ore.

If you visit Elsinore, the guide will show you what is called Hamlet's
grave, situated in a small grove of trees, where some cunning hands long
ago erected a rude mound of stones. Shakespeare, who had a most royal
way of disregarding dates, made Hamlet live in this place after the
introduction of gunpowder, whereas if any such person ever did exist, it
was centuries earlier and hundreds of miles farther north upon the
mainland, in what is now called Jutland. However, that is not important.
Do not leave Elsinore without visiting Ophelia's fatal brook! To be
sure, this rivulet is not large enough for a duck to swim in, but a
little stretch of the imagination will overcome all local discrepancies.

Far back in Danish legendary story, a time when history fades into
fable, it is said there was a Hamlet in Northern Denmark, but it was
long before the birth of Christ. His father was not a king, but a famous
pirate chief who governed Jutland in conjunction with his brother.
Hamlet's father married the daughter of a Danish king, the issue being
Hamlet. His uncle, according to the ancient story, murdered Hamlet's
father and afterwards married his mother. Herein we have the foundation
of one of Shakespeare's grandest productions.

The Sound, which at Copenhagen is about twenty miles wide, here narrows
to two, the old fort of Helsingborg on the Swedish coast being in full
view, the passage between the two shores forming the natural gate to the
Baltic. There are delightful drives in the environs of Elsinore
presenting land and sea views of exquisite loveliness, the water-side
bristling with reefs, rocks, and lighthouses, while that of the land is
charmingly picturesque with many villas, groves, and broad, cultivated
meads.

CHAPTER XV.

One day's sail due north from Copenhagen, through the Sound,--Strait of
Katte,--brings us to Gottenburg, the metropolis of Southwestern Sweden.
The Strait, which is about a hundred miles in width, is nearly twice as
long, and contains many small islands. Gottenburg is situated on the
Gotha River, about five miles from its mouth. Though less populous, it
is commercially almost as important as Stockholm. The deep, broad
watercourse which runs through the town to the harbor is a portion of
the famous Gotha Canal, which joins fjord (inlet from the sea;
pronounced _feord_), river, lakes and locks together, thus connecting
the North Sea and the Baltic. The two cities are also joined by