Autograph letter signed : Chamonix, to Thomas Love Peacock, 1816 July 22-25 and 1816 Aug. 2.

Describing in great detail his journey with Mary Godwin and her sister Claire Clairmont from Geneva to Chamonix. Describing his first sights of Mont Blanc: "Pinnacles of snow, intolerably bright, part of the chain connected with Mont Blanc shone thro the clouds at intervals on high. I never knew I never imagined what mountains were before. The immensity of these aerial summits excited, when they suddenly burst upon the sight, a sentiment of exstatic wonder, not unallied to madness-- And remember this was all one scene ... Nature was the poet whose harmony held our spirits more breathless than that of the divinest." Describing an avalanche, a glacier and the winds. Relating an excursion to the source of the Arveiron and its surroundings and remarking on the progression of the glacier there; describing another excursion to the glacier of Montanvert where it is called "the sea of ice" and remarking, after returning to Chamonix, that it was a scene of "dizzying wonder" and that "One would think Mont Blanc was a living being & that the frozen blood forever circulated slowly thro' his stony veins," and lamenting that they met some English people while dining on the grass. Mentioning his purchases of mineral, plant and crystal specimens and noting that he has acquired a large collection of rare Alpine seeds which he means to plant in England. The letter was written over the period of 22 to 25 July, and with a postscript written on 2 August concerning some business matters.