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Next morning early we descended to Grindelwald, thence past the upper glacier under the Wetterhorn over the Scheidegg to Rosenlaui, where we dined and saw the glacier, after dinner, descending the valley we visited the falls of Reichenbach (which the reader need not do if he means to see those of the Aar at Handegg), and leaving Meyringen on our left we recommenced an ascent of the valley of the Aar, sleeping at Guttannen, about ten miles farther on.

Next day, i.e. Wednesday, June 24, leaving Guttannen very early, passing the falls of Handegg, which are first rate, we reached the hospice at nine; had some wine there, and crawled on through the snow and up the rocks to the summit of the pass–here we met an old lady, in a blue ugly, with a pair of green spectacles, carried in a chaise a porteur; she had taken it into her head in her old age that she would like to see a little of the world, and here she was. We had seen her lady’s maid at the hospice, concerning whom we were told that she was “bien sage,” and did not scream at the precipices. On the top of the Gemini, too, at half-past seven in the morning, we had met a somewhat similar lady walking alone with a blue parasol over the snow; about half an hour after we met some porters carrying her luggage, and found that she was an invalid lady of Berne, who was walking over to the baths at Leukerbad for the benefit of her health–we scarcely thought there could be much occasion–leaving these two good ladies then, let us descend the Grimsel to the bottom of the glacier of the Rhone, and then ascend the Furka–a stiff pull; we got there by two o’clock, dined (Italian is spoken here again), and finally reached Hospenthal at half-past five after a very long day.

On Thursday walking down to Amstegg and taking a trap to Fluelen, we then embarked on board a steamer and had a most enjoyable ride to Lucerne, where we slept; Friday to Basle by rail, walking over the Hauenstein, {2} and getting a magnificent panorama (alas! a final one) of the Alps, and from Basle to Strasburg, where we ascended the cathedral as far as they would let us without special permission from a power they called Mary, and then by the night train to Paris, where we arrived Saturday morning at ten.

[Footnote: {2} The Hauenstein tunnel was not completed until later. Its construction was delayed by a fall of earth which occurred in 1857 and buried sixty-three workmen.–R. A. S.]

Left Paris on Sunday afternoon, slept at Dieppe; left Dieppe Monday morning, got to London at three o’clock or thereabouts, and might have reached Cambridge that night had we been so disposed; next day came safely home to dear old St. John’s, cash in hand 7d.

From my window {3} in the cool of the summer twilight I look on the umbrageous chestnuts that droop into the river; Trinity library rears its stately proportions on the left; opposite is the bridge; over that, on the right, the thick dark foliage is blackening almost into sombreness as the night draws on. Immediately beneath are the arched cloisters resounding with the solitary footfall of meditative students, and suggesting grateful retirement. I say to myself then, as I sit in my open window, that for a continuance I would rather have this than any scene I have visited during the whole of our most enjoyed tour, and fetch down a Thucydides, for I must go to Shilleto at nine o’clock to-morrow.

[Footnote: {3} Mr. J. F. Harris has identified Butler’s rooms in the third court of St. John’s College.–R. A. S.]