Monday Even.
My dear Mr. Tyndall,
Trusting that ‘this week’ does not absolutely mean tomorrow, I will write & thank you for your note,2 & wish you farewell, & a pleasant journey.
What should you say if we peeped in on you, in your solitude at the Distel Alp?3 More extraordinary things have happened! —Seriously, our thoughts are turning lovingly towards the mountains, though rather indefinitely at present—& if we go, & where we go, are points at present undecided. When we have quite made up our minds, I will write & tell you; as we might possibly meet for awhile, which would be very pleasant—
At any rate, we cannot get away for another month—
I suppose if I direct to you, to the care of M. le Curé Imseng,4 it will find you?
Lebe wohl, und gute Reise.5 | Yours always sincerely | FH Hooker—
RI MS JT/1/H/497
RI MS JT/1/TYP/8/2554
[12 July 1858]: the date is given based on a note from LT on the typescript letter stating that 13 July 1858, a Tuesday, was written on the envelope (which is now missing), making the day this letter was written, ‘Monday Eve’, 12 July. Tyndall presumably wrote it on that Monday and posted it the following day.
your note: letter missing.
Distel Alp: part of the mountainside beyond the southern end of the Mattmark See in the Saas valley.
M. le Curé Imseng: Johann Josef Imseng (1806–69), the curé (priest) of Saas Fee, the upper village above the main village of Saas in the Swiss canton of Valais. Imseng, who accompanied Tyndall over several days in late August 1858, was also the first alpine skier in Switzerland (HLS). Tyndall had planned to ascend the Dom with Imseng, but they were prevented by bad weather.
Lebe wohl, und gute Reise: Farewell, and good travel (German).
Please cite as “Tyndall1532,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on