CHAPTER XI 



1887 



ON the last day of July he left England for Switzer- 

 land, and did not return till the end of September. A sec- 

 ond visit to Arolla worked a great change in him. He 

 renewed his Gentian studies also, with unflagging ardour. 

 The following letters give some idea of his doings and 

 interests : 



HOTEL DU MONT COLLON, AROLLA, SWITZERLAND, 



Aug. 28, 1887. 



MY DEAR FOSTER I know you will be glad to hear that I 

 consider myself completely set up again. We went to the Made- 

 raner Thai and stayed a week there. But I got no good out of 

 it. It is charmingly pretty, but damp ; and, moreover, the hotel 

 was 50 per cent too full of people, mainly Deutschers, and we 

 had to turn out into the open air after dinner because the salon 

 and fumoir were full of beds. So, in spite of all prudential con- 

 siderations, I made up my mind to come here. We travelled 

 over the Furca, and had a capital journey to Evolena. Thence 

 I came on muleback (to my great disgust, but I could not walk 

 a bit uphill) here. I began to get better at once; and in spite of 

 a heavy snowfall and arctic weather a week ago, I have done 

 nothing but mend. We have glorious weather now, and I can 

 take almost as long walks as last year. 



We have some Cambridge people here : Dr. Peile of Christ's 

 and his family. Also Nettleship of Oxford. What is the myth 

 about the Darwin tree in the Pall Mall ? * Dr. Peile believes it 

 to be all a flam. 



' A tree planted yesterday in the centre of the circular grass-plot 

 in the first court of Christ's College, in Darwin's honour, was ' spir- 

 ited ' away at night." P.M.G. August 23, 1887. 

 1 80 



