 | Lady Layard’s Journal Go to a Date Search the Journal |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |
20 August 1869 — Brieg | |
Friday. 20th [August 1869]. Got up at 6 and at 7 we mounted & started for our ride up the Bel Alp. It was a lovely morning and it was a most lovely ride. It was rather a steep ascent & stony path so that it was not so easy for our animals. Two German ladys who rode up just behind us were dreadfully alarmed & gave loud screams whenever their mules slipt over a stone. Halfway up we dismounted to rest for a little while and drink some milk. There we were joined by the Profr who had walked up. I read my letters one from Kate also Susan Hambro who had arrived just as we left Brieg. We got to the Bel Alp Hotel abt ½ past 12 and had lunch. Afterwards I rested for a while & slept. We then went out & sat looking over the glacier & watched a gentleman crossing it. At a Table d’hôte (abt 30 people). After dinner we sat out to watch the sun set & Profr T. told us some of his adventures. How once an avalanche gave way with him & his guides & by an enormous strain they managed to stop it just at the edge of a precipice. He lost his watch that day as it fell into the snow. Nineteen days afterwards he said jokingly he wd go and find it and went—after searching 20 minutes he found it. The snow had melted a little and it had come to the surface in perfect condition and not the least injured. He said he had given the said watch to a son of Sir J. Lubbocks to whom he shortly afterwards stood godfather. It soon got cold and we were glad to go and sit in the reading room where there was a fire and where everyone had collected, amongst others an old Miss Gibbon and her meek nephew Sir Gibbon. She is a terrible old bore and I had hard work to elude her as she scrapes acquaintance with every one. She joined in Henry’s & the Profr’s talk but was soon snubbed out of it. The moon is almost full & rose beautifully over the mountains glad to go to bed at 9 and more glad of plenty of blankets. | |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |