Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 307: New Series, Saturday, November 17, 1849Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 307: New Series, Saturday, November 17, 1849
Various
Periodicals
Over the chapel, and therefore occupying the same area, is the
Banqueting-Hall, certainly a most magnificent apartment, being no less
than 150 feet long, and of proportionate breadth, though generally
thought to be a little deficient in height. This large room is
beautifully paved with diced marble, and is covered all over with gilt
and painted ornaments, particularly in the ceiling, while each space
of wall between two windows contains a portrait of some monarch which
had been presented to the Danish sovereigns. The ceiling alone, which
is said to have been the work of twenty-six carvers for seven years,
might detain a curious visitor for a day, since there is scarcely a
familiar animal, or a trade, or art, which is not represented in it. In
one compartment you may study the business of _Distillatio_; in another
that of _Impressio Librorum_, and so forth. One sees in this and
similar places many valuable memorials of the things of a former age,
which he cannot but regret to leave after only a hasty and superficial
inspection. I am convinced that a painstaking and leisurely person, who
could take accurate drawings of such objects, would, in the course of a
few years' rambles over Europe, acquire the means of producing almost
a complete resuscitation of our mediæval ancestors in their dresses,
habits, and all other external circumstances.
When we had satisfied our curiosity with the Fredericksborg palace,
we returned to the inn, and speedily resumed our _char-a-banc_, but
with fresh horses. I observed with some surprise that the driver, in
passing out of the town, deemed himself at liberty to take a short
cut through the half-ruinous gateways and rain-bleached courts of the
palace, notwithstanding the presence of royalty within the mansion. We
found some fine woods extending from the palace in this direction, and
peopled with deer. A short drive brought us to another palace, called
Fredensberg, more modern than the last, and with some pretensions to
notice. But we were too much satiated with such sights to care for an
inspection of Fredensberg, and we therefore passed on to Elsinore,
where we arrived betimes in the evening.
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