steadiness. But there, may the likeness cease! May loyalty always guard that monarch, who knows so well to defend his own honour, and to preserve the freedom of a country which has ever been the birth-place of heroes! You, who love the truly great far and near, will fervently join in this prayer of your faithful friend. : LETTER XLVII. Stockholm, May, 1808. THIS delightful month was hailed on its first morn as it is in Russia, by merry-makings that reach from the court to the cottage: all the carriages in Stockholm paraded in procession backwards and forwards through a park not far distant from the town. Much beauty was present in the equipages; and not a little amongst the pedesterians of humbler ranks, who flocked in crowds to see the cavalcade. But fair as the ladies were, yet the splendor of the scene was far inferior to that I had shared in its anniversaries of the two years before; and for loveliness, you will not wonder that I should, in that point also, find it halt behind dear Mosco, and its dearer inhabitants. This custom is a very odd one; but perhaps it was instituted on a similar political principle to that of Russia: if so, the pleasure may have succeeded, though not the profit; for certainly the carriagebuilding trade has stood still these sixty years. The other festivities, in both countries, (nay, we still have them in the remoter counties of England,) I make no doubt originated in festivals dedicated to the floral deity of the pagan ages. The May garlands; the goat dressed in flowers, and led about by husbandmen in white, are sufficient proofs of their heathen origin. Her Majesty, as well as the other branches of the royal family, were in the string of carriages. She looked charmingly in the splendid attire she had adopted to hail the season, so sweet an emblem of herself; but her graces are of too fine a texture to bear the encumbrance of much ornament: to use the threadbare quotation (because it speaks truth of her), "Thoughtless of beauty, she is beauty's self; Near this city is an extremely pretty spot, charmingly diversified with rocks, wood, and water. Here stands Haga, an elegant small mansion, built in the English taste. It is now the favourite retreat of the present King; and the situation was so admired by his august Father, that a short time prior to his death, he commenced building a superb palace on the grounds. When he fell, the plan was dropped; and the comparative cottage remains as the royal residence. The gardens of this minor palace, like those of Kensington with us, are open to the inhabitants of Stockholm; and on Sundays they generally drive thither, and in various gay groupes promenade for hours. The grounds are so romantically disposed, as to suit all fancies: some parts are open lawn, and bright terraces; others, deeply secluded shades, where you may walk from morn to eve without meeting a soul, As sauntering through pure air has ever been one of my greatest pleasures, and Haga being only an English mile and a half from the town, I used to go thither many days in the week, when I had all the groves to myself; and often, strolling about with my book in my hand, I have met the fair Majesty of Sweden with one of her children, enjoying, as myself, the sweet day, without any guards but her own innocence and dignity. It was then I saw her all lovely in a simple attire, and looking in motion and tender graces the very perfection of female kind. The departure of the snow has most wonderfully changed the appearance of all around. What was white and cheerless winter a few weeks ago, is now green and smiling spring; the trees are bursting into leaf, the birds sing, and the people have already assumed their summer garments. Bear-skins, and the furry hides of other animals, have dropped from the backs of the inhabitants, and when seen in lighter garbs, the former appellations with which we were so apt to compliment them, of Goths and Vandals, never enter our heads. Hence we see, though there be some wit in leaving nature undorned, there is none in rendering her hideous by loads of ugly clothes. So little do people in general understand this distinction, that I have heard a man reply to a dowdy woman's apology for a dirty dishabille, by quoting the very words I have so royally, and, surely, properly applied. The streets of Stockholm now exhibit an apparently quite different race from its former shaggy natives; and with the addition of the military, look very gay. Since the Russian troops passed the frontiers on the Finland side, the Swedes have gradually fallen back; and several gallant acts have |