress of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Peasant Art, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  People, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Petersen, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Platen, von Baltzar, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Polhem, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Pontresina, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Porla, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Post Office, Gothenburg, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>  Powder Tower, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Precht, Burchardt, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Public gardens, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Pussyfoot, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Queen’s Hall, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Railways, Swedish, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ramunderhäll, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ratibur, King of the Wends, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Rättvik, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201-212</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ravlunda, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Reception Hall, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Rehn, J. Erik, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Reindeer in Lapland, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Rembrandt, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Restaurants, Swedish, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Riddarholmen, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Riddarholmskyrkan, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Riddarhuset, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Röjeråsen, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Roman Church, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Roos, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Routes to Sweden, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Roxen, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Royal Armoury, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Royal Hotel, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Royal Palace, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Royal Theatre, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Rubens, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Russian steppes, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Saga, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Bridget, Swedish saint, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Catherine’s Church, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Clara, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Clement’s Church, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Drotten’s, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Goran’s Church, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. John’s Church, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Lars’ Church, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Mary’s Church, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Moritz, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Nicholas Church, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Olaf’s Tower, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Pancras Station, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  St. Peter’s Church, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Saltsjöbaden, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sandö, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Särö, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Scenery, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Shaw, Norman, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Shop fronts in Sweden, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sighafr, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sigtuna, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Siljan, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Siljeström (Lars), <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skåne, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skansen, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skärgård, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skate sailors, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skerries of Stockholm, <a href="#Page_100">100-117</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ski-ing, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Skutskär pulp-mills, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Slagstaholmen, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Slite, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Slottskogen, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Småland, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Smörgåsbord, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Snäckgärdsbaden, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Snaps, Swedish cocktail, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Snasahögarna, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Söderköping, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Södermanland, Duke Charles of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Södertälje, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Södertörn, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sophia, Queen, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sound, the, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Spetsnäset, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sport, Swedish love of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stadium, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stadsholmen, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stadshus, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stage, Swedish, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Standard of living, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stånga Church, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stegeborg, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sten Sture, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stenbock, Catherine, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>  Stendörren, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stewart, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stockholm, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70-100</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stockholm Archipelago, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Storkyrkan, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Storlien, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stortorget, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Strandgatan, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Strängnäs, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Stream, the, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Strindberg, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ström, the, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Strömmen, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Strömstad, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sturehof, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Summer in Lapland, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sun worship in Gothland, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sveas, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Sverkersson, King Charles, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedenborg, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish characteristics, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish Christmas, <a href="#Page_194">194-212</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish East India Company, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish gardens, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish hospitality, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish Lloyd, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish meals, <a href="#Page_16">16-19</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Swedish steamers, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Switzerland, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Tännforsen Waterfalls, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Technical High School, Stockholm, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Tengbom, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Tessin brothers, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_106">106</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Thirty Years’ War, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Thor, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Thorstenson, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Timber, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Tiren, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Torne Träsk Lake, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Törneman, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Torsburgen, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Trädgårdsföreningen Park, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Trees, Christmas, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Trollhättan, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Uddevalla, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Ulrika, Queen Louise, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  United States, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  University Library, Upsala, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Upland, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Upsala, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112-115</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Väderhatt, King Erik, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vadstena, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Valdemar, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vallée, De la, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Van Dyck, A., <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vänern, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vänersborg, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vasaloppet, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Värmdö, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Värtan, North, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Västergarn, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Västerlånggatan, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Västergotland, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Västgöte, Arvid, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vättern, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vaxholm, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Versailles, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Viken, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vikings, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Viklau Church, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Visby, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-141</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Visby Börs Hotel, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Visby Museum, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vising Island, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Vreta Abbey, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Walls of Visby, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Waterfalls, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Westman, Carl, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li class="indx">  Winter sports, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">  Zorn, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="Printed_in_Great_Britain_by_R_R_Clark_Limited"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> <span class="smcap">R. &amp; R. Clark, Limited</span>,
+<i>Edinburgh</i>.</h3>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="transnote"></div>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" title="" id="end_note">Transcriber’s Notes</h3>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_224" title="" >Page 224</a>—changed Djurgårdsstaden to <b>Djurgårdestaden</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_226" title="" >Page 226</a>—changed Orbyhus to <b>Örbyhus</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_227" title="" >Page 227</a>—changed Rojeråsen to <b>Röjeråsen</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_227" title="" >Page 227</a>—changed Sten Stura to <b>Sten Sture</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_228" title="" >Page 228</a>—changed Trädgardsföreningen to <b>Trädgårdsförengen</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_228" title="" >Page 228</a>—changed Västgote to <b>Västgöte</b></p>
+<p class="left"><a href="#Page_228" title="" >Page 228</a>—changed Västerlanggatan to <b>Västerlånggatan</b></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76905 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #76905
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76905)