SWEDISH WOMEN. , ill 



prevalent among the Swedish women. You see as many 

 dark women as fair, large as well as small, and some re- 

 markably handsome faces. And many a proud titled 

 English " star " would find it hard to hold her own when 

 brought side by side with the fresh healthy beauty of the 

 north. 



I do not know how it is, but I always felt soon at ease 

 in their company; there is something so kind-hearted in 

 their manner that a stranger is at home with them at once. 

 No affectation, but still no forwardness. I fancy more tho- 

 roughly domestic or more affectionate women do not exist, 

 and were I " Ccelebs in search of a wife," it is here 

 where I should come to seek her. 



It is singular, considering the very low state of morals 

 among the females of the lower class (and a peasant rarely 

 thinks of marrying a wife until he has lived with her some 

 months in open adultery) we rarely hear of a faux pas among 

 the better classes. I never read of an action for crim. con., 

 and as for a duel, I do not believe that one was fought in 

 Sweden during my time for love, jealousy, or any other 

 cause. Nor do I believe, save in the case where a man has 

 left his wife for a year, a divorce can ever be prayed for. 

 Yet, with all the freedom of manners which is so peculiar to 

 the lower classes and female servants, especially in the inns, 

 where scarcely any one thinks of paying a bill without kissing 

 the pretty girl who has waited on him, before all the company, 

 I do not believe there is a bit more real immorality here than 

 in England, for we never by any chance in Sweden hear 

 of a trial for those crimes, which so often disgrace the 

 columns of the English papers. The laws, however, appear 

 to contemplate the possibility of a husband going astray, 

 and the fine in such a case is severe. 



Old Acerbi describes a little circumstance which hap- 

 pened to him at an inn when travelling up through Finland 

 some seventy years since so pithily, that I cannot help in- 

 serting it here : 



" We arrived/' says this quaint old traveller, " at Ulea- 

 borg, where we found a tolerable inn, the only one in 



