the stone work, of a sort of light-blue colour, which they think more beautiful, and more like stone, than the beautiful stone itself of which the fabric is constructed. They are picking out, as our house painters call it, in white paint, the traceries, grotesques, and ornamental pillars, so that the whole exterior resembles very much the stern of a Dutch galliot.

It would require some time, and more knowledge of the subject than I am master of, to consider this structure properly, and to distinguish what is original from what is of a later age.

Dronthiem, Aug. 27.-This town has a population of 12,400 inhabitants. The streets are spacious, with water cisterns at their intersections. The houses, which are all, or with very few exceptions, of wood, are large, and good, and have an air of cleanliness and comfort. The scrubbing and washing of doors, windows, stairs and pavements, give a favourable impression of the habits of the Dronthiemers. They are a remarkably handsome people as the ladies at least know. There are few towns of this size in which one meets so many well-dressed handsome females of the higher class, who are invited out by the delightful evenings at this season. The means of subsistence here arise partly from Dronthiem being the seat of the higher courts, and functionaries connected with the provinces north of the Dovre Fjeld, and partly from its being the only place, on this side of the Fjeld, of which the merchants enjoy the privilege of trading to foreign ports. Tromsoe, in Nordland,

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has of late obtained the same privileges, but it is as yet in its infancy. The trade of Dronthiem employs about fifty vessels belonging to the port, chiefly in conveying wood to France, and a few cargoes to Ireland and Scotland, also dried fish to Spain and Italy. France has been for some years the best customer for timber. One can well understand that the small proprietors there, who had acquired their lands during the Revolution, would not for many years possess the means, and the confidence in the security of their property, to build and lodge themselves suitably to its amount. Spanish and Italian vessels have of late found their way to Dronthiem; and the trade, although it suffers by having its own vessels unemployed, gains by finding customers at home instead of sending its fish to a distant market. In the year 1830, 154 vessels cleared outwards to foreign ports, of which 56 were to British ports, 23 to the Mediterranean, 28 to Spain, 17 to Denmark, 12 to Holland; the rest to the Baltic, Bremen, and other ports; and for the home trade and fisheries, in the same year, there were cleared outwards 59 ships, and 262 yachts or coasting small craft. In the provinces or Amts, which are supplied through Dronthiem with all foreign products, there is a population of about 112,000 people, besides the inhabitants of the town itself, so that the trade of the place is considerable. All the products of other countries are extremely moderate in price, the import duties seldom exceeding two per cent. ad valorem, and the freight by the return of ves

sels being very trifling. There are few towns in France where French wines are so cheap. The roadstead for shipping is bad, exposed to a heavy swell from the north and west, and with loose ground in twenty fathoms. In the river there is not depth of water for vessels drawing above ten or twelve feet. There is a little rock called Munkholm, on which very expensive fortifications and batteries are constructing, for the defence of the town and shipping; but for these objects it is apparently useless, being situated at too great a distance. During the last war, our naval officers sent in boats, and destroyed towns and shipping, overcoming defences much more formidable than those of Dronthiem on the sea-side. On the land-side, although almost surrounded by the river Nid, it is so entirely commanded by the tongues of land and ravines on the opposite side of the river, that it appears scarcely secure, as the principal military depôt on the north side of the Fjeld; and in case of invasion could not be maintained without a very large force.

Dronthiem, Aug. 29.-There is a public library here on a liberal footing. I found no difficulty, although a stranger, in getting out books upon simply signing a printed receipt, in which the librarian inserted the title of the work. The collection is large, and contains many curious and rare books. The Biblia Polyglotta Anglicana, per Br. Waltonum, Londini, 1657; and Edmundi Costelli Lexicon Heptaglotton is shown to strangers as rare,

from the work, excepting a few copies, having perished in the fire of London in 1660. There is also a collection of minerals, and objects of natural history, and of antiquities, but of little value, being ill-arranged, ill-preserved, and the productions of different countries, and ages, all jumbled together. The Runic calendars, or staves with Runic characters, on which Dr. Clarke sets some value, if I am not mistaken, are indebted to the antiquarian's fancy for their importance. As records of events, they may be safely classed with Robinson Crusoe's tally-stick, with a long notch for Sundays, and an extra long one for the anniversary of his shipwreck. Imagination alone can make any thing more of them than a rude device to aid the memory of the individual in recollecting his private affairs. or possibly public transactions. No Runic inscription, either on wood or rock, has yet been discovered of an older date than the introduction of Christianity in the eleventh century; and Scandinavia boasts of regular historical records in the Saga, which relate the transactions of the tenth and even the ninth century.

Dronthiem, Aug. 30.-I have paid a daily visit since I arrived, to the cathedral, and as I intend to move to-morrow, shall put down all that I have read or observed concerning this structure. King Olaf Haraldsen, who appears to have been the most blood-thirsty tyrant who was ever canonised, was killed by his subjects in a battle at a place called Stikklestad, north of Dronthiem, in the 1033; and his body was interred in a church still

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standing, which he himself had built in that city and dedicated to Saint Clement. As Olaf reigned fifteen years, this building must have been erected between 1018 and 1033. As this monarch introduced Christianity by fire and sword into his dominions, and was killed by the peasants whom his cruelties had driven into revolt, he was canonized; his shrine became the most distinguished in the north of Europe, and one of the most frequented by pilgrims. The cathedral was founded in the year 1180 or 1183, close to this church, which forms a chapel at the east end of it. The west end, now in ruins, was not founded till the year 1248, and in the end of the 13th century the whole structure must have stood in its splendour. The extreme length has been 346, and its breadth 84, English feet; but the west end, which contained the grand entrance, had a chapel at each corner, making the breadth of that front 140 feet. The transept and east end are the only parts roofed. in, and now used for divine service. The western, once magnificently ornamented, is now used as a timber or store yard, but the outer walls still rise to the height of the arches of the lower windows, which are pointed, and of the spring of those which have joined the outer walls to the pillars of the aisles; but these are all demolished. The grand entrance in this front was by three doors, now all built up, and in their place buttresses support this end of the wood-yard. This front was adorned with a row of twenty arched and delicately cut niches above the three en