with the
least possible delay, I shall do so, but otherwise I shall wait,
occupying myself in the Netherlands for the Antwerp steamer on
Saturday, the 12th I think it is, to-morrow week.

"In going into the Bayerischer Wald I went where it was not easy to
get speedily out, though I found a railway right through just
opened. The night before last I slept, I suppose, some 4000 or 5000
feet above the sea, in a huge garret with some twenty beds in it.
Somebody was sound asleep in one, but disappeared before I awoke. I
supposed the house to have been temporary, for accommodating the
workers making the railway, but I found it to be the _hospice_ of
the old road across the mountains. It has been a sort of
pilgrimage, I think--_gasthaus zur Landes Grenze_.

"The scenery is naught in comparison with the Scots Highlands, or
even our Pentlands. It is only in Scotland and the Lakes that hills
of humble height look Alpine. The Wald is something like your Harz,
but higher; so adieu.--Love to all from J.H. BURTON."

* * * * *

"THALE, _Monday, 5th July 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--I think you know this place. I found that if
anything out of the direct line to Antwerp, it was only so to the
extent of its short side line, some ten miles or so. When scenery
is good, I enjoy a second visit to it more than the first, and this
was specially so in the present instance; for in my visit from
Grund, I took the most difficult and least profitable course, by
climbing laterally to the level of the Ross Treppe, instead of
going along the stream, and seeing the variety of cleft granite,
unexampled, I think, elsewhere in that class of rock....

"I am longing to see your beautiful gardens, and all--but have
nothing to grumble at--health never better.--Affectionate
remembrances to the rest, from your affectionate gudeman, J.H.
BURTON."

* * * * *

"ANTWERP, _11th July 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--To my great contentment I received here this
morning your three letters, the latest dated on the 9th. I expect
to-morrow, at 8 p.m., to sail by the steamer Windsor.

"I have had a grand time of it--everything going right with me, and
yet I have a longing for home.

"From sultry, the weather has drifted into cold an