Letter from William Gell, Grasmere, to Jane Milnes Smith, 1798 July 23 : autograph manuscript signed.

Describing, at length and in detail, the walking trip he is taking from Grasmere into Scotland with the goal of ascending Ben Nevis; laying out the proposed route and what they hope to see along the way; saying "The worst part of walking is the carriage of shirts &c which gives the ambulant not a little trouble, I assure you. I myself pretend to be a great fisher man so carry a rod & my lines in a game-bag-looking-article, so I contrive to look like a Sporting Gentleman wherever I go. Having a suit of gay cloaths for gentlemans houses if I should happen to take up my quarters in such habitations, I expect much pleasure, much fatigue and more rain. Wine we have abolished ever since our departure from Hopton and do not mean to give into any of the luxuries of the times a defficiency [sic] in cash being a strong and potent medicine against indulgence and acting almost equally on the whole party."