their Industry and Art in Trading are become so excessive Rich and Potent that they began to Insult and would needs be Arbitrators to their Neighbouring Princes and States and encroach upon their Territories and Dominions This drew upon them that fatal War before-mentioned by which they were sorely weaken'd and brought so low that except GOD by a more than ordinary Providence had protected and appeared for them they had certainly been ruinated and never able to recover themselves again however their Pride hereby was much abated And as Luxury and Lasciviousness are the sad Effects of Prosperity as well as Pride so such Vices in a Body Politick and Commonwealth as do corrupt the Radical Humours by abating the Vigour of the Vital Parts do insensibly tend to the Consumption and Decay of the whole That this Commonwealth hath much recovered its Strength may clearly appear if we consider what great Things they have effected since the little time they have enjoyed Peace They have in less than 7 Years built about 40 gallant Ships of War They have laid out vast Sums of Treasure in refortifying Narden Maestricht Breda the Grave and many other Places They have paid vast Sums of Money to their Allies for their Auxiliary Troops as also 200000 l. Sterling to the King of England to Enjoy their Peace with him And besides all this their Encrease in Riches and Power may be guessed at by the many stately Houses built within these 5 Years in Amsterdam Rotterdam and other Places to all which we may add to what excessive height the Actions of the East and West-India Company are risen and the Obligations from the States are so esteemed as to Security that they can get as much Mony as they please at 2 per Cent. Not to speak of the exceeding Encrease of their Subjects occasioned by the French King's Tyranny against the distressed Protestants in France Alsace and other parts of his Conquests neither will we speak of other Signs of the Encrease of this Commonwealth as not judging it convenient to commit them to Paper but will now proceed to shew the Method of Living and Travelling in the Dominions and Places of the States which if you do well consider you may see how happy and easy the Government of England is above that of other Nations The Briell in Holland is the usual place where the Pacquet and King's Pleasure-boats bring on such as come to see the United Provinces but of late Helvoet-Sluys is the place the Pacquet comes to as being the more convenient Port Here be sure to furnish your self well with Money From hence you take a Boat to Maesland-Sluys or Rotterdam which if you go in Company with others will only cost you 5 Stivers but if you take one for your self will cost 25 Stivers for Maeseland-Sluce and a Ducatoon to Rotterdam The fifth part of which goes to the States for a Tax they call Passagie Gelt and the other four parts are for the Boat-Men or Schippers who also out of their Gains must pay a Tax to the States so that by Computation you pay a fifth Penny to the States for your Travelling either in Boats by Water or in Wagons by Land As you pass by Maseland-Sluce you will see a very fair Fishing Village to which belong near Two hundred Herring Busses but if you go by the way of Rotterdam you Sail by two old Towns called Flardin and Schiedam Yet let me advise you before you depart from the Briell to take a serious view of it as being the City which in Queen Elizabeth's time was one of the Cautionary Towns Pawned to England The Briell had a Voice among the States but by reason Rotterdam hath got away their Trade by which having lost its former Lustre is now become a Fishing Town only Rotterdam is the Second City for Trade in Holland and by some is called Little London as having vast Traffick with England insomuch that many of the Citizens Speak good English There are in this City two considerable Churches of English and Scotch And how great a Trade they drive with the King of England's Subjects is evident for in the year 1674 at the opening of the Waters after a great Frost there departed out of Rotterdam 300. Sail of English Scotch and Irish Ships at once with an Easterly Wind And if a Reason should be demanded how it comes to pass that so many English Ships should frequently come to that Haven It is easily answered because they can ordinarily Load and Unload and make returns to England from Rotterdam before a Ship can get clear from Amsterdam and the Texel And therefore your English Merchants find it Cheaper and more Commodious for Trade that after their Goods are arrived at Rotterdam to send their Goods in Boats Landward into Amsterdam This City is Famous as being the place where great Erasmus was Born whose Statue of Brass stands erected in the Market-place And although the Buildings here are not so superb as those of Amsterdam Leyden or Haerlem