was such as I have frequently remarked when I have been thrown in the way
of people without education, who have more money than wit--that is, than
they know what to do with. The women were unaffected, but had not the
natural grace which was often conspicuous at Tonsberg. There was even a
striking difference in their dress, these having loaded themselves with
finery in the style of the sailors' girls of Hull or Portsmouth. Taste
has not yet taught them to make any but an ostentatious display of
wealth. Yet I could perceive even here the first steps of the
improvement which I am persuaded will make a very obvious progress in the
course of half a century, and it ought not to be sooner, to keep pace
with the cultivation of the earth. Improving manners will introduce
finer moral feelings. They begin to read translations of some of the
most useful German productions lately published, and one of our party
sung a song ridiculing the powers coalesced against France, and the
company drank confusion to those who had dismembered Poland.

The evening was extremely calm and beautiful. Not being able to walk, I
requested a boat as the only means of enjoying free air.

The view of the town was now extremely fine. A huge rocky mountain stood
up behind it, and a vast cliff stretched on each side, forming a
semicircle. In a recess of the rocks was a clump of pines, amongst which
a steeple rose picturesquely beautiful.

The churchyard is almost the only verdant spot in the place. Here,
indeed, friendship extends beyond the grave, and to grant a sod of earth
is to accord a favour. I should rather choose, did it admit of a choice,
to sleep in some of the caves of the rocks, for I am become better
reconciled to them since I climbed their craggy sides last night,
listening to the finest echoes I ever heard. We had a French horn with
us, and there was an enchanting wildness in the dying away of the
reverberation that quickly transported me to Shakespeare's magic island.
Spirits unseen seemed to walk abroad, and flit from cliff to cliff to
soothe my soul to peace.

I reluctantly returned to supper, to be shut up in a warm room, only to
view the vast shadows of the rocks extending on the slumbering waves. I
stood at the window some time before a buzz filled the drawing-room, and
now and then the dashing of a solitary oar rendered the scene still more
solemn.

Before I came here I could scarcely have imagined that a simple object