CHAPTER VIIT 



HVILESTED, 1901 



HVILESTED, " place of rest or peace," which was the first 

 spot I visited in Norway when I returned there after 

 long years, stands, or rather stood (for, alas, its very 

 ashes have disappeared), on a plateau overlooking the 

 beautiful Sundal Biver, some eight miles from Sundal- 

 soren. The site of the house was cleared in a wood of 

 Norway pines, many of which shifted their places to 

 its timber walls. It was designed by that most ac- 

 complished architect and angler, Mrs. Lort Phillips, 

 and was the first of the many charming residences 

 which owe their origin to the love she and her husband 

 bear to their adopted country. From the verandah 

 can be seen the sharp peaks of the " Seven Sisters," 

 the beautiful ridges that head the valley just where 

 the river turns above Musjerd. Many trees left 

 standing all round the house made it difficult to 

 sketch or photograph. On nearly all of these are 

 bird boxes, where tits of various kinds, flycatchers 

 and woodpeckers, nest and rear their young. Squirrels 

 gambol fearlessly among the boughs, or even on the 

 window-sills, or over the roof; and on the shed below 

 my wife's maid pointed out to her a large bird which 

 she " thought was a duck," but which turned out to 

 be a green woodpecker. 



On the south side of the garden a high steep slope 



128 



