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house of Linnaus, iu which he died in 1778. The house has recently
been restored and contains a small memorial museum. — Near Hammarby
are the celebrated Mora Stones (Moraslenar). The ten stones now remaining
are enclosed in a stone building erected in 1770, but probably few of them
are genuine. It was here that the newly elected kings swore to observe
the laws of the country, and they thereupon received an oath of
allegiance from the lagmän, or judges, in the name of the people, who prayed
that God might grant the king a long life, taking care to add the
reservation. ‘if he be a good king’. The original Mora Stones, whieh had all
disappeared by the time of Gustavus Vasa, consisted of a large stone,
resting on several smaller ones, adjoining which were placed the
hylln-ingsstenar, or ‘homage-stones’, on whieh the new king mounted to show
himself to the people. By the homage-stone, on the election of each new
sovereign, was placed a smaller stone bearing his name and the date. It
is of these last alone that the Jlora Stones now consist.
The train crosses the Säfjaå, an affluent of the Fyriså,
approaches the latter stream at Ultuna, traverses Kungsängen (‘the
king’s meadow’), formerly the Fyrisvall, and soon enters the
handsome station of (66 Kil.) Upsala (p. 358).
b. By Steamboat.
90 Kil. (56 Engl. 31.). Steajiboat daily in 5 hrs., starting from
Riddar-holmen (Pl. I), 5) at 9 a.m. (fare 2 kr.’). Another boat, leaving the
Munkbrohamn (Pl. I). 5) about noon, plies to Sigtuna (3 hrs.; l’/2 kr.)
and Örsundsbro.
The scenery is somewhat monotonous, and the steamer is a
slow conveyance, which stops at nineteen intermediate stations;
but those who have ample time will prefer it to the train, at least
for the journey to Upsala. The first station is Nockeby, where a
wooden bridge connects the mainland with the Kers’6, from which
another bridge crosses to Drottningholm (p. 348). The broad
expanse of Lake Mälaren is quitted here, and the steamer threads
its way between the islands and the mainland, crossing several
fjärdar (bays). On the right lies the pleasant estate of Hesselby,
beyond it that of Riddarsvik (station), and to the left is the island
of Svartsjö (p. 349). Farther on we pass , on the right, the
chateau of Görväln, built by Duke John, brother of Charles X., and
on the left that of Lennartsnäs, once the property of Lennart
Tor-stenson(d. 1651), one of the most distinguished generals of
Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years’ War. We now reach the narrow
strait of Stäket (said to be a word of Finnish origin), an island in
which, called Almare-Stäkct, contains a few fragments of the castle
called St. Erik’s Borg. An ancient stronghold which stood here was
destroyed by the Esthonians in 1187, and a castle was afterwards
erected on the same site by Nikolaus Ragvaldi, Archbishop of
Upsala. At a later period it was occupied by Archbishop Gustaf
Trolle, a powerful opponent of the administrator Sten Sture the
Younger, who took the castle and destroyed it in 1517. This
strait forms the entrance to a long and narrow arm of the lake
called Skarfven. We next pass the estate of Runsa on the right,
lleyond it, in a bay on the right, lies the chateau of Rosersberg
I p. 355), which is called at by the Sigtuna steamer, but is not
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