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"Won't you come and sit opposite to me, Frau Bertha, or here beside me, if you would care to look at the pictures with me? Now we come to a Falkenborg wonderful, isn't it? In the extreme foreground, though, it seems so void, so cramped.
It was our original intention to sleep at a cottage on the banks of this river; but it seemed to be inhabited by a patriarch, the father of so many suspicious-looking sons, grown in want to maturity, that we thought the most prudent plan was to return and rest for the night at Falkenborg.
The coast, though bold, was dangerous and unknown; and we had been told that Falkenborg, though famous for its salmon streams, had no harbour where the yacht might lie with safety, unless, by sailing through a very intricate and narrow channel, we anchored within a reef of rocks stretching three miles from the land.
On our arrival in the town of Falkenborg, a guard of several men, with drawn swords, received us; but what their motive was in honouring us with their protection, we could not conceive. Wherever we went, these men kept close to our heels, nor faltered in the strictest observance of every military evolution.
About an hour afterwards the observations of the two sailors were verified; for a strong wind sprung up from the south, and blew without intermission till nine o'clock, when we found ourselves abreast of Falkenborg. The sky, being covered by dark masses of flying clouds, made the night, now beginning to set in, more obscure than this season of the year admitted.
These gallant fellows, in the teeth of a tremendous sea, jumped into a small boat, and, taking several red and blue lights to show, at intervals, their position, rowed, as well as they could calculate, in the direction of the town of Falkenborg.
'After leaving Falkenborg we experienced a great change in the character of the people. Kindness and honesty were changed for ill-looks and petty extortions. On a bridge between Moruss and Asa, the woman who kept it and our drivers charged a double toll, and drank the overplus in schnapps before our faces!
'I believe, he wrote, 'that much of the great civility we received arose from our travelling as we did, without speaking or understanding the language, with no servant and no carriage, taking the common conveyances of the country. Our fare, chiefly fish, black bread, and brandy. The country round Falkenborg is barren, with cultivated spots here and there.
An order was therefore issued by the owner of the salmon-streams near Falkenborg to prevent any foreigners from angling on his property, and, in pursuance of that order, the Mayor, fancying us to be the real Simon Pures, which, by the bye, we were, had directed much attention should be paid us, and no latitude given to our movements.
My father was a good sportsman, and fishing was his favourite sport. It was combined with that love of scenery which was one of his characteristics, and his first fly was thrown in a beautiful river at Falkenborg, rented by two Englishmen who paid L300 a year for it. Here he remarks that the Swedes 'are poor, honest, and exceedingly good natured.
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