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ART. III. Notes on the University of Christiania. By James 

 F. W. Johnston, A.M. 



The city of Christiania has been too much praised. In itself it 

 has nothing to repay the traveller for the fatigue of an hour's stroll 

 through its streets. I do not remember a single building, — the 

 castle excepted ; for all castles derive from association a kind of 

 interest which does not attach to mere architectural magnificence, — 

 except this one I do not recollect any building in CJiristiania which 

 would be worth visiting in any other city. But all cities are judg- 

 ed of by the country in which they are situated, and by the cir- 

 cumstances under which they are seen. The houses are all of stone, 

 and this is grandeur enough in Norway. My first impressions of 

 Christiania were produced and confirmed during a period of inces- 

 sant rain, and when fine weather came I could see nothing to ad- 

 mire in its dull streets. But these remarks include all my objec- 

 tions to the capital of Norway. Its situation is beautiful and pic- 

 turesque beyond description. Copenhagen is a finer by far and 

 more clieerful-looking city, and it stands in a rich country, but it 

 is a flat, and tame, and intenninable country. Stockholm is a more 

 majestic city, and its situation is abundantly romantic ; and the 

 view from the lofty spire of St. Catherine's church, stretching over 

 the city and the lake Maeler, with its twenty thousand isles, am- 

 ply repays the labour of climbing to its summit ; but the city is 

 heavy, and, hemmed in by everlasting woods of pine, has a gloom 

 about it, which the bright sun of summer does not wholly expel. 

 Christiania is a plain town, with straight streets crossing at right 

 angles, but unadorned and without pretension ; yet I have seen 

 few finer sights than this city presents, viewed either from the lofty 

 hill by which the traveller from the east and south approaches it, 

 or from the summit of the Ergeberg, on the opposite side of the 

 lake, when the sunbeams are gilding the mountain sides, or play- 

 ing among the leaves of the trees that stretch far up the valley, or 

 rest on the white chimnies of the city, fringing the lake beneath 

 our feet. In fine weather, a month could be delightfully spent in 

 the neighbourhood of this capital ; for the Fiord, with its nume- 

 rous arms and inlets, — the rich low grounds that not unfrequently 

 skirt them, — and its . many bold and wooded promontories ; — and 

 on land, the fertile and richly cultivated valleys, with sweet vil- 

 las and villages, lying scattered at difi'erent distances from the 

 city, hemmed in all of them by lofty mountains, which seem to 

 thrust up their dark pine woods into the clouds, render boating or 

 Aialking on a cool summer evening as pleasant in Christiania, as it 

 can be in any other part of the world. 



The Royal Norwegian University of Christiania, was founded by 

 the present king of Denmark, Frederick VI. so late as the year 

 1812, and the royal ordinance by which its present constitution 



