1839 July Sunday 21
Got up 3 ¾ Went to bed ..
Had Mr Munthe with his bill and all settled as agreed upon yesterday – very good sort of man aetatis about 60! then had Gross gave him 2 Dollar Banco – account for yesterday and the remainder towards today – it seems I still owe him 17 marks – I think of giving him for[?] himself and wife 1/3 an English £ a day – annoyed! - off from Helsinborg Hotel de Munthe at 5 50/.. –
Fine but dull morning F 73° at 5 a.m. slept good – country like Zealand Cropa[?] Bekk – small light horses – no shoes on hind feet and merely plates on fore feet – Fleninge 1 Swedish mile at 6 ¾
Engelholm nice neat little town at 8 25/.. – change horses at the door of neat white splashed Inn – pretty water and wood – mowing grass – rye yellowish barley and oats every where quite green – Margretetorp change horses at the road side - little village about 160 yards off (left) – row of hops looking well – nice country from Margretetorp to Karup at 11 ¾ road hilly and sandy but hard bottom – moor juniper and cranberry and bilberry covered sheep walkings[?] strewed over with granite boulders none very large –
At 11 ½ descend upon Karup and into plain that in the distance had looked like water drag on several times this stage
Descend upon Karup ...
Good beech wood (like prince Christian’s) near Karup – scattered little village change horses at house[?] standing almost alone – several decent peasants there drinking out of little cups coffee? went in – could have coffee in 10 minutes – No! in ¼ hour had fresh milked milk and very good brown cake or bread and excellent butter – enjoyed our breakfast – I stood all the the while –
The rooms strewed with juniper – we liked the smell
very good brown cake or bread
Off again at 12 23/.. from Karup the road hilly and sandy but hard bottom – good deal of moor land – crops no where heavy but short and thin – at 2 good clean pretty town of Laholm but drive thro’ it with out changing horses as the handbook says, very pretty river winds round the town – 4 or 5 minutes out of it picturesque broad shallow stream rushing under wooden bridge from a mill – and at 2 25/.. peep at the Baltic and same river winding towards very pretty – the people every where very clean and well dressed –
At 3 35/.. Baltic (Kattegat) near (½ mile) left – sort of large open common – poor pasture – and sea nearish till enter (pass wooded bridge over river) at 4 50/.. into the good little town 2 story high houses of Halmstad where stop at the far end to change at 4 55/.. neat Grande Place and white washed church – nice town – the river runs its short course to the Kattegat and is here as good as the Ouse at York –
Two pictures of the river Nissan’s outlet into the Kattegat and on the right the castle of Halmstad (top W R Kerzka mid 1800′s, bottom Oscar Ohlson 1887)
At every change of horses write in Daybook name (Madame Lister) where from (Helsingborg) where going to (Gothenburg) number of persons (4) having done this last (par ignorance) first time here (Halmstad) – the sun very hot here – a few drops of rain between 1 and 2 – cold mornings and evenings? very hot in the sun – sortie by pretty white washed tree embosomed gateway – every where the people very decent and civil – sandy but hard bottom out of Halmstad – from 6 pretty drive thro’ wood and braks and mossy or wooded hill at 6 47/..
North gate (Norreport) Halmstad (Carl Stendahl 1879)
Stop to change at Qvibille very pretty picturesque little scattered village white washed church and dark brick red washed wood houses, red tiled and straw thatched – wooded hill all round more or less distant – very pretty for the last ¾ hour – but thin short oats and other corn – about after 7 alight for ¼ hour –
Qvibille Inn c. 1900
Horses refuse the hill– change the wheelers to the faulty leaders places – very pretty hereabouts farm and civil people give us cherries – we like the Swedes they are so civil – the cherries were brought out the moment the man heard we were English –
Rounded wooded hills and red straw thatched cottages with white chimneys and windows shatters – oak, birch, ash, alder, aspen – granite boulder fence walls – beeches as fine as prince Christian’s trees – all thro’ the forest and finer oaks and soon after 8 near the rounded granity (gneiss?) green and dark[?] granite boulder covered rocky hills – remind me of mountains and the fine mountain Norway scenery we are going to –
Drived from 7 ¾ to 8 ¾ just as we stop at Slöinge small pretty much scattered village, white church – the potatoes and corn everywhere the best crop they have – ‘tis now quite beautiful night quite light enough to write but growing duskish – tho’ the moon 1/8 way up the sky and bright and apparently about ¾ full, seemed setting, now we
All little hillocky warty moor windy granite boulders greened over with grass or juniper or cranberry or bilberry – then cornfields and folds[?] as everywhere patches pared thin and burning and patches of more dew or fog rising like smoke – hills all around – very thick dews in patches
Now at 9 50/.. or 10 5/.. by the clocks here can only just see to write this –
Marginal notes: leave Helsingborg
view off Baltic
Breakfast at Karup
Halmstad
drived
1839 July Sunday 21 (diary)
SH:7/ML/E/23/0087
SH:7/ML/E/23/0088
Got up 3 ¾ Went to bed ..
