C H ‘ A P. VI.
Departure from Stockholm.— Dejcription o f Upfala.'— Anti-
ent palace.— Catajlrophe o f the'Sthre family.— Madnefs o f
Eric XIV.— Cathedral.— fomb and cbaradkr o/Gufiavus
Vafa.— Genealogical table o f the kings of Sweden his defen
d an ts.— fomb of John III.— Catharine Jaghellon.—
Benedict Oxenfiiern.— Laurentius Petri.— ■Account of the
univerjity.— Publick Library.— Codex Argenteus.— Vifit
to profejfor Bergman.— Royal Society.—-Moraiteen anti'ent
place o f enthronement fo r the kings o f Sweden.
b o o k A L TH O U G H my Hay in Sweden was limited, I was
i - h \ - unwilling to quit the country without viliting Gothe-
borg, the molt commercial town next to Stockholm, and
viewing the canal o f Trolhsetta, which had been reprefented
to me as a molt ftupendous work. My companions preferring
to fee the mines o f Fahlun and Danamora, I quitted
them at Stockholm, and rejoined them at Carlfcrona. Having
purchafed an open cart, the common travelling vehicle in
this country, which was rendered more commodious by two
arm chairs hung upon fprings, I fat out early on the 4th of
March,accompanied by aSwedifh fervant, who fpoke French,
as my interpreter; and arrived the fame day at Upfala,
which is diftant about 45 miles from the capital.
Upfala, which Hands in the beginning o f an open plain
fertile in grain and pafture, is a fmall, but very neat town,
containing,exclufive o f the itudents,about 3000 inhabitants.
The ground plot is extremely regular: it is divided into two
afmoft ,equal parts by a fmall rivulet; and the fifeets are
drawn
drawn' at right angles from a central kind o f fquare ; a few CHAP-
of the houfes are built with brick and fluccoed, but the ge- ■ ^I- ■
nerality are conflrudted- with trunks, fmoothed into the lhape
of planks, and painted red, and the roofs are-covered in with
turf. Eacn houle has its fmall court-yard, or garden.
Old Upfala, which is a place o f high antiquity, and occurs
in the earliefi accounts o f thefe Northern countries, is'
fuppofed to-have ltood at a fmall difiance-from that which
now bears thefame name;-'and’was much celebrated as the
principal place of facrifiee'in times-of Pagan fuperfiition,and‘
the refidence o f the high-priefi o f Oden*. The prefent
town, or New Upfala, is far anterior to-the foundation of'
Stockholm : no authentick records, indeed, afcertain the ex-
a£t time o f its-origin ; but feveral Swediih antiquaries have'
with much probability conjedtured, that it was at firfi a'
fuburb o f Old Upfala, and rofe upon its ruins when that town!
became deferred, and fell into decay f.
Upfala was formerly the metropolis o f Sweden, and the’
royal refidence. The antient palace was begun in 1549 +’
by Gufiavus Vafa,. and completed by. Eric XIV. It was a
fpacious and magnificent' building',- until great part o f it was:
confirmed by fire in 1702. The remains'which Hand upoir
an elevated fite, and command. a- fine profpeft of the adjacent-
country, confifi of a wing, a fmall part o f another, and the-
principal front, which has been repaired, and'is covered with
a red flucco.. An-old entrance, vafi mafles-of ruins, arches,,
vaults, and large piles of1 brick and mortar, are evident traces
of its antient’ fplendour. - - The room in which the diet o f
Sweden ufed to affemble is now con verted.into a granary,
and affords no other proofs' of its former importance than it3.
Snorro Stnrlenlis K i f l . -R c g . N .,n v e g . + Pcrinik ioid i U r.£,la N o v a .t
'■<>1. 1. c . 76. Bah!ii\’s G e ich ich te V o n t Jbid.• p a i r . .
Sw ed en ,.V o l.J . jU u a .
E e e 2-