little for the commercial relations of the capital of Elfin Majesty.

We had just breakfasted and were about to start, when in comes our good-humoured hostess to ask would we receive the visit of Kammerherr the chief gentle

man of the town. Of course we are only too happy; and in he is ushered; is quite shocked to hear of our trouble of last night; has scolded the postmaster for not sending us to lodge with him, it would have given him and the Kammerherrinde such pleasure to receive us. She expects us to breakfast; we had only just concluded our own, but of course accept. So we accompany him to his house, and are kindly received by the lady and her daughters, and made to promise and vow if ever we come again to Store Hedinge we will make a long abode with them. The carriage is announced, and, after thanks and leave-taking, we drive off for Stevns Klint, a long ridge of chalk cliffs of no particular beauty or grandeur: but it would have been an insult to the island of Zealand had we omitted to see the queer old church of Høierup. Built in very early days—— the fourteenth century-some say by a skipper, others by a pirate, a votive offering to heaven in gratitude for preservation from a fearful tempest, he constructed it near the klint's edge, to serve as a landmark to those at sea. It differs little from the old brick churches of this date. While the masons were engaged in building, probably they disturbed the Trolles, for as fast as they commenced it down it came; make the walls stand straight they could not. Ill-natured people accused the architect of not knowing his duty, most wrongfully, for it was all the Trolles. The masons were about to re-commence their task when they heard a loud deep

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voice from within the hill exclaim, in Swedish, "Høier up!"-higher up. They now knew how to act, and, following the advice of the voice, built their church on the summit of the cliff, calling it Høierup, and here it stands to the present day: but it would have toppled into the water long ago, only on each Christmas-eve the angels bear it back the footstep of a cock.

The Trolles became after a time so mischievous and insupportable in Zealand, that the parsons laid their heads together, and, by some method unknown, caught them and packed them all off in a boat to their cousins of the island of Bornholm,

VALLØ.

We hasten, as fast as Danish post-horses will carry us, to Vallø, the queen of all Danish convents, a right royal foundation; foundation of Queen Madalena the magnificent.

"Give me Vallø," asked Queen Madalena of her sovereign lord, "and I'll found a chapter there for noble ladies, and we'll have such a ceremony, and a medal struck with your head and mine; a princess (German of course)-somebody who ends in 'hausenshall be the Abbess, and the ladies shall have as many quarterings as Denmark possesses Syssels." Founded it was, and a fine ceremony too (see the Danish Vitruvius); and right royal looked Queen Madalena in her new gown. She didn't find a princess whose name ended in "hausen," but something better-a princess of the. ducal house of Wurtemburg. The convent was opened in the year 1738, by the queen in person. An excellent foundation it proves to be a pity we have none such in England. Do not fancy these convents have

anything papistical about them, nothing at all: quarterings, too, are now no longer required; gentle birth alone is sufficient. The Hereditary Princess Caroline of Denmark is Abbess of the Institution. A Danish gentleman, who wishes his daughter to be entered upon the list of the ladies, intimates his desire to Count Moltke, after the baptism of the infant. On paying two thousand rix-dollars the name of his child is inscribed upon the books of the establishment, and from that day she receives a certain annual sum, the interest of the money after that it becomes an affair of time. As the older ladies die off, the younger ones mount up. Of the Dames de Vallø, whom we see dancing and waltzing about the world in white tarletan, with grand cordon and badge of the order, most of them receive from about sixty to seventy pounds; then later, as they get old and high on the list, from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty pounds yearly. The prioress receives an income of about six hundred pounds English. If any member dies or marries, she forfeits her entrance-money. The ten sisters highest on the list have apartments assigned to them in the convent: they have, of course, their own private room; but the drawing-rooms are lighted up of an evening, and they dine together, enjoy their own parson, own doctor, own equipages; a beautiful garden, with greenhouses and a deer-park ;-live among their own people. Each lady of the first class is obliged to undertake the education of some orphan child at her own expense. On the whole it is a very happy institution, and the old ladies pass the autumn of their lives in good fellowship and social comfort. The ladies of Vallø, too, hold high rank in the tables of precedence of women, coming after

countesses, and before the wives of counts' eldest sons. Those of Vemmetofte, however, rank only in the third class, along with the adjutant-generals and justices of the West India islands. Of these foundations there exist in the kingdom of Denmark, for unmarried ladies of birth, some twelve or thirteen, independent of others too numerous to mention for widows or maidens of a lower rank of life; many, indeed most, of these have been established from the economies of some dowager queen.

In England such establishments would be scarcely possible; people are too apt to care only for the sufferings of the lower classes, forgetful that those who have been reared in plenty and luxury are often more to be pitied in the time of adversity than those who have struggled against want from their youth upwards: added to this, there is a tendency with us to debase and degrade all our charities. How few foundations can be found in England, after a lapse of years, conducted according to the wishes of the founder! Establish an almshouse for the benefit of poor housekeepers-not people who have possessed houses of their own, but the old women who keep the keys and lock up the tea and sugar-why, before ten years have run by it will be swamped by dilapidated charwomen. No; establishments of this kind would never be popular in England, there would be a radical outcry against them here, in Denmark, they are looked up to and respected; and why? simply because the population is not over-abundant, and all classes are here amply cared for.

It is a fine old building, Vallø, flanked by two lofty towers, one square, the other round; brick, encircled with stone medallions; its fine old gateway, rich in