SWEDISH SEEVANTS. 149 



peasant women and fanners' servants are often coarse and 

 dirty enough) manage to dress so neatly, and look so well as 

 they do upon such small wages. They are often remarkably 

 pretty, and it is a real pleasure to see how cheerfully they go 

 about their work. I have frequently been rather surprised at 

 the very pretty housekeepers one sees sometimes in the coun- 

 try gentlemen's houses; and I have been told that this is 

 rather a fancy of the lady of the house, because it keeps their 

 husbands at home. I wonder whether an English wife 

 would be so accommodating. 



It is the custom in Sweden, whenever you stay a night at 

 a gentleman's house, to give a little compliment to the ser- 

 vant. This is called " Dricks penningar." It is no great 

 tax, and one which I am sure I never grudged. The custom 

 is universal. I always thought one shilling per night to the 

 girl whom I saw most about, was quite sufficient, or if I stayed 

 a week I would give five rqr. to her, to divide with her com- 

 rades. Nothing is expected if you do not stop a night. In 

 the inns it is not the custom to give anything to the waiting 

 girls, if you only take a meal. A couple of rix-dollars to a 

 wood- watcher, if you have a day's shooting on a gentleman's 

 land, will more than satisfy him. 



The prices of labour in Sweden have risen nearly 100 per 

 cent., within the last twenty-five years, and the price of corn 

 within the same time, 75 per cent. 



Of course, throughout this wide -stretched land, there 

 is as much variety in the soil, as in the climate, and 

 there are few estates of any size in Sweden upon which 

 you will not find most of the varieties of soil which the 

 farmer requires, as well as much which he does not require. 

 But, like England, Sweden has its rich as well as its poor 

 districts. Taking the land in general, I should say it 

 was a poor, hungry soil (with patches of deep land here 

 and there, especially by the sides of the rivers and lakes), 

 everywhere capable of great improvement by ground drain- 

 age and care. But I fancy, especially in the midland districts, 

 a man requires a very good practical knowledge of the soil 

 before he enters a farm. I name this because I often notice 



