168 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN&US 



like a chimney ; or, as it is covered with shiny balls, it 

 reminds one still more of a colossal telegraph-post. A 

 neatly-paved street of stone houses leads to the cathe- 

 dral ; this road lies parallel to the street of wooden 

 houses, whose fronts abut on the river, and the backs are 

 in an unsavoury lane. A single-flowered yellow acacia, ' 

 growing abundantly, is out in flower here (though not yet 

 out at Upsala), and horse-chestnut is just blossoming 

 above great meadow-like beds of poets' narcissus. The 

 Celsius thermometer stands at twenty-three or twenty- 

 five degrees in the shaded shop windows ; but the ther- 

 mometer in the close shop gives no idea of the coldness 

 of the air out of doors. 



Fergusson considers the red-brick decorated Gothic 

 cathedral hardly worthy of mention. He is always hard 

 upon Scandinavian architecture. Was he disgusted 

 at reaping so small a harvest for his book from so long 

 a journey, or does he know it from pictures only ? Did 

 the daringly ugly metal spire distress him so much, 

 that he could not give a glance at the west front, whose 

 ornaments belong to a very early condition of the 

 building, which was founded in the eleventh century, 

 and re-consecrated in 1271 ? The curious old bas-reliefs 

 inserted in the masonry near the ancient western door 

 are sculptured with figures of St. David and our Lady 

 of the Rosary, protectress of the Wastra-rose. l The whole 



1 The Western Rose. The name Vester&s is really a contraction 

 of Vestra Aros, western mouth of the Malar. Upsala is called the 

 Ostra Aros. 



