The Wooden Houses Are Inhabited By Merchants Or By Their Factors,
And Consist Only Of A Ground-Floor, With A Front Of Four Or Six
Windows.
Two or three steps lead up to the entrance, which is in
the centre of the building, and opens upon a hall from which doors
lead into the rooms to the right and left.
At the back of the house
is situated the kitchen, which opens into several back rooms and
into the yard. A house of this description consists only of five or
six rooms on the ground-floor and a few small attic bedrooms.
The internal arrangements are quite European. The furniture - which
is often of mahogany, - the mirrors, the cast-iron stoves, every
thing, in short, come from Copenhagen. Beautiful carpets lie spread
before the sofas; neat curtains shade the windows; English prints
ornament the whitewashed walls; porcelain, plate, cut-glass, &c.,
are displayed on chests and on tables; and flower-pots with roses,
mignonnette, and pinks spread a delicious fragrance around. I even
found a grand pianoforte here. If any person could suddenly, and
without having made the journey, be transported into one of these
houses, he would certainly fancy himself in some continental town,
rather than in the distant and barren island of Iceland. And as in
Havenfiord, so I found the houses of the more opulent classes in
Reikjavik, and in all the places I visited.
From these handsome houses I betook myself to the cottages of the
peasants, which have a more indigenous, Icelandic appearance.
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