BOOK.
V I I .
propofal; and, placing herfelf in the poftilion’s feat, drove
• off at full fpeed, governing the horfes in fuch a flrilful manner,
that ihe foon quieted my apprehenfions, and we arrived
at the end of the poft without the flighted alarm ; nor was
1 for the future in the lead apprehenfive of trufting rnyfelf
to the guidance of a Swedifh country girl.
I palled the night at Hunnaryd in a peafant’s cottage, and
fat off early in the morning ; but had not proceeded far before
1 was obliged to flop at Giflavy, to repair a wheel o f my
carriage: the place contained but one fmith, and he had
lately become blind ; and as none o f the wheels in the'village
would fit the axle-tree, 1 purchafed a new axle-tree and
four wheels, for thefum o f f i . r 6s. upon which the body
o f my cart being placed, I proceeded on my journey. A little
beyond Giflavy, 1 eroded a rivulet near an iron foundery.
The native ore is procured in fmall round pieces, about the
fize of pea-ihot, from the bottom o f a neighbouring lake,
and forged into excellent iron.
Soon afterwards, 1 quitted the mountainous diftridt, and
defcended gradually into a fandy plain,diveriified with woods,
lakes, and corn-fields. About feven miles from Vernamo,
where I took my ftation for the night, 1 again came into
a hilly country, and advanced to Wexio, a town feated
upon the banks o f a pleafant lake, which contained,a group
o f woody iflands. The town, though a bilhop’s fee, is exceedingly
fmall : the houfes are, moitly con fir acted with
wood ; the inhabitants chiefly fubfift by the traffick in cattle,
that graze in the luxuriant paftures,~with which the intervals
o f the moil barren mountains and extenfive forefls are occa-
fionally enriched.
As, in the courfe of this route I conftantly took m y repaft
during the day, and palled every night in the cottages, 1 had
frequent
frequent opportunities o f obferving the cufioms, manners, chai>.
and food of the peafants. Upon entering a cottage, I ufually ■ X~ •
found all the family employed in carding flax, fpinning
thread, and in weaving coarfe linen, and fometimes cloth.
The peafants are excellent contrivers, and apply the coarfeft
materials to fome ufefnl purpofe. They twift ropes from
fwines’ briftles, horfes’ manes, and bark of trees, and ufe
eel-fkins for bridles. Their food principally confifls o f falted
fleili-and'filft, eggs, milk, and hard bread. At Michaelmas
they ufually kill their Cattle, and fait' them for the enfuing
Winter and Spring. Twice in the year they bake their bread
in large round cakes, which are ftrung upon flies o f flicks,
and fufpended clofe to the cielings of the cottages. They are
fo hard as to be occaflonally broken with a hatchet, but are
not unpleafant. T h e peafants ufe beer for their common ,
drink, and are much addidied to malt fpirits. In the dif-
tridfs towards the weftern coafts, and at no great diftance inland,
tea and coffee are not unufnally found in the Swedifh
cottages, which are procured in great plenty, and at a cheap .
rate, from Gotheborg.
■ The peafants are well clad in ftrong cloth of their own
weaving.; Their cottages, though built with wood, and only
o f one ftory, are comfortable and commodious. The room
in which the family fleep is provided with ranges o f beds in
tiers (if 1 may fo exprefs myfelf), one above" the other :
upon the wooden tellers of the'beds in which the women
lie-are placed others for the reception o f the men, to which
tliey-afcend by meads of ladders.
To a perfon who has juft quitted Germany, and been ac-
cuftomed to tolerable inns, the Swedifh cottages may perhaps
appear miferable hovels; to me, who had been long ufed to
places