EDUCATION. 113 







altogether, they are as fine and manly a race as one would 

 wish to see. We shall, however, seek in vain, among the 

 gentlemen at least, for the " hardy sons of the north " of 

 whom we have heard so much ; for as far as I have seen 

 an Englishman is quite as well able to stand the cold with 

 nothing but a pea-jacket on, as a Swede in his fur cloak, 

 and he is always more capable of hard exercise, in the field 

 or on the fells ; and this I attribute to many causes. 



In the first place, and this is perhaps to be regretted, 

 the young of this country do not appear to have the least 

 partiality for any of those out-door manly exercises, such as 

 cricket, rowing, foot-ball, etc., in which every British youth 

 is so proud to excel. Even in the schools, except gym- 

 nastic lessons, which are followed as tasks, not as pastimes, 

 and left off as soon as ever the lad leaves school, the muscles 

 and strength of the boys are in no way called into play. 

 We see no merry meetings in the play ground, the 

 cricket field, or on the village green, as we do in England ; 

 and if by chance there are a few school boys at play 

 together, it is invariably the smaller lads, for the bigger 

 ones appear to look upon any sort of exertion at play with 

 the greatest contempt, " they are much above that sort of 

 thing." 



In the winter, when you cannot get much exercise on the 

 roads or in the forests, there is often very beautiful skating. 

 Yet scarcely any one seems to avail himself of it, except the 

 peasants, who travel in this way over the ice to save dis- 

 tance. It is true we occasionally meet with most excellent 

 skaters and swimmers, but take them as a class, among 

 the youth of this country, there appears to be a great want 

 of energy, and no spirit of emulation or wish to excel in 

 manly exercises; and as we all know that "just as the 

 twig is bent, the tree's inclined, we shall hardly expect 

 to look for it among the men. With so many opportunities 

 of practice in rowing, we should naturally look for a good 

 eight-oared crew or two, among the fine grown stalwart 

 young fellows one sees here; however, I never but once 

 saw an amateur crew of Swedes, and that was in Gothen- 



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