Ɛpsilon

From F. M. Balfour   13 September 1880

Zermatt

Sept 13. ’80

My dear Mr. Darwin

I do not know how to thank you for the very kind letter wh was forwarded to me here.1 When I accepted the position of Vice President of Section and it was I confess with anything but satisfaction that I looked forward to the prospect of having to write my address; & it was with still less pleasure that I accomplished the task during my last visit here; but to receive such a letter from you more than compensates me for all the trouble & indeed I almost feel it to be one of the events of my life.2

You have probably heard by this time that my brother & I found Horace & his wife here. They left much to our regret soon after we came, crossing over one of the glacier passes! I could not pursuade them to come back by another pass.3

My brother & I have been most vigorous since we came out. We have slept or tried to sleep more often in some hut than in bed, & have already been up the Matterhorn & the Weiss horn4   For the moment I have almost forgotten all Embryology but hope to come back with renewed vigour in the course of a week or two

I am | yours very sincerly | F. M. Balfour

2
Balfour was a vice-president of section D (biology) and chairman of the department of anatomy and physiology of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for their annual meeting at Swansea. His chairman’s address was given on 27 August 1880 and published in Nature, 2 September 1880, pp. 417–20.
3
Balfour’s brother, Gerald William Balfour, accompanied him on a trip to the Alps (see M. Foster and Sedgwick eds. 1885, pp. 16–17). Horace and Ida Darwin were on their honeymoon tour; see letter from Emma Darwin to Sara Darwin, [3 September 1880] (DAR 219.1: 138).
4
The Matterhorn and the Weisshorn are mountain peaks near the town of Zermatt in the Swiss Alps.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12712,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12712