Books: Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
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Mary Wollstonecraft >> Letters on Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
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I began to expostulate, and even to scold the pilot, for not having
informed me of his ignorance previous to my departure. This made
him row with more force, and we turned round one rock only to see
another, equally destitute of the tokens we were in search of to
tell us where we were. Entering also into creek after creek which
promised to be the entrance of the bay we were seeking, we advanced
merely to find ourselves running aground.
The solitariness of the scene, as we glided under the dark shadows
of the rocks, pleased me for a while; but the fear of passing the
whole night thus wandering to and fro, and losing the next day,
roused me. I begged the pilot to return to one of the largest
islands, at the side of which we had seen a boat moored. As we drew
nearer, a light through a window on the summit became our beacon;
but we were farther off than I supposed.
With some difficulty the pilot got on shore, not distinguishing the
landing-place; and I remained in the boat, knowing that all the
relief we could expect was a man to direct us. After waiting some
time, for there is an insensibility in the very movements of these
people that would weary more than ordinary patience, he brought with
him a man who, assisting them to row, we landed at Stromstad a
little after one in the morning.
It was too late to send off a boy, but I did not go to bed before I
had made the arrangements necessary to enable me to set out as early
as possible.
The sun rose with splendour. My mind was too active to allow me to
loiter long in bed, though the horses did not arrive till between
seven and eight. However, as I wished to let the boy, who went
forward to order the horses, get considerably the start of me, I
bridled in my impatience.
This precaution was unavailing, for after the three first posts I
had to wait two hours, whilst the people at the post-house went,
fair and softly, to the farm, to bid them bring up the horses which
were carrying in the first-fruits of the harvest. I discovered here
that these sluggish peasants had their share of cunning. Though
they had made me pay for a horse, the boy had gone on foot, and only
arrived half an hour before me. This disconcerted the whole
arrangement of the day; and being detained again three hours, I
reluctantly determined to sleep at Quistram, two posts short of
Uddervalla, where I had hoped to have arrived that night.
But when I reached Quistram I found I could not approach the door of
the inn for men, horses, and carts, cows, and pigs huddled together.
From the concourse of people I had met on the road I conjectured
that there was a fair in the neighbourhood; this crowd convinced me
that it was but too true. The boisterous merriment that almost
every instant produced a quarrel, or made me dread one, with the
clouds of tobacco, and fumes of brandy, gave an infernal appearance
to the scene. There was everything to drive me back, nothing to
excite sympathy in a rude tumult of the senses, which I foresaw
would end in a gross debauch. What was to be done? No bed was to
be had, or even a quiet corner to retire to for a moment; all was
lost in noise, riot, and confusion.
After some debating they promised me horses, which were to go on to
Uddervalla, two stages. I requested something to eat first, not
having dined; and the hostess, whom I have mentioned to you before
as knowing how to take care of herself, brought me a plate of fish,
for which she charged a rix-dollar and a half. This was making hay
whilst the sun shone. I was glad to get out of the uproar, though
not disposed to travel in an incommodious open carriage all night,
had I thought that there was any chance of getting horses.
Quitting Quistram I met a number of joyous groups, and though the
evening was fresh many were stretched on the grass like weary
cattle; and drunken men had fallen by the road-side. On a rock,
under the shade of lofty trees, a large party of men and women had
lighted a fire, cutting down fuel around to keep it alive all night.
They were drinking, smoking, and laughing with all their might and
main. I felt for the trees whose torn branches strewed the ground.
Hapless nymphs! your haunts, I fear, were polluted by many an
unhallowed flame, the casual burst of the moment!
The horses went on very well; but when we drew near the post-house
the postillion stopped short and neither threats nor promises could
prevail on him to go forward. He even began to howl and weep when I
insisted on his keeping his word. Nothing, indeed, can equal the
stupid obstinacy of some of these half-alive beings, who seem to
have been made by Prometheus when the fire he stole from Heaven was
so exhausted that he could only spare a spark to give life, not
animation, to the inert clay.
It was some time before we could rouse anybody; and, as I expected,
horses, we were told, could not be had in less than four or five
hours. I again attempted to bribe the churlish brute who brought us
there, but I discovered that, in spite of the courteous hostess's
promises, he had received orders not to go any father.
