produced by the returning daylight, were not
so decided as those which attended upon its
departure. At about a quarter to five, it
was decided that the Eclipse was over, and
so we descended from our eminence towards
the mines, in the guest-chamber of which
we were to find a feast awaiting us.

On our way we stopped to look at the
inside of a Sæter. It contained two rooms;
the first being the living-room was hung
round with dairy utensils, and furnished with
primitive home-made chairs and tables, which
stood at all angles on a rough mud floor. An
old man was sitting by a low wood fire,
smoking; and two little bare-legged and
yellow-haired children were silenced in the
middle of a noisy frolic by our entrance.
Both rooms were extremely low and small,
and fitted only for that season of the year
during which they are to be occupied. Of the
cattle we saw nothing, they were scattered
far and wide upon the pastures.

We ourselves rambled to our pasture in the
little guest chamber, a small wooden building,
of which the floor was strewn with sprigs
of juniper, a kind of carpeting that gives
a strong smell to Norwegian rooms. Some
beautiful specimens of cobalt ore from the
adjacent mines were there deposited, one of
which I was told was even finer than that
which had been sent to the Great Exhibition.

Summoned to dinner, I was much aghast at
finding that the head of the table was allotted
to me as the stranger. Dinner began with
tea, and after this we had the usual pies, and
fowls, and bottles of a pic-nic. Toasts were
in much request, including the healths of all
the great astronomers then honouring Norway
with their visits; this we very properly did,
because it was in the character of amateur
astronomers that we had formed our pic-nic
party. When we prepared for our departure
we discovered that the rain had come to see
us home. Wrapped in all sorts of plaids and
cloaks we took leave of our host and hostess,
and climbing into our respective vehicles—
which formed together quite a motley group
of carriages and carrioles, we drove off at a
rapid pace, some taking one road, some
another, galloping to our respective beds.

A DAY OF DINNER.

A Norsk dinner-party is a very serious
affair. It is not, like our parties in England,
limited to a duration of from four to five
hours, and those in the evening of the day,
when the usual occupations of most people
are completed; in Norway, the fashionable
hour for dinner is from two to three, and if
the party be at all large, dancing and singing
follow, so that the whole business probably is
not concluded until two or three o'clock in
the next morning. There is something
exceedingly quaint and primitive in the
Norwegian manners, and to our ideas, even in
their dress and physiognomy. The people do
not look much unlike Englishmen, but the
likeness in them is to the old-fashioned
portraits of our ancestors, not to the men of
our own day.

At a dinner party, which I mean now to
describe, guests, to the number of twenty or
thirty, were expected. To the last, the precise
number who would come, remained uncertain:
for in Norway, that essentially free country,
a custom prevails of giving very general and
undecided answers to all invitations, also of
bringing without scruple any chance guest in
addition to those members of the family
really invited.

One large room having been completely
cleared of all extraneous furniture, the dinner
tables were arranged in the form of three
sides of a square, leaving only room between the
tables and the walls for the passage of waiters
behind the chairs. Another room was
appropriated to the reception of the guests, a third
was prepared for the smokers of the party,
and the wide folding-doors of the hall
(universal here) were thrown wide open, seats
being arranged inside and out for such of the
company as preferred these less formal
quarters. The door-way was hung with
flowers, a fresh green mat of young fir boughs
was laid down before it, and as a finishing
touch, the sand which supplies the place of
gravel, was carefully raked over. Soon after
two o'clock the arrivals began, guests came
in carriages of every imaginable size and
shape. The grandees came in very high
old-fashioned barouches, very much the worse for
wear, and of which it was impossible to guess
even the colour through the mud and dust,
which seemed to have accumulated over them
during the past months or years. Some drove in
double, some in single carrioles; very few came
on foot. These arrivals following each other in
rapid succession, one was soon lost in a
confused maze of " Frus," and their " Fröken"
daughters; " Madames " with their " Jomfrus,"
Proosts, Pastors, and titles, or rather,
designations, without number. Titles,
properly so called, were, some years since,
suppressed by a decree of the Storthing; this, in
spite of the king's refusal to sanction it, was
passed after it had been persisted in by three
successive Storthings, in accordance with the
laws of the Norwegian Constitution. But,
although the class of nobility no longer exists,
everyone enjoys his own title, expressive of
his occupation in the world. Thus, a
dignitary of the church, answering perhaps, to
our Rural Dean, is called Proost, and his wife
Proostinde; a lawyer is called Advokat; a
shopkeeper, Kjobmand, and so on. This is
the rule in writing; in general conversation
it is usual to mention the surname only. The
company having arrived, was not kept waiting
for the wine and cakes, which it is fit to offer
before dinner. The sofa is held to be the
seat of honour, and to it the most distinguished
among the ladies were ushered with the
incessantly repeated " Vær saa god,"'' which does
duty for every ceremony of politeness. The