The old hereditary castle, of a wealthy landowner in Finland

Just a year ago, during the Christmas holidays, a numerous society had gathered in the country house, or rather the old hereditary castle, of a wealthy landowner in Finland. Many were the remains in it of our forefathers' hospitable way of living; and many the mediaeval customs preserved, founded on traditions and superstitions, semi-kinnish and semi-Russian, the latter imported into it by its female proprietors from the shores of the Neva. Christmas trees were being prepared and implements for divination were being made ready. For, in that old castle there were grim worm-eaten portraits of famous ancestors and knights and ladies, old deserted turrets, with bastions and Gothic windows; mysterious sombre alleys, and dark and endless cellers, easily transformed into subterranean passages and caves, ghostly prison cells, haunted by the restless phantoms of the heroes of local legends. In short, the old Manor offered every commodity for romantic horrors. But alas! this once they serve for nought; in the present narrative these dear old horrors play no such part as they otherwise might.

H. P. Blavatsky: Nightmare Tales

Finnois flegmatique qui s'était endormi

Pierre lui fit le salut militaire et reprit son récit après avoir mis sa chaise à l'envers pour s'asseoir à califourchon.

--Je tournai le coin du jardin, suivant qu'il m'avait été ordonné, et je fis arrêter mon équipage. Personne! Un instant je crus que cette proposition d'enlèvement n'avait été qu'une aimable mystification de ma charmante cousine, et je ne saurais dire qu'à cette idée mon coeur éprouvât une douleur bien vive; mais je faisais injure à Clémentine. Je la vis accourir dans l'allée, un petit paquet à la main: elle ouvrit la porte palissadée qui donnait sur la route, et, d'un saut, bondit dans la calèche. Je sautai auprès elle.

--Touche! dis-je à mon postillon, Finnois flegmatique qui s'était endormi sur son siège pendant cette pause.

Quand vous aurez une femme à enlever, mes amis, je vous recommande de prendre un cocher finnois; ces gens-là dorment toujours, ne tournent pas seulement la tête et ne se rappellent jamais rien. Au fait, vous savez cela aussi bien que moi, et ma recommandation était inutile.

Henry Gréville: La fille de Dosia

The Finlander is evidently in uniform

At the British Museum there is a curious collection of broadsides and ballads, printed in Germany during the thirty years' war. One of these designs heads a ballad, and represents an "Irlander," a "Lappe," and a " Findlander." In the ballad the Lappe asks what has brought them all so far from home, and the "Irlander" explains the reason of their coming, which was to assist the Protestant cause. This was in 1631. The Lappe is partly dressed in skins, and is armed with a bow and arrows. His face is very characteristic; Ms boots are of the same pattern as those now made in Lappmark, and his knife and its scabbard resemble those now used on the Tana river.

The Finlander is evidently in uniform; and the Lapp wears knickerbokers; so he was probably clad in part at the expense of his country.

Popular tales of the west Highlands, Volume 4

Lapland, where I now am, and from whence I send you this letter

The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell: a gentleman, who tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight: with their future contingencies of fortune. Now living in Exeter-Court over-against the Savoy in the Strand (1720)

(Information on Duncan Cambell in Wikipedia)

Gambolled away gracefully as a Finland horse

"Not at all!" replied Herr Kalm. "It is the constant use of the life-giving infusion of tea that has saved China! Tea soothes the nerves; it clears the blood, expels vapors from the brain, and restores the fountain of life to pristine activity. Ergo, it prolongs the existence of both men and nations, and has made China the most antique nation in the world."

Herr Kalm was a devotee to the tea-cup; he drank it strong to excite his flagging spirits, weak to quiet them down. He took Bohea with his facts, and Hyson with his fancy, and mixed them to secure the necessary afflatus to write his books of science and travel. Upon Hyson he would have attempted the Iliad, upon Bohea he would undertake to square the circle, discover perpetual motion, or reform the German philosophy.

The professor was in a jovial mood, and gambolled away gracefully as a Finland horse under a pack-saddle laden with the learning of a dozen students of Abo, travelling home for the holidays.

"We are fortunate in being able to procure our tea in exchange for our useless ginseng," remarked the Lady de Tilly, as she handed the professor a tiny plate of the leaves, as was the fashion of the day. After drinking the tea, the infused leaves were regarded as quite a fashionable delicacy. Except for the fashion, it had not been perhaps considered a delicacy at all.

William Kirby: The Golden Dog (Le Chien d'Or)

The few suitable supernormal youngsters

JOHN continued his search. I accompanied him. I shall not at this stage describe the few suitable supernormal youngsters whom he discovered and persuaded to prepare themselves for the great adventure. There was a young girl in Marseilles, an older girl in Moscow, a boy in Finland, a girl in Sweden, another in Hungary, and a young man in Turkey. Save for these, John found nothing but lunatics, cripples, invalids, and inveterate old vagabonds in whom the superior mentality had been hopelessly distorted by contact with the normal species.

Olaf Stapledon: Odd John

Finland offers most pleasing winter landscapes

Travelling always towards north, we had made, during the finest season of frost, under a radiant and glorious sun, which coloured the waste of snow with a rose-tint, an interesting and picturesque journey. Far more varied than the central provinces of tho Russian empire, and almost mountainous after its interminable plains, Finland offers most pleasing winter landscapes. It presents northern nature in all its most savage yet wild and attractive beauty. I must not forget to mention a small lake, over the frozen surface of which we passed from one end to the other to shorten the distance, between two lines of young fir plantations, so planted as to mark the road during the night as during the snow storms. This lake, at least six miles long, had the appearance of a small sea ; but, [in comparison with the lake Lagoda, and other lakes in the north of Russia, it is a mere pond. It is charming to look on, and still more charming to glide over when comfortably seated in a sledge, enclosed by surrounding rocky and wood-clad heights; indeed, it resembles a large white table-cloth spread over, the earth. And as you slide rapidly over its frozen surface, innumerable are the varied features it presents of dense forests and rocky inlets which line its interesting banks. Now a little bay is seen sleeping, as it were, in the midst of dense pine woods, the large dark branches of whose trees, sugared with frozen snow, stretch their arms as if in protection; while here and there a promontory extends itself, on whose granite headland a village church, with a palc-grccn cupola, or some country house of strange form, and still stranger architecture—half Eastern, half European—stands, regardless of place or weather.

Linton: Russia, and its field sports
The Sporting review, ed. by 'Craven'. edited by John William Carleton