I.

anticipated, by their excesses, the decrepitude CHAP and infirmities of fourscore. Perhaps it will be said, that this picture is too highly coloured; and that a feeling of disgust, excited by the view of some rare instances where this description is applicable, may have led to too general a remark. Of this others may determine: the remark is made as it was written in the country to which it refers; and if it be found afterwards less extensive in its application than was believed at the time, the author, who has not seen Sweden "with a jaundiced eye," may be acquitted of any intentional deviation from the truth. The passing traveller must see many things in haste, and perhaps form many of his conclusions too rapidly. He may also, from the very circumstance of his transitory intercourse with the inhabitants, view some things in a more advantageous light that would be admitted by those who reside for a long time in the country. Sometimes, in conversing with those of his own Character countrymen who have remained long in Sweden, Swedes. where the author has extolled the hospitable and obliging disposition of the natives, he has been told that the novelty of seeing strangers makes them load the new-comer with all manner of caresses and favours; but that when this wears off, the disposition to confer acts of kind

of the

CHAP. doigts." Add to this the abominable practice,

I.

as in Germany, which is confined neither to rank nor sex, of spitting upon the floors of all the apartments. The sooner such habits are banished, the better; even the subject being, to an English ear, very revolting. We may therefore pass to the mention of other characteristics, more pleasing to enumerate; and bring this Chapter to a close. Nothing is more strikingly conspicuous in the disposition of a Swede, than simplicity of mind and sincerity of heart; but these qualities will be found to degenerate sometimes into great credulity, and a too easy confidence in the honesty of strangers. The Swedes are always open to imposition, and ready to follow the dictates of any leader, however sinister his designs may be. In the remotest provinces, upon the coming of a traveller who may want assistance, they advance their money without security; and rely implicitly upon the honour of perfect strangers to repay what neces sity has demanded and hospitality has allowed without the smallest hesitation. These reflections occupied the author's mind, as he was preparing to leave Upsala, and to repair once more to Stockholm; while he ruminated upon the long tract of

(1) Promenade d'un Français en Suède, &c. tom. I. p. 241.

I.

Uniform

aspect of

try and its

Swedish territory over which he had journeyed, CHAP. and called to mind the people he had seen. From the Arctic Circle to the entrance into the Baltic Sea, the Swedes are, with little variation, the Counthe same. A remarkable uniformity may be inhabitants. considered as distinguishing not only the aspect of the country, but also the minds and persons of the inhabitants. A traveller who has been accustomed to remark the sudden change, in Italy, in passing the most insignificant natural or artificial boundary; who sees the people on one side of a bridge quite a different race from those on the other; is surprised, in such a country as Sweden, when he finds the natives of the most distant provinces appearing as though they were all members of the same family.

UPSALA TO STOCKHOLM.

Specimens from the Herbarium of Linnæus - Curious Wheel-lock Musket-Gamla Upsala-Skocloster-State of Stockholm upon the Author's Return-Character of the young King-Table-talk-Royal Féte at the Opera House-Evening's Adventure-Reflections on the Death of the former Monarch-Opening of the Sepulchre of Charles the Twelfth-Interruption of the amity between England and Sweden - Club called The SocietyResemblance to Italian Customs-Booksellers-Public Dinners-Interior of the Houses-Coffee prohibitedAnecdotes of the King-Probable Contents of the Chests at Upsala-State of Literature-Deplorable condition of the Country-Places of Public AmusementAcademies-Riots at Upsala-Royal Palace-Chapel—

State

State Apartments-Picture Gallery-Private Cabinets of Gustavus the Third.

THE

II.

HE young Student, who, by his attentions CHAP. here, had so amply made amends for his former rudeness to us in Helsingland', possessed, notwithstanding his Gothic manner and appearance, a heart open and liberal, and somewhat of a taste for science, especially in forming collections of natural history and the antiquities of his country. We before noticed this circumstance, when mention was made of his Herbarium and Runic Calendars. In the single chamber which he occupied at Upsala, and which constituted his whole set of lodgings for bed and board, the room was strewed with the harvest of his summer excursions-boxes of insects, dried plants, and whatever curious old relique of antient customs in Sweden he could pick up. Among his plants, he had a few specimens that Specimens belonged to Linnæus, which that illustrious man Herbarium had himself pasted upon papers, and, at the back of each specimen, had marked by his own autograph names: he presented no less than five of these to us. With the exception only

(1) See the former Volume of these Travels, p. 121.

(2) Ibid. p. 122.

(3) They have been since presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge, where they are now preserved.

from the

of Lin

næus.