The sea was
boisterous, but, as I had an experienced pilot, I did not apprehend any
danger. Sometimes, I was told, boats are driven far out and lost.
However, I seldom calculate chances so nicely—sufficient for the day is the
obvious evil!
We had to steer
amongst islands and huge rocks, rarely losing sight of the shore, though it now
and then appeared only a mist that bordered the water’s edge. The pilot
assured me that the numerous harbours on the Norway
coast were very safe, and the pilot-boats were always on the watch. The
Swedish side is very dangerous, I am also informed; and the help of experience
is not often at hand to enable strange vessels to steer clear of the rocks,
which lurk below the water close to the shore.
There are no tides
here, nor in the Cattegate,
and, what appeared to me a consequence, no sandy beach. Perhaps this
observation has been made before; but it did not occur to me till I saw the
waves continually beating against the bare rocks, without ever receding to leave
a sediment to harden.
The wind was fair,
till we had to tack about in order to enter Laurvig,
where we arrived towards three o’clock in the afternoon. It is a clean,
pleasant town, with a considerable iron-work, which gives life to it.
As the Norwegians do
not frequently see travellers, they are very curious
to know their business, and who they are—so curious, that I was half tempted to
adopt Dr. Franklin’s plan, when travelling in America, where they are equally
prying, which was to write on a paper, for public inspection, my name, from
whence I came, where I was going, and what was my business. But if I were
importuned by their curiosity, their friendly gestures gratified me. A
woman coming alone interested them. And I know not whether my weariness gave
me a look of peculiar delicacy, but they approached to assist me, and inquire
after my wants, as if they were afraid to hurt, and wished to protect me.
The sympathy I inspired, thus dropping down from the clouds in a strange land,
affected me more than it would have done had not my spirits been harassed by
various causes—by much thinking—musing almost to madness—and even by a sort of
weak melancholy that hung about my heart at parting with my daughter for the
first time.
You know that, as a
female, I am particularly attached to her; I feel more than a mother’s fondness
and anxiety when I reflect on the dependent and oppressed state of her
sex. I dread lest she should be forced to sacrifice her heart to her
principles, or principles to her heart. With trembling hand I shall
cultivate sensibility and cherish delicacy of sentiment, lest, whilst I lend
fresh blushes to the rose, I sharpen the thorns that will wound the breast I would fain guard; I dread to unfold her mind, lest it should
render her unfit for the world she is to inhabit. Hapless woman! what a fate is thine!
But whither am I
wandering? I only meant to tell you that the impression the kindness of
the simple people made visible on my countenance increased my sensibility to a
painful degree. I wished to have had a room to myself, for their
attention, and rather distressing observation, embarrassed me extremely.
Yet, as they would bring me eggs, and make my coffee, I found I could not leave
them without hurting their feelings of hospitality.
It is customary here
for the host and hostess to welcome their guests as master and mistress of the
house.
My clothes, in their
turn, attracted the attention of the females, and I could not help thinking of
the foolish vanity which makes many women so proud of
the observation of strangers as to take wonder very gratuitously for
admiration. This error they are very apt to fall into when, arrived in a
foreign country, the populace stare at them as they pass. Yet the make of
a cap or the singularity of a gown is often the cause of the flattering
attention which afterwards supports a fantastic superstructure of self-conceit.
Not having brought a
carriage over with me, expecting to have met a person where I landed, who was
immediately to have procured me one, I was detained whilst the good people of
the inn sent round to all their acquaintance to search for a vehicle. A
rude sort of cabriole was at last found, and a driver half drunk, who was not
less eager to make a good bargain on that account. I had a Danish captain
of a ship and his mate with me; the former was to ride on horseback, at which
he was not very expert, and the latter to partake of my seat. The driver
mounted behind to guide the horses and flourish the whip over our shoulders; he
would not suffer the reins out of his own hands. There was something so
grotesque in our appearance that I could not avoid shrinking into myself when I
saw a gentleman-like man in the group which crowded round the door to observe
us. I could have broken the driver’s whip for cracking to call the women
and children together, but seeing a significant smile on the face, I had before
remarked, I burst into a laugh to allow him to do so too,
and away we flew. This is not a flourish of the pen, for we actually went
on full gallop a long time, the horses being very good; indeed, I have never
met with better, if so good, post-horses as in Norway. They are of a
stouter make than the English horses, appear to be well fed, and are not easily
tired.
