TRAVELS 
fumed in the country itfelf, and partly exported to the Baltic and 
the Mediterranean. 
When a perfon is invited to dinner at Gothenburg, it is under- 
ftood that he is to pafs with his hoft the whole of the evening, and 
to conclude a pretty conftant fcene of eating and drinking by a plen¬ 
tiful fupper. This is a practice common throughout all Sweden, 
Stockholm not excepted: but at the fame time it is to be ob~ 
ferved, that it does not now prevail in the houfes of the firtt order, 
but is limited to thofe of the fecond and inferior ranks. I am 
told that the cafe is very much the fame in the principal towns 
in England and -Scotland, including the city and mercantile part 
of London. It is the cuftom in Sweden, as in other protettant 
countries where religious zeal is rather fervent, for every one at 
table to fay a fhort prayer to himfelf, both before and after the 
meal. When dinner is over, the guefls return thanks to the 
matter of the houfe for his good cheer ; and he, on the other hand, 
aflures his vifitors that they are heartily w'elcome. All this is 
done with fo ferious and folemn an air, that a ftranger, if he did 
not recollett himfelf, might be tempted to laugh at this extraor¬ 
dinary ceremony. This manner, however, of returning thanks 
on the part of the guefts, and the atturance of their being wel¬ 
come on that of the matter of the houfe, formerly appears to have 
been common throughout Great Britain, for traces of it ftill re¬ 
main in the provinces among the lower clafles of the people ; 
whofe fafhions, cuftoms, and modes of life, as well as opinions, 
have 
