178 
TRAVELS 
placed at great diftances from each other, were beheld heaped 
together in one crowd. There appeared no marks of regular 
combination and defign: all was a dead confufion. 
Having traverfed the lake of Haga, we paffed very near the 
country houfe of the queen dowager Ulrica, called Ulrickfdale. 
It had been before the feat of Count John de Gardie, but was 
purchafed by the queen dowager Ulrica Eleanora in the reign of 
Charles XI. In this retreat the queen enjoyed that peace and 
tranquillity which ufually fly from the palaces of the great. Be¬ 
yond Ulrickfdale nothing occurred that was in the leaft intereft- 
ing the whole way to Griflehamn, a diftance from Stockholm of 
not lefs than fixty-nine Englifli miles. The face of the country 
cannot be faid to be either flat or hilly : it is unequal ground, but 
rifmg and falling by gentle fwells. The eye, fatigued by the 
dazzling whitenefs of the fnow, repofes itfelf with pleafure on the 
dark green of the pines, which are often met with throughout 
the whole of the journey. What amufed us molt was to fee foxes 
here and there {landing or walking about on the highway with¬ 
out any apparent folicitude for their fafety. We were aftonifhed 
to find this quadruped fo incautious, and fo devoid of that fagacity 
and prudence which is the charadteriftic of the fpecies. The bu- 
finefs for which thofe animals come to the highway we difcovered 
to be no other than to eat the new-dropped dung of the horfes 
that pafifed. If, w'hile they were in fearch or pofleffion of this, a 
fledge happened to go by, they would only leap over to the other 
fide of the ditch, and turn about and keep a confhmt eye on the 
equipage, 
