Itemised financial accounts, in Shepherd's hand and initialled by him ('C. Wm. S.'), for the expedition described by him in his book 'The North-West Peninsula of Iceland'.

Author: 
Rev. Charles William Shepherd, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Alpine Club [G. G. Fowler; H. M. Upcher; Iceland]
Publication details: 
Dated from 14 June to 7 July [1862].
£350.00
SKU: 8965

4to, 5 pp, on five loose and uniform leaves. Very good, on lightly aged paper. The first leaf is headed 'C. W. S. Acc' and is initialled at the foot 'Rt C. Wm. S.' The second is headed 'Sheet (2)', with the rest numbered 3 to 5. It is clear from sheets 2 to 5 that one leaf - what should have been 'Sheet (1)' - is lacking. Provides a fascinating insight into the practicalities of British nineteenth-century exploration, and compliments Shepherd's 'The North-West Peninsula of Iceland: being the journal of a tour in Iceland in the spring and summer of 1862', published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1867. In April of 1862, with 'certain ornithological inquiries in view', Shepherd travelled from England to Iceland on the Arcturus, 'in the company of my friends Mr. H. M. Upcher, of Sherringham Hall, Norfolk, and Mr. G. G. Fowler, of Gunton Hall, Suffolk'. The accounts include advances 'To Fowler' and 'To Upcher'. The first page carries columns of credits and debits, including £8 0s 1d received 'from the Sale of Ponies'. (Shepherd's book ends with a description of the sale of '[o]ur stud', but does not give the total fetched by the sale.) The other four pages provide itemised entries (around 25 to a page) for the expenditure on the trip. These include £5 to 'Frenchman and Man to row us ashore', £6 'To men who rowed to Surtobrand and took us on board the Metha', £1 to 'Boy with eggs at Holar', £14 to 'Exchange horse that fell into the river at ', 3s to 'Boy for lost Tackle Bag', and, on the group's return, 2s 6d for 'Beer at Adelphi'. From the Shepherd family archives.