As there was no remedy I entered, and was almost driven back by the
stench--a softer phrase would not have conveyed an idea of the hot
vapour that issued from an apartment in which some eight or ten
people were sleeping, not to reckon the cats and dogs stretched on
the floor. Two or three of the men or women were on the benches,
others on old chests; and one figure started half out of a trunk to
look at me, whom might have taken for a ghost, had the chemise been
white, to contrast with the sallow visage. But the costume of
apparitions not being preserved I passed, nothing dreading,
excepting the effluvia, warily amongst the pots, pans, milk-pails,
and washing-tubs. After scaling a ruinous staircase I was shown a
bed-chamber. The bed did not invite me to enter; opening,
therefore, the window, and taking some clean towels out of my night-
sack, I spread them over the coverlid, on which tired Nature found
repose, in spite of the previous disgust.
With the grey of the morn the birds awoke me; and descending to
inquire for the horses, I hastened through the apartment I have
already described, not wishing to associate the idea of a pigstye
with that of a human dwelling.
I do not now wonder that the girls lose their fine complexions at
such an early age, or that love here is merely an appetite to fulfil
the main design of Nature, never enlivened by either affection or
sentiment.
For a few posts we found the horses waiting; but afterwards I was
retarded, as before, by the peasants, who, taking advantage of my
ignorance of the language, made me pay for the fourth horse that
ought to have gone forward to have the others in readiness, though
it had never been sent. I was particularly impatient at the last
post, as I longed to assure myself that my child was well.
My impatience, however, did not prevent my enjoying the journey. I
had six weeks before passed over the same ground; still it had
sufficient novelty to attract my attention, and beguile, if not
banish, the sorrow that had taken up its abode in my heart. How
interesting are the varied beauties of Nature, and what peculiar
charms characterise each season! The purple hue which the heath now
assumed gave it a degree of richness that almost exceeded the lustre
of the young green of spring, and harmonised exquisitely with the
rays of the ripening corn. The weather was uninterruptedly fine,
and the people busy in the fields cutting down the corn, or binding
up the sheaves, continually varied the prospect. The rocks, it is
true, were unusually rugged and dreary; yet as the road runs for a
considerable way by the side of a fine river, with extended pastures
on the other side, the image of sterility was not the predominant
object, though the cottages looked still more miserable, after
having seen the Norwegian farms. The trees likewise appeared of me
growth of yesterday, compared with those Nestors of the forest I
have frequently mentioned. The women and children were cutting off
branches from the beech, birch, oak, &c, and leaving them to dry.
This way of helping out their fodder injures the trees. But the
winters are so long that the poor cannot afford to lay in a
sufficient stock of hay. By such means they just keep life in the
poor cows, for little milk can be expected when they are so
miserably fed.
It was Saturday, and the evening was uncommonly serene. In the
villages I everywhere saw preparations for Sunday; and I passed by a
little car loaded with rye, that presented, for the pencil and
heart, the sweetest picture of a harvest home I had ever beheld. A
little girl was mounted a-straddle on a shaggy horse, brandishing a
stick over its head; the father was walking at the side of the car
with a child in his arms, who must have come to meet him with
tottering steps; the little creature was stretching out its arms to
cling round his neck; and a boy, just above petticoats, was
labouring hard with a fork behind to keep the sheaves from falling.
My eyes followed them to the cottage, and an involuntary sigh
whispered to my heart that I envied the mother, much as I dislike
cooking, who was preparing their pottage. I was returning to my
babe, who may never experience a father's care or tenderness. The
bosom that nurtured her heaved with a pang at the thought which only
an unhappy mother could feel.
Adieu!
LETTER XVII.
I was unwilling to leave Gothenburg without visiting Trolhaettae. I
wished not only to see the cascade, but to observe the progress of
the stupendous attempt to form a canal through the rocks, to the
extent of an English mile and a half.
This work is carried on by a company, who employ daily nine hundred
men; five years was the time mentioned in the proposals addressed to
the public as necessary for the completion. A much more
considerable sum than the plan requires has been subscribed, for
which there is every reason to suppose the promoters will receive
ample interest.
