Lähestyvän kesän ja henkilökohtaisen merkkipäivän kunniaksi kolme päivää putkeen englanninkielistä matkatarinaa ilman leikkauksia tai kommentointia. Teksti on julkaistu kirjassa The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction: containing original papers; historical narratives; biographical memoirs; manners and customs; topographical descriptions; sketches and tales; anecdotes; select extracts from New and Expensive works; poetry, original and selected; the Spirit of the Public Journals; Discoveries in The Arts and Sciences, etc. New Series. Vol IV. London 1843 vuonna 1843 ja sijoittuu höyrylaivojen aikaan eli ajoittunee joko 1830-luvun loppuun tai 1840-luvun alkuun.
From Stockholm to Abo our steampacket's course lay through a vast archipelago of rocky, pine-clad islands, as barren of other vegetation as can be well imagined, and the navigation was very intricate and not a little dangerous. On reaching Abo and finding that the St Petersburg steam packet had left some days, we were compelled to undertake the land journey through Finland, and most fortunately encountered a Norwegian gentleman, who, having purchased a spare carriage at Stockholm, kindly made us an offer of its use as far as Petersburg, a favour which we gladly accepted, the more especially as there was combined with it the pleasure of very agreeable sociaty during our journey, and access to the services of a retinue of domestics speaking all the requisite languages. Abo is the most commercial town of Finland, and possesses many handsome buildings.
We proceeded on our way, but on the second evening of the journey, in consequence of having been delayed by sandy roads, a terrific thunder-storm overtook us. The night was excessively dark, and the occasional flashes of lightning only tended to show more distinctly its pitchy blackness, while the rain fell on us as if the string of a shower bath had been pulled. The plunges of the carriages down the hills were absolutely fearful, but more indebted to good fortune than aught besides, we escaped with the harmless upsetting of one carriage of the cavalcade, and arrived after midnight at our resting station perfectly saturated by the deluge.
Helsingfors is said to be a miniature duplicate of St Petersburg, and is a peculiarly handsome little town, and has been much improved since its dependence on Russia, and since it became the capital of Finland. One of the medical gentlemen of the place kindly conducted us through the University, which is an extensive and elegant building. An observatory stands on one of the hills in the immediate neighbourhood, and we beheld from it, in the roadstead, five Russian vessels of war covered with gay flags in honour of the fête of St Alexander Nievskoi, of which that day happened to be the anniversary. The scenery hitherto, since leaving Abo, has been little varied, consisting chiefly of rocky hills covered with pine trees, between which lie log villages surrounded by patches of cultivated and meadow land.
There was nothing to vary these objects unless where the scattered birch trees, whose leaves had been changed by the early frosts of night, stood like giant laburnums with their yellow foliage: and these, contrasting well with the dark pines, seemed like the vegetable gold and emerald setting of those rocky mountains.
The Finlanders are certainly not a handsome race, but are interesting by means of their quiet simplicity, integrity, and poverty. Happening to pass through a part of their country on Sunday, we met great numbers of the peasantry en route to church, with their bibles under one arm and their shoes and stockings, after the Irish fashion, under the other. It would no doubt greatly grieve the sanctified spirit of Sir Andrew Agnew to learn that, though a law has existed for above 200 years in Finland prohibiting Sunday travelling, it has, for more than half a century past, been a dead letter in the Statute Book.
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