Åsgårdstrand anno 1800
Malt av John William Edy
No. LX. TOWN OF AASGAARSTRAND. This is a small seaport, commonly called Öester Strand, situated on the west shore of the Fiord of Christiania, between Holmstrand and Tonsberg, in the district of Jarlsberg. It stands pleasantly on the declivity of a hill, surrounded on three sides by woody mountains. For so small a town, it has its share of good stone houses, whitewashed, with good gardens, inhabited by shipowners and timber merchants ; the other dwellings built of wood and painted red, are the residences of pilots, mariners, fishers and woodmen, with their families. A few ships only, are freighted with timber here ; they lie at anchor, under the woods, a little to the eastward of the town. At the water side, are two or three warehouses, and stages or wharfs, for the convenience of shipping goods. The church is on a small scale. On the hill over the anchoring place, is a mansion, commanding an extensive view of the Fiord, and adjacent parts; the salt-works at Tonsberg, Drobak, the great isthmus near Mos, and the ferry-house, where a sloop (as seen by the side of the ship in the picture) is always in readiness, to convey goods and passengers across the Fiord, to the west of Norway distant four or five miles. This passage saves to the traveller going from Mos to the west, a circuitous route through Christiania, &c, of 120 miles. A pleasant water excursion may be undertaken from this place, down the Fiord to Tonsberg, to see the stupendous salt-works, and the town, and sailing round the Fader light, return by Frederickstad, Larkoul, Mos, and Drobak. The salt-works are an immense range of white buildings by the side of the Fiord at Walloe, four or five miles from the town of Tonsberg, having two conspicuous wind-mills. This Koyal manufactory annually produces 25,000 tons of salt. Tonsberg is very ancient, as the remains of its castle denote. There are some embalmed bodies, and skeletons of gigantic proportions, of early kings and heroes, which are deemed most singular curiosities. It has several churches, and a large wind-mill on the hill. On Fader Island, in a stone building like a lime-kiln, a large fire is always kept burning from sunset to sunrise, as a beacon to direct ships. Coasting among the numerous islands, back to Frederickstad, you enter an arm of the Glommen, the largest and longest river in Norway ; on an island in a narrow part of it, is a new square fort or battery, a little above which, are the roadstead and buildings, with a strong walled garrison, containing many troops, ammunition? &c, this being a barrier town. Here are also convicts, undergoing their different punishments; they are heavily ironed, and some of them are chained by the neck to wheelbarrows for life. Two miles above the town at Hafeslun, is the stupendous cataract called Sarpe Foss, the largest Sarpe in Norway; the roaring of its flood may be heard at a distance of many miles; it extends across the noble Glommen, and pours the whole of its waters over a precipice, into a foaming cauldron white as snow, shaking the earth all around, and at times presenting the most beautiful prismatic colours. At its sides are many saw-mills belonging to of deals are prepared Chamberlain Rosencrantz. An astonishing quantity of deals are prepared here, and annually exported. Mos, Larkoul, &c, will be described in future pages of this work.