The Danes survey the progress of this work with a jealous eye, as it
is principally undertaken to get clear of the Sound duty.
Arrived at Trolhaettae, I must own that the first view of the
cascade disappointed me; and the sight of the works, as they
advanced, though a grand proof of human industry, was not calculated
to warm the fancy. I, however, wandered about; and at last coming
to the conflux of the various cataracts rushing from different
falls, struggling with the huge masses of rock, and rebounding from
the profound cavities, I immediately retracted, acknowledging that
it was indeed a grand object. A little island stood in the midst,
covered with firs, which, by dividing the torrent, rendered it more
picturesque; one half appearing to issue from a dark cavern, that
fancy might easily imagine a vast fountain throwing up its waters
from the very centre of the earth.
I gazed I know not how long, stunned with the noise, and growing
giddy with only looking at the never-ceasing tumultuous motion, I
listened, scarcely conscious where I was, when I observed a boy,
half obscured by the sparkling foam, fishing under the impending
rock on the other side. How he had descended I could not perceive;
nothing like human footsteps appeared, and the horrific crags seemed
to bid defiance even to the goat's activity. It looked like an
abode only fit for the eagle, though in its crevices some pines
darted up their spiral heads; but they only grew near the cascade,
everywhere else sterility itself reigned with dreary grandeur; for
the huge grey massy rocks, which probably had been torn asunder by
some dreadful convulsion of nature, had not even their first
covering of a little cleaving moss. There were so many appearances
to excite the idea of chaos, that, instead of admiring the canal and
the works, great as they are termed, and little as they appear, I
could not help regretting that such a noble scene had not been left
in all its solitary sublimity. Amidst the awful roaring of the
impetuous torrents, the noise of human instruments and the bustle of
workmen, even the blowing up of the rocks when grand masses trembled
in the darkened air, only resembled the insignificant sport of
children.
One fall of water, partly made by art, when they were attempting to
construct sluices, had an uncommonly grand effect; the water
precipitated itself with immense velocity down a perpendicular, at
least fifty or sixty yards, into a gulf, so concealed by the foam as
to give full play to the fancy. There was a continual uproar. I
stood on a rock to observe it, a kind of bridge formed by nature,
nearly on a level with the commencement of the fall. After musing
by it a long time I turned towards the other side, and saw a gentle
stream stray calmly out. I should have concluded that it had no
communication with the torrent had I not seen a huge log that fell
headlong down the cascade steal peacefully into the purling stream.
I retired from these wild scenes with regret to a miserable inn, and
next morning returned to Gothenburg, to prepare for my journey to
Copenhagen.
I was sorry to leave Gothenburg without travelling farther into
Sweden, yet I imagine I should only have seen a romantic country
thinly inhabited, and these inhabitants struggling with poverty.
The Norwegian peasantry, mostly independent, have a rough kind of
frankness in their manner; but the Swedish, rendered more abject by
misery, have a degree of politeness in their address which, though
it may sometimes border on insincerity, is oftener the effect of a
broken spirit, rather softened than degraded by wretchedness.
In Norway there are no notes in circulation of less value than a
Swedish rix-dollar. A small silver coin, commonly not worth more
than a penny, and never more than twopence, serves for change; but
in Sweden they have notes as low as sixpence. I never saw any
silver pieces there, and could not without difficulty, and giving a
premium, obtain the value of a rix-dollar in a large copper coin to
give away on the road to the poor who open the gates.
As another proof of the poverty of Sweden, I ought to mention that
foreign merchants who have acquired a fortune there are obliged to
deposit the sixth part when they leave the kingdom. This law, you
may suppose, is frequently evaded.
In fact, the laws here, as well as in Norway, are so relaxed that
they rather favour than restrain knavery.
Whilst I was at Gothenburg, a man who had been confined for breaking
open his master's desk and running away with five or six thousand
rix-dollars, was only sentenced to forty days' confinement on bread
and water; and this slight punishment his relations rendered
nugatory by supplying him with more savoury food.
