122 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on 



Wednesday, [/wwe] \Qth, 1840, 



17 New St., Spring Gardens. 

 My dear Governor, 



You are the most delectable Governor going in the early part of your letter, 

 but in the last not a man of business (! ! !). Now to support my charge. When I dined 

 with you at the Euston did not you, the defendant, say that if the 40 pounds did not 

 come that it would be my business to look after them, thereby leaving me to mine own 

 resources, and dependent upon them alone to obtain the said forty pounds? Under such 

 order I acted and accordingly under ray " auspices " the 40 pounds appeared in my 

 pocket. There was nothing more evidently for me to say. .'. I said nothing. Q.E.D. 



Now as to the other part'. My holidays will begin on the 21. ..28 of July. 

 I certainly should not disapprove of 70 days journey ; indeed I have no doubt but 

 that I should see a very great deal very well worth seeing in that journey, and see 

 it well too. 



The route I propose taking is Hamburg, Copenhagen, Esteborg, Stockholm (by 

 Gotha canal) (St Petersburg by Abo ?), Stockholm to Sundsvall, Trondheim (this is 

 beautiful scenery), Bergen (s|>lendid), Christiania (by V0ringsfoss and the Hardanger 

 Fjeld (P0rgnis) [? word not readable], Christiansund [? Christiansand], Hull, or else going 

 exactly the opposite way and landing from Hull at Goteborg, thence to Christiania and 

 so on, and thus I shall be able to judge more correctly about St Petersburg. There is 

 reindeer shooting ! ! ! ! and only 4 hours night at Bergen, Eternal Snow in the form of 

 glaciers 300 feet high ! ! In fact I am raving mad about it. I have of course taken 

 care that Cambridge shall not suffer in anyway by it. 



Please to make enquiries for a companion. I am not yet sure of one. Would 

 you let me have the liberty of taking one book at a time from Saunders and Ottley 

 and give me the necessary instructions, that I may cram up about Sweden, Norway and 

 Finland ? 



Please tell Emma that that lady with an illegible name something like Oh law ! 

 has sent me no seals. 



Your affectionate, half-cracked son, 



Fkas. Galton. 



The Wanderlust was seizing Francis, another factor becoming 

 ahnost dominant, and the blood of Buttons and Colyears manifesting 

 its influence. We know our Norway now as we do our Switzerland, 

 but it was not so usual for a boy of 18 in those days to plan a tour 

 through Norway, especially with the three days' fjeld journey across 

 the Hardanger Vidda from Vik to the Hallingdal. It was, I know, 

 a fairly lonely track 25 years ago, and more than 70 years back it 

 would indeed be an unusual route, probably taken only by a few 

 reindeer hunters. Francis gives no clue as to the source of his 



' The " most delectable Governor " in the early part of his letter had clearly been 

 proposing ten weeks of travel. 



