370 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



to be the great drawback to the intended journey is 

 leaving the three youngest children behind us, and I 

 cannot even now make up my min(t to say that we will 

 do it. We talk of taking Eliza and Minna with us, 

 if we go, by way of making the journey less lonely, 

 and relieving the responsibility of leaving them behind ; 

 though of course it will add heavily to the expense. 

 And this anxiety about leaving the children bears on 

 another point which I must not pass over your truly 

 kind invitation to Clifton, backed as it is by the friendly 

 letters of your excellent ladies. I can only say now 

 that our wishes are all on the same side, and that 

 the only obstacle would be the long journey, and the 

 long absence from our dear little ones. Of course we 

 have always speculated on the possibility or probability 

 of meeting you and why not part, at least, of your 

 family in Switzerland. And although your last letter 

 seems to throw a sad bucket of cold water upon this 

 admirable scheme, we are by no means willing to despair 

 of its ultimate consummation at one part or other of the 

 summer, if our journey ever conies off. But so many 

 things may happen one way or other between this and 

 June, that I hope we need not consider the die must as 

 yet be cast of Forbes at Clifton, or Symonds at Chamouni. 

 . . . With the somewhat presumptuous hope of whetting 

 your appetite for accomplishing the impossible, I send 

 by this post partly, I must own, under female inspira- 

 tion a rough copy of my article on pedestrianism in 

 Switzerland/ 



The hope, here alluded to, of once more looking on 

 the Alps was not fulfilled. In June 1857, Forbes and 

 Mrs. Forbes with their two eldest children left Edin- 

 burgh, and got as far as Folkestone ; next day they 

 were to have sailed to Boulogne, but that was not to 

 be. The friend who was waiting to welcome them again 

 in Switzerland was Mr. Wills, an Alpine explorer, to 

 whom Forbes had been drawn by strong mountaineering 

 sympathy. How their acquaintance first began appears 

 from a letter of the former summer : 



