Show 5 feidi hc C cist 6 V I 1 7 4 vadstena Vad stena castle on lake battern Vat tern prepared by the th national society neton D M service WEDEN Is still a land of castles casties SWEDEN S although the owners of 0 many large states estates have felt the me effect of world depression and have been forced to curtail sharply their living expenses yet tet modern housing has made few inroads except in the large cities and the country gentlefolk as a rule adhere closely to quaint traditions of homeliness inherited from their ance ancestors it Is not so easy to know the swedes well especially the dwellers in the country who for the most part r tay stay at home on their property forell foreigners n ers are often led to think that they are tiff stiff and reserved sometimes a little sullen or even haughty hut but this should be interpreted rather as a sign of their northern shyness they are in reality full of tun fun and of warm feelings but when it Is a question of showing the latter their shrinking from impulsive gestures and emotional or grandiloquent language Is both comic and touching this Is one aspect in which the relationship tion ship with the english Is most clearly visible certainly the fetters are loosened somewhat Bome what when they are in a festive mood and have drunk a little wine but it Is not then that one gets closest to them to know and value thern them fully one must observe them within their own four walls in their dally life and activities only in intimacy free from allen alien disturbing elements does docs their charming individuality come to full flowering swedish home life la Is a cult and a culture unlike anything else the product of centuries of tender polishing and refining and nowhere has it attained such perfection as in the old country houses there still were families which can maintain to some degree their former luxurious standard of living some had the good fortune or the prudence not to invest their fortunes in the securities which had bad later been affected by the crisis and the kreiziger Krei T K reuger iger crash others othera had all their land leased on old and profi profitable lable contracts so long as the tenants could keep keel up tip their payments but these were comparatively few and privileged exceptions big landowners suffer if the situation Is serious for nearly everyone nowadays it t Is often catastrophic for the great landowners and territorial magnates not a 9 month passes hut but some rome of them have to leave home and property and where they stick to their old estates despite till all their difficulties diffIcult les they often do so less for or their own sake hut but more in order not to abandon their retainers to unemployment in the case of entailed estates there are of course no bankruptcies and forced pales but it Is not much more pleas nut to be placed under the management of hanks and creditors for swedish a can no longer pay its way there Is the same conflict between agriculture and industry as in most other countries and it looks as if the former were getting the worst of it A series of relief schemes has been started to try to aid ag ri culture in sweden I 1 as elsewhere plse el ew where here hut but there has been no visible result thus far an intensive educational education nl campaign has been set on font state advisers and controllers have been provided for every ery branch of forestry and agriculture there are such things as the milk dues clues which are intended to make up tip the difference in price of the butter which Is sold at home and that which Is exported at unduly cheap rates it Is hoped by such measures to keep the price of the former somewhat above production costs such Is also the airn aim of the new milling laws according to which no mill mav grind foreign grain without mixing with it a high percentage of ballve grain an active agitation Is carried on for buying swedish and for burning swedish wood in the heating apparatus of public institutions to reduce the importation porta por tation tinn of enal coal most of the medieval castles in sweden are situated on hel heights ts sur stir round roundel rounded pl by water or in otherwise inaccessible places such placement need needless to say ray was not no due to any considerations for natural beauty apauty hut but it afforded the most advantageous daren P for strong stone houses s nad developed direct from the whole foundations are still found herp and fortresses made into dwellings when sweden in the sixteenth cen tury ceased to he be by civil war the anomy and fortresses were gradually converted into dwelling wellins tl hoi houses vvs As timp insl ji grew brew more and more comfortable and esthetic considerations became more decisive many of the most beautiful castles in sweden date from this interesting te transition period from the beginning of the seventeenth century sweden was a great power and remained one till charles unlucky campaigns impoverished the country and put an end to its domination in the baltic among the medieval swedish castles touching the early renaissance style bult and torup borup are the most characteristic and best preserved they are in skane and were debult in the sixteenth century VItt and torup borup are laid out on a similar plan with four wings round a courtyard towers at diagonally opposite corners stepped gables and firing passages and both were surrounded for defense purposes by moats over which I 1 drawbridges were lowered in 1 olden times at torup borup these moats have been filled swee since the eighteenth century along two of the facades and replaced by gardens laid out in the old style with sculptures rose pergolas per golas and box hedges but the charmingly weathered brick walls are still reflected in quiet waters among water lilies and proud swans the courtyard at torup borup with its gothic cloister and pointed arches Is one of the most remarkable in the country from the standpoint of art and history A stone tablet Is set into the wall over its gateway its latin inscription Is dated 1632 and was composed by the owner of the property at that time alme sigvard grubbe a scholar and a friend of the king he calls upon his successors whoever they may be to do all in their power as he did to preserve and beautify the ancient building they have inherited baroness cohets estate probably none of them has been better equipped to carry out this injunction than its present owner baroness Henr henriette lette coyet coyel on terms of close friendship with most of the members of the royal family she loves to surround herself with eminent personalities in various branches of art and science and she Is a comprehending friend to them nobel prize winners and other foreign el n celebrities are received at torup borup when they visit sweden the swedes in general the people of skane in particular ti have felt themselves secure in the knowledge that no one could represent them more worthily than this lively highly cultured lady of course so energetic a person does not content herself merely with social life and the management of her great house her keenness tor for the promotion of local home industry and the preservation of local treasures has benefited the whole province the same may be said of her experience and taste in all that concerns gardening and the cultivation of flowers the extensive park of torup borup surrounded by luxuriant beech woods the different beds with with old fashioned ro serles and herb gardens are favorite goals of specialists and laymen for purposes of study in the ancient guardroom where in old times the garrison of the castle sat by the loopholes and guarded the drawbridge there now hangs a remarkably fine collection of modern paintings fine country houses big country houses lie all along the ses seacoasts coasts of southern sweden and still thicker in Vaster gotland so rich in ancient memorials south of lake on the northern side of the lake Is farmland Vann land whose old family legends and traditions have been made known far outside the boundaries of sweden by selma La gerlofs poetical descriptions but most of the great country houses of central sweden and the finest are to be found in the provinces which abut on long lake bla malaren laren at whose exit to the sea stockholm lies iles it was there especially that the primeval people of sven svea lived thence sprang who laid the foundations of russia and the vikings who ravaged the mediterranean coasts and it was there that christianity was first introduced into sweden foundations and a few massive stone houses still survive from this long vanished time and in certain cases the same family has lived on the same property for three or four centuries there are estates which for too COO or even years have been handed down from one generation to another without ever being sold though these of course are rare exceptions many lie far from the towns so that none of f the modern thirst for super fickal exciting pleasures has yet found its way to them that Is why the old swedish traditions in all classes of society anre more firmly rooted there than where pise else |