Two Visits to Denmark, 1872, 1874
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1RD STREET, .jSINGTON HIGH STREET,W. ~'" i> I TfcS QUEEN VICTORIA ST, E.G. SUBSCRI PTION HALF A GUINEA PER ANNUM & UPWARDS MESSRS. This Book is supplied by SMITH, which will ELDER & Co. to Booksellers on terms from the not admit of their allowing a discount advertised price. TWO VISITS TO DENMARK TWO VISITS TO DENMARK 1872, 1874 BY EDMUND GOSSE LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1911 All rights reserved TO SIDNEY LOW PREFACE THIS little volume makes no pretence at being a record of adventure or a guide to the tourist. The author of it, as he hopes, has nowhere denned his own fugitive and unimportant silhouette, while endeavouring to paint emphatically the figures amongst whom, with so much emotion, he had the privilege of moving. Nor has he, in any instance, he believes, lingered to describe what the ordinary visitor may see under the competent guidance of a Baedeker. What he has tried to convey is an impression of the moral and intellec- tual aspect of one of the smallest, but one of the most cultivated countries of Europe, as he saw it nearly forty years ago. Where so many travellers give us a picture of sport or a succession of land- scapes, he has sought to present the portrait of a condition of national culture. That the painting had to be superficial is obvious, that it was made at first-hand is evident the author equally ; and cannot help hoping that the freshness of the impression may in some measure be held to weigh against its slightness. vii PREFACE It is not as the result of accident that the condition of Denmark in the early 'seventies has been chosen for the subject of this study. It has been chosen because it gives an opportunity for the consideration of a theme which is in danger of being completely neglected and ignored by the inhabitants of an Empire like ours, namely the function and value of the small nations in the civilisation of the world. It is in the light of that inquiry, in the course of an investigation of how far, and in what way, the smaller countries of Europe justify their independent existence, that I would wish, if possible, that the succeeding pages might be exclusively read. The advantages of quantity are obvious, and they are urged upon us nowadays with an almost wearisome insistence. But a small country, if it is to remain dignified and estimable, must concentrate its energies on quality. The question, therefore, whether a small country does or does not deserve to continue independent, must more and more be answered by another question : Does it or does it not keep up a high standard of independent national culture ? In Denmark, at the time of my two visits, a very curious condition of things existed. Here was a small but ancient nation one of the oldest and one of the smallest in Europe just recovering from viii PREFACE a war with one of the youngest and largest of European nations, a war in which she had been worsted almost as completely as a delicate old lady might be in a fight with a vigorous navvy. But although she was bleeding and crushed, Denmark she retained her modes of was not destroyed ; thought, her extraordinary mental activity, her distinguished personal outlook upon life. At this juncture, full of enthusiasm and prejudice, a young Englishman appeared on the scenes, and collected those meagre, but ardent and honest, notes which are here put into shape. They present themselves to the reader, in so far as they go, as dealing with the interior rather than the exterior features of a society at that time almost unstudied in the rest of Europe. It was Hoppner, I think, who excused the exhibition of portraits of nameless persons Mrs. the of that if the A. and , by saying picture was well painted, it was interesting in itself and gave the onlooker a new friend to think about. I foresee the objection, inherent on my scheme, that many of the people I describe are little known or not known at all to the ordinary English reader. The objection may be exaggerated : Hans Christian Andersen is known in every English household. The names of Niels Gade, Georg Brandes, Martensen, ix PREFACE and Madvig. to mention but a few of my ombres chinoises, are familiar to our public. But that most of the others are not known at all is doubtless a dis- advantage, which even a reference to the Encyclo- paedia Britannica will not entirely remove, so that I must fall back upon Hoppner's plea, and hope that the portraits may sometimes please as portraits, although the reader has never seen the original. A word about the impressions themselves : They were written down at the time, in journals and