e far-off border town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed. Less hurried and less laborious than the first, this
second tour was completed, as we have said, at Chester, just before the
close of the first month of 1862, namely, on the 30th of January.

Then came the turn once more of London, where a series of Ten Readings
was given in the St. James's Hall, Piccadilly. These ten Readings,
beginning on Thursday, the 13th of March, were distributed over sixteen
weeks, ending on Friday, the 27th of June. Another metropolitan series,
still under Mr. Headland's management, was given as nearly as possible
at the same period of the London season in the following twelvemonth.
The Hanover Square Booms were the scene of these Readings of 1863, which
began on Monday, the 2nd of March, and ended on Saturday, the 13th of
June, numbering in all not ten, as upon the last occasion, but Thirteen.

During the winter of this year, Two notable Readings were given by the
Novelist at the British Embassy, in Paris, their proceeds being devoted
to the British Charitable Fund in that capital. These Readings were so
brilliantly successful, that, by particular desire, they were, a little
time afterwards, supplemented by a Third, which was quite as numerously
attended as either of its predecessors. The audience upon each occasion,
partly English, partly French, comprised among their number many of
the most gifted and distinguished of the Parisians. These three
entertainments were given under the immediate auspices of the Earl
Cowley, then Her Majesty's ambassador to the court of Napoleon III.

A considerable interval now elapsed, extending in fact over nearly three
years altogether, before the author again appeared upon the platform in
his capacity as a Reader, either in London or in the Provinces. During
his last provincial tour, there had been some confusion caused to
the general arrangements by reason of the abrupt but unavoidable
postponement of a whole week's Readings, previously announced as coming
off, three of them at Liverpool, one at Chester, and two at Manchester.
These six readings instead, however, of duly taking place, as originally
arranged, between the 16th and the 21st of December, 1861, had to
be given four weeks later on, between the 13th and the 30th of the
following January. The disarrangement of the programme thus caused arose
simply from the circumstance of the wholly unlooked-for and lamented
death of H. E. H. the Prince Consort. Another c