yet the places worth the seeing are first the great Church where several Admirals lie stately Entombed here you see their Admiralty East-India and Stadt-Houses together with that called Het Gemeen Lands Huis From Rotterdam you may for five Stivers have a Boat to bring you to Delft but before you come thither you pass through a fair Village called Overschie where the French and English Youths are trained up in Litterature as to the Latin and Dutch Tongue Book-keeping c. From thence in the same Boat you come to Delft which is Famous for making of Porceline to that degree that it much resembles the China but only it is not Transparent In Delft is the great Magazin of Arms for the whole Province of Holland Their Churches are very large in one of which are Tombs of the Princes of Orange Admiral Tromp and General Morgans Lady and in the Cloister over against the Church you have an Inscription in a Pillar of Brass shewing after what manner William the First that Famous Prince of Orange was shot to Death by a Miscreant Jesuit with his deserved Punishment Delft hath the third Voice in the States of Holland and sends its Deputies unto the College of the States General and to all other Colleges of the Commonwealth They have also a Chamber in the East-India Company as shall be more largely spoken to when we shall come to Treat of the State of the said Company From Delft you may by Boat be brought to the Hague for two Stivers and an half which is accounted the fairest Village in the World both for pompous Buildings and the largeness thereof here the Princes of Orange hold their Residence as also the States General and the Council of State here you have the Courts of Justice Chancery and other Courts of Law Here you see that great Hall in which many Hundreds of Colours are hung up in Trophy taken from the Emperor Spaniard and other Potentates with whom
Burghers are so continually alarmed that they are quite tired out with keeping Guard and paying of Taxes The City is indeed well fortified but the Government not being able to maintain above 1500 Soldiers in pay 400 Burghers in two Companies are obliged to watch every Day They have a large well-built Stadthouse and an Exchange covered on the top whereof the Globes of the World are painted This Exchange is about 50 Yards in the length and but 15 in breadth Over it there is a Room where the Skins of five Lyons which the Burghers killed at the City-Gates in the Year 1252. are kept stuft The great Market-place is very large where a Monumental-Stone is to be seen on which one of their Burghermasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a Sea-Engagement The People here spend much time in their Churches at Devotion which consists chiefly in Singing The Women are beautiful but disfigured with a kind of Antick Dress they wearing Cloaks like Men. It is cheap living in this Town For one may hire a Palace for a matter of 20 l. a Year and have Provisions at very reasonable Rates besides the Air and Water is very good the City being supplied with Fountains of Excellent Fresh Water which Hambourg wants and good Ground for Celleridge there being Cellars here 40 or 50 Foot deep I Had the Curiosity to go from Lubeck to see the Ancient City of Magdeburg but found it so ruined and decayed by the Swedish War that I had no Encouragement to stay there I therefore hastened to Berlin the chief Residence of the Elector of Brandenburg at whose Court I met with a very Ingenuous French Merchant who told me that he and divers other Merchants were designed to have lived in England but were discouraged by a Letter sent from London by a French-Man that was removing from thence to Amsterdam for these following Reasons which I Copied out of his Letter First Because the Reformed Religion is persecuted in England as it is France the which I told him was a great Untruth for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted and received into his Majesties Dominions without interruption and allowed the free Exercise of their own Form of Worship according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Churches of France Nor can they who converse with the French Ministers either in France or Holland be ignorant that the chiefest part if not all those Ministers are willing to comply with the Church of England and it is evident that most of the Dutch and French Protestants so called in Holland make use of Organs in their Churches A second thing was that both the Bank at London and the Bankers Goldsmiths were all broak the which I told this Frenchman was not true altogether for there are many able Bankers whom I named Neither was the Bank as he called the Chamber of London broak only it had been under the management of a bad Person whose design was to bring it into disgrace Besides there is the East-India-Company an