the late King, Bernadotte, once observed, when he entered it, that he
saw a multitude of rooms, but would be glad to know which apartment he
was to live in.

The same kind of mirrors that I had seen at Copenhagen and Gottenborg
projected outside the windows here, so that no one need move from his
chair to know all that occurs in the street; and this is also an
important exemption, for the casements of nearly all the houses in
Christiania are double, for the purpose of warmth. Large archways lead
to larger yards, into which the houses open, and street-doors are almost
dispensed with. Neither do the buildings ascend to any great altitude,
but two stories are, for the most part, considered the orthodox height.
The shop windows are not gay, and the name and pursuit of their owners
are badly lettered, and in hieroglyphics I could not read.

The largest open place is the market, and that is not so large as
Covent Garden. The streets are a little better paved than those of the
more southern capitals of the North, but are not of greater width than
Coventry Street, or St. Martin's Lane; and, being unlighted by gas, it
is difficult at night, should it prove rainy and dark, to keep out of
the gutters. At the point where four streets meet, you may generally
observe a well, and around this well a knot of idlers, men and women,
congregate and gossip, leaning against its palings; but the respectable
portion of the inhabitants are never to be found in the streets,
although they may be seen, on summer evenings, walking on the terrace of
the fortress.

To one looking from the sea, the fortress is on the left of the town,
and was the first object we caught sight of when sailing up the Fiord.
It is valueless as a place of defence; and I do not think it has been of
any service to the Norwegians, except when Charles XII. attacked
Christiania; and, then the Swedish monarch would have battered the town
to atoms, had not his attention been distracted by wars on the other
frontiers of his kingdom. There is a hill on the right, nearly double
the altitude of that on which the fortress is built; and an enemy,
making himself master of that spot, has the citadel under his feet, and
may amuse himself by rolling stones into the town.

Running parallel with one part of the Fiord, and from the quay to the
castle, is a raised terrace, broad enough to admit of fourteen or
fifteen people walking abreast; and here, on the Sabbath summer's
afternoon all