Impressions of Sweden
[We are glad to publish the following travel sketch from the Dean of St. Paul's. Next week we shall give General Baden-Powell's opinions on the same country.—En. Ppectator.]
ENGLISH travellers often discuss the question who are their favourite foreigners. This is not the same question as which is the most interesting country to visit ; for natural beauties, historical associations, and art treasures may compensate for intercourse with More or less unsympathetic natives. I have found that the Englishman's favourite foreigners are the Austrians and the Swedes. Our countrymen feel themselves at home in these two countries ; they quickly make friends, and recognize in Austrians and Swedes the qualities which they most admire, with perhaps an added touch of grace and charm.
This being so, it is odd that Sweden is not more visited. I suppose that ten Englishmen go to Norway for one who goes to Sweden. The scenery of Norway is wilder and grander ; the people are very congenial to us ; and it is generally supposed that they are more friendly to Great Britain than the Swedes. The NorWegians and Swedes are naturally very much like each other, though there is still some jealousy, which began long before the political rupture which they wisely accepted without resorting to civil war. Our Norwegian hosts said to us : " We are not surprised that you were charmed with the Swedes ; foreigners always are ; but you know you can't trust them as you can us." This dictum was received with shouts of laughter when I repeated it at a dinner of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in London. Norway is more democratic than Sweden, where, as with us, there are the remains of an old aristocracy and memories of a time when Sweden ruled over a considerable empire which has now been lost. It seemed to us that the Swedes were the more polished of the two nations, which is not intended to imply any criticism on the manners of the Norwegians, who were always very pleasant and friendly.
The Swedes have published bulky and elaborate inves- tigations, written in English, on the racial constitution of their nation. They are perhaps the purest Nordic stock in the world. Light hair and eyes seemed more prominent among them than in Norway. The relatively pure Nordic Swedes are of tall stature, and the standard of beauty in both sexes is high. The other types recognized by experts are known as East Baltic.and Lapp."These do not add-to the good 'looks of the families in- which -their strains are apparent. The Lapp blood gives a seini4rIongolian took and a squat figure. But I did not visit the northern parts of Sweden, where the Lapps mostly live.
The Swedes are amazing linguists. English is taught in the national schools, and all educated people talk it fluently, with a better pronunciation than the Dutch, who also talk our language with great ease. They seemed rather hurt if we understood a word of Swedish, though we should have liked to attempt simple sentences in their language, which is musical and, I thought, peculiarly well adapted to the chorales which are a large part of their church services.
A word must be said about their alleged pro-Germanism. The upper classes certainly expected and wished the Germans to win the War, as they did also in Spain. We seldom realized that over a great part of the Continent the War was regarded as a struggle between aristocracy and democracy, so that the common people were on the whole on the side of, the Allies, the richer classes on the side of Germany. Professional men in Sweden used often to finish their education in Germany, and the Army.officers naturally looked to Germany for their models in military science. We cannot be surprised if these classes thought of the Fatherland as their spiritual home. .But the main reason of their want of sympathy with the Allies, so far as it existed, was fear and dislike of Russia. Anyone who is acquainted with the history of Sweden must admit that these feelings were amply justified. In any case, these political differences belong- to the past, and in no way interfere with the warmth of the reception which an Englishman may expect in Sweden. My host at Stock- holm had a portrait of the Kaiser in my bedroom ; but when I paid a second visit to his house, I found that Wilhelm had been thoughtfully removed, and the Holy Child hung in his place. I doubt whether the Kaiser now adorns that wall.
The part of the country which I saw reminded me of Scotland. I even visited at a very Scottish-looking country house surrounded by pines, and slept,in a haunted room. But the painted wooden chalets of Sweden are far more picturesque than the generally ugly cottages of Scotland ; and the modern Swedish architecture vies with the American as the finest in the world. The- new Town Hall at Stockholm, a strikingly original and most success- ful building, is worth a visit to the country for its sake alone.
I was unfortunate enough to visit Sweden in November, a bitterly cold and dark month, and did not go further north than Stockholm, Gothenburg and Upsala. The summer is, of course, the right time to go, but even mid- winter is better than the autumn. The country is very large, nearly half as large again as the British Isles ; and the northern parts, which we did not see, are said to contain very picturesque forest and lake scenery. The abundance of water power makes the use of electric light universal and very cheap ; the wood fires in smoke- consuming stoves make even the manufacturing towns as beautifully clean as a Dutch village. The contrast between Gothenburg and Hull,• where we landed on our return journey, was . most humiliating to our patriotic feelings.
. It was impossible to leave such .a country without warm feelings of affection and admiration for the land and its inhabitants. And it was with some regret that, in com- paring the vital statistics of the European countries for last year, I found that the Swedish birth-rate (16.9 per thousand) is the lowest observed in any European State. In Stockholm it was only 11.8. When we consider that a land comprising 178,000 square -miles has a population of only six millions, and that the Swedes are very- welcome colonists in Canada and the United States, it seems- a pity that they should restrict their numbers to this extent. The " Nordic theory " has been run to death ; but it cannot reasonably be doubted that the peoples of Northern Europe and especially the Scandinavians are among the finest specimens of the human race, and, that while there is still room for overseas settlement we can hardly have too many of them. W. R. INGE.
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