unquestionable Security for those as have Money to dispose of together with another undeniable Security which is Land Thirdly he saith That in England there is no Register and therefore many Frauds in Purchases and Morgages which beget tedious Suits and renders both dangerous to trust Fourthly That if a Man would purchase Land he cannot being an Alien until Naturalized Fifthly That in England there are so many Plots and Confusions in Government that the Kingdom is hardly quiet 20 Years together Sixthly that false Witnesses were so common in England and the Crime of Perjury so slightly punished that no Man could be safe in Life or Estate if he chanced to be in Trouble Lastly he said that the English are so restless and quarelsom that they not only foment and cherish Animosities amongst one another but are every foot contriving and plotting against their Lawful Sovereign and the Government By such Surmises and Insinuations as these the French and Germans are scared from trusting themselves and Fortunes in England and therefore settle in Amsterdam Hamburgh and other Cities where there are Banks and Registers This I say is one cause why there are now to be seen at Amsterdam such vast numbers of French and Germans who have much enrich'd that City and raised the Rents of the Houses 20 per Cent. And the Silk-weavers grow also very rich keeping so many Alms-Children to do their Work and having all their Labour without any Charge only for the teaching them their Trades which hath lessened the Revenues of the French Crown and will in time greatly increase the number of the States Subjects and advance their publick Incomes Having made this Digression I return to Berlin It is a City enlarged with fair Streets and Palaces The Magistrates of the place are Lutherans which is the publick established Religion in all the Electors Dominions though he himself and his Children be Calvinists He is look'd upon to be so true to that Persuasion that he is reckoned the Protector of the Calvinists and indeed he sollicited the Emperor very hard for a Toleration of the Protestants in Hungary His Chaplains as most of the Lutheran Ministers also endeavour to imitate the English in their way of Preaching And his Highness is so much taken with English Divinity that he entertains Divines for translating English Books into the German Tongue as The Whole Duty of Man and several others He has a large and stately Palace at Berlin and therein a copious Library enriched with many Manuscripts Medals and Rarities of Antiquity He may compare with most Princes for handsom Guards being all of them proper well-bodied Men and most part Officers who ride in his Guards of Horse As he is known in the World to be a Valiant and Warlike Prince so he maintains in Pay an Army of 36000 Men besides five or six thousand Horsemen who in time of War are modelled into Troops with which Body during the late War with Sweden his Highness's Father in Person beat the Swedes out of his Country He keeps his Forces in strict Discipline obliging all the Officers if Protestants on Sundays and Holy-days to march their several Companies in order to Church but if a Superiour Officer be of a contrary Perswasion then the next in Commission supplies his place This custom is Religiously observed by all his Highnesses Garisons whilst he himself goes constantly to the Calvinist Church adjoyning to the Court with his Children being five Sons two Daughters and two Daughters-in-Law Amongst other Acts of Publick Piety and Charity this Prince hath established and endowed some Religious Houses or Nunneries for Protestant young Ladies where they may live virtuously and spend their time in Devotion as long as they please or otherwise Marry if they think fit but then they lose the benefit of the Monastery There is one of these at Hertford in Westphalia where I was and had the Honour to wait upon the Lady Abbess
Kings of Sweden have no Tombs and Monuments as in England and other Countries but are put into Copper Coffins with Inscriptions on them and placed one by another in Vaults adjoyning to the Gray-Friers Church These Vaults are about eight in Number having Turrets over them with Veins of Copper gilt carved into the Cyphers of the several Kings who give them their Names by being the first that are interred in them The Vault of the late King is not yet finished no more than the Fabricks above-mentioned which perhaps may be imputed to the late Troubles of Swedeland The Number of the Inhabitants of Stockholm are also much decreased within these few Years partly by reason of the removal of the Court of Admiralty and the Kings Ships from that City to Charles-Crown a new Haven lately made about 200 English Miles from thence which hath drawn many Families belonging to the Fleet and Admiralty from Stockholm to live there And partly