Letters from Iceland

Curious Behaviour of a Scotch Baronet

`We instantly left our guides and the horses to manage matters as they could; and rushing over slags, lava, and mud, fell upon the snow like wild beasts upon their prey. My enjoyment was excessive; and the very recollection of it is so gratifying that I must be excused for recording a circumstance of so little importance.'

-McKenzie.

Art without malice

`The clergyman had a large family and McDiarmed good-naturedly took a blooming little maiden of six or seven years a ride on his pony; while Lord Lodbrog drew a very accurate sketch of his home and church. It was really very well done and when pinned up against the wall of the sitting-room had a smart appearance.'

-Umbra.

Hear, Hear!

'Let's go home. We can't camp in this beastly place.
- What is he saying?
- I'm not going to camp here.
- You must, All Englishmen do.
- Blast all Englishmen.'

-William Morris.

Moral drawn from a Geysir

`While the jets were rushing up towards Heaven with the velocity of an arrow my mind was forcibly borne along with them to the contemplation of the Great and Omnipotent JEHOVAH in comparison with whom these and all the wonders scattered over the whole immensity of existence dwindle into absolute insignificance; whose almighty commands spake the universe into being; and at whose sovereign fiat the whole fabric might be reduced, in an instant, to its original nothing.'

- Henderson.

Rudeness shown to the same Geysir

'Darwin profanely called the Geysir an old brute.'

-Umbra.

Spread of Nazi Doctrines among the Icelandic ponies

`Famous scientists, doctors, politicians, and writers, mounted her and rode for a wonderful week's tour. Richer in experience, strengthened and refreshed by Nature, ready for a new struggle with the arch-fiend culture, they went home and gave lectures.'

-Fleuron.


W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice, Letters from Iceland (1937)