~ 
22 
this means, though they remain in igno- 
rance of the conveniences and elegancies 
attendant on a higher ftate of cultivation, 
they have alfo the confolation to’ know 
that they avoid many of the vices infe- 
parably joined with luxury. ‘Their wants 
(1 {peak of the middling and lower 
claffes) are few, and thofe they have are 
eafily gratified. 
Our next ftage was Ringfled, 18 miles 
from Rofkild. | When the latter was the 
metropolis, this was a large city; it 1s 
now degenerated into a very fmall and 
inconfiderable town. But ftill it retains 
fome of its oN privileges. The church, 
dedicated to St. Canute, which may be 
feen at a great diftance, is now in ruins 5 
it is of Gothic architeéture, and has been 
magnificent in its time. It contains the 
tombs of feveral of the royal families of 
Denmark. While we ftopped»to change 
horfes, I obferved in the inn a fett of 
prints, called the Kisbenbava Skilderé 
( Ang. Copenhagen Magic-lantern): thefe 
are political caricatures,—fatires on the 
court of Copenhagen ; they fhew that the 
Danes are not deficient in {pirit, nor in- 
capable of properly appreciating the fool- 
eries of courts and courtiers. At this 
town a road turns off to the village of 
K.dge, lying on the bay of that name.* 
The next ftage is generally a very long 
one, it reaches as far as Slagel{é, which is 
a diftance of 27 miles; but as we wifhed 
to vifit Sorée, where my friend was well 
acquainted, we difcharged our waggon at 
the Krébs’-Lifet (Ang. Crabs’-houfe), an 
inn within a mile of that place, and g 
miles from Ringtted. 
The Krébs’-bifet is very pleafantly fi- 
tuated on the banks of a lake, which in 
this time of the year is always well. fock- 
ed with cray-ffh (Dan. Krébs), from 
which the inn takes its name. ‘The gen- 
try who live near this place fometimes re- 
fide here a few days in the fummer feafon, 
to eat this nth in perfection, with which 
alfo excellent foup-is made. 
though fmall, has good accommodations ; 
and, what is of as much confeauence, the 
people are very civil and attentive to their 
vifitors, and their charges are moderate. 
The town of Serce is in a very retired 
fituation ; it is built onthe fide of a large 
piece of water; the air is pure, and the 
* Kidge-bay is celebrated latterly as the 
rendezvous of the fleet of Admira! Parker, 
after the famous battle off Copenhagen: a 
battle which will doubtiefs caule the Engli 
as\well as.che Danifh name to be recalleGed} 
and properly eftimated by potterity. — ™ 
The inn,- 
| Sketch of a Fourney from Copenhagen to Hamburg. [Aug. Ty, 
country round is beautifully variegated 
with hill and dale; it is woody and in 
_fome parts highly cultivated ; but the — 
boundaries of the fields being of ftones 
give that part of the.country a heavy ap- 
pearance. There are feveral {mall farms 
about this town, which we vifited, and 
found the inhabitants very comfortable, 
and “to appearance happy; but they are 
not in that fituation fo as to exclude all 
anxiety for the future, as the great land- 
holder {till has the power to remove them 
from the fields which they have ‘exerted 
their induftry in cultivating and bringing 
to perfeCtion, to other parts of his eftate 
which require their/labour. ~The bene- 
volent Count dé Bernftorff, though he did 
much for this ufeful and induftrious clafs 
of men, could not do all he wifhed. He 
well knew that the reformation of long~ 
ftanding abules, if intended to be of per- 
manent, utility muft be gradual.* “That 
much has been done for thefe poor people ' 
cannot be doubted, when we compare 
their prefent ftate- with-what they were 
formerly+, and-with that of their northern ~ 
neighbours. The peafantry of Denmark 
are hofpitable, at leaft as far as their 
means extend; they are unpolifhed, but 
not sude ; neither have they that inquifi- 
tivenefs which has been remarked as fo 
very obtrufive and difeufting in other 
countriest. The fimplicity of the Danith ° 
as well as of the Norwegian peafantry 
‘is that of nature, and not of depraved or 
¢ 
* For the abolition of the Slave-trade in 
the Danish Weft India Iflands, which this 
great man projected and endeavoured to ac- 
complifh, he.caufed a law to be enaed, 
impofing a penalty (fufficient to amount to 
a prohibition) on any one concerned in this 
infamous traffic after the year 1803. Sothat, 
unlefs recent ewents prevent it, we may have 
caufe to hope that this unfortunate race in 
thefe iflands will be emancipated from their 
galling yoke, and in due time. reftored ta 
their rightful place in fociety.. Of the man 
whe does not rejoice at this information, the 
negro bimjelf may truly fay—-Hic NiGER gf 3, 
_bunc tu caveto | - 
7 On this fubje&t a writer of veracity, 
at the beginning of the 18th century fays, 
‘* The peafants of Denmark are as abfolute 
flaves as any in Barbadoes, but not fo well 
fed; they are fold with the land to which 
they belong, as timber is with us: fo that 
the land-holders eftimate their riches not by 
the number of acres, but by the number of 
boors.” See * Molefworth’s Hiftory of Dea- 
mark.” 
¥ Lallude more particularly fo the lower 
clailes in the United States of America. ‘ 
premature — 
