The record-union., 1893-12-23
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright 1881
LONDON, December Z, 1898.

LONDON, December Z, 1898.
Some of the architectural features of
Norway are exceedingly distinctive and
curious, when it is remembered that, con-
trasted with the age of civilization in
Southern Europe, the Morse are compar-
atively new corners in this Arctic land.
There are what might be termed three
zones of buildings and edifices, each Civ
ing an almost universal different exam
pie of structural style and material. In
the remote and desolate North all ancient
structures are of stone. In Southern
Norway oak and beech have been util-
lied. In the central districts everything
has been, and is still, built of pine.
If one has grown to believe that oak
represents all that is enduring and almost
everlasting among the nobler woods SER
viceable to man, his ideas must be modi-
fed when he has come to know the an
cient pine-built structures of Central
Norway. One gazes with admiration and
wonder upon the strong, perfect beams
in the old Sir Walter Raleigh house at
Youghal, Ireland, in the ancient houses
of the gentry IN other portions OF the
country, and in almost awed admiration
upon the oaken stalls, screens and tim
bers of English cathedrals, and particu
larly those in the very ancient parish
churches like those of Stoke Poges,
where Gray wrote his "Elegy," of Gras-
mere, and of Crossthwaite, at Keswick.
These have stood stanch and true for
two, three, four and, perhaps, five hun
dred years. 1t is no uncommon thing in
Norway to find eagle-nest farm build
ingS, city warehouses, bOnders' or large
farmers storehouses, as well as homes
al 10 fia
fiords, built wholly of pine, still well pre-
served, which are quite as old, while the
strange, little old churches of Central
Norway, also entirely constructed OF pine,
possess surprising number OF their orig
lnal timber placed where they stand to-
day, long before the venerable Minister Of
York or the melloWed cathedral of Sails
bury, assumed anything like their pres
ent forms.
In visiting an ''eagle-nest' farm above
the clouds beside the gloomy Naero
Tiord | noticed that the oldest portion of
the farmers hOme-a long. rambling
structure which seemed to have had built
upon it new annex for each generation
or century-was by far the stoutest, stur
diest and best. l questioned the farmer
as to its age. The family legendary mem
Ories and finally the family records agreed
that it must have been built sometime in
the sixteenth century, or perhaps three
hundred and fifty years ago. In the
Thelemarken district are many quaint
Old wooden mills which l found to be
from one hundred and fifty to two hun
dred and fifty years old. In bOnder'S
home l visited in the IrOndhiem cOun-
try, the low, wide livingrOom, around
which had been added other huger mod
ern apartments and two-story high halls,
was over four hundred years old, and as
perfect from decay in its timbers as the day
lNtlflf hon ha nfQ
of Romsdal and Gudbransdal nights, L
even found saeter huts, the habitationS of
the saeter girls, who tend the mountain
herds in summer, which had been built
from one hundred and fifty to two hum
dred and fifty years ago.
l soon began to notice that if the oldest
portion of all these structures was not the
best. it was still, considering its age, in
comparably the best preserved. and an
other curious fact, that such portion was
invariably of different construction, be-
came apparent. The pine timberS in
these structural portions Of greatest an
tiquity were invariably placed on end, in
the formation of walls, and never laid to-
gether horizontally. This ancient meth
cd of building, L finally learned. is what
the Morse call 'reisvark," and in this Pc
culiar method of building lies the secret
OF the astounding antiquity of the famous
wooden churches of Norway. Every
portion Is CONSTRUCTOR from Norwegian
pine, so enduring beyond any histori-
cally known oak that 1t has withstood the
furies of Norwegian storms, the rigors of
almost Arctic winters, and again the
searching heat of almost tropical sum-
mers, through periods ranging from five
to eight hundred years.
The appearance of both these curious
old churches and the older class Of mills
and storehouses would indicate almost an
Oriental origin. 1 have been repeatedly
impressed with the quite startling SINH
larity. Coming suddenly over some
lonely mountain path upon cultivated
valley, where, as in the Thelemarken
and Hardanger districts, little innovation
has found its way, the various groups of
farmhouses and Outbuildings, dark and
weather beaten, or here and there newly
stained with a kind of red tar much used
upon buildings in Norway have strongly
suggested Oriental atfinities in color and