William Morris Archive

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Thorshave_2.jpg
‘Thence we went out into the town, which pleased me very much: certainly there was a smell of fish, and these creatures, or parts of them, from guts to gutted bodies, hung and lay about in many places; but there was no other dirt apparent; the houses…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Kirkiuboe_1.jpg
‘We turned another spur of the hills soon, and then the land on our side fell back, the long island aforesaid ended suddenly and precipitously, and there was a wide bay before us bounded on the other side now by the steep grey cliffs of another…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Kirkiuboe_2.jpg
‘We hastened down, along the high mowing-grass of the homefield, full of buttercups andmarsh marigolds, and so among the buildings: the long-nosed cadaverous parson who guided us took us first to the ruin, which he said had never been finished, as…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Kirkiuboe_3.jpg
‘ . . . thence we went into the more modern church (such a flower-bed as its roof was!) which was nevertheless interesting from its having a complete set of bench-ends richly carved (in deal) of the 15th century, but quite northern in character, the…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Kirkiuboe_4.jpg
‘From the church we went into the bonder’s house which was very clean, and all of unpainted deal, walls, floor, and ceiling, with queer painted old presses and chests about it: he turned up with his two children presently, and welcomed us in that…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.Kirkiuboe_5.jpg
‘There we drank unlimited milk, and then turned back up the slopes, but lay down a little way off the house, and ate and drank, thoroughly comfortable, and enjoying the rolling about in the fresh grass prodigiously’ (IJ p 16).

11July1871.FaroeIslands.NorthCoast_1.jpg
‘ . . . the coasts were most wonderful on either side; pierced rocks running out from the cliffs under which a brig might have sailed: caves that the water ran up into, how far we could not tell, smooth walls of rock with streams running over them…

11July1871.FaroeIslands.NorthCoast_2.jpg
‘ . . . these would sink down into green slopes with farms on them, or be cleft into deep valleys over which would show crater-like or pyramidal mountains . . .’ (IJ p 17)