Dear Sir
I believe you know that we are writing a Review here, and may easily conjecture that we are ambitious of enlisting all the talent in the country that does not disdain to skirmish under our banners — As you have liesure [sic] to read Schillers history of the Thirty Years War perhaps you might find time to send us a short article now and then, and [crossed out] I being desirous of bringing a good recruit into our quarters have promised to use all my endeavours to crimp you —— We arein considerable want of a German reviewer and are not over well provided with chemists that know anything of writing – I wish I could tempt you with an inviting book but I am afraid you must provide for yourself – There is but one I shall venture to suggest which I know you could do admirably, and which can scarcely be done here at all — the last French edition of Werners Theorie des Filons [Nouvelle théorie de la formation des filons = ‘seams/veins’] which has lately been sent down to us – a learned article upon that subject would be very creditable to our journal and I am sure would cost you very little pains – if there be anything else which you would like to do better, we shall be equally happy to receive it —
As the literary and scientific connections of your family are as extensive, I take it, as those of any Academy in Europe, perhaps you may be able to suggest some valuable contributors – and to some of these it may not be a matter of absolute indifference <to know> that we pay, for prime articles – at the rate of ten guineas a sheet – an unprecedented liberality say the booksellers, but which they hope to be enabled to support by the encreasing sale of the publication —
I hope the influenza has migrated from your city for half a century to come – tho’ for your own part I am persuaded that it would be of use to you to perform quarantine for some weeks with us – tho’ to confess the truth there is nothing going on among us but speculations upon War and debate about bigamy in the General assembly – I am
Dear Sir, very Sincerely Yours
F. Jeffrey
62. Queen Street
had been an independent commonwealth for more than three centuries after the establishment of its Parliament in 930; after that, it was ruled first from Norway and then from Denmark until it established full independence in 1944.
ICELAND remained relatively little known in Britain throughout the eighteenth century, although medieval Icelandic literature attracted the attention of at least some British antiquarians from mid-century on. Most of the information available on the country itself came from translations of works by French and Scandinavian travellers. Sir Joseph Banks led the first British ‘scientific’ expedition to Iceland in 1772, to be followed by John Stanley in 1789, William Hooker in 1809, and Sir George Mackenzie in 1810. Observations by these and other travellers attracted the attention of the Edinburgh literati; in particular, samples and descriptions of Icelandic rocks contributed to the impassioned debates about geology then raging between Huttonians and Wernerians.
The Edinburgh reviewed books on Iceland in 1804 (ER 3:334-43) and 1812 (ER 19:416-35). The earlier article, on a French translation of a survey of Iceland by Eggert Olafsen and Bjarni Povelsen, was mildly sceptical about the value of such a detailed study of a remote, impoverished country and complained about the excessive detail provided by the authors. In contrast, the article on Mackenzie’s expedition enthusiastically welcomed an account of ‘the natural history of a country rendered interesting by the very severity with which nature has treated it’ (ER 19:418) and singled out the observations on geology for particular notice.
Pamela Perkins, University of Manitoba
Dear Sir
I believe you know that we are writing a Review here, and may easily conjecture that we are ambitious of enlisting all the talent in the country that does not disdain to skirmish under our banners — As you have liesure [sic] to read Schillers history of the Thirty Years War perhaps you might find time to send us a short article now and then, and [crossed out] I being desirous of bringing a good recruit into our quarters have promised to use all my endeavours to crimp you —— We arein considerable want of a German reviewer and are not over well provided with chemists that know anything of writing – I wish I could tempt you with an inviting book but I am afraid you must provide for yourself – There is but one I shall venture to suggest which I know you could do admirably, and which can scarcely be done here at all — the last French edition of Werners Theorie des Filons [Nouvelle théorie de la formation des filons = ‘seams/veins’] which has lately been sent down to us – a learned article upon that subject would be very creditable to our journal and I am sure would cost you very little pains – if there be anything else which you would like to do better, we shall be equally happy to receive it —
As the literary and scientific connections of your family are as extensive, I take it, as those of any Academy in Europe, perhaps you may be able to suggest some valuable contributors – and to some of these it may not be a matter of absolute indifference <to know> that we pay, for prime articles – at the rate of ten guineas a sheet – an unprecedented liberality say the booksellers, but which they hope to be enabled to support by the encreasing sale of the publication —
I hope the influenza has migrated from your city for half a century to come – tho’ for your own part I am persuaded that it would be of use to you to perform quarantine for some weeks with us – tho’ to confess the truth there is nothing going on among us but speculations upon War and debate about bigamy in the General assembly – I am
Dear Sir, very Sincerely Yours
F. Jeffrey
