BRINGING HOME THE EXOTIC:
Matthew Consett
A Tour Through Sweden
(1789)
English scholar Matthew Consett is hardly known to history outside of a single journey he made from
May to August of 1786 in the service of Sir Henry St. George Liddell (1749-1791). Liddell, a wealthy
aristocrat who dabbled in various arts and sciences, seems to have taken a wager that compelled him to
visit Scandinavia as far north as Tornio on the Bay of Bothnia, and he took Consett along as traveling
companion. Consett's impressions of the trip, published as
A Tour Through Sweden..., would be far less
famous than their illustrations and the somewhat peculiar aftermath of the journey.
Consett's observations are basic and general on most topics of culture and infrastructure. He finds the
roads good, the Swedish military poorly turned out, and society ladies scandalous, noting that the "Mask
of Matrimony" was used as a "covering for Levity and Dissipation, a skreen for the improper Indulgence
of licentious Inclinations." Like other northern travelers of the period, Consett praises public education
in Sweden and its ability to find "particular marks of genius, or an uncommon assiduity in any of the
walks of Science….to dig the rough diamond from the mine…and to polish it and make it fit for use,"
a method "worthy of the imitation of more enlightened nations." He seems surprised that Uppsala
University, though clearly declining from previous days of glory, nonetheless attracted "many foreigners
and Students of different nations, even from England." Although evidently he thought England might
take Sweden as a model in education, he persistently critiques agricultural practices: "If the knowledge
of Agriculture could be learned, or by any means attained by Swedish Peasants; and the large and almost
unlimited tracts of ground be unencumbered of wood, which I have no doubt might be affected by time
and industry, what a blessed change might be wrought in the face of this country! The quality of the soil
appears in general no way inferior to ours in England; there is no reason therefore to suppose but that
the common method of English husbandry would equally promote and produce the like vegetation in
Sweden."
Consett's more personal words are reserved for natural description and especially for folk customs.
"The language of the Laplanders is a harsh and unintelligible Jargon derived from their neighbors the
ancient Inhabitants of Finland," he writes. "Their voices however are musical and they never require
much entreaty to oblige. The few speciments which we possess of Lapland Poetry, give you a favorable
impression of their taste, and taste most certainly it is, uncorrupted by foreign Ideas, and entirely the
production of nature."
Both nature and folk customs returned with the expedition to England, in the form of a pair of reindeer
and two Lapp women, Sighre and Aniea. Liddell caused a minor sensation by sending the ladies on their
own tour of English taverns and homes to sing native songs, before paying them in gifts and returning
them to Lapland. Several poor paraphrases of ‘Lapland songs' had been popular before this time, and
one of Sighre and Aniea's songs was widely transcribed and translated. In his Life of Dr. Johnson, James
Boswell cites Johnson's whimsical suggestion that foreign animals should be introduced into England and
adds, "This project has since been realized. Sir Henry Liddel [sic], who made a spirited tour into Lapland,
brough two reindeer to his estate in Northumberland, where they bred: but the race has unfortunately
perished."
Consett's book appeared in 1789 with beautiful engravings by Liddell's friend Thomas Bewick, who is
himself well known for reviving the art of wood engraving and establishing it as a major printmaking
technique. Bewick illustrated several natural history books based on his own research, including A
General History of Quadrupeds (1790) and
A History of British Birds (1797-1804).
Matthew Consett's concluding lines may speak for all our European travelers: "We have beheld human
nature under he rudest appearance: we have seen her in a State very different from that which appears
in cities or at courts, and have been enabled to draw conclusions from the varieties of Life. Pleasure too,
has not been wanting in our Excursion. Prospects pleasing and romantic, the roaring cataract and high
projecting cliff, the large and beautiful lakes, the mountains stretching to the clouds, and the extensive
forests, like the shifting Scenes in a Theatre, appeared in an agreeable succession before our Eyes. And if
we have sometimes encountered dangers, and been deprived of comforts, the Lesson we have been taught
by this Excursion is, always to be contented with such Enjoyments as we actually possess."
Further Reading:
|