The only drink was

some plain boiled rice, which was very nice. saké, or rice beer, which was drunk out of small cups, and it was a compliment to ask your friend to drink with you-he came from his place, bringing his saké cup in his hand, and knelt down on the matting immediately opposite your tray, and you then changed cups and drank to each other's health, after each rinsing the cup in the little lacquer basin of warm water, which is part of the furniture of each tray. These little cups are filled by the maidens as often as required from small white china bottles. The dinner lasted between two and three hours, and when it was over there was some dancing done by a troup of actors at one end of the room to the sound of the native guitar and drum. The movement of the hands, fans, and heads of the maidens was very pretty and graceful, and their attitudes most charming. Their features all seemed much alike, with pug noses, flat, except at tip, and long eyes turned up at the corner, their black hair drawn back and kept in place with long hair-pins protruding each side of the head. These last are the only ornaments that any of the native Japanese wear. They moved very slowly, and the whole thing was totally different to anything we had seen before. The gardens outside the tea-house were very prettily illuminated with red lamps in imitation of the red maple leaves, and there were some fireworks let off as we went away between nine and ten, after an interesting evening, with which everybody seemed pleased, both Japanese and English.

The next morning the remains of the dinner was sent off to us carefully packed in little wooden boxes and trays-on the same principle that some of the City Companies in London give their guests on leaving the dining-hall boxes of sweetmeats to carry home. After breakfast the whole party were photographed on the steps of the En-riô-kwan-Prince Higashi Fushimi (majorgeneral), Prince Kita Shirakawa (lieutenant-colonel), Prince Fushimi (lieutenant), and the two young princes Yamashina and Kotohito (naval cadets), and with these was Kagawa (the Empress's chamberlain), Kuwange Maruoka, Yoskitane Sannomiya, Seigô Nagasaki, Kenzô Susuki, Captain Matsumora, and Commander Sengô Hatori. We have had a very pleasant stay in Tôkio, and nothing could exceed the kindness and thoughtfulness displayed by each member of the suite deputed by the Mikado to receive the large party of captains and officers from the squadron who have been enjoying his profuse hospitality. We

left the En-riô-kwan as we arrived, driving out between a line of troops on either side of the road to the Shim-bashi railway station, whence a special train ran us down to Yokohama, where we arrived at 9 A.M., and went off at once to the Bacchante in a Japanese steam launch, and had a quiet day on board. To lunch, at 1 P.M., came Prince Higashi Fushimi, with Lieutenant NakaMikado (of an old Kiôto family of that name), and the two cadets and the ex-daimiô Kuroda. The Yokohama Club beat the officers of the squadron at a cricket match to-day, they getting ninety-five runs against our seventy-three. In the afternoon the first part of the Yokohama regatta, chiefly sailing races, came off: the Cleopatra's gig won a pulling race open to gigs of men-of-war of all nations at anchor in the roadstead. The admiral, we are very glad to hear, is much better now, and is able to get on deck. In the evening Fuji-yama stands out beautifully clear, and it is magnificently fine, although the barometer has been falling since yesterday. While we have been away some of the officers got very fair sport at snipe-shooting round Kanagawa, bags of between seven and eight couple being made to one gun in a day: a few pheasants and duck were also killed. To dinner, in the evening, on board the Bacchante with the captain, came Vice-Admiral Kawamura, Mr. Maruoka, Mr. Susuki, and Captains Matsumora, Stephenson, and Durrant. The Minister of Marine brought us off, as a present, a beautiful old kakemono painting; and we were much interested in talking with him about the Japanese navy. There are two things amongst others which they tell us they are sorry we have not seen at Tôkiô; one of these was the performance of the wrestlers, who all come from a particular province inland down to the capital in the spring, but who are none of them now here; and the other is the great chrysanthemum flower show, which is a national festival held in the Dango-zaka in the month of November, and to which the people flock in thousands. The flowers are trained so as to form the clothing of groups of figures illustrative of old Japanese history and romance, or birds and animals ten feet high, or junks twenty feet high, sails and crews all made of blossoms of flowers that grow into these shapes. We have just missed it: it was intended to have held it a little earlier than usual this year on account of the visit of the squadron, but the flowers would not come out in time.

We should also very much like to have seen the ex-Shogun Kei-ki, the last of his race, who, since the end of the civil war,

has been living in honourable captivity in a castle in the province of Suruga. There is still considerable rivalry between the eastern and western provinces and clans of Japan. At Tôkiô, the "eastern capital," the Shogun was really the representative of the interest of the eastern clans; his power was never so strong in the west, where the Satsuma clan was paramount; and the Mikado at Kiôto, the "western capital," was the head round which all the interests of that part of the country rallied. When the Shogun was overthrown the western conquered the eastern, and the Mikado shifted his residence from the western to the eastern capital. In many of the old families the feeling of clanship and local attachment is still very strong, even though every possible means has been taken to stamp out and eradicate the influence of the old daimiôs. If the country was to have any internal peace at all it was absolutely necessary to extinguish their retainers the samurai or double-sworded gentry class-and nothing short of absolutely forbidding these to appear in public in their native dress, and with the two swords—the much-prized marks of their birth-could have availed so to do. Many of them have since taken service in the new army and navy, and the old family sword blades have been re-hilted, and are prized and still worn by their owners in scabbards of service pattern. But throughout the length and breadth of the land there is no trace of the old caste feeling left many of the government offices that were filled by the samurai are now held by farmers and merchants.

We are to sail in two days' time, on the 1st of November, and shall thus be unable to get up the 100 miles to Nikkô, with its art treasures and historical curiosities. It is now looking its very best, with the autumn tints on its maple-woods, and two or three days' journey inland would have allowed us to see something of the interior life of the country away from the towns, which is now so rapidly changing. It would have taken, however, at least five days more. Prince Henry of Prussia enjoyed his visit up there as much as anything in Japan, and arrangements had been made by the Mikado for our visit there also. On account, however, of the squadron proceeding at once to sea, we must be content to give

it up.

The next day we left the Bacchante with the commander at 7.30 A.M., although the weather looked very threatening, and there was a hurly-burly of wind and swell coming into Yedo Bay, and 1 He died February, 1884.