156 RURAL DENMARK 



I was told, always danger from the sea, which, as in 

 Holland, is kept out by banks. 



Motors still seem to be something of a rarity in 

 Falster; at any rate ours frightened the agricultural 

 horses very much. Under the provisions of the 

 present Danish law there is a strict speed limit, and 

 it is forbidden to drive motors after dark. This 

 regulation does not apply to the cities, or at any rate 

 to Copenhagen, where taxi-cabs are common. 



I much regret that time did not allow me to visit 

 the old manor-house of Hoiriis, near Nykjobing, 

 which is said to be a most interesting place. A tale 

 is told of this house which shows how true traditions 

 often are. Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, 

 I gather, there lived a lord of Hdiriis, who was a 

 person of revengeful temper. He had a pretty wife, 

 and a friend with whom the pretty wife became too 

 intimate. The husband discovering this, or perhaps 

 suspecting it only, determined that an example 

 should be made. Indeed he bricked the lady up 

 alive in his dining-room, and threw his friend into 

 the moat. 



So said the tradition, but now comes the curious part 

 of the story. About a generation ago, I believe, part of 

 the wall in the hall of the house fell down and revealed 

 a recess carefully lined with oak, and in it the skeleton 

 of a woman, while subsequent dredging in the moat 

 brought up the skeleton of a man. I wonder whether 

 the owners of the house have preserved these in- 

 teresting relics, or rather those connected with the 

 lady, in situ, let us say behind a sheet of plate glass, 

 or whether, yielding to modern squeamishness, they 

 have conveyed them away. I wonder also if the justly, 

 or unjustly indignant husband continued to eat his 



