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OCR Rendition - approximate
122 Life and Letters of Francis Galton WEDNESDAY, [June] 10th, 1840, 17 NEw ST., SPRING GARDENS. MY DEAR GOVERNOR, You are the most delectable Governor going in the early part of your letter, but in the last not a man of business (M). !). Now to support my charge. When I dined with you at the Euston did not you, the defendant, say that if the 40 pounds did not come that it would be my business to look after them, thereby leaving me to mine own resources, and dependent upon them alone to obtain the said forty pounds ? Under such order I acted and accordingly under my " auspices " the 40 pounds appeared in my pocket. There was nothing more evidently for me to say. .*.I said nothing. Q.E.D. Now, as to the other part'. My holidays will begin on the 21...28 of July. I certainly should not disapprove of 70 days journey ; indeed I have no doubt but that I should see a very great deal very well worth seeing in that journey, and see it well too. The route; I propose taking is Hamburg, Copenhagen, Esteborg, Stockholm (by Gotha canal) (St Petersburg by Abo ?), Stockholm to Sundsvall, Trondheim (this is beautiful scenery), Bergen (splendid), Christiania (by Voringsfoss and the Hardanger Fjeld (Porgnis) [? word not readable], Christiansund [? Christiansand], Hull, or else going exactly the opposite way and landing from Hull at Goteborg, thence to Christiania and so on, and thus I shall be able to judge more correctly about St Petersburg. There is reindeer shooting!! ! ! and only 4 hours night at Bergen, Eternal Snow in the form of glaciers 300 feet high!! In fact I am raving mad about it. I have of course taken care that Cambridge shall not suffer in anyway by it. Please to make enquiries for a companion. I am not yet sure of one. Would you let me have the liberty of taking one book at a time from Saunders and Ottley and give me the necessary instructions, that I may cram up about Sweden, Norway and Finland? Please tell Emma that that lady with an illegible name something like Oh law ! has sent me no seals. Your affectionate, half-cracked son, FRAS. GALTON. The Wanderlust was seizing Francis, another factor becoming almost dominant, and the blood of Buttons and Colyears manifesting its influence. We know our Norway now as we do our Switzerland, but it was not so usual for a boy of 18 in those days to plan a tour through Norway, especially with the three days' f eld journey across the Hardanger Vidda from Vik to the Hallingdal. It was, I know, a fairly lonely track 25 years ago, and more than 70 years back it would indeed be an unusual route, probably taken only by a few reindeer hunters. Francis gives no clue as to the source of his ' The "most delectable Governor" in the early part of his letter had clearly been proposing ten weeks of travel.
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