I had to pass over, I
was informed, the most fertile and best cultivated tract of country in
Norway. The distance was three Norwegian miles, which are longer than the
Swedish. The roads were very good; the farmers are obliged to repair
them; and we scampered through a great extent of country in a more improved
state than any I had viewed since I left England. Still there was
sufficient of hills, dales, and rocks to prevent the idea of a plain from
entering the head, or even of such scenery as England
and France afford. The prospects were also embellished by water, rivers,
and lakes before the sea proudly claimed my regard, and the road running
frequently through lofty groves rendered the landscapes beautiful, though they
were not so romantic as those I had lately seen with
such delight.
It was late when I
reached Tonsberg, and I was glad to go to bed at a
decent inn. The next morning the 17th of July, conversing with the
gentleman with whom I had business to transact, I found that I should be
detained at Tonsberg three weeks, and I lamented that
I had not brought my child with me.
The inn was quiet,
and my room so pleasant, commanding a view of the sea, confined by an
amphitheatre of hanging woods, that I wished to remain there, though no one in
the house could speak English or French. The mayor, my friend, however,
sent a young woman to me who spoke a little English, and she agreed to call on
me twice a day to receive my orders and translate them to my hostess.
My not understanding
the language was an excellent pretext for dining alone, which I prevailed on
them to let me do at a late hour, for the early dinners in Sweden had entirely
deranged my day. I could not alter it there without disturbing the
economy of a family where I was as a visitor, necessity having forced me to accept
of an invitation from a private family, the lodgings were so incommodious.
Amongst the
Norwegians I had the arrangement of my own time, and I determined to regulate
it in such a manner that I might enjoy as much of their sweet summer as I
possibly could; short, it is true, but “passing sweet.”
I never endured a
winter in this rude clime, consequently it was not the contrast, but the real
beauty of the season which made the present summer appear to me the finest I
had ever seen. Sheltered from the north and eastern winds, nothing can
exceed the salubrity, the soft freshness of the
western gales. In the evening they also die away; the aspen leaves
tremble into stillness, and reposing nature seems to be warmed by the moon,
which here assumes a genial aspect. And if a light shower has chanced to
fall with the sun, the juniper, the underwood of the
forest, exhales a wild perfume, mixed with a thousand nameless sweets that,
soothing the heart, leave images in the memory which the imagination will ever
hold dear.
Nature is the nurse
of sentiment, the true source of taste; yet what misery, as well as rapture, is
produced by a quick perception of the beautiful and sublime when it is
exercised in observing animated nature, when every beauteous feeling and
emotion excites responsive sympathy, and the harmonised
soul sinks into melancholy or rises to ecstasy, just as the chords are touched,
like the Æolian harp agitated by the changing
wind. But how dangerous is it to foster these sentiments in such an
imperfect state of existence, and how difficult to eradicate them when an affection for mankind, a passion for an individual, is
but the unfolding of that love which embraces all that is great and beautiful!
When a warm heart has
received strong impressions, they are not to be effaced. Emotions become
sentiments, and the imagination renders even transient sensations permanent by
fondly retracing them. I cannot, without a thrill of delight, recollect
views I have seen, which are not to be forgotten, nor
looks I have felt in every nerve, which I shall never more meet. The
grave has closed over a dear friend, the friend of my youth. Still she is
present with me, and I hear her soft voice warbling as I stray over the
heath. Fate has separated me from another, the fire of whose eyes,
tempered by infantine tenderness, still warms my breast; even when gazing on
these tremendous cliffs sublime emotions absorb my soul. And, smile not,
if I add that the rosy tint of morning reminds me of a suffusion which will
never more charm my senses, unless it reappears on the cheeks of my
child. Her sweet blushes I may yet hide in my bosom, and she is still too
young to ask why starts the tear so near akin to pleasure and
pain.
I cannot write any
more at present. To-morrow we will talk of Tonsberg.