Charles Isaac Elton

“ One passes funny little farms, numbered like toy-houses, with solemn storks on the roof; then through long beech woods, with rabbits hopping away, and sometimes past old houses of the feudal times. There are many such in Denmark, complete with moat, embrasures, and battlements, with a ditch intersecting the court, to mark the proper limits of the master’s side and the rooms of the serving-folk. ”

“ There are many other works of art here which are well known out of Denmark by reputation, especially the ivory head of Queen Helen, a horse modelled out of one piece of steel, with a fly on its leg, and various cameos and coral carvings. But the genuine antiquities are in reality the most valuable, from their scientific accuracy of arrangement and completeness.
Nobody should leave Copenhagen without driving out to the Deerpark and the Castle. ”

“ The Land’s Enders have an idea that few English and no French can catch fish at all like them, and if you want to provoke their scorn, tell them of Welsh or French conger-fishers. Foreigners, they say, they cannot abide, and by foreigners they mean especially Welsh, Irish, Manxmen, and French. Of these they hate the Welsh most, since they enter into competition with them sometimes in the mines and other rough work across the Channel. The Welsh do not like Cornish labour being brought in to reduce the price, and try to make their life a burden to them. ”

“ After we had killed our shark, the dead of the tide came on, in which very few fish bite. The bait hangs quietly at the bottom, and, even if a fish touch it, hardly moves: so that at this time of the night it requires a very practised hand to recognise the gentle vibration caused by some large fish playing with the hook. Of course, unless one does make sure somehow, and without striking hard, the fish blows the bait out of his mouth when the hook pricks him, and comes no more. ”

“ We had taken a little house about a quarter of a mile from Sennen Cove, and had tried most of the sports of the place, such as fowling, shooting, and fishing in the bay or from the rocks, but we had not yet been able to have an expedition against the larger fish, for which these waters are famous. They are only fished for at the dead tides, as they inhabit such deep water, and the currents are so strong at the edge of that branch of the Gulf stream, that it would be impossible for the leads to reach the bottom or a bite to be felt. ”

“ Those fish which hunt under the shadow of these weeds are black, those which live in the deep water (which averages forty fathoms from Land’s End to Scilly) are pale brown on the back. The people catch a good many at the entrance of bays with the “spillers,” and I have myself caught a fine fish on some spillers which we had laid down in the sandy bay for turbot and plaice.
The young congers hang about the rocks, which are bare at low tide, and in dabbling about for “whistlers and pettifoggers” one is often surprised at pulling out from his hole a vigorous young conger. ”

“ They are caught at low water, when the waves are just keeping the holes under the rocks full. You must find a rock with a free passage under it to the sea, and with a dark hole. Thrust in a withy-stick with a crab-baited hook, and you may catch a succession of these fish, who catch hold of the worsted round the bait, and if they drop off before you get your basket under them, will come again with a greedy rush to get before the small fry, which nibble the bait, such as gobies and blennies, and what they call there the toad-fish. ”

“ The country girls set themselves off with silk hoods and bright gowns, without much regard to colour. I have seen a yellow dress worn with a magenta Garibaldi, This last is the most favourite colour of all. But the costume of the fish-women is far more interesting than these modern mixtures, being the genuine old Friesland costume. ”

“ A conger, on the other hand, gives a long steady strain, occasionally, as I have said, swimming up rather faster than you are pulling. This particular Grandfather of congers, after pulling frightfully hard for a long time, came rushing up at last to the surface, and leaped about there. In the general excitement the fisherman had neglected to bring the big knife from the other end, and there was not time to get it, for our fish might give a great leap and get the hook out or break the line. ”

“ They get on much better with the Manxmen, who do not, however, mix much with their Cornish visitors; but they look with a friendly eye on the French sailors. I heard one with great pride telling how he had sold a skate, of a hundred weight, to a French ship, at a halfpenny a pound, whereas the whole fish was hardly worth bringing back to their village, being at most worth sixpence, as they do not value the London dish of crimped fins of skate. ”

“ Or is he to blame for their broken bones?
She sits in splendour like the sun,
Shining with nothing at all to do,
She expects to be worshipp’d by every one,
But she does not much care for me or for you. ”

“ Young Billy caught a ling next, a fish which is very good to eat in steaks, but is not very nice to look at: it has a very unpleasant smell, and looks like a cod-fish in a consumption and pulled out long. After this we began to catch fish in good earnest, pulling in cod, conger, and ling, till all of a sudden I felt a tremendous jerk, and began to pull up with the utmost difficulty. ”

“ Some of the peasant girls are very pretty, with pale-yellow hair, and rather long noses. We noticed several faces not at all unlike the Princess of Wales. I may say that all the Royal Family have a peculiarly Danish set of features, though German would have been natural, considering their family. ”

“ I was taking tickets for Kiel, when the kind little Danish guard recommended all who were for Copenhagen (pronounced Shöbnhafn very quickly) to take through tickets, and by starting at five p.m. to arrive at half-past ten next morning. I recommend this plan to all visitors of Denmark. The search of luggage at the custom-house before leaving Altona would not be worthy of notice were there not such a great difference in the treatment of English or Germans and Danes by the officials. ”

“ The road lies along the shore of the Baltic, and commands a striking view of the neighbouring coast of Sweden and the Islands, especially the little one on which are the ruins of Tycho Brahe’s observatory, Each house has a pretty little bathing-machine built in the water, and approached by a long plank and rail, in which ladies can bathe unseen, or gentlemen dress and undress. ”

“ I have seen these frontlets most expensively ornamented with jewels; but this was in Friesland itself, where the farmers are very much richer than our friends the “Amagers,” who must be content with gilt or electro-plate. They are no exception to the rule, that the peasants like warm, bright colours. Sometimes their costume is finished off by a scarlet gown and a lace-fringed tippet, or a flowered jacket of a stuff like chintz, with a green or yellow bodice. On ordinary days they are, of course, clothed in duller and dirtier garments. ”

“ Servants, in white aprons and pretty caps, are flirting with soldiers in pale-blue uniform, who all sadly want an application of the regimental razor, and who, in the absence of policemen, monopolise the affections of nurse and cook. ”

“ The best of the Museums is that of Northern Antiquities, open to the public three times a week. There are always some professors at hand, ready to explain everything, and allow the curiosities to be handled! ”

“ Some of the soldiers are fine stalwart fellows, and all look very intelligent; in fact, the lower order of Danes will bear comparison with that of any other country for strength of body and brightness of mind. A Somersetshire peasant would not generally have much chance of success in a village, such as we have all over Denmark, where every one can read and write, and owns a house and plot of land, It is Mr. ”

“ Be that as it may, there are many legends about the Jews among the people, which may be accounted for by the fact that the Jews in early English times certainly flocked here to trade in the tin and copper. ”