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IN A THOUSAND YEARS 463
and the journey is continued to the Bosphorus, to rest there a few hours, and see the place where^ Byzantium lay ; and where the legend tells that the harem stood in the time of the Turks, poor fishermen are now spreading their nets.
Over the remains of mighty cities on the broad Danube., cities which we in our time know not, the travellers pass; but here and there, on the rich sites of those that time shall bring forth, the caravan sometimes descends, and departs thence again.
Down below lies Germany, that was once covered with a close net of railways and canals, the region where Luther spoke, where Goethe sang, and Mozart once held the sceptre of harmony. Great names shone there, in science and in art, names that are unknown to us. One day devoted to seeing Germany, and one for the North, the country of Oersted and Linnaeus, and for Norway, the land of the old heroes and the young Normans. Iceland is visited on the journey home : Geyser boils no longer, Hecla is an extinct volcano, but the rocky island is still fixed in the midst of the foaming sea, a continual monument of legend and poetry.
1 There is really a great deal to be seen in Europe,' says the young American, ' and we have seen it in a week, according to the directions of the great traveller ' (and here he mentions the name of one of his contemporaries) ' in his celebrated work, " How to See all Europe in a Week." ' |
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UNDER THE WILLOW TREE
The region round the little town of Kjoge is very bleak and bare. The town certainly lies by the sea-shore, which is always beautiful, but just there it might be more beautiful than it is : all around are flat fields, and it is a long way to the forest. But when one is really at home in a place, one always finds something beautiful, and something that one longs for in the most charming spot in the world that is strange to us. We confess that, by the utmost boundary of the little town, where some humble gardens skirt the |
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