Journals of Travel in Iceland (1871-1873‪)‬

THE visit to Iceland was another land-mark in my father’s life. In itself, apart from what it stood for in his work, it was something of an undertaking. A seasoned traveller would have smiled at the adventure of six days in a small steamer and six weeks’ riding among friendly people; but my father was not a seasoned traveller. He had a deep love and knowledge of country things, and was country bred, but his every-day life was necessarily a sedentary one: he was going to exchange this, without any training, for six weeks’ hard riding over difficult country in a wild climate, cutting himself off from every possible communication with his own folk—no little thing for a man so deeply-rooted in the home-life. So it must be said that he started in a somewhat adventurous spirit that spoke well for the success of the journey.