1936 On the Continent

with magnificent views over the archipelago, where you can dance, play golf or tennis or have a bathe at the Swimming Stadium.
    In the winter Stockholm can offer you many attractions. The season lasts from January (opening of the Riksdag) until the beginning of June (when the schools break up). The “little season” is from September to Christmas. The Royal Opera is rightly renowned, yet very inexpensive. The Dramatic Theatre, which like the opera is subsidised by the Government, often has typically Swedish plays on its programme. In the Concert Hall there are excellent concerts, with names of international fame often heading the bill.
    The leading restaurants have dance nights every week, and there are many official balls and other parties to which you may obtain an invitation with the aid of an introduction.
The Royal Family
    The Swedish Court is, in a way, far more exclusive than the Court of St. James’s. Swedish royal functions could rival the Courts or Levées at Buckingham Palace for sheer splendour. Yet the Swedish Royal Family is the most democratic, and also the most artistic Royal Family in Europe. A brother of the King’s, the “painter prince” Eugen, ranks high among Swedish artists, and the Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus is a scholar and expert on Chinese archaeology. He took an active part in the organisation of the recent Chinese Exhibition at Burlington House, London.
    If you happen to be interested in any particular subject and would like to get in touch with people sharing your interest, or with any special institution, I advise you to call on the Anglo-Swedish Society, 10, Staple Inn, HighHolborn, London, where you can obtain all information and, wherever possible, useful introductions. The society organise most interesting and instructive conducted holiday tours to Sweden every summer.
    Svensk-Engelska Föreningen, Humlegårdsgatan 22, Stockholm, will also be pleased to advise you.
Environs of Stockholm
    You can make many interesting sightseeing trips all round Stockholm. There is the Drottningholm Palace, a country residence of the Swedish Royal Family suggestive of Versailles, designed by the famous seventeenth-century architect Nicodemus Tessin. The trip to Drottningholm through Lake Mälaren, and the beautiful château itself with its lovely distinctively northern avenues and grounds, will make the trip well worth your while. A real gem is the theatre museum in the pure rococo style theatre of Gustavus III adjoining the palace.
    The most magnificent castle in the Lake Mälar Valley is Gripsholm, parts of which date from the fourteenth century. Its portrait gallery holds nearly 2,000 historical portraits. Skokloster, on the upper shore of Lake Mälaren, is the most splendid private castle in Sweden, containing the largest private collection of arms in the world, besides some superb Belgian tapestries. The castle was for centuries in the hands of the first family in the country, the Brahes, which recently became extinct in the male line. It might interest you to know that quite a number of families in the Swedish “Debrett” are of Scottish origin, and most of them still use their old names, with the titles added—count, baron, or honourable—while others have slightly modified their names. Sigtuna, a former capital of Sweden, situated not far from Skokloster, is a lovely little place, with some interesting ruins. The “Sigtuna Foundation,” devoted to religious and humanistic studies, is recommended to those who are interested in the subject.
    On the Baltic side of the capital lie numerous places of considerable charm. If you feel dull, just board at the quay one of those little white steamers that ply between the thousands of small islands, and run over to some neighbouring seaside resort.
Gotland
    Gotland is a large island in the middle of the Baltic with so many interesting aspects that your programme would not be complete if you omitted to visit at least Visby, the old Hanseatic town situated on the west coast of the island. You can get there easily by boat on an overnight trip, unless you prefer to go by air—a wonderful seventy minutes’ flight across the Baltic archipelago. Visby is to my mind the most interesting place in Sweden. There is a touch of “Sleeping Beauty” romance attached to this spectre of a past glory ensconced within its medieval towered walls. By way of contrast there is, near by, the modern seaside resort of Snäckgärdsbaden.
    Once upon a time Visby