Risør år 1800, fra Boydell's picturesque scenery of Norway
No. XXII. TOWN OF ÖSTER RIISÖER. The scenery in the vicinity of Lunde presents nothing particularly striking until you arrive at West-Röe, situated on the N.W. bank of Sönnelöv Firth, which contains a large, and various smaller islands of most picturesque appearance. Sailing down the firth you land at a small cove, whence the road leads through corn-fields and over some heath to Öster Riisöer. This town is situated under stupendous rocks, which, if not supported by means of huge iron bars, would in many places involve it in ruins. The summit of one of the rocks on the highest ridge was constantly kept white by the pilots, to serve as a beacon to ships, previous to the war with England. This spot presents a most sublime view of the sea, firth, town and islands. The entrance to the harbour is guarded by a fort; yet nature has more effectually provided for the defence of the place than art has done; a vast number of rocks, partly visible and partly not, being scattered about in all directions. Mary Wollstonecraft has given a lively and a very exact description of this town; but to judge from her remarks on the inhabitants, they would scarcely appear worthy of being classed with respectable Hottentots. Some of the good folks of Öster Riisöer took, however, great delight and some degree of pride in shewing me the house in which the rhapsodical writer alluded to resided. The severity of her remarks did not appear to have affected her remembrance, which they cherished with something like sympathy and regard. The defender of the Rights of Women possessed, I was informed, in no small degree, the kind regards of the ladies at Öster Riisöer, although the women of Norway, no more than the men, are under no great obligations for the delicacy and correctness of her sketches of them. But Mary Wollstonecraft wrote under the impressions of various bitter disappointments; and she may perhaps be forgiven for not blazoning forth the virtues and talents of pirates, corrupt judges, paltry traders and pettifogging attornies. In as far, however, as her remarks may lead to conclusions of the national character, she is greatly to be blamed. "The feast of reason and the flow of soul" form but seldom parts of those entertainments to which transient strangers, especially if engaged in commercial pursuits, are admitted in Norway; and he who should found an estimate of the national character on the attainments and habits of that portion of the inhabitants which is more particularly open to the inspection of foreigners and strangers, would indeed be guilty of a most egregious mistake. Nine-tenths of the trading body have no right to be considered as part of the Norwegian nation. An assertion so grave should, however, be supported by some proof; I shall therefore quote the authority of Professor Wilse, a Norwegian clergyman, who had the honour and welfare of the nation too much at heart to make any statements lightly or inconsiderately. He observes1 " The flower of the nation is to be found in the interior and mountainous parts of the country, at a distance from the towns. In and about the latter, as well as in those parts of the country which border on Sweden, the nation has much degenerated. Therc is indeed so great a difference between the inhabitants of these parts and those in the upland, that they do not appear to belong to the same people. Among the former villainy, idleness, and profligacy have spread to an alarming extent. With regard to bodily qualities, the Norwegians are healthy, strong and stout, but more so in the upland than in the vicinity of the seaport towns. Here, from an increased use of strong drinks, among otber articles of traffic and a more careless education, many adults appear as if they were not full grown." The French revolution, the continental system, the doctrines of the German Illuminati, and an English education, as the Norwegians are pleased to term it, have not contributed to render Professor Wilse's observations less strikingly applicable at the present day than they were twenty-two years ago. 1.^ Travels in some Northern Countries, by Jacob Nicolai Wilse, Professor of Divinity, Vol. I. page 26. Copenhagen, 1790.