211 



JUNE 



June 2. — Yesterday proved about the fiercest first of June that 

 I remember, for the weather was cold, with a gale of wind 

 blowing from the west, and occasional squalls of violent rain. 

 The night also was very bitter. Riding from Kessingland home on 

 a bicycle in the teeth of the wind I found most excellent exercise. 



This morning I walked round the farm. Notwithstanding 

 the unseasonable weather, the grass grows thick and strong, but 

 then grass does not mind cold ; drought is its great enemy. I 

 do not think that I ever saw more beautiful turf than is to be 

 found in the sheltered parts of Iceland ; where the hay also 

 is good, although it does not grow high, and on account of 

 the hummocks raised by the action of frost must be laboriously 

 cut with a sickle. Yet in Iceland — or at any rate in some parts 

 of it — the subsoil remains frozen for the greater part of the 

 year. I remember once, towards the end of the month of June, 

 digging on the site of BergsthorsknoU, which eight hundred years 

 or so ago was the home of Njal, the hero of the saga of that 

 name (in my opinion one of the greatest books that ever was 

 written), to seek for proof of the legend of the burning of the hall 

 by Flosi. 



This I found readily enough, for, at a depth of about two feet 

 beneath the surface, we came upon the hard earthen floor of the 

 hall, still, to all appearance, sprinkled with a fine layer of black 

 sand, which, if I remember right, the saga tells us was strewn 

 upon it by the hands of Bergthora and her household nearly nine 

 hundred years ago ; and among the crumbling fragm.ents of the 

 fire-blackened timbers of the roof, lumps of greasy matter, sup- 



