l.

It was a lovely day with fair wind and smooth sea, and had only the
vessel's bows been pointed in the opposite direction, I should have been
perfectly happy, but they were not, so I had to make the best of things,
which consisted in watching over the stern Old England's chalk cliffs,
gleaming white in the brilliant sunshine, slowly sink and disappear into
the heaving main. . . . . . . Good-bye. Eastward ho!

The Belgian coast was sighted at about 3 p.m., and shortly after 4 we
landed at Ostende, and I was soon installed in a first-class coupe of
the weekly _Nord-Express_, which was to carry me without change as far
as Warsaw.

This _train de luxe_, consisting of an engine and five or six cars, was
as replete with comfort and luxury as it was possible to compress within
so limited a space.

That night we passed through Belgium by way of Brussels, and at 7.30
next morning, the _16th October_, arrived at Berlin, but only stopped
for half-an-hour, when we were again _en route_.

The day was fine and the country pretty, without being beautiful. In
places it was well wooded with firs and silver birches. For many miles I
noticed sorrel growing alongside the line almost as thickly as grass.

Shortly before arriving at the Russian frontier that afternoon, I saw
many truck-loads of parsnips, and _heard_ a train-load of geese, which
were coming from the "merry green fields of Poland" to make _pate de
foie gras_ for the Germans.

The frontier town of Alexandrowo was reached at 3 o'clock, and there we
passed from German to Russian control. At the German end of the long
platform officials and porters were wearing the German uniform. At the
Russian end of the platform, all porters were clad in long, white cotton
smocks with leather girdles, while officials wore the uniform of the
Czar. As the two nationalities were here contrasted, I think the
Russians showed to greater advantage, being generally taller and having
a more natural bearing than the over-drilled Teuton.

Our luggage was examined by the Customs officers, and our passports
taken away, vised, and returned, before the train was allowed to
proceed.

It was getting dark as we steamed into Russia, so that not much of the
country could be seen, but as far as I could make out, it looked flat
and gloomy enough.

We reached Warsaw at about 8 o'clock, and as the train stopped here, it
being a terminus, I drove to the Hotel Bristol.

The general impression I had rece