enough to hold all our party. Befides, it is an eftabliihed cuilom,
and generally followed by every traveller throughout the Swedifh
dominions, the great road excepted, to go dire&ly to the clergyman’s
houfe, and to aik for a chamber to lodge in, with the fame
freedom as you would ufe at an in n ; for the public houfes kept
by the peafants are fo very bad, that it is impoffible for decent
company to it ay in them. The clergy, who, for the moil part, are
wealthy, and wearied with the dull uniformity o f living in thofe
fequeilered regions, cut off from all fociety, are extremely happy
to receive a llranger who is acquainted with what is palling in
the world, and with whom they may converie o f public and o f
private tran fa ¿lions. He is entertained in a fuperior ilyle, and
treated with the moil delicious fare they can procure.
T he clergy almoil univerfally fpeak Latin, fome few German,
and as they have had a college education, you find one now and
then who fpeaks a little French : with the help o f thefe languages
you make yourfelf underilood by the mailer o f the family, but one
fuffers a vail difadvantage in not being able to Ipeak, in fome degree,
the language o f the country. In the houfes o f the clergy you
fometimes meet with extremely handfome and amiable young
ladies, who having for the greateil part been educated in a town,
or amidil the pleafures and diffipation o f the capital, return home
with a certain poliih in their manners, which is by no means calculated
to render folitude pleafing, or to diipofe their minds to fup-
port the contrail, and fudden change o f fituations, with philofophi-
cal equanimity. Thefe young women, however, like their mothers,
ipeak
fpeak in general only their native tongue ; and yet nothing can bè
more agreeable to them than the arrival o f a traveller, and, above
all, a young ilranger o f good appearance, who can one way or
another make them underiland him. His faults in fpeaking feem
to be as many graces o f ipeech, his ideas are always applauded as
original, conilantly found entertaining, and either at once underilood
or gueiTed. The more diilant the country from which he
comes, the more intereiling is his perfon ; they contemplate his
face', furvey him from head to foot ; are unable to reitrain a fmile
o f pleafure in feeing him, and in hearing him fpeak: the gayety
of the family diifufes itfelf from the faces o f the mailers to thofe
o f the fervants, and even defcends to the cat and dog, which, on
his account, dine and fup better than ufual. As they are at a
lofs to diilinguiih between a pleafant and cheerful entertainment,
and that o f a ufelefs and troublefome profufion ; in order to mark
their perfeél good will to oblige you, they almoil fuffocate you
with tea, coffee, chocolate, liqueurs, punch, and drink o f all kinds,
which fucceed one another, in contempt o f all order, with an op-
prefiive rapidity. T he moment of departure is always melancholy
: you fancy it impoffible to quit a houfe where you are thè
objedl of fuch unwearied attention and politenefs. Sometimes the
young ladies will make ufe o f fome ilratagem in order to detain
you ; and I will honeilly confefs, that I have occafionally got into
the carriage when my heart was well diipofed to remain.
Such was the unbounded hofpitality we experienced in the
houfe o f the reverend Mr. Swamberg. His daughters were pretty,
lively,