A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. by Bulstrode Whitelocke
page 160 of 494 (32%)
page 160 of 494 (32%)
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any other, if not the castle of Stockholm itself.
[SN: Environs of Upsal.] The prospect from the castle is very beautiful; the country round about it pleasant and fruitful, and distinguished into meadows, pastures, and arable fields, and the river Sale passing through them, which loseth itself about half a league from thence into a great lake. The river is navigable with boats of about twenty or thirty tons, many leagues together, going through the lake also; it is not muddy, nor unfurnished with the fish of those parts, and is about half as broad as the Thames at Henley. It runs at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands, and the town is built upon it; and it waters most part of the streets, to their great commodity. It is for this reason called Upsal, because Ubbo--who, they say, was the son of Gomer, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah--this Ubbo built this town upon the river Sale, and therefore called it, after his own name, Ubbo Sale, by contraction of speech now called Upsal. All agree it to be one of the most ancient of their cities, the metropolitan see of their archbishop, and in old time the residence of their kings, and where they were invested with the regal dignity. The country about it seemed one of the most pleasant and fruitful of these parts. The town itself is not much beautified with stately buildings, not above nine or ten houses being built with brick; the rest of them, after the fashion of their country, built with great bodies of fir-trees, and covered with turf; the fairest of their brick houses was that where the English Ambassador lodged. This city hath not much trade, and therefore not much wealth. The government of it is according to the municipal law of the country, and as other cities are; their head officer is a Burgomaster, who hath for his |
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