EVEREST GEORGE: (1790-1866) British Colonel, Surveyor and Geographer who served as Surveyor General of India ...

EVEREST GEORGE: (1790-1866) British Colonel, Surveyor and Geographer who served as Surveyor General of India 1830-43. Mount Everest was named in his honour. Rare A.L.S., Geo Everest, three pages, 8vo, Westbourne Street, Hyde Park, London, 30th December 1860, to Brine. Everest thanks his correspondent for their Christmas wishes and remarks that he has been suffering from 'a most severe attack' of gout, further writing 'I have been bred up from the age of 13 as a soldier and military aspirations after honours have become of course part of my nature; therefore to be overlooked is not very pleasant, but though not a thorough stoic, yet I have philosophy enough to perceive that honorary distinctions do not produce happiness, & that he who cannot be happy without them certainly will not be happy with them' and also commenting that he agrees with his correspondent regarding 'the irksomeness of everyday' but cannot help 'you out of that having no influence with those in power', however recommending that his correspondent gets himself qualified and 'that ''it will turn up trumps at last'''. Some light age wear and minor foxing, otherwise about VG £200-300 Just a few months after the present letter was written, Everest was made a Commander of the Order of the Bath (February 1861) and created a Knight Bachelor (March 1861). The Royal Geographical Society spent many years debating the name of the highest mountain on earth before deciding upon 'Mount Everest' in 1865.