d-clothes, and warm
garments, are highly necessary for the wayfarer's comfort. This
paraphernalia would have been too expensive for me to buy, and I was
unprovided with any thing of the kind; consequently I was forced to
endure the most dreadful hardships and toil, and was frequently obliged
to ride an immense distance to reach a little church or a cottage, which
would afford me shelter for the night. My sole food for eight or ten
days together was often bread and cheese; and I generally passed the
night upon a chest or a bench, where the cold would often prevent my
closing my eyes all night.

It is advisable to be provided with a waterproof cloak and a sailor's
tarpaulin hat, as a defence against the rain, which frequently falls. An
umbrella would be totally useless, as the rain is generally accompanied
by a storm, or, at any rate, by a strong wind; when we add to this, that
it is necessary in some places to ride quickly, it will easily be seen
that holding an umbrella open is a thing not to be thought of.

Altogether I found the travelling in this country attended with far more
hardship than in the East. For my part, I found the dreadful storms of
wind, the piercing air, the frequent rain, and the cold, much less
endurable than the Oriental heat, which never gave me either cracked lips
or caused scales to appear on my face. In Iceland my lips began to bleed
on the fifth day; and afterwards the skin came off my face in scales, as
if I had had the scrofula. Another source of great discomfort is to be
found in the long riding-habit. It is requisite to be very warmly clad;
and the heavy skirts, often dripping with rain, coil themselves round the
feet of the wearer in such a manner, as to render her exceedingly awkward
either in mounting or dismounting. The worst hardship of all, however,
is the being obliged to halt to rest the horses in a meadow during the
rain. The long skirts suck up the water from the damp grass, and the
wearer has often literally not a dry stitch in all her garments.

Heat and cold appear in this country to affect strangers in a remarkable
degree. The cold seemed to me more piercing, and the heat more
oppressive in Iceland, than when the thermometer stood at the same points
in my native land.

In summer the roads are marvellously good, so that one can generally ride
at a pretty quick pace. They are, however, impracticable for vehicles,
partly because they are too narrow, and partly also