This reminds me of one of our countrymen who arrived in his carriage at dead of night at some Italian city of great interest. “Antonio, what is the name of this place?” On hearing it, he puts the name down in his pocket-book, and orders the horses, exclaiming—“Thank goodness; done another place.”
The next thing will be that we shall hear of some Beckford blasting the rock, and erecting a summer-house like that at the Falls of the Rhine, for the tourists to peep out of.
Fancy a Dutchman in such a place! The elation of the Prince of Orange, when he got to this spot, was such, that he and the botanist who accompanied him, are recorded to have drunk more wine than was good for them. “Pull off your hat, sir,” he hiccuped to the chief guide, in reverence, the reader will suppose, to the spirit of the spot. “Pull off your hat, I say; it is not every day that you guide a Prince to the Vöring!”
It was not till six o’clock that we were down at Garatun; so that the excursion is a good stiff day’s work. But to this sort of thing I had become accustomed, having walked on the two preceding days a distance of more than sixty English miles.
Crossing the gloomy little lake Eidsfjord, in a small boat rowed by my guide, and then over the little isthmus which separates it from the sea, I arrived at the “Merchant’s” at Vik. An English yacht, with Oxford men on board, lay at anchor close by. This I boarded forthwith, and was entertained by the hospitable owner with tea and news from England.
Magnus, the innkeeper, is evidently a man making haste to be rich. He has cows in plenty on the mountains; but he takes care to keep them there, and there is, consequently, not a vestige of cream or milk in his establishment, let alone meat, or anything but flad-brod and salted trout. He exultingly tells me that he was the guide-in-chief to the Dutch Prince, and what a lot of dollars he got for it. I don’t know whether these people belie his Royal Highness, but here is another anecdote at his expense.
“Magnus,” said the Prince, after paying him, “are you content? Have I paid as much as any Englishman ever did? For if any Englishman ever paid more, tell me, and I’ll not be beaten.”
As far as I could gather, Magnus, in reply, hummed and hawed in a somewhat dubious manner, and thus managed to extract a dollar or two more from his Highness.
Princes, by-the-bye, seem the order of the day. During the few hours I stopped here, a Prussian Prince and his suite, travelling incognito, also arrived, and passed on to the Waterfall.
The stream between this and the fresh-water lake above holds salmon and grilse, but there are no good pools.