4 RURAL DENMARK 



the residence of kings, but now its trade and glory- 

 have departed, its castle is destroyed; of this there 

 is left but a mound surrounded by a wide moat filled 

 with feathered and whispering reeds. Indeed it re- 

 minded me much of some of what are known as the 

 Dead Cities in Holland. The cathedral remains, 

 however, built for the most part of stone that was 

 brought by sea from the Rhine in the twelfth century. 

 It presents a strange mixture of styles Norman, 

 Byzantine, and, so far as the tower and two aisles are 

 concerned, Gothic. 



The whole building has been very carefully re- 

 stored of late years, perhaps a little over-restored. At 

 any rate the seventeenth-century organ, glittering 

 with enamels, struck me as rather too brilliant. It 

 was pleasant to turn from it and contemplate the 

 monuments of old worthies let into the walls and 

 containing oil-portraits of the deceased a lady and 

 her two husbands, for instance, or a gentleman and his 

 two wives. This form of monument is common in 

 Denmark, though personally I have seen it nowhere 

 else. It is to be observed that the portrait painters 

 of those days did not condescend to flattery. 



Ribe is a country town in the truest sense of the 

 word. Thus many cows are stabled there, and driven 

 out every day to pasture. The inhabitants, too, 

 often divide their attentions between a shop and 

 a farm. It boasts a co-operative butter factory, but 

 a great deal of the milk produced is consumed in 

 the neighbourhood. 



Perhaps the most charming thing about the place 

 is the vast prospect it commands, say from the top 

 of the castle mound. Indeed the local jest is that 

 any one lying flat on his back outside Ribe can see 