The Swedes are in general attached to their families, yet a divorce
may be obtained by either party on proving the infidelity of the
other or acknowledging it themselves. The women do not often recur
to this equal privilege, for they either retaliate on their husbands
by following their own devices or sink into the merest domestic
drudges, worn down by tyranny to servile submission. Do not term me
severe if I add, that after youth is flown the husband becomes a
sot, and the wife amuses herself by scolding her servants. In fact,
what is to be expected in any country where taste and cultivation of
mind do not supply the place of youthful beauty and animal spirits?
Affection requires a firmer foundation than sympathy, and few people
have a principle of action sufficiently stable to produce rectitude
of feeling; for in spite of all the arguments I have heard to
justify deviations from duty, I am persuaded that even the most
spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle
than weak people are willing to allow.
But adieu to moralising. I have been writing these last sheets at
an inn in Elsineur, where I am waiting for horses; and as they are
not yet ready, I will give you a short account of my journey from
Gothenburg, for I set out the morning after I returned from
Trolhaettae.
The country during the first day's journey presented a most barren
appearance, as rocky, yet not so picturesque as Norway, because on a
diminutive scale. We stopped to sleep at a tolerable inn in
Falckersberg, a decent little town.
The next day beeches and oaks began to grace the prospects, the sea
every now and then appearing to give them dignity. I could not
avoid observing also, that even in this part of Sweden, one of the
most sterile, as I was informed, there was more ground under
cultivation than in Norway. Plains of varied crops stretched out to
a considerable extent, and sloped down to the shore, no longer
terrific. And, as far as I could judge, from glancing my eye over
the country as we drove along, agriculture was in a more advanced
state, though in the habitations a greater appearance of poverty
still remained. The cottages, indeed, often looked most
uncomfortable, but never so miserable as those I had remarked on the
road to Stromstad, and the towns were equal, if not superior, to
many of the little towns in Wales, or some I have passed through in
my way from Calais to Paris.
The inns as we advanced were not to be complained of, unless I had
always thought of England. The people were civil, and much more
moderate in their demands than the Norwegians, particularly to the
westward, where they boldly charge for what you never had, and seem
to consider you, as they do a wreck, if not as lawful prey, yet as a
lucky chance, which they ought not to neglect to seize.
The prospect of Elsineur, as we passed the Sound, was pleasant. I
gave three rix-dollars for my boat, including something to drink. I
mention the sum, because they impose on strangers.
Adieu! till I arrive at Copenhagen.
LETTER XVIII.--COPENHAGEN.
The distance from Elsineur to Copenhagen is twenty-two miles; the
road is very good, over a flat country diversified with wood, mostly
beech, and decent mansions. There appeared to be a great quantity
of corn land, and the soil looked much more fertile than it is in
general so near the sea. The rising grounds, indeed, were very few,
and around Copenhagen it is a perfect plain; of course has nothing
to recommend it but cultivation, not decorations. If I say that the
houses did not disgust me, I tell you all I remember of them, for I
cannot recollect any pleasurable sensations they excited, or that
any object, produced by nature or art, took me out of myself. The
view of the city, as we drew near, was rather grand, but without any
striking feature to interest the imagination, excepting the trees
which shade the footpaths.
Just before I reached Copenhagen I saw a number of tents on a wide
plain, and supposed that the rage for encampments had reached this
city; but I soon discovered that they were the asylum of many of the
poor families who had been driven out of their habitations by the
late fire.
Entering soon after, I passed amongst the dust and rubbish it had
left, affrighted by viewing the extent of the devastation, for at
least a quarter of the city had been destroyed. There was little in
the appearance of fallen bricks and stacks of chimneys to allure the
imagination into soothing melancholy reveries; nothing to attract
the eye of taste, but much to afflict the benevolent heart. The
depredations of time have always something in them to employ the
fancy, or lead to musing on subjects which, withdrawing the mind
from objects of sense, seem to give it new dignity; but here I was
treading on live ashes. The sufferers were still under the pressure
of the misery occasioned by this dreadful conflagration. I could
not take refuge in the thought: they suffered, but they are no
more! a reflection I frequently summon to calm my mind when sympathy
rises to anguish. I therefore desired the driver to hasten to the
hotel recommended to me, that I might avert my eyes and snap the
train of thinking which had sent me into all the corners of the city
in search of houseless heads.
