and homes to this lovely abode, warmly welcomed by their hostess, shown the gardens, the park, the woods, the fields, which they were bidden to visit when they pleased; no restrictions, perfect liberty, a liberty which I may say is never abused. And what delicious country food, the bread, the butter, the milk, the eggs-were they not all of superlative excellence!

And if to us who have so much pleasure a country visit is delightful, what must it be to our hard-worked girls? The natural shyness of finding themselves in such new surroundings soon wears off, when all are prepared to make them happy; the kind servants, with whom they had their meals on this visit, did not consider the large inroad as a trouble; they also made the girls most welcome.

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon, and on the Sunday we walked through the park to the pretty village and to the parish church. Mademoiselle de Peyronet, the sister of our hostess, brought us back another way, and what laughter and amusement were caused, as we walked through the deep lane, at our shoes filling and refilling with the light sand! Then, in the afternoon. what a walk we had to the Hog's Back, looking over the wooded pas tures of Surrey, the view stretching far away till we thought we could see the sea! On Monday, after visiting the ruined.

Castle of Guildford, we were actually driven out to the great public school of Charter House, and were present at a concert. Each day some of the girls went out very early, anxious to see the dew on the grass and the early rising sun. I must say we had a most perfect time of happiness; I will not say the best, for has not each visit been delightful?

In the last few years the girls have had most happy weeks in Cumberland: they have lived in cottages close to Muncaster Castle, under Scawfell, which they as cended with Lady Morpeth, whose guests they were; the pleasure of the ascent being somewhat enhanced by the peril of being caught in a mist as they came down.

Two or three weeks they spent there; every day an excursion was planned for them to the moors, to the river, to the sea, or up the mountain; and the first sight of mountains is as great and thrilling a sensation as the first sight of the sea, and is one never to be forgotten. More than twenty of our members have been to Cumberland. Some of them paid a visit to me in a charming cottage in the heart of the mountains, that had been lent to me by Lady Muncaster. Here we had a very pleasant time, endless walks over the mountains and the moors, bring ing home wild flowers and blackberries, which we made into jam. The cottage

and a very fine waterfall; every day one of the girls, who had learned to swim at the London baths, plunged into the river and swam round and round the deep pool. This same girl, who had been a member of our Club for fifteen years, had read and loved and pondered over some of Ruskin's books, and she had the great pleasure of paying a visit with me to Coniston and of being introduced to Mr. Ruskin, who very kindly spoke to her, and she told him what a help his written words had been to her in her own life, particularly those in "A Joy Forever," where he tells us that "wisdom is the reward of kindness, of modesty, of industry." three simple qualities we felt that the humblest might try to possess. Her introduction to these books had been made when on a visit at Haslemere to Mrs. Macmillan. who had read some passages from "Modern Painters" to her, which had revealed to this London toiler the higher aspects of life and the beauties of nature.

Once more let me tell of the visit to Wales, those most happy days, never to be forgotten by any one of our party. We stayed first at Portmadoc for a week, but on the journey from London the eight girls had stopped at Chester to be shown by Mrs. Tom Hughes that ancient town

streets. While at Portmadoc we had the ascent of Snowdon, the visit to Mr. Oakley's beautiful place, Tan y Broleh, where a most excellent dinner was served for us in the dining-room, which overlooked the valley and mountains; then a drive through the woods and the journey on the Toy railway. Another day we went all over the slate quarry, and were shown everything by the manager; another morning we made an early start in a tug to visit the Harbor Bar, recalling as we went the beautiful poem of "The Crossing of the Bar." After a perfect week spent at Portmadoc we went on to Holyhead, seeing Carnarvon Castle on the way. Another week was only too quickly passed as guests of the Dowager Lady Stanley of Alderley, a week ever to be prized and probably never to be equaled, with expeditions up the mountains, visits to the South Stack, the sight there of the sea-gulls busy in their noisy preparation for departure on the 12th of August. There were the daily bathing and swimming in the sea, moonlight walks, visits to the almshouses, and to the Welshwomen with their tall hats, and to the Breakwater. Here was the first introduction of our girls to a real hero, a fisherman, one who had saved three men from a wreck with his small fishing-boat, and to whom since had been

PEASANTS AT MIDDLEBURG

given the command of a splendid lifeboat close to the scene of the wreck.

I have by no means enumerated all our country visits; space does not allow of it; but not one day's pleasure, not one act of kindness, can be forgotten by those who have experienced it.

Days out in the country to Mentmore, to Coldham Hall, to Maidenhead, to Rockhampton, to Burnham Beeches, to Windsor, to Hatfield, to Richmond, etc., have been numerous; of one only will I speak, for that was given us by an American, who came to us and gave us this day what he said was to surpass all others, and, having given it, he departed; but we live in hopes that, true to his promise, he may yet return.

Mr. Clarence King arranged every detail of the day; a hundred girls started early from Waterloo Station, and on arriving at Windsor carriages were ready to take fifty round the Park, and the other fifty went up the river in a launch; they all met for dinner in the Town Hall, and there, in a splendid room hung round with pictures of kings and queens, they sat

down to a dinner of many courses, with a menu for each girl to keep as a record of the festivity. In the afternoon the parties for brakes and launch were reversed, and a right splendid day was passed.

There remains yet one more holiday party to record our first foreign trip, which took place in August, 1898. We had often talked of going abroad, and at last we started, a party of twenty-sixteen of our club members and three of my friends, one of them an actress from America, who had never before been on the Continent. The journey was made from London to Ostend by boat, and then an hour's ride brought the party to Bruges, where we

lodged in a most comfortable house on a canal, 12 Quai des Trinturiers. We breakfasted all together, sometimes at six if we made an early start, otherwise at eight o'clock; dinner and supper again were movable feasts. Our ten days were planned out so as to see all we could of the beautiful towns of Belgium. A long day enabled us to get to Brussels and Ghent. We walked and drove about Brussels and saw the picture gallery, the churches, and the "Place" with its splendid buildings. At Ghent we were able to see the beautiful Van Eyck, "The Adoration of the Lamb." We came into the town by one station and were to leave it by another.

Another day we went to Antwerp; we visited the picture gallery and churches; in the Cathedral we saw a life-size figure of the Virgin covered with costly jewels that was to be carried through the town on the Feast of the Assumption. On that feast-day we were at Bruges, and were greatly interested in seeing two processions. In the morning the citizens were dressed as the Flemish nobles and the