Book I. 



GARDENING IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



55 



ral ; a poor man here, as Burns used to say, has generally some other estate than that of 

 sin and mise-n/ ; some little spot that he can call Ijis own, and which he delights to cultivate 

 and ornament. Speaking of Zurich, Simond observes {Tour, &c. 1819, p. 404.), " Haer- 

 lem excepted, there is not a town where more attention was ever paid to fine flowers : 

 many new plants, as the Hortensia, Volkameria, &c., are here grown in perfection. The 

 taste for flowers is particularly displayed on the occasion of the birth of a child. When the 

 news is carried about to all the relations and friends of the family ; the maid is dressed 

 in her best attire, and carries a huge nosegay of the finest flowers the season afibrds. 



242. Hortictdture is carefulli/ jn^nctised in Switzerland; vineyards are formed as far 

 north as Lausanne ; and the apple, pear, plum, cherry, and wal- 

 nut are common on every farm ; the three first are in every cottage- 

 garden. The filbert, gooseberry, currant, raspberry, and strawberry 

 are natives ; but only the filbert, raspberry, and strawberry are com- 

 mon in the woods and copses. In the sheltered valleys of this country, 

 the apple and the pear are most prolific. Stewed pears is a common 

 dish among the cottagers in autumn ; the fruit is also dried, and in 

 winter forms an excellent soup ingredient. The cabbage, the potatoe, 

 the white beet grown for the leaves as spinach, and their foot-stalks 

 as chard, and the kidney-bean for haricots and soups, are the popular 

 vegetables. Particular attention is paid to bees, which are kept in 

 neat rustic sheds {Jig. 19.), or the hives carefully thatclied with bark 

 or moss. 



243. There is little or no forest planting in Sivitzerland, but hedges of hawthorn are not 

 uncommon. The walnut is there a very common high-road tree in the autumnal months, 

 and furnishes the pauper traveller with the principal part of his food. Poor Italians have 

 been known to travel from Naples and Venice to Geneva on this sort of fare. They 

 begin with Indian corn and grapes^ v/hich they steal from the fields, till they arrive at 

 Milan, and the rest of the road they depend on walnuts, filberts, and apples. 



Sect. VI. Of the Rise, Progress, and present State of Gardening in Sweden and Norway. 



244. Gardening is patronised hy the higher classes, and practised round the principal 

 towns of Sweden and Norway. *' All the Swedes with whom I have ever met," observes 

 Hirschfield, *' whether elevated by birth, or enlightened by education, were estimable 

 friends of beautiful nature and of gardens." Sir J. E. Smith {Lin. Trans., vol. i.) ex- 

 presses' an equally high opinion of this people. Mediocrity of circumstances, a poor court, 

 political liberty, and a varied and comparatively unproductive country, seem to have 

 contributed to give a more thinking turn to the Swedish nobles, than in countries natu- 

 rally prolific. Their immense public works, canals, harbors, and excellent roads, careful 

 agriculture, extensively worked mines, botanic gardens, literary institutions, and scientific 

 authors are proofs of what we assert. 



245. The ancient style of gardening appears to have been introduced to Sweden, at least 

 previously to 1671 ; for Hermand, who published his Regnum Suecia in that year, men- 

 tions the gardens of the palace as well as the Vivarium, or park. The gardens, he says, 

 were used for delight and recreation. They lay between the Palatium and Vivarium, 

 and the latter contained some wooden buildings, in which were kept lions, leopards, and 

 bears. This garden and park appear to have been formed by Gustavus Adolphus, about 

 1 620., Charles the Twelfth procured plans from Le Notre, and had the trees and plants 

 sent from Paris. It is remarked by Dr. Walker, as a curious fact, that though tlie yew- 

 tree is a native of Sweden, those plants of this species sent from Paris, to plant Le Notre's 

 designs, died at Stockholm the first winter. 



246. The mixed style is exemplified in Haga, formed on a rocky situation, about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, by Gustavus III., with the assistance of Masretier. It 

 is the Trianon of Sweden. The approach is a winding walk through rocks and luxuriant 

 verdure. Drottningholm is a royal palace, formed by the same prince on the island of 

 that name. The gardens are in a sort of Anglo-Chinois manner, but as far as art is con- 

 cerned, in no respect remarkablei Both these gardens are surrounded or intermingled 

 with water, rocks, Scotch pirie, spruce fir, arid buildings, forming a picturesque assem- 

 blage of saxatile and verdant beauty. There are son*ie confined spots laid out in the 

 English taste, chiefly by British merchants in the neighbourhood of Gottenburg, as there 

 are also near Christiana and Tronijem, in Norway ; but it may be remarked, that this 

 style is not \ikely to be generally adopted in either country, because they already possess 

 much greater beauties of the same kind, which it is our aiin to create, and with which 

 those created would not bear a comparison. 



247. A taste for flowers is not popular in Sweden ; if a farmer or cottager has any spare 

 room in his garden, he prefers rearing a few plants of tobacco. But the study of every 

 branch of natural history is in rejiute among the higher classes and literati j and the ce- 



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