of translations from other nations and also of foreign
books in the original. The latest French and German fiction is always
obtainable. Among translations from the English in 1904 I noticed a
considerable number of copies of the Sherlock Holmes tales and also of
two or three of Miss Corelli's works. These for adults; for boys the
reading _par excellence_ was a serial romance, in weekly or monthly
parts, entitled "De Wilsons en de Ring des Doods of het Spoor van
pen Diamenten". The Wilsons, I gather, have been having a great run
in Holland. A lurid scene in Maiden Lane was on the cover. Another
story which seemed to be popular had the engaging title "Beleaguered
by Jaguars".

The Hague is very proud of the Bosch--the great wood to the east
of the city, with a few deer and many tall and unpollarded trees,
where one may walk and ride or drive very pleasantly.

The Bosch has no restaurant within its boundaries. I mention this in
order to save the reader the mortification of being conducted by a
polite but firm waiter back to the gates of the pavilion in which he
may reasonably have supposed he was as much entitled to order tea as
any of the groups enjoying that beverage at the little tables within
the enclosure, whose happiness had indeed led him to enter it. They
are, however, members of a club, to which he has no more right of
entry than any Dutch stranger would have to the Athenaeum.

The Huis ten Bosch, or House in the Wood, which all good travellers
must explore, is at the extreme eastern end of the Bosch, with pleasure
grounds of its own, including a lake where royal skating parties
are held. This very charming royal residence, now only occasionally
occupied, is well worth seeing for its Chinese and Japanese decorations
alone--apart from historical associations and mural paintings. For
mural paintings unless they are very quiet I must confess to caring
nothing, nor does a bed on which a temporal prince breathed his last,
or his first, move me to any degree of interest; but on the walls of
one room of the House in the Wood is some of the most charming Chinese
embroidery I ever saw, while another is decorated in blue and white
of exquisite delicacy. With these gracious schemes of upholstery I
shall always associate the Huis ten Bosch.

At Leyden we shall find traces of Oliver Goldsmith: here at The Hague
one may think of Mat. Prior, who was secretary to our Ambassador for
some years and even wrote a copy of spritel