IMPRESSIONS OF DENMARK. 
303 
sub-division of land is a real remedy for the conges¬ 
tion of great cities and general panacea. But to the 
naturalist, to the lover of what is broad and bold, such 
conditions are the reverse of attractive. With unfenced 
holdings so small that cattle, horses, even sheep, are 
all tethered, with tillage by retail, and such economy of 
space as to convey a sense of constriction—of ozone 
at so much a foot—if this be Utopia, give me the other 
place. 
Travelling through Central Jutland, amidst rolling 
cultivation, the brown contour of the ahlheden , or 
heath-land, here and there formed the background, or we 
traversed a strip of irreclaimable moor. Farmlets there 
are in hundreds, with butter-factories systematically 
interspersed—these known by their tall chimney—but 
never a country-house. Denmark has no wealthy class, 
but at least she seems to have few poor ; beggars are 
unknown, but the number of “ soft folk,” or half-wits, 
is beyond the average. 
The rural villages remind one of Yorkshire with 
their red-brick houses and small orchards. Towards 
Silkeborg a few trees rejoiced our eyes—aspens and 
sycamores, limes and poplars (many pollarded), with 
ashes in full leaf on June 7th. The only pretty scenery 
was on the Gudenaa, the river forming a chain of linked 
lakes beneath hanging beech-woods, whose sylvan glades 
and aquatic arbours lead to embayed pools, all verdant 
with forest-reflection. Bevies of brightly-dressed dam¬ 
sels from Silkeborg did not detract from the mingled 
charms of wood and water; but a beer-saloon in a 
sequestered nook did offend, though the iced pilsener 
was rather delicious on a hot afternoon. 