because many of the Nobility Gentry and those that depended on them are as I said before withdrawn from Stockholm to a retired Life in the Country Nevertheless the ordinary sort of Burghers who still remain are extreamly poor seeing the Women are fain to work like Horses drawing Carts and as Labourers in England serving Masons and Bricklayers with Stone Bricks and Mortar and unloading Vessels that bring those Materials some of the poor Creatures in the Summer-time toiling in their Smocks without either Shooes or Stockings They perform also the part of Watermen and for a small matter will Row Passengers 40 Miles or more if they please The Court here is very thin and silent the King living frugally and seldom Dining in publick He Eats commonly with the two Queens his Mother and Consort who is a Virtuous Princess Sister to the King of Denmark She is the Mother of five Children three Sons and two Daughters with whom she spends most of her time in Retirement The King is a goodly Prince whom God hath Blessed and Endowed with Accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his Education wherein he was extreamly abused being Taught little more than his Mother Tongue He is Gracious Just and Valiant constant at his Devotion and utterly averse from all kind of Debauchery and the unfashionable Vanities of other Courts in Plays and Dancing His sports are Hunting and Exercising of his Guards and he rarely appears publickly or gives Audience to Strangers which is imputed to his Sense of the neglect of his Education He is a Prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the World which hath many times proved fortunate to great Men and indeed if we consider all the circumstances of his early Misfortunes how he was slighted and neglected by his Nobles who would hardly vouchsafe to pay him a visit when he was among them in the Country or to do him Homage for the Lands they held of the Crown and how by the pernicious Counsels of the French and the weakness or treachery of his Governors he was misled into a War that almost cost him his Crown having lost the best of his Territories in Germany and Schonen and most of his Forces both by Sea and Land If I say these things be considered it will probably appear that hardly any Prince before him hath in a shorter time or more fully setled the Authority and Prerogative of the Crown than he hath done in Sweden for which he stands no ways obliged to France as he was for the Restauration of what he lost during the War He is now as absolute as the French King and makes Edicts which have the Force of Laws without the concurrence of the Estates of the Kingdom He hath erected two Judicatures the one called the College of Reduction and the other of Inspections the first of which hath put his Majesty in Possession again of all Lands alienated from the Crown and the other called to account all Persons even the Heirs and Executors of those who had cheated the Crown and made them refund what they or their Predecessors had appropriated to their own use of the publick Revenue These two necessary Constitutions as they have reduced many great Families to a pinch who formerly lived splendidly upon the Crown Lands and Revenues and obliged them to live at home upon their ancient and private Patrimony in the Country which is one great cause that the Court of Sweden is at present so unfrequented so have they enabled his Majesty without burdening of his Subjects to support the Charges of the Government and to maintain 64000 Men in pay The Truth is his other Revenues are but small what arises from the Copper and Iron Mines one Silver Mine the Pitch and Tar the Customs and Excise amounts to no extraordinary Sum of Money and the Land Tax in so barren a Country scarcely deserving to be named The Customes and Excise I confess are very high and the rigorous manner of exacting them pernicious to Trade As for instance If a Ship come to Stockholme from London with a hundred several sorts of Goods and those Goods assigned to fifty several Men more or less if any of those fifty do not pay the Custom of what belongs to him though it be for a Barrel of Beer the Ship shall not be unladen nor no Man have his Goods out though he hath fully pay'd the Customs for them till this last Man hath pay'd his There are several other silly Customs in Swedeland that discourages Men from Trading there as if any Stranger Die there a third of his Estate must go to the City or Town where he Traded No Foreign Merchant in Stockholme can Travel into any Country where there is a Fair without a Passport And at present seeing there is no Treaty of Trade betwixt England and Sweden though the English bring as considerable a Trade to that Kingdom as any other Country whatsoever yet they are very unkindly used by the Officers of the Custom-House whereas the Dutch in Lubeck and other Cities have new and greater Privileges allowed them Nor would I Counsel an English-man to go to Law with a Swedish Burgher in Sweden especially if he be a Whiggish Scot who hath got his Freedom in Stockholme for those are a kind of Scrapers whom I have observed to be more inveterate against the English than the Native Swedes Of all the Swedish Army of 64000 Men the King keeps but 12 Companies of 200 Men a-peice with some few Horse Guards in Stockholme who are not upon Duty as Sentinels at the Court Gates as at the Courts of other Princes The rest are dispersed into Quarters and Garisons upon the Frontiers which are so far distant in that large compass of Land which his Territories take up that it would require a hard and tedious work to bring them together to a general Muster They are however kept under very strict Discipline and those that lie near often viewed by the King They have odd sort of Punishments
the Neighbouring Princes of all Perswasions as the Princes of the House of Lunenburg the Landtgrave of Hesse and Elector of Cologne who as Bishop of Hildersheim is their Ordinary The Town of Lambspring is Lutheran though under the Government of the Lord Abbot and his Chapter who constantly chuse Lutheran Magistrates and Officers for the Civil Administration and live together in that Love and Unity that as yet there hath never the least debate happened amongst them and indeed this Harmony is now to be observed in most parts of Germany where different Religions are professed When I considered so many goodly Faces both of Monks and Students in that Abbey I could not forbear to make a serious Reflection on the number of the English whom I had seen in the Colleges and Cloisters abroad as at Rome Ratisbonne Wirtzburg in Lorrain at Liege Louvain Brussels Dunkirk Ghent Paris and other places besides the Nunneries and withall on the loss that both King and Kingdom suffered thereby when so many of our Natives both Men and Women should be constrained to spend their own Estates and the Benevolence of others in a strange Land which amounts to more Money than at first one may imagine and this thought I confess made me wish it were otherwise I would not have the Reader to mistake me here as if I Espoused or Pleaded for any particular Party no I plead only for the Sentiments of Humanity without which our Nature degenerates into that of Brutes and for the love that every honest Man ought to have for his Country I am as much a Friend to the Spanish Inquisition as to the persecuting of tender Conscienced Protestants provided there be no more but Conscience in the Case And I could heartily wish that Papists and Protestants could live as lovingly together in England as they do in Holland Germany and other Countries for give me leave to say it I love not that Religion which in stead of Exalting destroys the Principles of Morality and human Society I have met with honest Men of all Perswasions even Turks and Jews who in their Lives and Manners have far exceeded many of our Enthusiastick Professors at home and when ever this happened I could not forbear to love the Men without embracing their Religion for which they themselves are to account to their great Master and Judge In my progress towards Hanouer I touched at Hildersheim a City whose Magistrates are Lutheran though Roman Catholicks have the Cathedral Church and several Monasteries there The Court of Hanouer makes another kind of Figure than that of Cassels it being the Court of a great Prince who is Bishop of Osnaburg Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg Hanouer c. Here I had the Honour to Kiss the Hands of the Princess Royal Sophia youngest Sister to the late Prince Rupert Her Highness has the Character of the Merry Debonnaire Princess of Germany a Lady of Extraordinary Virtue and Accomplishments and Mistress of the Italian French High and Low Dutch and English Languages which she speaks to Perfection Her Husband has the Title of the Gentleman of Germany a graceful and comely Prince both a Foot and on Horseback Civil to Strangers beyond compare infinitely Kind and Beneficent to People in Distress and known in the World for a Valiant and Experienced Soldier I had the Honour to 〈◊〉 his Troops which without Controvâ—â—â—â—â— are as good Men and Commanded by as expert Officers as any are in Europe Amongst his Officers I found brave Steel-Hand Gordon Colonel of an excellent Regiment of Horse Grimes Hamilton Talbot and others of our Kings Subjects God hath blest the Prince with a numerous Off-spring having six Sons all gallant Princes of whom the two Eldest signalized themselves so bravely at the raising of the Siege of Vienna that as undoubted proof of their Valour they brought three Turks home to this Court Prisoners His eldest Son is Married to a most beautiful Princess sole Heiress of the Duke of Lunenburg and Zell's Elder Brother as the lovely Princess his Daughter is Married to the Duke of Brandenburg He is a gracious Prince to his People and keeps a very splendid Court having in his Stables for the use of himself and Children no less than Fifty two sets of Coach-Horses He himself is a Lutheran but as his Subjects are Christians of different Perswasions and some of them Jews too so both in his Court and Army he entertains Gentlemen of various Opinions and Countries as Italian Abbots and Gentlemen that serve him and many Calvinist French Officers Neither is he so Bigotted in his Religion but that he and his Children go many times to Church with the Princess who is a Calvinist and join with her in her Devotion His Country is good having Gold and Silver Mines in it and his Subjects live well under him as do those also of his Brother the Duke of Lunenburg and their Cozen the Duke of Wolfembuttel which are the three Princes of the House of Lunenbourg of whom it may be said that they have always stuck honestly to the right side and befriended the Interests of the Empire so that no by-Respect neither Honour nor Profit could ever prevail with them as it has with others to make them abandon the publick Concern FRom this Princes Court I went to Zell the Residence of the Duke the elder Brother of the Family This Prince is called the Mighty Nimrod because of the great delight he takes in Horses Dogs and Hunting He did me the honour to let me see his Stables wherein he keeps 370 Horses most of them English or of English Breed His Dogs which are also English are so many that with great care they are quartered in several Apartments according to their Kind and Qualities there being a large Office like a Brewhouse employed for boyling of Malt and Corn for them It is this valiant Prince who took Trieves from the French and made the Mareschal de Crequi Prisoner He is extreamly obliging to Strangers and hath several brave Scotish Officers under his Pay as Major-General Erskin Graham Coleman Hamilton Melvin and others His Lieutenant-General is one Chavot a Protestant of Alsatia an excellent and experienced Commander I shall add no more concerning this Prince his Officers or Country but that he with the other two Princes of the House of Lunenbourg Hanouer and Wolfembuttel can upon occasion bring into the Field 36000 Soldiers whom they keep in constant Pay and such Men as I never saw better in my life AFter some stay at the Court of the Duke of Zell I went to Hambourg a famous Hansiatick Town It is a Republick and City of great Trade occasioned partly by the English Company of Merchant Adventurers but much more by the Dutch Protestants who in the time of the Duke of Alba forsook the Low-Countries and settled here and the Protestants also who were turned out of Cologne and other Places in Germany who nevertheless are not now allowed Publick Churches within
the Princess Elizabeth eldest Sister of the late Elector Palatine and Prince Rupert Notwithstanding the late 〈◊〉 with Sweden and that by the prevalency 〈◊〉 France in that hasty Treaty of Peace coâ—â—â—â—ded at Nimâ—guen his late Electoral 〈…〉 was obliged to give back what he had 〈…〉 taken from that Crown yet his 〈…〉 flourished in Wealth and Trade his 〈…〉 having encouraged Manufactures of 〈…〉 by inviting Artizans into his Dominâ—â—◠〈◊〉 established a Company of Trading 〈…〉 to the West-Indies which will 〈◊〉 advance Navigation amongst his Subâ—â—â—â—â— And in all humane probability they are 〈◊〉 to continue in a happy condition seeing by the Alliances his Highness hath made with the Protestant Princes of the Empire and especially the House of Lunenbourg they are in no danger of being disturbed by their Neighbours I told you before that the Elector of Brandenbourg was Married to the Daughter of the Duke of Hanouer so that as long as that Alliance holds the Families of Brandenbourg and Lunenbourg will be in a condition to cast the Balance of the Empire they both together being able to bring into the Field 80000 as good Men as any are in Europe WHen I parted from Berlin I made a turn back to Lunenbourg in my way to Swedeland where I found several of my Countrymen Officers in the Garison who shewed me what was most remarkable in the City as the Saltworks which bring in considerable Sums of Money to the Duke of Lunenbourg the Stadthouse and Churches in one of which I saw a Communion-Table of pure Ducat-Gold From thence I went into the Province of Holstein and at a small Sea-port called Termond of which I spake before I embarked for Sweden HE that hath read in the Histories of this last Age the great Exploits of Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes perhaps may have a fancy that it must be an excellent Country which hath bred such Warriors but if he approach it he will soon find himself undeceived Entering into Swedeland at a place called Landsort we sail'd forward amongst high Rocks having no other prospect from Land but Mountains till we came to Dollers which is about four Swedish that is twenty four English Miles from Stockholm the Capital City of the Kingdom Upon my coming ashore I confess I was a little surprized to see the Poverty of the People and the little Wooden Houses they lived in not unlike Soldiers Huts in a Leaguer but much more when I discovered little else in the Country but Mountainous Rocks and standing Lakes of Water The Reader will excuse me I hope if I remark not all that I may have taken notice of in this Country seeing by what I have already written he may perceive that my Design is rather to observe the Manner of the Inhabitants living than to give a full Description of every thing that may be seen in the Country they live in However I shall say somewhat of that too having premised once for all that the ordinary People are wretchedly poor yet not so much occasioned by the Publick Taxes as the Barronness of their Country and the Oppression of the Nobles their Landlordâ— and immediate Superiours who till the preâ—â—â—t King put a stop to their Violences tyâ—â—â—nically domineered over the Lives and 〈◊〉 of the poor Peasants 〈◊〉 Dâ—llers I took Waggon to Stockholm 〈…〉 Horses three times by the way 〈…〉 of the badness of the Rode on all 〈…〉 with Rocks that hardly 〈…〉 as here and there to leave a 〈…〉 Ground At two Miles distance upon that Road the City of Stockholm looks great because of the King's Palace the Houses of Noblemen and some Churches which are seated upon Rocks And indeed the whole City and Suburbs stand upon Rocks unless it be some few Houses built upon Ground gained from the Rivers that run through the Town Stockholm has its Name from a Stock or Log of Wood which three Brothers threw into the Water five Miles above the City making a Vow that where-ever that Stock should stop they would build a Castle to dwell in The Stock stopt at the Holm or Rock where the Palace of the King now stands And the Brothers to be as good as their word there built their Castle which invited others to do the like so that in process of time the other Rocks or Holms were covered with Buildings which at length became the Capital City of the Kingdom It is now embelished with a great many stately Houses and much improved from what it was 400 Years ago as indeed most Cities are for the Stadthouse then built is so contemptible and low that in Holland or England it would not be suffered to stand to disgrace the Nation The Council-Chamber where the Burghmasters and Raedt sit is two Rooms cast into one not above nine Foot high and the two Rooms where the Sheriffs and the Erve College which is a Judicature like to the Doctors Commons in England sit are not above eight Foot and a half high The King's Palace is a large Square of Stone-building in some places very high but an old and irregular Fabrick without a sufficient quantity of Ground about it for Gardens and Walks It was anciently surrounded with Water but some Years since part of it was filled up to make a Way from the Castle-Gate down into the old Town In this Palace there are large Rooms but the Lodgings of the King Queen and Royal Family are three Pair of Stairs high the Rooms in the first and second Stories being destin'd for the Senate-Chamber and other Courts of Judicature The King's Library is four Pair of Stairs high being a Room about forty six Foot square with a Closet adjoyning to it not half the Dimensions When I considered the Apartments and Furniture of this Court I began to think that the French Author wrote Truth who in his Remarks upon Swedeland says That when Queen Christina resigned the Crown to Carolus Gustavus the Father of this present King she disposed of the best of the Furniture of the Court and gave away a large share of the Crown-Lands to her Favorites in so much that the King considering the poor Condition she had left the Kingdom in and seeing the Court so meanly furnished said That had he known before he accepted the Crown what then he did he would have taken other Measures There are many other stately Palaces in Stockholm belonging to the Nobility but many of them for want of Repairs and not being inhabited run to ruine several of the Nobles who lived in them formerly having lost the Estates that maintained their ancient Splendor as we shall see hereafter being retired unto a Country Life There are also some other Magnificent Structures begun but not finished as that stately Building intended for a Parliament-House for the Nobles and two or three Churches But what I most wonder at is the Vault wherein the late King lies buried is not as yet covered but with Boards for it is to be observed that the