"His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe : With all good grace to grace a gentleman." My memory will long dwell with delight upon the name of Knudtzon. Time would not admit of our seeing Fredericsvaark, which is near this place. The cannon-foundry and manufactories were established by general Claussen, who, by his skill and perseverance, has triumphed over the most formidable difficulties of local situation: the whole is at present under the superintendence of our ingenious countryman, Mr. English. It is said that this establishment can completely equip a fifty-gun ship in two months, in all her guns, powder, and stores. The country houses, many of which we passed, are generally built of wood, painted red or light yellow: they seldom exceed two stories, frequently containing only a suite of ground floor apartments, and are far more comfortable within, than handsome without. Sometimes they are built of brick, when the frame and timbers are visible, and have a very unpleasant appearance. The gardens are in general formally laid out, and the garden door is remarkable for being formed of a frame covered with fine wire netting, through which the grounds behind appear as through a muslin veil, and the garden railing is almost invariably heavy and tasteless. Through a forest of fine beech, the sun shining gloriously, and making the trunk of many a tree look like a pillar of gold, and illuminating the casement of many a romantic little cottage, we reached the palace of Fredensborg, or the Man-. sion of Peace: it stands in a valley, and was the retreat of the remorseless Juliana Maria, after the young Crown Prince had taken possession of the reins of government, which, having stained with blood, she vainly endeavoured to retain. Here in solitude she resigned her breath. No doubt her last moments were agonized by the compunctious visitings of conscience, for the wrongs which she had heaped upon the unfortunate Matilda, and her savage sacrifice of Struensee and Brandt. The grass was growing in the court, and upon the steps. The building is a large square front, surmounted with a dome, and extensive crescent wings; the whole is of brick, stuccoed white. The window-shutters were closed, and the glass in several places broken; all looked dreary and desolate: after thundering at the door with a stick, we at length gained admittance. The apartments were handsome, and contained several good Flemish paintings. The domestic shewed us, with great exultation, the hall in which the Crown Prince entertained Prince William of Gloucester with a grand dinner about two years before. The Danes always mentioned this Prince with expressions of regard and admiration, that shewed how favourable were the impressions created by his amiable deportment and engaging manners during his visit to Denmark. The gardens and woods are very beautiful, but neglected, and gently slope down to the extensive lake of Esserom. As we roved along, the birds, with plaintive melodies, hailed the moist approach of evening, and our time just admitted of our visiting, which we did with real satisfaction, a vast number of statues, which are circularly ranged in an open space surrounded by shrubs, representing the various costumes of the Norwegian peasantry: some of them appeared to be admirably chiselled. Upon returning to the carriage, the images of what I had just seen produced the following lines: FREDENSBORG. THE DESERTED PALACE OF THE LATE QUEEN DOWAGER JULIANA MARIA. Blest are the steps of Virtue's queen! That over-canopies her tomb. But ah! no willing mourner here How mournful was the lonely bird, In the deep gloom of yonder dell, As we descended to Elsineur, the town, the Sound, enlivened by shipping at anchor and under sail, and the shores of Sweden, presented an enchanting prospect, which the brilliancy of the sky at this season of the year, in these northern climates, enabled me to contemplate till midnight. The next morning, as I was quitting my hotel to take another ramble, the governor of Copenhagen, Prince W., and his Princess and suite, who had been spending the preceding day at Elsineur, were setting off for the capital; they were all crammed into a shabby coach, drawn by six horses in rope harness. It is astonishing how little a handsome travelling equipage is understood upon the Continent. The town, which is principally built of brick, is large, and has a very respectable appearance. The gardens of Marie Lyst, or Maria's Delight, which are within half an English mile of Elsineur, cannot fail to prove very interesting to every admirer of our immortal Shakespeare. I here trod upon the very spot, where, with all the uncertainty of antiquity, tradition asserts that the father of Hamlet was murdered that affecting drama is doubly dear to me. Its beauties are above all eulogium; and I well remember, the desire of seeing a ghost occasioned its being the first I ever beheld. As I stood under the shade of a spreading beech, the "Majesty of buried Denmark" seemed to say to the afflicted prince : Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always in the afternoon, And in the porches of mine ears did pour Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd. No reckoning made, but sent to my account, A more beautiful spot for such a frightful conference could not have been selected. The walks from this celebrated scene, to the tower which overhangs the cliff, and from whence there is a fine view of Cronberg Castle, are enchanting. There is a little chateau near Hamlet's Orchard belonging to the Crown Prince, who permits one of his chamberlains, called a kammerherr (a nobleman) to reside here: the symbol of his distinction is a singular one; a golden key, fastened by a blue riband to the back part of the body of his coat. The spires of the fortress of Cronberg, which appeared immediately below me, and the battlements upon which the hapless Matilda was permitted to walk during her confinement in that castle, excited an irresistible wish to lay before my reader a few of the most affecting circumstances, which passed under its gloomy roof during her captivity. It is well known what neglect and suffering the Queen, in the bloom of youth and beauty, endured, from the fatal imbecility of the King's mind, and the hatred and jealousy of Sophia Magdalen, the grandmother, and Juliana Maria, the step-mother, of his Majesty; and that the anger of the latter was encreased by Matilda's producing a prince, an event which annihilated the hopes that Juliana cherished of seeing the elevation of her favourite son, Prince Frederic, to the throne. The Queen, about this period, 1769, was saved from ruin, only by attaching to her confidence the count Struensee, who, sagacious, penetrating, bold, enterprising, and handsome, without the pretensions of birth, had ascended to an unlimited power over the will of the sovereign, had obtained the reins of government, and had far advanced with almost unexampled celerity and unshaken firmness in reforming the mighty abuses which encumbered and distorted the finance, the laws, the administration of justice, the police, the marine, I the army, and the exchequer, and in short every department of government. Struensee restored the Queen to the bosom of her sovereign, and, with the assistance of count Brandt, the friend of Struensee, environed the King, and made him inaccessible to every other person. His Majesty's great delight at this period arose from the society of a negro boy, and a little girl about ten years of age, who used to amuse him by breaking the windows of the palace, soiling and tearing the furniture, and throwing dung and turf at the statues in the garden. Struensee experienced the usual fate of reformers, the abhorrence of those whom he corrected, and the suspicions or indifference of the people whom he served. He dislodged a nest of hornets. Juliana, with the keen unwearied vigilance of the tyger-cat, watched her victims from the gloomy shades of Fredensborg; where herself and her party, consisting of counts Ranzau, Köller, and others, fixed on the 17th of January, 1772, to close the career of their hated rivals: their savage resolve was facilitated by the last fatal and infatuated measures of Struensee, who beheld too late the phrenzy of precipitate systems of reform: he prevailed upon the King to issue an edict empowering every creditor to arrest his debtor without reference to birth or rank; the nobility flew to their estates in all directions, with revenge in their hearts; he terrified and grievously offended the mild and rigid citizens of Copenhagen, by assimilating its police to that of Paris, and by disbanding the royal foot-guards, composed of Norwegians, for the purpose of drafting them into other regiments. His days, his hours, were now numbered: on the night of the 16th of January, a magnificent bal paré was given at the great palace, since, as I have related, burned. The young Queen never looked more lovely: she was the very soul of this scene of festive grandeur: Grace was in every step, heaven in her eye. It was the collected brilliancy of the expiring flame. At three o'clock a dead silence reigned throughout the palace: the conspirators, with several guards, passed the bridge over the canal, and surrounded the avenues. Juliana, Prince Frederic, and Ranzau, went to the door of the King's apartment, which at first the fidelity of a page in waiting refused to unlock; they terrified the |