Journal of a tour in Iceland in the summer of 1809

Front matter

RECOLLECTIONS op A TOUR IN ICELAND, In 1809. AS JC E______sT__- 1C 1_A_-"Y _W HER S1IDAL Blt'ESS, JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN ICELAND, IN THE SUMMER OF 1809. BY WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER, F. R.S.andL.S., AND FELLOW OF THE WERNERIAN SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATEKNOSTER-KOW ; AND JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET; By J. Keyruer, Yarmouth. 1S13. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART., K. B., PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, Sit:, $c, 8,e. My jDea-r Sir, I feel a peculiar propriety in dedi cating tfiiP'Iiit^woi^ to you, and, unworthy as it is in itself of the ho nor of being sent into the world under the sanction of a name like yours, I trust that you will not refuse to ac cept it as a proof of the esteem and respect of the author.

I have two particular reasons for being anxious it should thus appear: the one, because it is right that the earliest efforts of DEDICATION. my pen should be inscribed to him, who, by proposing and facilitating my Tour to Iceland, first gave that pen the opportunity of being employed; the other, because it is chiefly in obedience to your advice that J now lay before the public what was originally written for the perusal only of my personal friends. These friends have, indeed, done me the kindness to receive this book in a manner the most gratifying to me; but the partiality of friends is proverbial, and in the public I must expect to meet with less favorable judges: the apprehension, therefore, which I cannot but feel of their cri ticism at my first appearance before them, makes me desirous to shield my self under the authority of a man, to whose judgment they are accustomed to pay the same deference that I do.

As a farther reason for the change of my intention, I must be allowed to al ledge the circumstance, that I found my own withholding this book would not DEDICATION. prevent its actual publication; different parts of it having already appeared in periodical works, which have announc ed their intention of continuing similar extracts; and I consequently consi dered it more respectful to the public, if not due to myself, that, such as it is, they should have the opportunity of perusing it entire, instead of having it forced upon their attention in gar bled extracts. I have the honor to be, My Dear Sir, Your obliged friend, and very humble Servant, W. J. HOOKER, London, 10th August, 1811.

Preface

. Ihe interesting Letters on Iceland, published by the Archbishop Von Troil, had in spired me at an early age with an ardent desire to visit that most singular country, to see its volcanic mountains and its boiling springs, unequalled by any in the known world. The small degree of intercourse, however, that existed between England and so obscure a part of the globe, and, what appeared a still greater impediment, the unfriendly disposition exhibited by the Danish government towards our nation, scarcely allowed even an hope to be entertained that an opportunity of gratifying such a wish would present itself, till, in the spring of the year IS09, Sir Joseph Banks most unexpectedly proposed to me, as a compensation for my not having it in b

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. my power, during that season, to put in execution a projected voyage to a tropical climate, that I should take my passage in a merchant-ship, then expected to leave Eng land in the space of three days, and spend my summer in Iceland. To this I most rea dily and thankfully acceded ; and, having made such preparations as the shortness of the notice would allow, I repaired to Graves end and was on board the Margaret and Anne at the time appointed. The unfortunate accident, which has de prived me of nearly the whole of the fruits of this excursion, and has obliged me to rely, in no small degree, upon my memory, needs not here to be detailed, it will find its place in the narrative of the voyage ; suffice it now to observe, that the only things res cued from the flames were, a portion of my journal, containing little more than the oc currences of the first four weeks of my stay on the island, and an Icelandic lady's wedding-dress, which was saved by the extraor dinary exertions of the steward of the ship. Of the rest of my manuscripts and collections, including plants, books, drawings, mii

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. III nerals, and other subjects of natural history, nothing could be preserved. With the slender materials that remained to me, I should not have ventured upon committing the following Recollections to paper, even as they were originally in tended, merely for the perusal of some of my friends, but at the solicitation of the most valued of those friends. It is to Mr. Dawson Turner, of Yarmouth, that these sheets owe their existence. To Sir Joseph Banks, besides being ho nored with his counsel and assistance prepa ratory to the undertaking of the voyage, I am indebted for the truly hospitable enter tainment that I experienced from the inha bitants of Iceland, who felt, I am sure, a real pleasure and satisfaction in having it in their power to offer their services and to pay every possible attention to a stranger, visiting their country with an introduction from their great and generous benefactor. Not, how ever, satisfied with this, on my return to England, no sooner did Sir Joseph learn that I was preparing my Recollections of

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. Iceland for the press, than he most liberally offered me the use of his own manuscript journal, and various other papers and docu ments relative to the island, together with the magnificent drawings of the scenery, dresses of the inhabitants, &c, which were made by the artists who attended him on his voyage thither, in 1712. From the former of these valuable collections I have extracted such parts as were not noticed by Von Troil ; and, from reduced copies of a few of the latter, have been made the engravings that accompany these volumes. These are, indeed, upon too small a scale to give an adequate idea of the originals, which would do honor to a large and copious history of Iceland ; but parvum parva decent, and they are well suited both to the size and pretensions of the book they are designed to illustrate.

The reception which I met with from the merchants and owners of the vessel in which I sailed, Messrs. Phelps, Troward, and Brace bridge, and the assistance which I derived from them, demand my most sincere thanks; the readiness with which the former of these gentlemen, in particular, whose society I

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. V enjoyed during the voyage, entered into a'' my views, and the willingness with which he supplied me with every thing that could afford me accommodation, or might further the object of my pursuits, have left a lasting impression of gratitude upon my mind. Neither can I suffer to pass in silence the civility of Sir George Mackenzie, in col lecting plants for me in his late excursion to Iceland ; nor the attention shown me by Doctor Wright, of Edinburgh. Though a stranger to the latter gentleman, till my arrival in Scotland on my return from Ice land, he nevertheless participated feelingly in my misfortunes, and begged me to make any use I pleased of the various subjects of natural history in his possession, which had been collected in Iceland by his nephew, the late Mr. Wright, an amiable young man, who accompanied Sir John Stanley on his voyage to that country.

No apology, I trust, will be considered necessary for prefacing my journal with a slight and very cursory sketch of Icelandic history, or with the details that follow, ex- VI

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. planatory of the various offices, as well civil as ecclesiastical. An introduction, compris ing these, and hints on a few other most remarkable objects in the island, appeared to me to be necessary, not only for the proper understanding of much of my narrative, but to prevent these volumes from being to such a degree incomplete as would have rendered them almost useless.