Iceland; or the Journal of a Residence in that Island, during the years 1814 and 1815..

Edingburgh: Waugh and Innes, 1819. Second edition. Octavo. xiv, [2], 576 pp. Complete with folding map and sixteen full page engraved plates of scenes in Iceland (the map is included in the plate list on the "Instructions to the Binder' but there are two plates of Icelandic costume where the plate list states just one). Rebound for well known dealer/collector John Sinkankas in quarter red calf over marbled boards, gilt spine lettering. Bookplate (Sinkankas), mild toning throughout and with offsetting from plates to text. Small marginal repair to folding plate. A very good copy.This copy signed on the top margin of the title page - "Jane Reynolds, 1820". Quite likely, Jane Reynolds was the wife of poet and humorist Thomas Hood (m. 1824) and sister of poet and playwright John Hamilton Reynolds."I have spoken of this Journal as the best account that we have of Iceland. No other English traveller has spent so much time on that island, or travelled there so extensively, or enjoyed such advantages for becoming acquainted with its inhabitants, as Dr. Henderson. His business—as Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, instructed to investigate and make arrangements for supplying the want of Bibles there—led him into every quarter of the island, and secured for him all the facilities that could be desired, for unreserved intercourse with the people, and for becoming thoroughly acquainted with their character and circumstances. These advantages his previous studies and travels in the north of Europe, and his acquaintance with the language and literature of Iceland, enabled him to turn to the best account. While, therefore, his journies through extensive and interesting regions by them unvisited, enabled him to give a more complete view of the extraordinary natural phenomena of the country, than any of his predecessors, his narrative also possesses more of human interest" (From Advertisement to the Boston 1831 edition).