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A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden

Pages: 304

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About this book

In the spring of 1847 the author boarded the yacht Iris and left Greenwich with a companion he calls Lord R–, bound for the coasts of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. What follows is a leisurely first-person record of that summer cruise: harbours reached at Christiansand, Elsinore, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Christiania, and Bergen, alongside fjord scenery, changeable weather, and everyday encounters in Scandinavian towns. Ross spends nearly as much time ashore sightseeing and socialising as he does under sail, and the tone stays conversational throughout. Written when few English travellers described the northern kingdoms at any length, the book survives as an early and fairly scarce Victorian account of Scandinavian travel. It rewards anyone curious about how the region looked to a mid-century British visitor before mass tourism reached the north.

About the author

William A. Ross

William A. Ross was a British gentleman-yachtsman and travel writer active in the early Victorian period. Little is recorded about his life beyond this single narrative, which he based on a cruise made in 1847. He is remembered for this account, first published in London by Henry Colburn in 1848 and reissued in a second edition the following year.

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