File:Frederickshald (JW Edy plate 73).jpg

This important and strongly garrisoned frontier town, with its few but heroic protectors, has proved of the utmost consequence, and has totally frustrated many bold and enterprising attempts of the Swedes, to subjugate Norway, as may be read in the historie annals of both nations. This View was taken on a rock, near the grounds of Carsters Tank, Esq., who with great skill and perseverance, has among his numerous improvements in agriculture, converted a barren rock into a comparative paradise, the admiration of all persons visiting the north. An elegant mansion on the summit of a rock, commands views of the town, garrison, harbour, &c, between which and the water's edge, has been formed a beautiful pleasure ground, filled with luxuriant plants, flowers, trees, and shrubs, and preserved in a high state of fertility, in the following singular manner. Mr. Tank wearied with the monotonous appearance of the barren grey rock, and being a considerable merchant trading to England, conceived the project of ballasting his returning ships with good English garden mold, which he has distributed over the unsightly mass, and planted thereon a good collection of thriving trees and shrubs, which with great care, and good management, have fully answered his most sanguine expectations. The white house between it and the town, is converted into a sugar-work. The harbour, although spacious, is at present, owing to the great quantity of saw-dust, from forty to fifty miles above, choaked up, and rendered only navigable by boats. The ships therefore not being able to approach the town, receive their cargoes below. The town itself is rather inconsiderable, having shared the fate of most others in Norway, by destructive fires. On one occasion, to expel Charles XII in 1716, it was boldly set on fire by the citizens, with Peter Colboerson at their head, who fired his own house first, and all the others followed his example. This bold act astonished and abashed the intrepid Charles, and he immediately retreated, with the loss of three Generals, and 1500 men. This monarch ever restless, and always cherishing a jealousy of Norway, finally met a premature death at this place. He fell at the castle of Guldenlove, on the heights, to the right of the garrison of Frederickstern, and near the top of the road seen in the picture, while he was leaning over the ramparts to reconnoitre. The particulars of this event are variously related by historians ; suffice it briefly to say, that an obelisk was erected on the spot, which has recently been removed, and a notable piece of acting was subsequently performed there, by a British officer, who on visiting it, threw himself on the earth, and kissed the ground in humble adulation to the memory of a man, whom all lovers of peace acknowledge to have justly merited his fate. The garrison of Frederickstern, of which he never obtained possession, is seen directly in front, situated on a perpendicular rock, having the shape of a truncated cone, with two well guarded entrances on its summit. The country around, is in a tolerable state of cultivation, and the trade in timber is considerable, employing from fifty to sixty saw-mills, and many ships. A smuggling traffic is said to be carried on with Sweden, in coffee, tobacco, brandy, &c.