Had fallen asleep after being called – were to have been off at 4 – unluckily could not persuade Mr Mu[n]the to settle anything last night – obliged to give him 7 Sovereigns and 16 half ditto = £15 at ten Dollar Banco per Soverign! money enough ought to have been provided at Copenhagen –
Carriage valued at 500 Dollar Banco 10 per cent duty = 50 Dollar Banco etc. etc. = 55+ Dollar Banco paid to the custom house – harness above 56 Dollar Banco 50 Dollar Banco paid in advance for the posting etc. etc. hotel bill 4.24 so that altogether we paid before leaving Helsinborg 168 Dollar Banco engaging to give the coachman at Gothenborg 33.18 Banco and then we had to live on the road – 22 5/8 Swedish miles about 150 English miles – not true that one can travel quite for nothing even in Sweden –
Gave Gross 4 Dollar Banco in account and off at last – nevertheless thinking Mr Munthe tho’ he must gain by our soverigns above 2 out of the 15 besides probably some further premium at the hands of our Swedish hussar coachman whom he found us – but we could do no better – Gross of no use save as a servant to wait upon us –
Off at 5 50/.. from Helsin[g]borg, Hotel Munthe – with one Swedish hussar coachman John Harder and the man to bring back the horses sitting on the boot imperial – our harness very decent – at our 4th relais, at Karup, at 11 ¾ alighted and therefore ordered breakfast fresh milked milk and brown cake or bread and excellent butter – ready for us in ¼ hour price 32 skillings = 1 Dollar rigsgeld = 2/3 Dollar Banco almost a single house – neat, the rooms strewed over with and strong-smelling of juniper – not disagreeable – Karup a very scattered village several men drinking something (coffee) out of small cups – all very civil –
Off again at 12 23/.. – flat, sandy, thin-cropped country but everything Swedish new to us and therefore interesting – the low red painted houses, straw thatched or red tiled (or brick between squares of wood) – picturesque – from Karup road sandy but good hard bottom – not so deep as from Lingen to Hazelunne in Oldenburg – and from Karup a good deal of moorland covered with low sheep-eaten juniper cranberry and bilberry – we thought Engelholm at 8 25/.. and Laholm at 2 4/.. nice neat good little towns –
Halmstad at 4 55/.. a nice little town – sortie by a pretty whitewashed tree-embossed gabel-ended gateway – from Laholm the country improves in the picturesque – peeps of the sea – just out of Laholm cross picturesque rapidy stream – picturesque mill there – and pretty – road sandy out of Halmstad, but pretty drive from there thro’ wood (forest) and breaks and moors or wooded hill – crops everywhere thin and short –
Qvibille at 6 47/.. very pretty picturesque little scattered village whitewashed church and dark brick red washed wood cottages straw thatched or red tiled – bad horses from here – alight about after 7 for ¼ hour the horses turning restive up a hill – put the wheelers into the faulty leaders places –
A civil farmer finding we were English gave us cherries looking ½ ripe, but eating good – the Swedes all very civil – very pretty drive from Qvibille – about 8 we near the rounded granity or gneiss? hills – Slöinge at 8 ¾ just as we had finished our dinner of Helsinborg bread and butter and cheese and Deventer gingerbread –
The potatoes seem everywhere the best crop they have – the moors are everywhere striking as being as it were warty, the granite boulders greened over being thick upon the and giving the ground this singular appearance –
At 9 50/.. I could just see to write – the dew lying on the ground in very thick patches, like thick fog or smoke creeping along at no great height – to clear ground for crops, they first get off the surface stones, then pare and burn – see no turnips –
I kept awake, and the twilight continued, very little less light than at 9 50/.., till about midnight – I then slept but awoke at 2 a.m. and found it then so light that I could very well see to write – then slept till near 6 –
