A yacht voyage . fwho did not accompany the expedition to the Geysirs ;among others, to the Due dAbrantes, Marshal Junotsson. On sitting down to table, I found myself and Monsieur de Saulcy, member of the FrenchInstitute, who made that famous expedition to the DeadSea, and is one of the gayest, pleasantest persons I haveever met. Of course there was a great deal of laughingand talking, as well as much speculation with regard to thecostume of the Icelandic ladies we were to see at the ball. 1 I regret to be obliged to subjoin that Dr. Scoresby has died sincethe above was written.
A yacht voyage . fwho did not accompany the expedition to the Geysirs ;among others, to the Due dAbrantes, Marshal Junotsson. On sitting down to table, I found myself and Monsieur de Saulcy, member of the FrenchInstitute, who made that famous expedition to the DeadSea, and is one of the gayest, pleasantest persons I haveever met. Of course there was a great deal of laughingand talking, as well as much speculation with regard to thecostume of the Icelandic ladies we were to see at the ball. 1 I regret to be obliged to subjoin that Dr. Scoresby has died sincethe above was written. VII.] ICELANDIC LADIES. i OS It appears that the dove-cots of Reykjavik have been agood deal fluttered by an announcement emanating fromthe gallant Captain of the Artemise that his fair guestswould be expected to come in low dresses ; for it wouldseem that the practice of showing their ivory shoulders is,as yet, an idea as shocking to the pretty ladies of thiscountry as waltzes was to our grandmothers. Nay, there. AN ICELANDIC LADY. was not even to be found a native milliner equal to thetask of marking out that mysterious line which divides theprudish from the improper ; so that the Collet-monte fac-tion have been in despair. As it turned out, their anxietyon this head was unnecessary ; for we found, on enteringthe ball-room, that, with the natural refinement which char- 106 LETTERS FROM HIGH LA TITUDES. [VII. acterizes this noble people, our bright-eyed partners, as ifby inspiration, had hit off the exact sweep from shoulderto shoulder, at which—after those many oscillations, upand down, which the female corsage has undergone sincethe time of the first Director—good taste has finally ar-rested it. I happened to be particularly interested in the aboveimportant question; for up to that moment I had alwaysbeen haunted by a horrid paragraph I had met with some-where in an Icelandic book of travels, to the effect that itwas the practice of Icelandic women, from early childhood,
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Keywords: ., bookauthordufferin, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1890
