From W. E. Darwin to Emma Darwin [18 September 1877]

My dear Mother,

We have a most jolly Journey so far, and everything has gone perfectly smooth. Today has been absolutely cloudless and we are just come in from a 6 hours expedition to a little lake just below Mount Titlis. We started at 9 o'clock with a guide & our lunch, & had our first hour through a thick firwood with climpses of the valley and of Titlis above use, it was very shady and so broke us in very nicely. We unluckily found ourselves going up with a fat old german & his wife in Chaise à porteurs, & we could not go quick or slow enough to get out of their way which was a bore. We saw no more of them at the top as we went & bought a bottle of wine at the little inn by the lake & then went & ate our lunch on the grass   After many rests we got home at 4 o'clock, [illeg] & B. a little done up but nothing to speak of.

It is the worst of Engelberg that this was the shortest expedition we could find for our start.

We have charming rooms & B & I are now sitting in the shade in our own balcony with a wonderful of sunlight on the snow of Titlis above us.

In yr letter you forgot to mention Hen's places. We expect to hear tonight. I sent off a flood of post cards on Sunday at Luzern to the list of places she gave us, so I guess she will know we are here.

I think we are gravitating towards risking Roland & going to Mürren over the jochepass for a day or two & giving up the [Maderaner] that [illeg] B. are most easy going travellers & enjoy things without [illeg] fretting themselves.

I am very glad Abinger was so successful

Y^r affec son | W. E. D.