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our old acquaintance I can only get certain
intelligence of the existance of Mademoiselle De Lom
& Mademoiselle Rondat but the former is at Paris
the latter at St. Gall both old maiden ladies the
latter with hair quite white the former looking young
for her years. The aussets [?] are all [indecipherable] &
gone. Blonai is still occupied by a M. de Blonai
& Chatellian by a person who married one of the
Dubochets daughters who inherited the place, she
is living but we never hear much of them. Old
Dufour of Montreux died not many years back
at his Nouvelle Vevey in Ohio. On Sunday Evg.
27th June, Monnet drove me by Clarens & Montreux
to an hotel placed on the mountain just above
the latter, where I was to pass the night intending
to ascend "Naie" [also spelt Naye] the next morning early. I enclose
a sketch of the place with a memo or two written
at the back. I set out ¼ past 4 yesterday
morg., mule back with a guide carrying some
provant. What a lovely ride, and how
much higher & steeper, wilder & more romantic
than the [indecipherable] these magnificent clusters of mountains seem
and the flowers! how I wished for some of you to
enjoy them with me. The thermometer was just 60°
when we started, I, the guide and a German who
was sent from the Inn to learn the way. The guide
was a Vaudois from the village of Glion the site of
the Inn, and quite a mountaineer in his [indecipherable].
The vagabond scrambled along the sharp narrow
ridges with frightful precipices below, getting flowers
for me in a way that made me quake but he
seemed to [crossed out - having] have the footing of a goat.
However in an hour & half from starting & with constant
climbing we came to the highest chalet yet

[Cross-hatched writing]

de glace &ca and to return here by the Tête Noir & Martigny
by the 6th or 7th Inst. Then to go via Morges & Neufchatel
Dijon to Paris, thence to Bordeaux for two or three days and
then back to London. I can hardly be there before the 18th
to 20th July. I do not like to go away without seeing Chamounix [also spelt Chamonix]
and at least one glacier. I am so close to them and I may
never again have the opportunity. There are crowds of people
here some staying for a time but the majority only for a
day or so in passing, Americans in great numbers, a
good many English & Germans & some few french. The
Genevese have built villas as far off as Clarens & there
are scores of villas with bits of English pleasure ground
near Geneva. The Railway from Lyons will reach the latter
in a year or little more. There is one open between Morges