of Aggerhuus, especially Gulbrandsdale, is remarkable for the long lives of its inhabitants. It is related by Pontoppidan, from indisputable authority, that in the year 1733, when Christian VI. and Queen Sophia Magdalena, of Denmark, visited their Norwegian dominions, they were present at what is called "a Jubilee wedding." This was performed in a garden at Fredericshald, under tents pitched for the purpose. There were four couples married, being country-people invited from the adjacent parts; and out of all these there were none under a hundred years old; so that all their ages put together made upwards of eight hundred years Their names were, Ole Torresen Sologsteen, who lived eight years afterwards, and his wife Helje ten years; Jem Oer, who lived six years after, and his wife Inger, who lived seven years; Ole Besseber and his wife; and Hans Torlasken, who lived ten years after, and brought with him Joran Gallen, who was not his wife, but being a hundred years old, he borrowed her for this ceremony: she also lived ten years afterwards. These eight married people, being each upwards of a hundred years old, made themselves extremely merry at this Jubilee wedding; and the women, according to the custom of the country, danced with green wreaths on their heads,

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CHAP. which brides always wear on their wedding

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day'.

About this time there happened to arrive in Trönÿjem a poor French Emigrant, of the name of Latochnaye. Wandering about Sweden and Norway, he contrived to pick up a livelihood, by begging subscriptions towards the publication of a narrative of his journey, which he said he should hereafter publish. His temper, naturally bad, had been soured by events which had compelled him to a state of greater activity than was agreeable to his disposition; and to complete the whole, he had the misfortune to break his leg, in one of the northern provinces of Sweden. After this accident, he was removed to the house of a Swedish Clergyman, who most humanely and hospitably entertained him beneath his roof, until he was sufficiently recovered to continue his journey: and for this act of beneficence, the name of his host was never afterwards mentioned by him without the most sarcastic expressions of that mauvaise humeur by

(1)

· ἀλλ ̓ ὅμως

Σοὶ καταστέψασ ̓ ἐγώ τιν ἦγον ὡς γαμουμένην.

Euripid. Iphigen. in Aulid. v. 909.

(2) It has since been published, under the title of “ Promenade d'un Français en Suède et en Norvége, par De Latochnaye." 2 tomes. Brunswick, 1801.

which he was characterized, and even with ungrateful abuse. Having collected money from all the principal inabitants of Trönijem, he also applied to us; and we readily added our names to his list of subscribers. We should never have mentioned this circumstance, if we had not afterwards found, when his work appeared, that the little kindness we had it in our power to shew him was requited by him with one of his usual manifestations of spleen. He had been asked to spend the day with us, and to join a party of friends whom we had invited to dinner. In the morning we hired a boat for his conveyance to the Isle of Munkholm; and accompanied him thither, that he might see the fortress. For his dinner we had reserved a haunch of the Reindeer venison we had bought of the Laplanders, near Mulmagen, in our passage over the Alpine barrier. In the evening, we endeavoured to amuse him by the exhibition of every thing curious collected in our travels, and by communicating any information that we possessed, respecting the countries we had visited in common with him, for his own use. Nothing, however, could get the better of his habitual spleen, or mitigate, for a moment, the stings of his disappointed pride, excepting the haunch of Reindeer venison. Upon this, which he said was

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"the only good thing he had found in all Scandinavia," he broke forth in true Gallic raptures: and, as it may amuse the Reader to see how he has noticed our attentions in the account of his travels, and perhaps offer to the notice of Englishmen a characteristic trait of French gratitude, we shall conclude this Chapter by translating from the Promenade' of Mons. De Latochnaye that passage of his work in which our interview with him is described; adding the criginal in a note'. It is annexed to his account of the Isle and Fortress of Munkholm; of which he

says, "Je ne connais pas de prison plus horrible;” although, in his recollection of the jails and dungeons for State-prisoners in France, he might surely have called to mind many more terrible places of confinement. "I visited the spot," says he, "with two young Englishmen, who had

(1) “Je fus la visiter avec deux jeunes Anglais, qui venaient de faire une expédition vraiment Anglaise dans le Nord. Après avoir quitté Londres, ils avaient poussé tout d'un coup, et sans s'arrêter, jusqu'à vingt milles au nord de Torneo, et y avaient lancé un ballon dans la Laponie, au grand étonnement des natifs; les Lapons cependant y avaient paru moins sensibles, qu'à un cerf-volant qu'ils firent voler après. Ils avaient passé à Sundswall le même jour que moi; mais depuis ce temps, ils avaient fait unee tournée prodigieuse. Ils étaient chargés de pierres, de minéreaux, de mousses, de bâtons Runiques, de portraits et sacs de Lapons, de peaux et cornes de rennes, et, surtout, d'un gigot succulent du méme, auquel, comme un Franc ignorant, j'attachai un beaucoup plus grand prix qu'à toutes leurs autres curiosités."-Promenade Jun Français, &c. tom. II. p. 136. Brunswick, 1801.

V.

just completed an expedition, truly English, CHAP. into the North. After having quitted London, they pushed on, all at once, without stopping, twenty miles to the north of Torneå, and launched a balloon in Lapland, to the great astonishment of the natives: yet the Lapps had been less touched by this exhibition, than by that of a paper-kite, which they let fly afterwards. They passed through Sundswall the same day that I did; but since that time they had made a prodigious circui.. They were laden with (pierres) fragments of rocks, minerals, mosses, Runic staves, Lapland purses and costumes, hides and horns of Reindeer, and, above all, with a succulent haunch of the same animal, to which I, like a poor simpleton, attached more value than to all their other curiosities."