CHAP. of the first, they are all described in the Flora

II.

Curious wheel-lock Musket.

Lapponica and Flora Svecica'.

But the most singular rarity of his apartment was an old wheel-lock musket which stood in one corner of the room, and which he told us one of his ancestors had formerly brought into Sweden from Pomerania. It was probably a part of the spoils of war: and as it seemed to us to be one of the most extraordinary works of art existing, and he wished to part with it, we bought it of him for the price at which he valued it. Once it must have cost an enormous sum; being, in all

(1) The first, as the autograph states at the back of it, grew in the Botanic Garden at Upsala.

1. BISCUTELLA APULA-a native of Italy, vulgarly called "Spearleaved Buckler-mustard."-The plant is too well known to need further description.

2. ARABIS ALPINA. (Flor. Lapp. 257. p. 213. Amst. 1757.) commonly called Alpine Wall-Cress. It is a native of the Alps, and other mountains of Europe; being found on rocks, in caverns, and in woods. We found it often in the higher parts of Lapland. It was cultivated at Oxford in 1658; and is now become very common in gardens §.

3. GNAPHALIUM SYLVATICUM. (Flor. Svec. 675. p. 243. Stockh. 1745.) The "Wood Everlasting, or English upright Cudweed.”— It grows in several parts of England.

4. LICHEN PHYSODES. (Flor. Svec. 951. p. 346. Stockh. 1745.) The well-known Moss of the Birch-tree.

5. LICHEN VELLEUS. This was found by Linnæus upon the Lapland

rocks. (Flor. Lapp. 454. p. 345. Amst. 1737.) In his Flora Svecica (vid. 968. p.355. Stockh. 1745.) he says it is common near Upsala.

§ See Miller's Dict. by Martyn, Vol. I. (Arabis.)

respects, fitted not merely to adorn, but to cut a splendid figure among the weapons of a regal armoury. To give a complete account of this curious relique, would require an entire volume, illustrated with an hundred plates. The whole of the stock, from the lower extremity of the butt to the muzzle of the barrel, is of ivory inlaid with ebony; representing, in a series of masterly designs, the Bible History, from the Creation to the time of David. The style of these designs is like that which may be often observed in old illuminated manuscripts, and in the wood-cuts copied from such illuminations; which seem as if they had been all borrowed from the works of the same master. In the representation, for example, of the creation of mankind, the Deity is pourtrayed in the dress of the Pope, handing Eve out of Adam's side': yet there are parts of

(2) Beginning from the muzzle of the musket, and proceeding from left to right towards the butt, and back again, the whole length of the opposite side of the stock, there are nearly one hundred pictures exhibited by means of exquisitely inlaid ivory. The first delineation represents the Animal Creation; then follows the Creation and Fall of Man; the Expulsion of the Human Race from Paradise; their Agricultural Labours; the Death of Abel; the History of Noah; the Deluge; &c. &c.—the whole being considered, in all probability, as a connected series of powerful amulets, calculated to protect the bearer of this musket from all dangers "ghostly and bodily."

(3) See the account of a splendid MS. in the Mostyn Library in Flintshire, as communicated by the Author to the celebrated Pennant, for his "History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell," p. 74. Lond.

CHAP.
II.

II.

CHAP. the workmanship equal to the performances of Albert Durer, and which exhibit characteristic marks of the age in which he lived'.

Gamla
Upsala.

· Before we left Upsala, we should have visited the village of Gamla Upsala, distant about five English miles north of the modern city, if there had been any remains of antiquity there worth the trouble of making an excursion on purpose to view them. In our former journey from Upsala to Gefle, we had before passed in sight of the village church; near to which are the three remarkable tumuli represented in the Vignette to the preceding Chapter, and which tradition has assigned to the bodies of Odin, Frigga, and Thor. Nothing can be more obscure than the history of the first kings, or divinities as they are often called, of antient Scandinavia ; in which, the more we seek for information, the farther we seem to recede from all hope of coming at the truth. A great source of error has been caused by confounding the Teutonic with the Celtic nations, which were, ab origine, two distinct people. Conical heaps raised over

(1) A Vignette prefixed to this Chapter will serve to shew the form of this curious weapon, and also one of the numerous representations upon the stock.

(2) See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, Pref. to Vol. I. Edinb. 1809.

the dead are generally Celtic sepulchres; but in the rarity of Celtic monuments in Sweden and Norway, added to other circumstances conspicuous in the appearance of the ground about the supposed sepulchres of Gamla Upsala, which have never yet been opened, or in any way duly examined, there is reason to suspect that these will hereafter be found to be natural elevations, and not artificial heaps. A little time spent upon the spot may hereafter enable some curious traveller to ascertain the real nature of those tumuli. If they should be proved to be places of burial, there is little probability of their having been constructed by the ancestors of the present race of Swedes, who in the period when such mounds were raised over the dead in the north of Europe were not inhabitants of Sweden. At a much later period in history, when Mithradates sought for refuge in those deserts of Russia now inhabited by the Don Cossacks, the followers of Odin, being obliged to withdraw themselves from the vengeance of the Romans, began to seek, at this distance from the field of Pompey's triumphs, that safety which they could not find in their own country3.

CHAP.

II.

(3) Mallet makes their principal city, at that time, Asgard, between the Black Sea and the Caspian; considering them as the Ases, a race of Scy

thians;

CHAP.
II.

We now took our last leave of Upsala, and set out again for Stockholm, through an open, flat, Skocloster. and fertile country. We passed Shocloster, as in our former journey, on the right, the seats of the Counts of Brahe, one of the oldest families in Sweden. In the house there is a curious collection of antiquities and other rarities, which are esteemed worth seeing. It lies out of the main route. In this part of our journey we observed, upon the eastern side of the road, a few reliques of the primeval inhabitants of the country; such as, rude upright masses of stone and tumuli, which seemed to be sepulchral mounds.

The political events of the day, upon our return to the Capital, will have lost all interest, from the length of time that has elapsed before the publication of this Part of our Travels; but as they are intimately connected with the Swedish history, we shall not entirely omit the mention of them. A number of express couriers, passing us upon the road, had already apprised us of the birth of the young Prince, which had just taken place; messages being despatched with

thians; and thinks there is reason to believe that Axof, or, as he writes it, As-of, derived its name from this nation. But who will venture into an inquiry where, as he judiciously observes, "the most profound researches, the most ingenious conjectures, discover nothing to us but our own ignorance?"