National
costumes in all countries have taken refuge in villages, and the
peasants in the environs of Copenhagen have no reason to be ashamed of
their garb, which is both showy and picturesque. The men wear round hats
and dark-blue jackets, lined with scarlet and adorned with long
glittering rows of bullet-shaped buttons. The women are very tasteful in
their attire. Their dark-green gowns, with variegated borders, reach
down to their heels, and the shoulder-strap of the closely fitting
boddice is a band of gold lace. The chief pains are bestowed upon the
head-dress, which is various in its fashion, sometimes composed of clear
white stuff, with an embroidered lappet, falling down upon the neck;
sometimes of a cap of many colours, heavily embroidered with gold, and
having broad ribands of a red purple, which flutter over the shoulders.
One meets every where with this original sort of costume; for the
peasant women repair in great numbers to the festivals at the various
towns, and in Copenhagen they are employed as nurses to the children of
the higher classes.

"During my sojourn in the Danish capital, the weather was so
obliging as in no way to interfere with my Cisalpine illusions. The
sky continued a spotless dome of lapis-lazuli, out of which the sun
beamed like a huge diamond; and if now and then a little cloud
appeared, it was no bigger than a white dove flitting across the
blue expanse. The days were hot, a bath in the lukewarm sea
scarcely cooled me, and at night a soft dreamy sort of vapour
spread itself over the earth. I only remember one single moment
when the peculiarities of a northern climate made themselves
obvious. It was in the evening, and I was returning with my friend
Holst from the delightful forest-park of Friedrichsberg. The sky
was one immense blue prairie, across which the moon was solitarily
wandering, when suddenly the atmosphere became illuminated with a
bright and fiery light; a large flaming meteor rushed through the
air, and, bursting with a loud report, divided itself into a
hundred dazzling balls of fire. These disappeared, and immediately
afterwards a white mist seemed to rise out of the earth, and the
stars shone more dimly than before. Over stream and meadow rolled
the fog, in strange fantastical shapes, floating like a silver
gauze among the tree-stems and foliage, till it gradually wove