letters, more or less roughly, with no idea of publication. In these days, such a visitor would be writing for a newspaper, or consciously preparing for a book. In 1872 we were not so sophisticated, and if I took copious notes it was with no thought that they would ever be published. If it had been otherwise, doubtless I should have secured many useful particulars now lost, but I hope that a cer- tain freshness is retained by the fact that I thought only of my own instruction and pleasure. The elderly man who puts these pages together has not attempted to tone down the enthusiasm of the wrote if a reader is boy who them ; yet, sagacious inclined to laugh at so much zeal about poetry and such sustained illusion, why, the author will not be grieved, but, somewhat sadly, will smile too. August 1911. E. G. x CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY NOTE 25! 1872 i INTERLUDE ... .... 135 1874 141 INDEX 367 INTRODUCTORY NOTE ON the 22nd of January, 1864, the President of the Danish Council, Bishop Monrad, announced ' amid loud cheers that we are about to fight to prevent a foreign Power from forcing itself into Slesvig.' This was the beginning of the second Danish War with Germany. A week later the Prussian General von Wrangel crossed the frontier, and, the Danes retiring, evacuated the town of Slesvig. After a slight resistance, the Germans occupied Flensborg, and pushed on to the strongly fortified position of Dybbol, where the Danes made a determined stand, with the island of Als as their base. Dybbol held out until the i8th of April, when the Prussians stormed it. In May the Danes defeated the Austrians at the naval battle off Heligoland, but this was their only spark of success. Both Austria and Prussia had declared, before the war broke out, that they had no wish to dis- member the Kingdom of Denmark, and would, in xiii INTRODUCTORY NOTE any case, abide by the Treaty of 1852. There now followed a truce, while England entered into negotia- tions on this basis for the purpose of stopping the war, but she did it languidly and in vain. At the close of June hostilities broke out afresh, and Als was conquered by the Prussians after a night attack, the Danish man-of-war outside Sonderborg looking on, helpless to interfere. This disaster was over- whelming, and when it was followed by the aban- donment of Jutland, Denmark could do no more nor less than consent to terms of peace. Nearly 200,000 persons, of the Danish-speaking population, were transferred against their will to Prussia, and the language of Germany was forced upon them. The King of Denmark, in a poignant address to the ' Rigsraad, on the 6th of August, said, Since all Europe leaves us helpless, since we see ourselves obliged to yield to numbers, we must endeavour to close a war, the prolonging of which would merely expose our beloved country to greater misfortunes and a still worse injustice.' This second Danish War, which happened when I was a schoolboy, was the earliest foreign event in which I took an interest. How lively that interest in Denmark became, perhaps the following pages may show. XIV . 1872 CHAPTER I NOTHING could have been more depressing than the opening hours of my adventure. I was in that mood in which one questions whether the game proposed is worth the sacrifice of candle. When I left Hamburg, on the afternoon of July 12, 1872, my only companion in the railway-carriage was a stiff Prussian officer of brilliant mechanical aspect. He looked as though he had been poured in a molten state into his uniform, and had by this time finally cooled. I judged him relieved from the German occupation of France and returning to his ordinary duties. As he neither read nor looked out of window, and as I felt a yearning to be sociable, I presently, with all politeness, asked him whether he would like to glance at the current number of the Illustrated London News, which I happened to have with me. B 2 3 TWO VISITS TO DENMARK This was then commonly much appreciated on the" Continent, where picture-newspapers were a novelty. The Prussian officer gazed at me with a look of indescribable hauteur, and said loudly ' ' Nein ! Just that monosyllable, without a smile or a thank you. Into my corner I shrank back, delivered over without respite to my sense of dejection, horribly conscious of littleness, youthfulness and insignifi- cance. But at Rendsburg station the Uhlan suddenly clanked out of the carriage, and I felt very much as the Danes would feel if the Prussians, without warning, evacuated Als. When the half- empty train crept on, I was alone, and I remained so until the end of my journey, which was prose- cuted through some of the dreariest scenery in Europe.