land Rage-coaches are found in all directions, io that you may
with eafe travel to whatever quarter your inclination or bufinefs
calls you. Even where there are navigable rivers and canals, thefe
carriages abound at every hour o f night and day. As to the companion
which the advocate o f the North draws between the inns
o f Sweden and thofe o f Italy, I fliall not difcufs its truth or falfe-
hood, as I might be fufpe&ed o f partiality for the latter, which is
my native country. I fliall only obferve, that between Helfin-
burg and Stockholm, a diflance o f near four hundred miles,*
nothing that can be confidered as an inn is to be met with :
whereas there is no part o f Italy where, in the fame fpace, you
would not come to fifty towns, in neatnefs and elegance, and
every comfort o f life, equal if not fuperior even to the capital
o f Sweden; that in Italy, the South perhaps excepted, it is im-
poflible to travel twenty miles without meeting with an inn, whilfl
there is not fo much as one to be found in Stockholm itfelf; that
a fmall village in Italy is better provided With all the neceflaries
and conveniencies o f life, than the moft eminent provincial towns
o f Sweden : in fliort, I fliall anfwer the Swediih author to whom
I allude in his own words: “ I f any one wiih to travel through
“ Sweden with tolerable eafe, he will do well to provide himfelf
*‘ with a carriage, as well as with bread and wine, and other provi-
“ fions,” which precautions are certainly quite unneceflary in Ita ly .f
* Italian or Engliih, which are nearly the fame.
f T h e fame Swediih writer fays, “ tha t if Don Quixote miftook all the inns
.t tig met with for cattles, in Sweden he would have miftaken all the houles for
“ inns.” T h e re is not any country however with which I am acquainted, where
the houfes have lefs the appearance o f inns than in Sweden.
Further, a country in which you are obliged to lay afide your
own carriage, and to fubflitute one which is finaller and lefs
convenient, cannot be laid to be well adapted to the purpofe o f
travelling : yet this is the cafe in Sweden, where you mufl be
prepared to encounter this and many other dilagreeable circum-
Aances.
T h e horfes are fmall and weak, and their deficiency in fize
and Rrength is to be made up by increafe o f number. This multiplication
is attended with a world o f trouble. It is not in an
inAant that fo many horfes can be put to the carriage; the chance
is increafed that fomething or other will be wanting, fomething
wrong or out o f order in the hamefs; there is alfo more difficulty
in bringing the horfes to draw and keep pace with each
other. AH thefe impediments taken together, occafion a eorili-
derable lois o f time. You are flopped at every turn, and the e x pedition
o f travelling in Sweden, compared with that o f France
and England, is found to be a mere fable. Among the feven or
eight horfes that you are obliged to ufe, you have always to apprehend
that feme one may turn out refiive ; and the bad example
o f one will fpoil all the refl. I travelled from Helfingburg
to Stockholm, by the way o f Gothenburg, together with one o f
my countrymen in a viennaiji; but inflead o f three horfes, as
in Germany, we were forced to increafe our number, till it
amounted to feven. T he horfes were put to the carriage four
a-breafl in the firfl line, and three in the fecond. They were
fo little, lean, and feeble, that it feemed as i f our vehicle were
drawn