That evening I went to see a comedy of Holberg's at the theatre, Jacob von Tybö by name. It seemed to create immense fun, which was not to be wondered at, for the piece contained a rap at the German customs, and braggadocio style of that people in vogue here some hundred years ago. The taste for that sort of thing, as may readily be imagined, no longer exists here. Roars of laughter accompanied every hit at Tuskland. The two Roskilds and Madame Pfister acquitted themselves well. The temperature of the building was as nearly as possible that of the Black Hole of Calcutta, as far as I was able to judge by my own feelings compared with the historical account of that delectable place. A lady next me told me that they had long talked of an improved building.

Next day I visited the Seamen's Burial Ground, where, clustering about an elevated mound, are the graves of the Danish sailors who fell in 1807. I observed an inscription in marble overgrown with ivv :

True to the motto, the monuments are decked every Saturday with fresh flowers. Fuchsias were also growing in great numbers about. The different spaces of ground are let for a hundred years; if the lease is not renewed then, I presume the Company will enter upon the premises. were traces about, I observed, of English whittlers. Our countrymen seem to remember the command of the augur to Tarquinius, "cut boldly," and the King cut through.

There

CHAPTER III.

The celebrated Three Crowns Battery-Hamlet's grave -The Sound and its dues-To Fredericksborg-Iceland ponies-Denmark an equine paradise-From Copenhagen to Kiel-Tidemann, the Norwegian painter-Pictures at Düsseldorf-The boiling of the porridge-Düsseldorf theatricals-Memorial of Dutch courage-Young heroes -An attempt to describe the Dutch language - The Amsterdam canals-Half-and-half in Holland-Want of elbow-room-A New Jerusalem-A sketch for Juvenal -The museum of Dutch paintings-Magna Charta of Dutch independence-Jan Steen's picture of the fête of Saint Nicholas-Dutch art in the 17th century-To Zaandam-Traces of Peter the Great-Easy travelling -What the reeds seemed to whisper.

THE name of the steamer which took me past the celebrated Three Crowns Battery, and along to the pretty low shores of Zealand to Elsineur (Helsingör), was the Ophelia, fare three marks. In the Marielyst Gardens, which overhang the famed Castle of Kronborg, is a Mordan's-pencilcase-shaped pillar of dirty granite, miscalled

"Hamlet's grave."

Yankees often resort here,

and pluck leaves from the lime-trees overhanging the mausoleum, for the purpose of conveyance to their own country.

But this is not the only point of interest for Brother Jonathan. Look at the Sound yonder, refulgent in the light of the evening sun, with the numberless vessels brought up for the night, having been warned by the bristling cannon to stop, and pay toll. I don't wonder that those scheming, go-a-head people, object to the institution altogether-albeit the proceeds are a vital question for Denmark. On the steamer, I fell into conversation with a Danish pilot about this matter. I found that he, like others of his countrymen, was very slow to acknowledge that ships are forced to stop opposite the castle. He said that only ships bound to Russia do so, because the Czar insists on their having their papers viséd by the Danish authorities before they are permitted to enter his ports.*

Finding there was no public conveyance to

*These tolls, as is well known, have since been redeemed.

Fredericksborg, which I purposed visiting, I must fain hire a one-horse vehicle at the Post. It was a sort of mail phaeton, of the most cumbrous and unwieldy description-I don't know how much dearer than in Norway-so slow, too. On the road we pass the romantic lake of Gurre, the scene of King Valdemar's nightly hunt. Some storks remind the traveller of Holland. Right glad I was when we at length jogged over divers drawbridges spanning very green moats, and through sundry gates, and emerged upon a large square, facing the main entrance to the castle.

The private apartments, I found, were, by a recent regulation, invisible, as his Majesty has taken to living a good deal here. But I was shown the chapel, in which all the monarchs of Denmark are crowned, gorgeous with silver, ebony, and ivory; and the Riddersaal over it, one hundred and sixty feet long, with its elaborate ceiling, and many portraits: and, marvellous to relate, the custodian would have nothing for his trouble but