This morning I have been walking round the town, till I am weary of
observing the ravages. I had often heard the Danes, even those who
had seen Paris and London, speak of Copenhagen with rapture.
Certainly I have seen it in a very disadvantageous light, some of
the best streets having been burnt, and the whole place thrown into
confusion. Still the utmost that can, or could ever, I believe,
have been said in its praise, might be comprised in a few words.
The streets are open, and many of the houses large; but I saw
nothing to rouse the idea of elegance or grandeur, if I except the
circus where the king and prince royal reside.
The palace, which was consumed about two years ago, must have been a
handsome, spacious building; the stone-work is still standing, and a
great number of the poor, during the late fire, took refuge in its
ruins till they could find some other abode. Beds were thrown on
the landing-places of the grand staircase, where whole families
crept from the cold, and every little nook is boarded up as a
retreat for some poor creatures deprived of their home. At present
a roof may be sufficient to shelter them from the night air; but as
the season advances, the extent of the calamity will be more
severely felt, I fear, though the exertions on the part of
Government are very considerable. Private charity has also, no
doubt, done much to alleviate the misery which obtrudes itself at
every turn; still, public spirit appears to me to be hardly alive
here. Had it existed, the conflagration might have been smothered
in the beginning, as it was at last, by tearing down several houses
before the flames had reached them. To this the inhabitants would
not consent; and the prince royal not having sufficient energy of
character to know when he ought to be absolute, calmly let them
pursue their own course, till the whole city seemed to be threatened
with destruction. Adhering, with puerile scrupulosity, to the law
which he has imposed on himself, of acting exactly right, he did
wrong by idly lamenting whilst he marked the progress of a mischief
that one decided step would have stopped. He was afterwards obliged
to resort to violent measures; but then, who could blame him? And,
to avoid censure, what sacrifices are not made by weak minds?
A gentleman who was a witness of the scene assured me, likewise,
that if the people of property had taken half as much pains to
extinguish the fire as to preserve their valuables and furniture, it
would soon have been got under. But they who were not immediately
in danger did not exert themselves sufficiently, till fear, like an
electrical shock, roused all the inhabitants to a sense of the
general evil. Even the fire-engines were out of order, though the
burning of the palace ought to have admonished them of the necessity
of keeping them in constant repair. But this kind of indolence
respecting what does not immediately concern them seems to
characterise the Danes. A sluggish concentration in themselves
makes them so careful to preserve their property, that they will not
venture on any enterprise to increase it in which there is a shadow
of hazard.
Considering Copenhagen as the capital of Denmark and Norway, I was
surprised not to see so much industry or taste as in Christiania.
Indeed, from everything I have had an opportunity of observing, the
Danes are the people who have made the fewest sacrifices to the
graces.
The men of business are domestic tyrants, coldly immersed in their
own affairs, and so ignorant of the state of other countries, that
they dogmatically assert that Denmark is the happiest country in the
world; the Prince Royal the best of all possible princes; and Count
Bernstorff the wisest of ministers.
As for the women, they are simply notable housewives; without
accomplishments or any of the charms that adorn more advanced social
life. This total ignorance may enable them to save something in
their kitchens, but it is far from rendering them better parents.
On the contrary, the children are spoiled, as they usually are when
left to the care of weak, indulgent mothers, who having no principle
of action to regulate their feelings, become the slaves of infants,
enfeebling both body and mind by false tenderness.
I am, perhaps, a little prejudiced, as I write from the impression
of the moment; for I have been tormented to-day by the presence of
unruly children, and made angry by some invectives thrown out
against the maternal character of the unfortunate Matilda. She was
censured, with the most cruel insinuation, for her management of her
son, though, from what I could gather, she gave proofs of good sense
as well as tenderness in her attention to him. She used to bathe
him herself every morning; insisted on his being loosely clad; and
would not permit his attendants to injure his digestion by humouring
his appetite. She was equally careful to prevent his acquiring
haughty airs, and playing the tyrant in leading-strings. The Queen
Dowager would not permit her to suckle him; but the next child being
a daughter, and not the Heir-Apparent of the Crown, less opposition
was made to her discharging the duty of a mother.
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