'Aug. 18th.-This day, Sunday, we passed at Driostuen; our halt here gave us an opportu→ nity of observing the manners and way of living of the richer peasants. Our host was a man of considerable wealth; besides the farm he held from the crown, he told us that he had two other freeholds, that he sold three hundred head of cattle every year, and kept above a hundred and twenty milch cows, and three hundred goats. He had given three thousand dollars as a marriage portion to each of his two eldest daughters. Driostuen is too cold for the growth of corn, in consideration of which he had an allowance of corn from the other crown farms in the neighborhood. The house resembled other Norwegian cottages, but was inferior to many; and his own appearance, and that of all his family, were as far removed from anything like wealth as could well be imagined. Yet in some respects his housekeeping was liberal; his table was spread for four meals a day, always with meat on Sundays, and generally throughout the week. He had extensive store-houses for salt meat and fish, as well as for oat flour, hops, malt, butter, and cheese; the luxuries of fowls, eggs, and vegetables, do not come within the calculation

of a Norwegian peasant's wishes. The greatest simplicity of manners reigns within this valley, in some respects almost approaching to Arcadian elegance; the inhabitants were all most perfectly without shyness or coldness towards strangers, and they took great pains to understand and answer our questions. One of the girls had a sort of guitar with five strings, which Thornton found her playing on to call some calves up from pasture; after a little solicitation she let us hear several tunes, most of them lively. On being asked to sing, she refused because it was Sunday; but on a sign from her father she ran to fetch her elder sisters, and a little brother, who began singing Psalms very agreeably, till the old man and his son Knute joined the chorus, which they did with the true parish clerk twang. They all read the Psalms. out of a Psalm book. We afterwards were told by Mr Leganger at Trondheim, that the schoolmaster of the district, makes a regular progress from village to village, having his meat and lodging with the principal farmers; and all the inhabitants who cannot read, are obliged by law to go to him for instruction; he receives a very trifling fee from each person, about two or three

stivers, and his whole annual income does not exceed twentyfive dollars a year; food and lodging are, indeed, supplied to him gratis during his journeys. The priests are obliged to examine the children annually in reading and writing, and to give in a statement of their abilities to the bishop. Bibles are costly, and are seldom possessed except by the richer sort of peasants; they almost all have Luther's catechism and the Psalm book, which also contains the Epistles and Gospels for each Sunday.'

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It is customary to erect monuments in the dens of the Norwegian nobility, to commemorate any remarkable event; the following lines were translated by Heber, from an inscription intended to perpetuate the memory of the friendship of two persons who were living at the time it was written.

'May every light-winged moment bear

A blessing to this noble pair.

Long may they love the rural ease

Of these fair scenes, and scenes like these;

The pine's dark shade, the mountain tall,

And the deep dashing water-fall.

And when each hallowed spirit flies

To seek a better paradise,

Beneath this turf their ashes dear

Shall drink their country's grateful tear;

In death alike and life possessing

The rich man's love, the poor man's blessing.'

'Trondheim, Aug. 22d.—We went this morning with Mr Meirke and Mr Thayl, a Dutchman, to call on the governor-general Von Kraagh,

very fine old man, with more of the manners of the real old school' than any one I ever saw. His house was built a short time ago, and is entirely composed of logs, which he refused to have either painted or papered, through his zeal for the ancient customs of Norway; it is situated on an eminence, with an avenue principally of young oaks, all looking very sickly, and the grounds beautifully laid out in the English manner. The governor's son, Captain Von Kraagh, is a great agriculturist. We dined with Mr Meirke, and spent the evening with his mother, Lady Lewson, where we met with a large party, and were amused by witnessing several peculiar traits of Norwegian manners; their dinners and even their suppers are served with a profusion, not unaccompanied with elegance, of which we have, in England, no idea; at the end of which, each guest rises and drinks the health of the mistress of the house; they then bow to each other and to

their host, and hand the ladies out of the

room.

'Among the party at supper was Col. Bang, the commandant of the rifle corps of the northern division of Norway; two companies of from three to four hundred men, are always stationed in the Trondheim district, and as many at Röraas, all selected from the miners at the latter place, and are drilled in the usual manner; two battalions of about six hundred men, stationed in the north and south of Norway, are drilled in the winter on skates; these men are only called out twice a year, but they have frequent private drills for recruits. When they exercise in skates they have their rifles slung, and carry a staff in their hands, flattened at the end to prevent its sinking into the snow, and to assist them in the leaps they are sometimes compelled to take when going down hill, which we were told they do with great rapidity, over such obstacles as obstruct their progress. The only dif ference in their method of drawing up is, that in winter they allow between the files room to turn in the skates, which they do by changing the right foot by an extraordinary motion, which would seem enough to dislocate the an