Band 
Volume the sixth.
Seite
363
JPEG-Download
 

coke’s travels in Norway . 363

Enkelfon defcribed Charles as tall and thin; his hair fhort, thick, and curling, withan animated countenance. He (hewed us a wooden chair, in which Charles was fitting^hen he was fhot. The old man recollected to have feen the King three times, oncew particular in Frederidhall. Sitting at the window of a houfe inhabited by one ofthe magiftrates, he obferved Charles in the oppofite houfe. While the batteries fromthe citadel were firing heavily at the enemy’s trenches, a young woman, who was look-ing at the King from one of the windows of the magiftrate’s houfe, chanced to drop ating into the ftreet. Charles taking notice of her, faid, “ Madam, do the guns of thisplace always make fuch an uproar ?” “ Never,” returned the girl, “ but when we arehonoured with fuch illuftrious vifitors as Your Majelty.” The King was much pleafedtvith the anfwer, and ordered one of his foldiers to take up the ring and return it.

The village of Tiftedal is fituated three miles from Frederidhall, on a beautiful cata-TaQ; of the Tifte, which precipitates itfelf in continued but irregular falls, and turns fe-veralfaw-millsthat form pidurefque objeds, as they impend over the torrent. Abovethe village is a villa called Vake, from which we commanded a delightful profpect. To-wards the inland parts, a finall lake beautifully fringed with pafture and wood; below,the Tifte forming a feries of cataracts, then winding through a fmall valley and betweentwo ridges of rocks, (haded with pines and underwood ; the bay qf the fea fprinlded^'ith rocky iflands ; the town of Frederidhall and itscaftle towering on the fummit of aPerpendicular rock clofing the view.

Fredericsftadt, diftant from Fredericfhall four Norwegian, or nearly twenty-fix Eng-lish miles, (lands on the river Glomme, is the mod regular fortrefs in this part of Nor-way , and contains an arfenal amply fupplied with arms for the militia, in cafe of a rup-ture with Sweden . It \vas built in 1567, by Frederic the Second, ftrengthened by Fre-deric the Third, and fince gradually enlarged and fortified according to the modernfyftem. The ramparts inc-lofe a circumference of three quarters of a mile, and thepopulation of tpe town, including the two fuburbs, amounts to no more than eight hun-dred fouls. A few years ago, the town was confumed by fire, and the houfes areSoftly new. Clofe to Fredericsftadt is the new fortrefs of Kongfteen, on a rocky emi-nence, capable'of containing a garrifon of three hundred men ; feveral convicts are herecondemned to hard labour. The greateft offenders have an iron cap, chains roundtheir arms, legs, and bodies; the chains round their arms are rivetted to a wheel-bar-Low, which is never loofened. The inhabitants export planks, and a few fmall mads."Ehe principal commerce is carried on by Meffrs. Ankers and Holt, of Chriftiana.

The Glomme is the largeft river in this part of Norway , but not navigable in anypan of its courfe from the lake Miofs to Fredericsftadt, the dream being interruptedby fuch frequent cataradls and fhoals, as in fome places render it neceffary to drag thetrees, which are floated down, over the ground. At lead fifty thouiand trees are an-nually floated to Fredericsftadt.

September 6. We ferried over the Glomme at the gates of the town, and continued°Ur journey, anxious to reach Chriftiana. The country is in general extremely fertileand agreeable, riles in gentle hills, and though rocky in many parts, is covered with arich foil, producing abundance of corn, and clothed with forefts of firs and pines, inter-mixed with oak, beech, poplar, and mountain afh. The face of the country is prettilyiprinkled with numerous lakes and rivulets, and thickly dotted with cottages, rudelythough not unpleafantly fituated on rocky eminences in the miaftof theforeft. Thde ,cottages are moftly covered with red tiles, and appeared larger and more commodiousthan thofe we had juft quitted in Sweden . They were fo fcattered over the hills, that

3 a 2 we