drawn by fo many iheep. T he more we increafed their number,
the flower was our progrefs on the journey. It was the month
o f September, and the roads, which were always either up-hill
or down hill, began to be injured by the rains. In going down
hill, we were afraid o f caufmg death and deftruélion among our
poor feeble animals, which were impelled, without power o f re-
fiftance, by the weight o f the carriage, and neither able to flop
nor to retard its motion : and when we went up hill, we often
were at a ftand when it would have been moft defirable to go
forward. The horfes, as I have faid, did not draw together. W e
were attended by five or fix peafants, who had each o f them a
horfe in our caravan ; and deeming it good policy to whip up
their neighbour’s horfes while they fpared their own, they fell
often a quarrelling, and fometimes dealt about blows among
themfelves as well as among each other’s horfes. Such a Babylon
i ih confufion is not, I believe, to be met with in any'other
part o f the world. This at leaft I know, that I never encountered
any thing fo embarraffing in any other country. One may
travel very comfortably in Sweden, they tell you, with the aid
o f a man who knows how to manage and drive the horfes ; but
where is there a peribn in the world capable o f conducing thefe
animals ? They underftand only the Swediih founds ; and the dialed!
in which they are addrefled by the peafants, is fo original,
and confifts in fo extraordinary a motion or vibration o f the lips,*
* Tpfchruu. I t is exactly by the fame found th a t the country people in Scotlan
d addrefs their horfes when they want them to flop.
that
that it is impofiible any foreign charioteer ihould be able to acquire
it in a lhorter fpace o f time than feveral weeks, or perhaps
months. T h e fame found that is ufed in Italy to quicken the
horfes’ pace, is employed in Sweden for the purpofe o f making
them h a lt : and it often happened that, when we were afcending
fome fteep hill, we uttered that or a fimilar found, to encourage
the horfes ; when, to our great difappointment, they flopped ihort
inftantaneoufly. W e then had to blame ourfelves for forgetting
the idiom o f the Swediih language, and patiently to endure the
confequence o f our miftake ; while the peaiants feemed aftoniihed
at our raihneis or folly in checking the exertion o f the horfes on
the fide o f a fteep mountain, where the weight o f the carriage
might force the animals backwards, and involve us in great danger.
A t thp lame time, when we refledled on the unfortunate
power o f habit and its effedls, in the prefent inftance, we could
not help laughing even in the midft o f peril.
Another fubjedl o f commendation among the panegyrifts o f
Swediih travelling, but equally unfounded with that o f their
praifes o f expedition, is cheapneis. I f they were to calculate
the expence o f a courier, whom you muft fend before you on the
road to befpeak horfes, i f they would confider the greater number
o f horfes to be employed on a journey in Sweden than in one
in Germany, moreover the hire o f a driver from Copenhagen, and
the expencgs o f his return home, befides the compenfation to be
made to the peafants for waiting with their horfes for the arrival
ot their employer ; were they to take all thefe things into the
V o n . T. C account,