Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση
[graphic][merged small]

CHRISTIANIA: INCLUDING A VISIT TO THE SILVER-MINES OF KONGSBERG.

Want of Booksellers' Shops-General aspect and condition of the Streets-Cathedral-State of LiteraturePublic Library-Dr. Müller's Collection of MineralsJourney to Kongsberg-Marble Quarries of Gilljebek— View from Paradise Hill-Drammen - Hogsund— River Louven-Kongsberg-Original Discovery of the Silver Ore-State of the Works-First Settlers-Remarkable Specimens of the Native Metal-Wages of the Miners-Present Establishment-Cause of the loss sustained by Government-The different ExcavationsApproach to the Works- Geological nature of the Mountains-Manner in which the Kongsberg Silver is deposited

deposited-Descent into the Mine - Native Mineral Carbon-Crystallized Native Silver-Erroneous notions entertained with regard to the Crystallization of Minerals-Metallurgical operations for the treatment of the Kongsberg Ores-Public Seminary for Mineralogy-Professor Esmark-Collection of Minerals belonging to the Kongsberg Academy-Customs shewing the common origin of the Teutons and Greeks-Superiority of the Norwegian Women-Medical Properties of the Linnæa Borealis-Condition of the Peasants-Alum Works-Synthesis which takes place in the production of Alum-Return to Christiania-Public BallsRage for English Fashions-Further account of Bernard Anker-Timber Trade-State of Religion in NorwayFortress of Christiania.

VIII.

Booksel

lers' Shops.

THERE is not in all Norway one bookseller's CHAP. shop. In Christiania and in Trönÿjem there are, it is true, bookbinders and stationers, who sell Want of a few Bibles, Prayer-books, and Almanacks; but it is in vain to look for other publications. The chief articles in the shops are, grocery, Manchester-cottons, Birmingham and Sheffield wares of the cheapest and worst kind, woollen drapery, buckles and buttons, iron ware, hinges and locks, and such other common articles as may be observed in the shops of the poorest villages in England. England. The widest streets of General aspect and Christiania are not so broad as Bond Street; and condition in these, the shops, though numerous, make

of the

no Streets.

VIII.

CHAP. figure. The pavement, as in some of our old towns where improvement has not been attended to, slopes towards a filthy sewer in the midway. Into this middle channel, of course, is cast all the dirt and drainage of the houses, where it is left to stagnate. Towns in which such nuisances are tolerated cannot be wholesome; yet of this nature were many of the cities of the Greeks and Romans'. The streets intersect at right-angles, and in all other respects Christiania has been built after a regular and uniform plan at the intersections of the streets there are conduits for supplying the town with fresh water. The outsides of the houses are not so neat as those of Trönÿjem; neither has the town by any means so cleanly an aspect; nor can it boast of so much picturesque beauty, although its situation among inlets of the sea

(1) That the present state of Constantinople exhibits what the city was under the Roman Emperors, has been already shewn, in that Part of these Travels which relates to TURKEY. In the plates of the magnificent edition of Banduri's Imperium Orientale, (Paris, 1711,) there is a series of engravings made from the bas-reliefs of the Historical Pillar, which exhibit the streets of Constantinople as they existed in the time of Arcadius and in these engravings the Roman infantry is represented upon a high causeway, serving, as it does now, for the foot-passengers; while the cavalry occupy the deep midway channel, which, at present, is always filled with all the ordure and refuse cast from the houses. Here also the wretched captives, dragged in triumph after the chariots of the Roman army, were made to walk.

:

VIII.

give it a pleasing appearance. The approach CHAP. to all the houses is by a flight of steps. The lower story seems to be half buried, like the offices for menials of the houses in London; and the windows of these subterraneous apartments are protected from the snow by a shed built of wood, which is made to cover and close over them. The Cathedral is a plain building, Cathedral. remarkable only for the resemblance which is exhibited, in its interior decoration, to some of our old churches in England; where the pews of the principal families, like so many separate oratories, are surrounded by high clumsy partition sides, containing casement-windows, glazed'. Such pews are suspended over the aisles in the church at Christiania. We visited

(2) Many years, in all probability, will not elapse before every trace of these old Gothic pews will have disappeared from our churches. They were constructed in times of feudal splendour, when the persons of high-born dames were deemed too sacred to become the gaze of the profane vulgar. Even during the solemnities of public devotion, a certain degree of seclusion from the rest of the congregation was resorted to as a mark of their distinction; and their appearance in the church was like that of Turkish ladies in a mosque, being shut up in cages fronted with trellis-work. Some of these cages yet exist in old English churches. There is one in the Church of Hothfield in Kent, belonging to the noble family of the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet. The remains of others may be seen in various parts of our island. Another mark of the striking similarity of manners between the inhabitants of the two countries, is the practice which exists in England and in Norway of dividing the lower orders of the congregations according to their sexes; making the men sit apart from the women, during divine service.

VIII.

CHAP. this building during divine service, upon a Sunday, in the morning. It was a very fine day, yet there were not twenty persons assembled: and, judging from our casual visit upon this occasion, we concluded that the duties of the Sabbath are less regarded here than in any other town of equal size in Europe. Over the altar we observed a representation of the Last Supper, in very barbarous wooden sculpture. The figures were as large as life; and, among these, an image of St. John had been squeezed in between the table and the effigy of our Saviour, in a most ludicrous manner, as if about to be strangled. Being at a loss to reconcile this situation of the Evangelist with any thing related of him in the Gospels, we applied for information to others who were better informed; who told us that it was necessary he should be so placed, that he might appear as in the bosom of Jesus.

State of

Literature.

The literature of Christiania, although an Episcopal See, is at a low ebb. It cannot be otherwise, separated as this place is from the mother country, without a University, and without the common convenience even of a Bank for its commerce: consequently, it has produced no eminent literary characters. But Norway, in general, has produced many: as, for example, the

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »