The Swedish Ladies Exercise Neither Sufficiently; Of Course, Grow
Very Fat At An Early Age; And When They Have Not This Downy
Appearance, A Comfortable Idea, You Will Say, In A Cold Climate,
They Are Not Remarkable For Fine Forms.
They have, however, mostly
fine complexions; but indolence makes the lily soon displace the
rose.
The quantity of coffee, spices, and other things of that
kind, with want of care, almost universally spoil their teeth, which
contrast but ill with their ruby lips.
The manners of Stockholm are refined, I hear, by the introduction of
gallantry; but in the country, romping and coarse freedoms, with
coarser allusions, keep the spirits awake. In the article of
cleanliness, the women of all descriptions seem very deficient; and
their dress shows that vanity is more inherent in women than taste.
The men appear to have paid still less court to the graces. They
are a robust, healthy race, distinguished for their common sense and
turn for humour, rather than for wit or sentiment. I include not,
as you may suppose, in this general character, some of the nobility
and officers, who having travelled, are polite and well informed.
I must own to you that the lower class of people here amuse and
interest me much more than the middling, with their apish good
breeding and prejudices. The sympathy and frankness of heart
conspicuous in the peasantry produces even a simple gracefulness of
deportment which has frequently struck me as very picturesque; I
have often also been touched by their extreme desire to oblige me,
when I could not explain my wants, and by their earnest manner of
expressing that desire.
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