THROUGH SWEDEN. 
9 
that it is impoffible any foreign charioteer fhould be able to ac¬ 
quire it in a fhorter fpace of time than feveral weeks, or perhaps 
months. The fame found that is ufed in Italy to quicken the 
horfes’ pace, is employed in Sw r eden for the purpofe of making 
them halt: and it often happened that, when we were afcending 
fome fleep hill, we uttered that or a fimilar found, to encourage 
the horfes ; when, to our great difappointment, they Hopped fnort 
inftantaneoufly. We then had to blame ourfelves for forgetting 
the idiom of the Swedifh language, and patiently to endure the 
confequence of our miftake ; while the peafants feemed aftoniflied 
at our rafhnefs or folly in checking the exertion of the horfes on 
the fide of a fteep mountain, where the weight of the carriage 
might force the animals backwards, and involve us in great dan¬ 
ger. At the fame time, when we reflected on the unfortunate 
pow T er of habit and its effects, in the prefent inftanCe, w 7 e could 
not help laughing even in the midft of peril. 
Another fubjeft of commendation among the panegyrifts of 
Swedifh travelling, but equally unfounded with that of their 
praifes of expedition, is chcapnefs. If they were to calculate 
the expence of a courier, whom you muft fend before you on the 
road to befpeak horfes, if they w r ould confider the greater num¬ 
ber of horfes to be employed on a journey in Sweden than in one 
in Germany, moreover the hire of a driver from Copenhagen, and 
the expences of his return home, befides the compenfation to be 
made to the peafants for waiting with their horfes, for the arrival 
of their employer ; were they to take all thefe things into the 
Vol. I. C account, 
