Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 17

The English Letters of Pastor Schrøter
25
With these letters is a photograph of the old pastor taken
in 1849 — one of the very first photographs made in the
Faroe Islands. It was taken by Sergeant Jaeger of the Tórs-
havn garrison, who possessed a daguerrotype apparatus. Schrø-
ter is dressed in his canonicals, and is wearing a wig. He tells
us how this came about — not through vanity, as one might
think:
I was that day baptizing a child, and in the costume of
the Lutheran Church, but I was totally ignorant how to
place me, and I thought only my face was to be seen on
the plate. That is why my hands are seen; and I had my
wig on, because it was cold, and there was no opportunity
to sit in a house. This is the reason why I perhaps look a
little younger than I am.
It was two years before a suitable opportunity arose to send
this photograph to England in safety; but the summer before
Schrøter’s death (14th November 1851), H. C. Miiller travelled
from Faroe to England to visit the Great Exhibition, and took
the portrait with him. Thus we are able to gaze on the features
of this kindly, gossipy old man who, in his letters to his Eng-
lish friend, has left us such a vivid series of sketches of his
times.
ÚRTAK
Greinin endurgevur í stuttum sumt av innihaldinum í brævasavni,
skrivaðum av Johan Hendrik Schrøter presti (1771—1851), til enska
baronetin, Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, og nú í varðveitslu á British
Museum í London. Høvundurin sýnir á, at hóast Schrøter, tá hann nemur
við føroysk siðsøgulig evni, her eins og aðrastaðni er nóg so sprækin í
sínum hugflogi, lýsir hann kortini við brøvum sínum í mongum øðrum
førum líkindini í Føroyum í tíðarskeiðinum 1831—1851.
Millum tey evni, sum nomið er við í brøvunum, eru viðurskiftini í
Føroyum í stríðsárunum 1848—1850; velting upp úr nýggjum í Føroyum,
eina mest um Havnar-leiðina; ein long røð av landbúnaðarroyndum; og
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