Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
COxk’s TRAVELS IN DENMARK. 325
Hirfholm, a royal palace begun by Chriftian the Sixth, and finifhed by his queen,
Chriftina Sophia, is a large quadrangular building of brick, {tuccoed white, furround-
ed by a moat, and placed in a low and marfhy fituation. ‘The fuite of apartments is
princely, but almoft without furniture, as they have not been inhabited fince the im-
prifonment and exile of Queen Matilda, who made it her favourite refidence. The
dining-room is a large apartment, and remarkable for a jet a’eau, and twelve fountains,
{pouting from the fides. The gardens are formal, and full of jets d’eau. ‘The place
is fo entirely neglected, that the court.yard is over-run with weeds, and the moat is a
green mantled pool. Orders were lately received to put the palace in repair for the
refidence of the Prince-royal, who difplays an affe@tionate attachment to the memory of
his mother.
In the gardens is a fummer-houfe, which ferved as a temporary theatre for the di-
verfion of Queen Matilda, and her company ; and in another part is a wooden building
called a Norway-houfe, containing landfcapes of Norway in relief, and imitations of
rocks, with wooden cottages perched on them, and wooden roads. Near this building
the walks are not unpleafantly carried through the grounds in the Englith ftyle.
The road from Hirfholm to Fredericfborg winds agreeably, through a beautiful and
undulating country, richly clothed with forefts of beech, birch, and oak, and enlivened
by fmall lakes in the recefles of the wood.
Fredericfborg was built by Chriftian the Fourth, and was fo called in honour of his
father Frederic the Second. It is an enormous and motley pile of building, partly
of red brick, and partly of {tone, partly Gothic, and partly in the Grecian ftyle of ar-
chite@ture. It is built round three courts, each of which is furrounded by moats, and
joined by bridges, ‘The principal facade is full of niches, containing bad ftatues. In
the inner court are two ftories of feven arches, conftructed with ftone painted black,
and pillars of dark Norwegian marble. ‘This appendage contrafting with the red brick
produces a ftrange effect ; while a profufion of gilding and mafly {culpture dishgures
rather than adorns the building. 3
The fituation, on the banks of a {mall lake, is not unpleafant. The palace contains
a large collection of pictures, in great confufion, among which I obferved a few not
unworthy of notice. The crucifixion of our Saviour, by Andreas Peters, a Danith
painter, in the reign of Chriftian the Fourth; three brought from Italy, by Frederic
the Fourth ; Saul and David, after the death of Goliath, by an unknown hand; Abra-
ham and Melchifedec, by Caravaggio, difplaying the long contraft of light and thade,
and that vulgar nature which chara¢terizes the works of that capricious painter; Jo-
nas preaching to the Ninevites, by Salvator Rofa, the figures as large as life, and in the
grand ftyle of that great. mafter; feveral tolerable paintings of the Flemith fchool,
chiefly feriptural fubjects.
One of the apartments contains a fuite of the imaginary portraits of the kings of
Denmark, before the converfion of the Danes to the chriftian religion. In another I.
obferved the whole length figures of the kings of Denmark of the houfe of Oldenburgh
beginning with Chriftian the Firft, and ending with Chriftian the Fifth, all originals.
Of thefe the portrait of Chriftian the Second is the moft ftriking, as it exhibits a fine ex-
preffion of that melancholy, feverity, and cruelty, which formed a prominent feature in
the charaéter of that deteftable tyrant. A head of his queen Ifabella, filter of the Em-
peror Charles the Fifth, reminded me of her mild and amiable qualities ; of the meek-
nefs and patience, and yet dignity, with which fhe fupported the harfhnefs and infideli.
ties of her obdurate hufband in the time of his prolperity; of her extreme attachment
to him in the hour of his difgrace; of her unwearted attentions to foothe his difap.
a point.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
