The last portion of Stockholm is Sodermalm, situated to the south of the city. It contains a number of good stone buildings, which gradually fall off into a village bounded with gardens, and an uncultivated country. In the Sodermalm is situ ated the town house (an object worth visiting), the courts, the senate house, the Greek and Roman Catholic chapels, the churches of St. Mary and St. Catharine, with the schools and work-houses, the hospital, the mad-house, and the house of correction.
The number of bridges in Stockholm amounts to twelve. The houses are founded generally on piles. In the city they are built of stone, and are four or five stories high, but a great portion of the city is composed of mean buildings, constructed of wood, and even of miserable huts, inhabited by the most in digent persons. From this cause, Stockholm is, ac cording to Runner, like no other city. After leaving the principal parts of the town, " you arrive," says Runner, " at immense naked rocks of granite, be tween which you meet with gardens, windmills, to bacco plantations, and wretched huts, all of which belong to the town, and are situated within the en closure by which it is surrounded. In those parts of the town I have met with situations in which I imagined myself among the Alps, where I saw nothing but a few miserable huts scattered among the wildest and most romantic rocks, which conceal the other part of the city so completely, that you imagine your self in an uninhabited country. If, however, you ascend to the summit of one of these rocks, you enjoy the most romantic, and at the same time the most magnificent views of a splendid metropolis; in a word, you survey with one look, palaces, churches, islands, lakes, harbours crowded with vessels, intermingled with naked rocks. This it is that renders Stockholm perhaps unique in its way. I never beheld from one point of view, any thing so beautiful, so magnificent, and so sublime, nor yet any thing so mean, so rude, and so wild, within the circumference of a me tropolis." The principal public building in Stockholm is the royal palace, a large quadrangular structure, with a court in the middle. It is said to be surpassed only by that of Versailles. The lower part of the wall is of polished granite. The upper part is of brick, covered with stucco, and the roof is of copper. It
contains, besides the royal apartments, a neat chapel. the hall of the states, a gallery of paintings, the museum, and the King's library. The museum is a collection of antiques, made by Gustavus 111. Among the statues is the celebrated Lndymion, found in the villa Adriana; it is a figure somewhat larger than life, lying asleep, and quite naked. The royal library comprehended in 1821 above 40,000 volumes, and, among other curiosities, contains the copy of the (Vulgate) Bible, used by Luther, with manuscript notes in his own hand; and also the Latin Prayer Book of the emperor Ferdinand, which in the 37 years' war fell into the hands of Gustavus II.
In Lofin, otherwise called Drotningholm, or the Queen's island, stands the most magnificent palace belonging to the kings of Sweden, exhibiting the elegance, the taste, the luxury, and the magnificence of Versailles. The cabinet of natural history, ad joining the king's priN ate library, is remarkable as having been arranged and described by Linnaeus. Among the objects of interest in the capital, is the Fredericshof, or collection of artificial curiosities and armour, otherwise called the arsenal. The clothes and arms of Charles X11. and those of Gustavus III. are carefully preserved in this collection, which con tains an immense number of standards and trophies taken chiefly from the Imperialists, Poles, Russians and Danes. Here also is the stored skin of the horse which carried Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Lutzen, and the boat made by Peter the Great, at Sardam in Holland, which was taken by a Swedish vessel as it was conveying by sea to St. Petersburg.
The principal societies and institutions in this Metropolis are, 1st, The Academy of sciences, founded in 1739, divided into nine classes, and comprehending 100 native and 260 foreign members. 2d, The Swedish academy, founded in 1716, consisting or 18 members, whose object is,* the improvement of the Swedish language, poetry, and eloquence. 3d, The academy of painters and statuaries, founded in 1735. 4th, A military academy, established in 1796. 5th, An academy for painting and sculpture. 6th, An academy of music, established in 1761. 8th, A statistical agri cultural society, established in 1772. 9th, A medical college. 10th, A saving bank, in which 5000 workmen have deposited money.