1936 On the Continent

was a city of fabulous wealth, boasting no fewer than seventeen magnificent cathedrals. Then one day in the year 1361 a Danish king, Valdemar Atterdag, coveting its wealth, came with his ships, took the city by stealth, sacked her and sailed away.
    Visby is a lovely city. With her magnificent cathedral ruins, overgrown with red ramblers, she would form an ideal subject for a painter’s canvas. Historical pageants held every summer in this perfect setting, tell the romantic legend of Visby, once the Queen of the Baltic, now only just a “Town of Ruins and Roses.” See “Calendar of Events.”
    Not only Visby, but the whole of Gotland has something to offer to those interested in history and archaeology. Excavations which have been going on for many years have brought to light some Stone Age burial sites, jewellery, coins, etc., as well as some exquisite agalmatolite objects and other Roman and Byzantine finds that testify to the existence in Gotland of a high civilisation and to widespread early connections with the outer world.
Middle and Northern Sweden
    Uppsala, leading university town and archiepiscopal see of Sweden, is one hour’s journey north from Stockholm and should preferably be visited in May, a gay month with the undergraduates. The famous University Library contains, among other treasures, the exceedingly valuable meso-Gothic Bible fragments, Codex Argenteus. The three Royal Mounds at Old Uppsala are believed to beburial-places of three sixth-century Regents—Adils, Aun, and Egil. Old Uppsala is one of the most interesting old landmarks in the whole of Sweden. I advise you also to visit Hammarby, the home of Linnaeus, the famous Swedish botanist. The surrounding province abounds in rune stones, their inscriptions, which date back to at least the fourth century, forming a scattered, unrelated chronicle of events not recorded elsewhere.
    Dalecarlia, a province situated in the heart of Sweden, is notable for its remarkably high peasant civilisation, which is revealed in architecture, art and folk-lore. The people have, more than in any other province in Sweden, retained their old customs and costumes, and there is a staunch, rather obstinate trait in their character, reflected in their fine features. Gustavus Vasa, the young Swedish nobleman, in the year 1521, after many thrilling adventures, gathered the people of Dalecarlia under his banner, and with their help liberated Sweden from the tyranny of King Christian of Denmark. Dalecarlia was the home of Zorn, the realistic etcher, painter and sculptor, and of Karlfeldt, famous poet.
Falun
    Falun, famous mining town, can boast the oldest Limited Company in the world, the Stora Kopparbergs Bergslag. The oldest royal charter that is preserved dates back to the year 1347, but the Company is mentioned in a deed of purchase dating back to 1288 which is kept in its museum. Rättvik and Leksand, two villages on the shores of Lake Siljan, are famous tourist centres. A Sunday morning at the latter place, with the people, dressed in their different costumes, arriving for church across the lake, presents a most picturesque scene, the bright red and green and orange of aprons, neckerchiefs and head-dress adding a gay splash of colour to the picture. Midsummer in these parts, with dancing round the Maypole and other jollifications, is one of the most interesting features of country life in Sweden. And so is Christmas, with sleigh-drives to early Mass on Christmas morn, and no end of quaint forms of celebration.
    Värmland. Midsummer and Christmas are great times also in the land of
Gösta Berling
and the home of its author,Selma Lagerlöf, of Nobel Prize fame. This is perhaps the most beautiful province in Sweden, and figures in many a poem by Fröding, a poetic genius who, like Strindberg, knew how to express in words that crude, honest simplicity mingled with a certain rather coarse wit that is characteristic of the Swedish mental make-up.
    Härjedalen, a province still further north, has beautiful scenery, besides providing you with excellent fishing.
    Jämtland has several famous tourist centres, Storlien, Are, Hålland, etc., forming excellent
pieds-à-terres
for hiking expeditions in the summer or for ski-ing in the winter.
    Lapland you have already heard about, so I will just mention Porjus, a fine power-station situated within the Arctic Circle, and built about 150 feet below the river bed. Up here I have seen tomatoes growing in the summer, the long days,