HOLIDAY TKAVEL 433 



variant to stay ' two or three quiet weeks at some cheap, out 

 of the way place (Tyrol or Pyrenees) and work up some of my 

 florating materials, and afterwards go on to Sardinia or not.' 



My pleasure [he writes to Harvey, July 20, 1858] would 

 be to go to only 2 or 3 places and spend a week at least at 

 each — as one week at the Distel-Alp or elsewhere in Saas 

 valley — one in valley of Ansasca, a day off, and one some- 

 where else, hard by, doing some work at each and enjoying 

 some very moderate walks at each. I have no love of climb- 

 ing any more, or of cleaving glaciers, but I should like 

 wandering for an hour or two in a day about such places 

 out of the way of tourists or tripping excursionists. 



But alternative plans had to be made nearer home, for 

 Mrs. Hooker could not go far away from Bath, where her 

 aunt, Miss Jenyns, was lying seriously ill. 



Thus a few days later : 



We proposed the Cornish tour because my wife would be 

 as near Bath there as here. I am charmed with your Kilkee 

 plans, not so Mrs. Jones who has an aversion to the sea, no 

 taste for that seaneij and besides Flea rhymes with Kilkee. 

 The great objection is however that it is as far from Bath 

 as Switzerland. There is also the Hewmeedity of W. Ireland, 

 and 16 days' wind and rain out of a fortnight, plus colds 

 and neuralgia, is no joke on a holiday tour. 



* But whatever be decided,' he adds, * I am Hke you, I 

 bargain for the sea or the snow — all else is dull, flat, tame, 

 stale and unprofitable.' 



So again botanising is a leading attraction in the unfulfilled 

 hoHday plan for 1859, and he declares to Harvey : 



I would ten times rather go to Cadiz than to top of Mt. 

 Kosa for a month ; specially as there is something to be got 

 and much to be seen in Spain, and especially if the trip 

 brought in the contrasted regions of the Atlantic and Medi- 

 terranean coasts, followed by the crossing] of the Pyrenean 

 pass to the Biscayan coast, so as to secure comparative 

 results beyond the mere numbers of species. 



