CHAP.

I.

branch of

the University.

The number of the students in this University has sometimes exceeded one thousand: at the present time there were not above three hundred'. The whole population, including the students and other inhabitants of Upsala and its neighbourhood, did not amount to four thousand Executive persons. The University consists of a Chancellor, a Sub-Chancellor, who is always the Archbishop of Upsala, and a President, who is called Rector Magnificus, answering to the office of Vice-Chancellor in our English Universities. There are also Professors of Divinity, Law, Physic, and Philosophy, besides extraordinary adjuncts, as assistants, to each of these Professorships, Magistri Docentes in the several faculties, and Teachers of Modern Languages and the Polite Arts. The principal studies of the place are divided into the four classes above mentioned. The lectures are both public and private, the former being delivered gratis. The annual salaries of the Professors do not exceed 1007. When a Professor has continued in office for thirty years, he is allowed to retire with the title of Emeritus, and enjoys his salary for life.

(1) When Dr. Fiott Lee afterwards visited this University, the number was greatly increased. According to a note in his MS. Journal, there were about 800 students at that time.

(2) This fact is stated by Mr. Core, from whom it is here borrowed. See Travels, vol. IV. p. 145. Lond. 1787.

I.

Students are sent to Upsala about the age of CHAP. sixteen, or even earlier: they lodge in private houses in the town, there being no Colleges; and they are divided into classes, according to the Provinces to which they belong. Lectures begin, as with us, in October; and continue for about eight months. are those of Philosophiæ Candidatus, or Bachelor of Arts; Philosophiæ Magister, or Master of Arts; and in Divinity, Law, and Physic, the different gradations are styled Candidatus, Licenciatus, Doctor'. Before receiving any degree, a student must undergo several examinations from various Professors, and must compose a Latin Thesis, Theses. which he is bound to defend in the Schools. Similar exercises are also necessary previous to taking the second degree; and as the different Theses are printed, we were at considerable pains to collect all that could be obtained, thinking they would serve to give a good idea of the state of science in this seminary. We pursued, afterwards, the same plan with regard to the University of Åbo; and a list of the subjects upon which the principal dissertations were written, will be found in the Appendix. Considering

The degrees conferred, Degrees.

(3) See Core's Travels, ib.

(4) The Amanitates Academica published in 1749, in 8vo. under the auspices of Linnæus, contained a collection of these Theses, but not in

their

CHAP.

I.

Cathedral.

the manner in which the lectures are given, the sort of people which attend as students, and the total want of all Academical discipline and all incitement to emulation in Upsala, it is quite wonderful that it has produced such a number of persons eminent in every branch of science.

Soon after seeing the Library, we visited the CATHEDRAL, which is hard by; the finest ecclesiastical structure in all Sweden'. The spire of the Cathedral of Wästerås is said to be loftier, but in other respects there can be no comparison between the two edifices. This of Upsala is a brick building, in excellent order; having been lately repaired, at a great expense. The architecture of the interior is purely Gothic; but the outside of the building exhibits a strange mixture, with pillars of the Doric order, in consequence of work done in a later age, when additions were made to the original structure; the

their original state: they were selected and revised by that great man, and have therefore been regarded as of equal authority with his own writings. The collection alluded to in the Appendix, was formed with a view to shew simply what the subjects were of the Theses at Upsala and Abo, as they were severally printed in their original form in those Universities during nearly half a century. This collection, presented by the author of these Travels, is now in the University Library at Cambridge, in four volumes quarto.

(1) "Cathedrale ornat templum, inter omnia Suecorum pulcherrimum." Delicia Regn. Sueciæ, tom. I. p. 380. L. Bat. 1706.

cathedral having often suffered from fire, and as often been repaired. It is said to have been begun in the middle of the thirteenth century, under the direction of Stephen Bonneville, a French architect, who followed in its construction the model of the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris; but this date does not agree with the chronology of the accurate Messenius, who, in his " Epitome Scondiæ illustrata," assigns the year 1164 for the commencement of the cathedral', which was not completed for above two hundred years afterwards, when its dedication took place with extraordinary pomp and solemnity'. As we entered this building, we were much struck by its elegance and neatness. The altar alone exhibited a barbarous style of ornament, being laden with heavy colossal figures, executed in the worst taste, and already hastening fast to destruction. At the western extremity is a magnificent organ, the largest in Sweden. Near the altar, inclosed

(2) See Core's Travels, vol. IV. p. 131. Lond. 1786.

(3) "Carolus rex ibi prima basilicæ jacit fundamenta ex marmore, et post annos cc. fuit opus consummatum." Messen. Scond. Illust. tom. XV. p. 27. Stockholm, 1705.

(4) This happened in the year 1435, (ibid. p. 74.) and the event is recorded in the third volume of the same work. "Archimysta etiam Sueoniæ Olaus, consummatam tandem Upsalensium basilicam, Thomâ, Streguensi episcopo, collegâ adhibito, insigni admodum festivitate, Deo Optimo, Maximo, Divisque, Lausentio, Olao, ac Erico, inauguraverat, dedicaveratque." Chronol. Scond. tom. III. p. 59. Stockholm. 1700.

CHAP.
I.

CHAP.
I.

in iron net-work, is the silver coffin containing the reliques of Saint Eric; not of Eric the Fourteenth, the eldest son of Gustavus Vasa, as has been erroneously supposed, but of Eric the Seventh, son of Jedvardus, who being captured in battle by the Danes, was beheaded, and afterwards canonized for his virtues. His remains were originally interred in Old Upsala, but afterwards transferred to this cathedral'. Eric the Seventh cuts a brilliant figure in the early annals of Sweden: it was this monarch who conquered Finland, and first established Christianity among the inhabitants of that country. He formed a

(1) He was taken in battle in the field of Upsala, after contending with the greatest bravery against his rebellious subjects, who were aided by the Danes. (Scondiæ Illustratæ, tom. II. p. 5. Stockholm, 1700.) The Swedes celebrate the Eighteenth of May as the day of his martyrdom.(Ibid.) His reliques were removed to New Upsala in the year 1273. (Ibid. tom. XII. p. 126.) This monarch is spoken of in terms of high eulogy in the Swedish annals. "Commodis patriæ sedulus invigilat; non paucas fundat ecclesias; ipsas proventibus ornat; Rempublicam quoque insigniter ordinat; æquissimas condit leges; impias abrogat; perversas Suconum consuetudinis radicitus evellit; inde flagitiosos, sine respectu personarum, animadvertit." (Ibid. tom. II. p. 5.) His virtues and severe discipline were not however suited to the views and temper of the Nobles under him, who had been accustomed to live by plunder and piracy; conse→ quently they conspired against his life, and were joined, in a revolt, by the Danes. There is nothing worth seeing at Old Upsala, or Gamla Upsala, now a village, distant about five English miles from the modern city, if we except the three tumuli, said to be the Sepulchres of Odin, Frigga, and Thor, which are near the village church. Dr. Fiott Lee visited Gamla Upsala in 1807, and made a drawing of those tumuli, whence the Vignette to this Chapter is taken. Dr. Lee compares them, in size and appearance, to the Mounds near Bartlow in Essex.