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TRAVELS IN DENMARK.

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vvere deprived of the honour of paying ourrefpects to the Prince Royal, as he was atthat time indifpofed. During our itay at Copenhagen there were only two public meet-ings at court : the company affembled at fix in the evening. At one of thefe meet-ings was a concert, in which a Danifli tranflation of Pergolefi’s Stahat Mater, with theoriginal mufic, was performed. The King afterwards i’at down to Loo with the QueenDowager, Prince Frederic, Princefs Sophia, Count Bernfdorff the prime minifler, andthe Prufiian ambaflador.

As our Itay at Copenhagen was fhort, and principally during pafiion week, which thenatives obferve with great Ilriritnefs, we had not many opportunities of experiencingthe hofpitality of the Danifli nobility ; though they wefe much inclined to honour uswith all thofp marks of attention and civility which are ufually paid to [Dangers. Amongother inftances of politenefs, we received an invitation to an affembly and flipper fromCount Moick, who was favourite and prime minifler to Frederic V. The Count’shoufe, which (lands in the odtagon, is a magnificent building fuperbly fmiihed. liepoffelTes feveral fine pictures ; his collection of fofiils, (hells, minerals, and petrifadions,tleferves the notice of the naturalift : it is particularly rich in native productions ofDenmark , exhibiting many fine fpecimens of the gold, fiver and copper mines, fromNorway, and of lava from Mount Hecla in Iceland .

Among the mod curious collections in Copenhagen , the Royal Mufeum, or Cabinetof Rarities, merits the firft place. This coliedion, which was begun by Frederic III.is depofited in eight apartments, and ranged in the following order: animals, (hells,minerals, paintings, antiquities, medals, dreffes, arms and implements of the Laplanders .The (hort time which I employed in examining thefe apartments did not permit me totake a minute and accurate account of the principal curiofities, which the reader willfind deferibed in Mufeum Regium Jacobcei.

Part of Copenhagen , which is called Chriftianfhafen, is built on the Ifle of Amak,■which generally attrads the curiofity of foreigners. Amak is four miles long, andtwo broad, and is chiefly peopled by the descendants'of a colony from EaftFrielland, towhom the ifland was configned by Chriftian II. at the requeft of his wife Elizabeth,filler of Charles V. for the purpofe of fupplying her with vegetables, cheefe, and butter.Prom the intermarriages of thefe colonifts with the Danes, the prefent inhabitants arechiefly defeended; but as they wear their own drefs, and enjoy peculiar privileges,they appear a diftind race from the natives. The ifland contains fix villages, and be-tween three and four thoufand fouls ; it has two churches, in which the minifters preachoccafionally in Dutch and Danifn. The inhabitants have their own inferior tribunals ;hut in capital offences are amenable to the King’s court of juftice at Copenhagen .Phe old national habit, brought by the original colony when they firft migrated to theJfland, is dill in ufe among them ; it refembles the drefs of the ancient quakers , as ve-prefented in the pidures of the Dutch and Flemifh painters. The men wear broad-brimmed hats, black jackets, full glazed breeches of the' fame colour, loofe at theknees, and tied round the waift. The women were dreffed chiefly in black jackets andred petticoats, with a piece of blue glazed cloth bound on their heads. The ifland islaid out in gardens and padures, and, according to the original defign, fupplies Copen-hagen with milk, butter and vegetables.

During our fecond vifit to Copenhagen , in July 1784, we experienced great civilitya ud repeated inftances of hofpitality from the Danifli nobility. Among others we hadfite honour of dining feveral times with the prime minifler, Count Bernfdorf *, at his

villa,

* Since deceafed.

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