288 
BESSESTEDR. 
a number of books, principally in Latin and 
Greek, many of them on theological subjects, 
were lying in great confusion. The college, never, 
theless, possesses able teachers in the two Jone- 
sons. There were, originally, two schools of this 
description in Iceland, the one at Holum, the 
other at Skalholt; in the former of which sixteen 
scholars, and in the latter twenty-four, were edu¬ 
cated, and provided with board, lodging, clothes, 
and every necessary, and the expences were de¬ 
frayed out of the revenues of the estates belonging 
to the two episcopal sees. In the year 1 J 85 , the 
king ordered the estate belonging to Skalholt to 
be sold by auction, and the money to be deposited 
in a chest, called Jordehogs Casse , from which 
the bishop and teachers were thenceforth to re¬ 
ceive their annual salaries. The school was then 
removed to Bessestedr, and each of the scholars 
allowed a yearly stipend of twenty-five rix-dollars, 
in lieu of clothes, food, washing, &c. In 1801 , 
in a similar manner, the estate belonging to Ho¬ 
lum was sold, the money paid into the same 
funds, and the two schools incorporated into one, 
at which, however, even in the first instance, no 
more than thirty boys were educated; and that 
number was soon after reduced to twenty-four, as 
it now remains. This reduction was, in all pro¬ 
bability, caused by the increasing prices of pro¬ 
visions, which rendered it necessary that an 
