An Alpine Expedition - Gregory Watt
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“I have not seen anything equal to the view from Grindelwald. The Assemblage of colossal Alps, horrible precipices of naked rocks piled one on the other, summits clothed with glittering snow and the glaciers with their deep blue caverns and fissures contrasted with a verdant and luxuriant valley covered with houses and trees, smiling beneath an unclouded sky and bounded on the other side by mountains clothed with dark forests of gloomy pine with long white moss which hangs floating in the air...”
Left: Engraving of Gregory Watt |
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These awe-struck words were written by Gregory Watt, James Watt's youngest son. Likeable and intelligent, Gregory was educated at Glasgow University before joining the Soho steam engine firm. But in 1801, with his health beginning to fail, he gave up business and indulged his passion for geology, travelling in Europe, collecting minerals and fossils.
Right: Gregory's accounts of his expenses while abroad |
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In the company of William Maclure, an American, he visited Germany, France, Austria and Italy. Despite periods of illness, he climbed in the Alps, sketching and recording his impressions. Gregory died of tuberculosis less than three years after his Alpine expedition, aged just 27.
Left: One of Gregory's sketches
of the Alps, from his notebook |
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