Norway House

“ This little house, certainly not a castle, built with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build others like it, was noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance of stone, wood alone is used for all fences, even those of fields. This Swedish house, thus protected against the climate, stood on rising ground in the centre of an immense courtyard. ”

“ Habit and custom, however, are stronger than parliaments; and the mistress of a wealthy establishment is frequently designated, not by her husband’s name, but as Lady Marie, Lady Brigetta, or, as in the present case, Lady Christina—for that is the meaning of the title Frue.
[31] Not many years ago, the “summer parlour” was the only room in any house that had windows that would open.
[32] All livings in Norway have a dowager-house and farm belonging to them, for the widow of the late incumbent. At her death, it passes back to the present possessor of the living. ”

“ Norway has no inns, and Norway is said to be a place of universal hospitality, where every one is delighted to receive the wandering guest—and so every one is, and delighted to receive the wandering guest’s money also, with two or three hundred per cent. profit on the outlay. The real fact is, every house in Norway is an inn, to all intents and purposes, except the license; and in places like Christiansand, every man is his own touter. ”

“ They would make thousands of farms, and thus increase the productive industry and the revenues of the nation, if they could be cut up and sold. Royalty is an expensive luxury, which a small kingdom like Denmark cannot afford to support.
Near the entrance to the park is the garden proper of Klampenborg, where music is provided on summer evenings, and refreshments sold. What is called a Norwegian house is erected in the middle of the grounds, which contains a bar and private rooms, and is surrounded by tables and chairs, where the pleasure-seekers may sit and enjoy their beer and the music. ”

“ But neither money nor ingenuity can compass for him a normal darkness to sleep in. The Norwegian house is one-half window: in their long winters they need all the sun they can get; not an outside blind, not an inside shutter, not a dark shade, to be seen; streaming, flooding, radiating in and round about the rooms, comes the light, welcome or unwelcome, early and late. And to the words "early" and "late" there are in a Norway summer new meanings: the early light of the summer morning sets in about half-past two ”

“ It is a fine building, but with nothing remarkable about it. In the lower house, the students seated themselves in the chairs of the members, and Mr. Mapps took the speaker’s desk.
“Christiania was founded in 1624, on the site of the ancient city of Osloe, which was destroyed by fire. It is the residence of the king during his sojourn in Norway, and the new palace, which you saw on the hill, was completed for his use in 1848. The city, as you have seen, is regularly laid out, and the buildings are either of brick or stone. ”

“ It is strange that there are very few large towns in Norway; every peasant builds his house in the midst of his fields.
Beyond this hill the scenery grows more monotonous. The mountains are lower, the valley narrower, and the road is enclosed by wood or rocks. One peculiarity of Norwegian rocks is their humidity. The water penetrates through countless fissures, but only in such small quantities as to cover the stones with a kind of veil. When the sun shines on these wet surfaces of rock, of which there are many and large ones, they shine like mirrors. ”

“ It is not uncommon to see along the west coast of Norway, among the islands and upon the main-land, [Pg 85] farm-houses surrounded by a few low buildings of the rudest character, perched among rocks away up on some lofty green terrace, so high indeed as to make them seem scarcely larger than an eagle's nest. To anybody but a mountaineer these spots are positively inaccessible, and every article of subsistence, except what is raised upon the few acres of available earth surrounding the house, must be carried up thither upon men's backs, for not even a mule could climb to these regions. ”

“ The prudent traveller in Norwegian territories will always do well, if he has the chance, to choose for his residence the house of a ci-devant beauty.
Little, however, did the travellers reck of mattress or feather-bed, Madame Ullitz’s past conquests, or her daughter’s present bright eyes—a sea-voyage, four or five restless nights, a long day’s work, and a plentiful supper at the end of it, equalize all those things ”

“ He was lavish in his expenditures, built costly palaces, and introduced a rigid ceremonial at his court. The one meritorious act of his reign was the issue of a decree ordering confirmation in the Lutheran faith, and thus indirectly compelling all classes of the people to learn to read. Well-meant, but misdirected, were his efforts to encourage trade and manufactures, and positively disastrous was his decree forbidding the inhabitants of southern Norway to import grain from any other country than Denmark. [507]
CARVED LINTEL, STABBUR, OR STORE-HOUSE ”

“ There is no house in Pompeii in which a man should pause so long, or to which he should come back so often; for this is the most perfect specimen of the best age of building in the city. It is the fruit of a long age of peace, during which the people drank in thirstily the exquisite sense of beauty diffused from the Greek coast towns. ”

“ Wood is the principal building material except in some larger towns where brick and stone have superseded it. Where this is not the case, fires have left few, if any, ancient domestic buildings, but the preservation of ancient models in wooden houses makes Norwegian towns peculiarly picturesque. Norway retains a few highly interesting examples of ecclesiastical architecture. ”

“ In this as in other secluded valleys in Norway a peasant aristocracy developed, a hard, strong race, intensely proud of its family and land, looking on any one who had been less than three generations in the neighborhood as an interloper, and scorning the classes of people who were not rooted to the soil by inherited homesteads. For the Norwegian roving blood is strangely tempered by a passionate attachment to inherited land, a trait that is perhaps a salutary safeguard against the national restlessness. ”

“ There are here some neat public squares, a public park, wherein a military band plays occasionally, and half a dozen churches. There is also a theatre, royal palace, musical institute, public library, and museum; but there is hardly a trace of architectural beauty in Norway, with the exception of the cathedral at Tröndhjem, which is formed of a mixture of orders, the Norman predominating. The Church of St. Mary at Bergen is only interesting for its antiquity, dating as it does from the twelfth century. ”

“ Thus cast back on a line of dead walls, house-fronts as mean as only a fourth-rate Italian town can boast, one has no other amusement than gazing at the mountains, which in truth are beautiful enough for anyone. Very steep and high they tower above Castellammare; not brown and purple, as when I looked up at them across the broken walls of Pompeii, but clad in their true colours of green of every shade, dark and sombre where ravines are chiselled out upon the slopes, or where the pines lie wet and heavy in the morning shadow. ”

“ Far greater honor it is to be called a peasant and have the peasants say when they come together, that Högne is the foremost among them."
It is this sturdy sense of independence among peasants which makes Norwegian history unlike the history of any other country, and Norway the fountain-head of constitutional liberty in Europe. It was upon this rock that feudalism was wrecked in Norway, while it sailed triumphant down the current of history in Sweden, in Denmark, and all other European lands. ”

“ From the middle of the 17th century, however, the Dutch and English made their influence felt, and the political status of Norway could no longer be regarded as a purely Scandinavian affair. The establishment of hereditary autocracy in Denmark by Frederick III. in 1660 conferred many benefits upon Norway. Personal liberty perhaps suffered, but the Norwegian peasant remained a freeman while his counterpart in Denmark was a serf. ”

“ They passed through the throne room, the court saloon, the dining room, and other rooms, and some of them concluded that royalty was not half so splendid as they had supposed. But Norway is a poor country compared with many others [Pg 130] in Europe, and it is a pity that she ever thought it necessary to spend a million and a half of dollars in a weak attempt to imitate the grandeur of other realms. ”

“ Its rise in Norway is perhaps due to the fact that the nature of the country, as well as the individualistic system of settlement, left more scope for inequalities of wealth than in Denmark or Sweden. Once a family had become wealthy enough to fit out Viking ships, it must have added wealth to wealth, besides enormously raising its prestige. ”

“ It is the largest and most important settlement in northern Norway, being the capital of Norwegian Lapland, and having about six thousand inhabitants. It rises to the dignity of a cathedral, and is the seat of a bishopric. In the Market Place is a substantial Town Hall, and a neat though small Roman Catholic church. There is also here an excellent Museum, principally of Arctic curiosities and objects relating to the history of the Lapps and Finlanders, with a fair zoölogical department, also possessing a fine collection of Alpine minerals. ”

“ It is a great annoyance in Norway to be treated as a gentleman. The commonest lout can enjoy the cozy glow and social gossip of the kitchen or ordinary sitting-room, but the traveler whom these good people would honor must sit shivering and alone in some great barn of a room because it contains a sofa, a bureau, a looking-glass, a few mantle-piece ornaments, and an occasional picture of the king or some member of the royal family. ”

“ But in fact the example of Norway, neither in the matter of cottages nor bothies, is truly applicable to our country. In Norway the cottage is a loghouse, and costs nothing but the nails and the window-glass, while every Norwegian knows enough of loghouse-carpentry to erect a cottage for himself. With regard to the borststue, there is a necessity for it in Norway that does not exist here. The outdoor farm-work, which meets with but partial interruptions in our climate, is at an absolute standstill in Norway for six months of the year, from the severity of a protracted winter. ”

“ The western or newer half of Naples is hidden by the hill, and I have before my eyes only the densely peopled ancient city, a rabbit warren of tortuous and narrow streets, unsavoury and not too safe, yet full of interest if not of beauty, and possessing a picturesqueness which is all their own. One salient feature only arrests the eye wandering over this intricate mass of balconies and house-fronts—the handsome steeple of the Carmine, a church sorely 14 injured and defaced, but still abounding in romance. ”

“ As they are in the modern and English style, I thought I was following the footsteps of Matilda, who wished to multiply around her the images of her beloved country. I was also gratified by the sight of a Norwegian landscape in miniature, which with great propriety makes a part of the Danish King’s garden. The cottage is well imitated, and the whole has a pleasing effect, particularly so to me who love Norway—its peaceful farms and spacious wilds. ”

“ The system of settlement in Norway appears to have been different from that adopted by the same race in other lands. In Denmark, for instance, a group of as many as twenty settlers held land more or less in common, but this system, which demanded that a considerable extent of land should be readily accessible, was not feasible in the greater part of Norway, and except in one or two flatter districts each farm was owned, or at least worked, by a single family. ”

“ The industry of the Norwegian peasant is very great; for every spot of earth, even on the steepest precipices, bore potatoes, barley, or oats; their houses also look cheerful, and were painted for the most part of a brick-red colour.
I found the roads very good, especially the one from Christiania to Drammen; and the one from Drammen to Kongsberg was not very objectionable. There is such an abundance of wood in Norway, that the streets on each side are fenced by wooden enclosures ”

“ In fact, a journey by stolkjærre or carriole has all the advantages of a pedestrian tour, without the attendant fatigue.
But the greatest charm of a trip through Norway lies in the people themselves. They inherit their free, independent nature from the Vikings and Norsemen of old, and are as democratic in character as in government; they have an independent parliament, regulating everything pertaining to the affairs of the country, and are like a republic owning allegiance to Sweden. ”

“ Castellammare is a dirty and ill-odorous town. As I hurry through its crowded streets, brushed by women hawking beans and dodging others who are performing certain necessary acts of cleanliness at their house doors, I occupy myself in wondering whether there is in all southern Italy a city without smells. ”

“ While the nobility was abolished in Norway in 1814, the lines between the upper and lower classes, the wealthy and the poor, were tightly drawn and social classes were well defined. And while Norway is today the most democratic country in Europe, and Sweden and Denmark are also thoroughly liberal (in part through the influence of America and American-Scandinavians) , a titled aristocracy still exists in these countries. ”