CHAP, v.] Her Nephew's Travels. 175 



MUNICH, Sept. 17, 1824. 



MY DEAR AUNT, 



***** 



I had originally intended to have gone to Switzerland 

 from Inspruck, or from this place, having a great desire to 

 visit the north of Switzerland, and to make certain observa- 

 tions among the Alps, but my wish to see you once more, to 

 assure myself and to be able to report to my mother how I 

 find you to pay my uncle Dietrich a visit and, though 

 last, not least, to see my father's birth-place these con- 

 siderations outweigh the attractions of Switzerland, and, 

 although the increase this detour will make in the length 

 of my journey homewards is so considerable as to limit my 

 stay in Hanover to two or three days at the utmost, I shall 

 at least have had the satisfaction of not neglecting an oppor- 

 tunity which may never occur again. 



The time when I hope to arrive I cannot precisely fix, as 

 it will depend on circumstances which may occur in my 

 route, having so arranged as to take in a variety of objects 

 interesting in various ways, thus : I shall go somewhat out 

 of my way to visit Professor Pfaff, at Eiiangen, and I hope 

 also to find Mr. Encke at Seeberg, Mr. Lindenau at Gotha, 

 Messrs. Gauss and Harding at Gottingen, &c. Moreover, I 

 hope there will not take place a resurrection among the 

 bones in the cave at Bayreuth before I get there. These 

 things necessarily interrupt post haste, besides which there 

 are always delays in passing frontiers, and accidents happen- 

 ing to wheels, springs, screws, &c. Allowing for these, how- 

 ever, I think it cannot be less than a fortnight, nor more 

 than three weeks from the date of this when I shall 

 have the happiness of once more shaking you by the 

 hand, and I need not say what satisfaction it will give me to 

 find yourself and my uncle, Mrs. Herschel and their family 

 in good health, as well as our good friends the Beckedorffs, 



