. Alpine flowers for English gardens . Mountain plants. 96 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. native, made apparently of old petticoat stuff, and coming a shade below the knees. Fortified with these and a pair of stockings, I seized the duvet, or bag of down a foot thick, which frequently lies on the beds in continental houses, and, wrap- ping it round my shoulders, sat down to extract as much heat as possible out of the fire—not a good one, despite my passionate entreaties for more wood. I felt horribly lonely, and was, I should say, not very ornamental, crouched over the fire in this attire. The room w
. Alpine flowers for English gardens . Mountain plants. 96 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. native, made apparently of old petticoat stuff, and coming a shade below the knees. Fortified with these and a pair of stockings, I seized the duvet, or bag of down a foot thick, which frequently lies on the beds in continental houses, and, wrap- ping it round my shoulders, sat down to extract as much heat as possible out of the fire—not a good one, despite my passionate entreaties for more wood. I felt horribly lonely, and was, I should say, not very ornamental, crouched over the fire in this attire. The room was big, and the walls damp with a winter's frost in them. Outside the large windows was a little field of corn, sup- ported by a rough terrace-wall; the ears bent over the wall with the weight of snow ; beyond, ghostly-looking pines, heavily laden, and away in every direction the eye could detect dim outlines of near and high mountains—not imposing or majestic as usual, because enveloped^ like every- thing else, in an atmosphere of flakes. Dinner Catne. It was hard, bad bacon, swimming in an inch of oil, accompanied by almost unbearable fried pota- toes, also liberally done in liquid fat—a mess which nothing but fierce hunger could enable one to face. After this I went to bed under the duvet, which had served me so well while the guide was drying my clothes. I had another visit from the kind priest of the parish, who conveyed the unwelcome intelligence that snow had fallen so deeply that I had no chance of seeing the flowers of the P'ee Alp—a most curious spot in the neigh- bourhood, a sort of green islet surrounded by glaciers, and very rich in plants—for three days to come. Such was my first day in search of plants in the Alps. After this march through the Saasthal and previous night in the Simplon dihgence, I slept the sleep of the thoroughly-tired. I was a day too late to meet my friend, Mr. A. Wheeler, here, but the curd despatched two men early next morning : th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1870
