a very splendid side-board made in London, I do not recollect to have
seen one in Sweden, even in the houses of men of the first rank The
rooms are not provided with bells. This I am told is owing to the extreme
cheapness of servants in Sweden, which enabled every person to
keep such a number as rendered bells unnecessary. This reason, which
Ldo not consider as a very good one, exists not at present, for since
tiie loss o f Finland the wages o f servants have considerably increased.
therefore, might now be introduced with the greatest propriety;
and to a foreigner, from Britain at least, they would constitute a great
convenience. I have sometimes been obliged to go three times to the
kitchen during the course of my breakfast, to ask for things that had
been neglected or forgotten by the servants. '
The Swedes are'fond o f great parties.. 1 have more than once sat
down to table with nearly 50 people in a private house. The hour of
dinner is-two o’clock. After the company are assembled they are
shown into a room adjoining the dining-room. In the middle of this
room there is a round table covered with a table-cloth, upon which are
placed bread, cheese, butter, and corn-brandy. Every person eats a
morsel o f bread and cheese and butter, and drinks a dram of brandy, by
way o f exciting the appetite'for dinner. There are usually two kinds
o f bread; namely, wheat-bread baked into a kind of small rolls, for I
never saw any loaves in Sweden ; and rye, which is usually baked in
thin cakes, and is known in Sweden by the name of nichebroed. It is
very palatable but requires good teeth to chew it.
After this whet, the company are shown into the dining-room, and
take their -seats round the table. The first dish brought in is salma-
gundy, salt fish, a mixture o f salmon and rice, sausages, or some such
strong seasoned article, to give an additional whet to the appetite It is
handed round the table, and every person helps himself in succession
to as much of it as he chooses. The next dish is commonly roasted or
stewed mutton, with bacon ham. These articles are carved by some
individual at table, most commonly the master o f the house, and the
carved pieces being heaped upon a plate are carried round the company
like the first dish. The Swedes like the French eat of every thing that
is presented at table. The third dish is usually soup, then fowls, then
fish (generally salmon, pike, or streamlings), then pudding, then the
dessert, which consists of a great profusion of sweet-meats, in the preparation
of which the inhabitants o f Gottenburg excel. Each o f these
dishes is handed about in" succession. The vegetables, consisting o f
potatoes, carrots, turnips, cauliflowers, greens, &c. are handed about in
the same way. During the whole time of dinner a great deal o f wine
is drunk by the company. The wines are claret, port, sherry, and
madeira. What they call claret at Gottenburg does not seem to be
Bourdeaux wine. It is a French wine with a taste intermediate between
claret and port. A t Stockholm I drank occasionally true claret;
but scarcely in any other part of Sweden. As all the wine used in
Sweden is imported from Great Britain, our wine merchants can probably
explain this circumstance though I cannot.
The Swedes employ the same articles for seasoning their food as we
do, salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, &c. I was struck with one peculiarity
which I had never seen before: they always mix together
mustard and sugar: I had the curiosity to try this mixture, and found
it not bad. The dinner usually lasts about two hours. On a signal
given the company all rise together, bow with much solemnity towards
the table, or rather towards each other, and then adjourn into
the drawing-room. Here a cup o f coffee is served up immediately to
every individual. It is but doing the Swedes justice to say that their
coffee is excellent, greatly preferable to what is usually drunk in England.
This is the more remarkable because the Swedes import all their
coffee from Britain: its quality, therefore, is not different from that of
our own, and its superiority owing solely to their understanding 'better
how to make it. You can get coffee in the meanest peasant’s house,
and it is always excellent. It is usually about five o’clock when coffee
is over. The company separate at . this time, either going home to
their own houses,: or sauntering about in the fields i f the weather
be good.
They collect again in the drawing-room about half past six to drink
tea. .Swedish tea is just as bad as their coffee is good. I f an epicure