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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