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296 HELSINGBORG. Chap. XIX.
over their Danish neighbours—’twould be difficult were
it otherwise, the art of sleeping being not “ well
understood” in Denmark. In the early ballads a deserted
damsel or afflicted queen invariably lies down on her
“ bolster blue,” than which nothing can sound more
uncomfortable. If, after threats, tears, and implorations,
you do manage to get a bed long enough for a moderately
grown individual, in revenge it will prove narrow as a
coffin; the clothes too are narrower still; and you have
either the choice to be pegged down, like Queen Gunhild
in her mose, or pass a weary night, the blankets and
coverlets everlastingly tumbling off. The only remedy
is to procure a double supply, and place them
transversely ; you can then move and turn yourself like a
wheel on your own axis.
Helsingborg boasts of one church similar to most of
these northern countries, with rich carved altarpiece
and pulpit gorgeously gilded and picked out in divers
colours. There is a fine double monument—a gravestone
of blue lias, and an epitaphium of the same material—
to Steen Bilde and his wife, of the end of the sixteenth
century; in the latter the “ nobilis heros,” as he is
styled, is represented engaged in prayer, armed
cap-à-pie.
The lofty square tower I see from my windows
proves to be the sole remains of the once strong
castle of Helsingborg. We mounted it; and in a
terrible tumble-down state it is. In one of the rooms,
called the chapel, the guide showed us what he called
a rack, with four huge rings attached to it: it may be
so; but I believe it to be nothing more than a large
door dismounted from its hinges. It was very windy
on the summit; the Swedish coast is flat and bare.
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