114 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



% 



burg. I suppose the exertion of this exercise was too great, 

 for the last time I was in Gothenburg, I saw the boat, a 

 very clean built four-oared English cutter, laid up high 

 and dry. 



Even field sports appear to be quite a secondary considera- 

 tion, except with a few, and as there is no hunting in the winter 

 as in England, of course horse exercise is little used, and 

 we very rarely, if ever, meet with those wiry old gentlemen 

 with spare muscular forms, clear bright eyes, and hard 

 bronzed countenances, whom, thank Providence, we so often 

 see in the hunting field at home. We certainly do see 

 some most jolly-looking men here, but they are little adapted 

 for any violent muscular exercise. 



Moreover, the very mode of life for nearly half the year 

 is antagonistic to all the rules of training which a Barclay or 

 a Godfrey ever laid down, and the long severe winter has 

 much to do with this. No one who has not experienced it, 

 can imagine what an enervating effect so much close confine- 

 ment in those stove-heated rooms (with the thermometer 

 often 22 C. warm, double windows, and the chimney 

 blocked up, so that not a breath of fresh air can come in) has 

 upon the constitution. Besides, the food in general use is 

 too much after the French style, and more calculated to lay 

 on flesh than muscle. You rarely see plain boiled or roast ; 

 all the meat is stewed with butter and sauces, and veal and 

 pork are much more eaten, than good beef and mutton. I 

 fancy this common corn brandy, which is invariably taken 

 neat before a meal, is very fattening, unless walked off by 

 hard exercise. 



There is another custom here which, although a very- 

 agreeable one, I am certain is not healthy I mean that of 

 taking a nap on the bed or sofa for an hour or so after dinner. 

 I often indulged in it, but I know I always felt better 

 when I avoided doing so. It is wonderful in the winter 

 here, how much more sleep one seems to require than in the 

 summer. I feel sure that, with this after-dinner nap, 

 more than twelve hours out of the twenty-four at this season 

 are spent in sleep, and I have often heard English skippers 



