HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 241 



of Monte Kosa. Here we stayed some days glacier-walking ; 

 left it by the Weiss Thor for Macugnaga. I am sure you did 

 not pass the Weiss Thor. We had to descend all but a preci- 

 pice from 12,000 feet to 4000 (the level of the valley), a most 

 monkey-and-cat proceeding. In one place we had literally to 

 hold on by hands and toes, with our faces to the wall, and 

 nothing visible below save a cliff going sheer down into a white 

 misty vapour, which steamed up from the valley. Fortunately 

 there was no wind. The descent was partly by rocky precipices 

 and [tartly by steep snow banks. Neither Hooker nor Thomson 

 had seen such a place in all their travels, and certainly there was 

 nothing on Mont Blanc so disturbing to the head. We crossed 

 the Moro in a fog, and so back to Visp, and up the valley to the 

 Grimsel, where I remembered the album you spoke of, and saw 

 the mosses, &c, and Agassiz's writing. Hence to Interlacken, 

 Lucerne, &c, and down the Ehine. We stopped at Wiesbaden 

 to attend the German scientific meeting, and the ladies read 

 Longfellow at Heidelberg under an umbrella. Then Cologne, 

 Brussels, and the Belgian cities, and very glad to get back to 

 Kew. So much for our travels. 



Arrived in London, I found the city given up to hvo vanities. 

 Every book and printseller's windows were filled with " Uncle 

 Tom " and the Duke of Wellington ! The former has had a 

 rage equal to that of Jenny Lind. When I left home there was 

 only a single cheap edition to be had, and that in but few 

 places. On my return there were at least a dozen, ranging 

 from sixpence to ten shillings, and selling everywhere by 

 hundreds of thousands. The music shops had " New Songs 

 from Uncle Tom," with lithographs of Eliza on the ice, &c, 

 and the minor theatres were acting a play called " Uncle Tom." 

 This week " Punch " has got Mr. Disraeli in the character of 

 Topsy playing mischievous pranks. So there is fame for you. 

 And now I have promised so many persons to find out about the 

 authoress, that I shall feel obliged if you will tell me something 

 of her, and if you send her autograph it will be all the better. 



To. Mrs Harvey, New York. 



Trinity College, February 10, 1853. 

 I have been very quietly busy since Christmas, when I 

 was at Plassey, with the daily round of college life. Now 



