to find them here: for a hearty welcome I
was fully prepared; it was no more than I
had every where experienced; but those
only who have been long exposed to the
accents of a language, with the meaning of
which they are wholly unacquainted, can
conceive how sweet such a welcome sounds,
when given me, as here by the Etatsroed, in
my native tongue. We entered by a long
passage, with a boarded floor and wain-
scotted walls, and, after crossing another
smaller one, arrived at the library, a room
of moderate size, well stored with books;
adjoining to which was the parlor, which, if
I recollect right, had stuccoed walls, painted
of a blue color, and a boarded roof and floor.
A Danish sofa and other good furniture
much resembled such as we have in England,
and some ordinary prints, among them one
of the Emperor of the French and by the
side of it another of the Hero of Trafalgar,
served to decorate the walls. Shortly after
our arrival, rum with white wine and Norway
biscuit were handed round, and, as
there was but little time before dinner, we
amused ourselves in the library, where I
was shewn several valuable and interesting
works, relating to the ancient history of the
island, as well in manuscript as in print.
There were here, also, many of the Latin
and Greek classics, and of the most esteemed
authors in the German, French, Swedish,
and Danish languages, besides, what gratified
me more than any thing else, a considerable
number of our best English poets.
Here, too, I was shewn a translation of
Miltons Paradise Lost into Icelandic verse,
the performance of a priest who had lived in
the eastern part of the island, but whose
name I cannot now remember. The Etatsroed,
who was capable of reading the original,
did not express himself at all satisfied
with the translation, and I have no doubt
of his being a competent judge of the subject,
having himself, with much eclat, turned
into Icelandic poetry Pope’s Essay on Man
and Universal Prayer; to the liberal sentiments
inculcated in the latter of which he
was so much attached, as to have it sometimes
sung in his church. How happy
should 1 have been to have had the opportunity
of shewing to my countrymen, on my
return, the numerous publications, principally
historical, for which I was indebted