After the signature of the Public Act, I brought before my colleagues a proposal tc resume the discussion which I had opened in 1861-2, with a view, either to undertake permanent works in the St. George's branch, or to consolidate our works at the mouth of the Sulina and pursue a definite programme for the improvement of that branch. I now urged upon my colleagues that they should altogether renounce the idea of doing anything to the St. George, and that they should decide upon a programme for the permanent improvement of the Sulina. Hartley had drawn up a report for carrying out this project at an estimated cost of about £125,000.

The Commission arrived at a decision favourable to this proposal and, in order to enable it to be put in hand, it was decided to take steps to raise a loan, and negotiations were entered into for the purpose of obtaining this amount. In the meantime, the necessity for these works which I had so stoutly stood up for in 1861, had become more and more apparent. It had been decided in 1862 that further operations should be carried out and we had raised a loan from Mr. Norik of a German Bank at Hamburg for a portion of these, but we required a much larger sum for the permanent works agreed to in 1865, and so we entered into negotiations with the same Bank to obtain the necessary funds. In the spring of 1865, I got leave again to go home for the summer and took with me my third son, Frank, to put him in school, and Alfred, too, who wanted a change from the rather trying climate. We were accompanied on our journey by the Miss Standens, who were returning to England. We took the route via Vienna, Nurenberg, and Brussels. At Vienna, these young ladies, who were excellent musicians helped me to choose a piano, which was a great treasure to us for many a year. It was one by Streicher. At Nurenberg we saw the Castle and all the various frightful instruments of torture used in former days. We also visited the Valhalla, and from Brussels we made an excursion to the field of Waterloo.

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On my arrival in England, I got permission from Lord Darnley to furnish the house at Cobham, in which my Father had lived for so many years - my old home, which was standing empty - where I could have the children with me, during the holidays. I thus had all my four sons and my eldest daughter with me. The place was a mere shadow of its former self- it was not like the same old home that I had lived in for so many years. It had however, the charm of being in the midst of the lovely country about Cobham, and all the old friends of my youth were living either there or in the neighbourhood, so that we passed two months there with very great delight. I got a carriage and horse to drive about, and we took part in the cricket and various amusements that were going on. Our stay there gave me an opportunity of making my children known to these old friends, thus enabling them to form friendships which have lasted ever since. This visit to England also enabled me to see my Mother and sister at Old Windsor, and my sister in- law and her child at Reading. The pleasure of seeing my sister was much dimmed by the distressing state of health in which I found her. she had lost one child, a girl, but had still one little son left her. Her health was so deplorably bad, that her days were evidently numbered. My Mother I found living comfortably in the cottage which I had taken for her two years before, and the whole arrangement seemed to promise to work well. I placed my son Frank, at school with his brothers, at Blackheath, and left the three boys in the house of Mr. Pember. I arranged for them to spend their holidays in the house of Mr. Simpson, a clergyman, at Maidstone, where Gina spent hers with the Miss Kellys. The sojourn in England was very beneficial to Alfred, and after Gina and her brothers had gone to school, I took him back to Galatz, with the servants that I had engaged to go out there with me. I had started life in Galatz taking out English servants, but had found it a very costly and troublesome business to have them in that country, where they could not speak a word of the language. It was unfortunate too, that many of them turned out very badly indeed. However, I made a last trial on this occasion, but this lot did not turn out much better than some of those who had gone before them.

During the winter of 1865-6, I had a longer time than usual in the Dobrudscha Hills as I had three weeks before Christmas and another fortnight afterwards, in January. Among the other companions that I took back to the Danube were two setters and a fine St. Bernard. During our journey, on one occasion, the guard came to me in the middle of the night and said he wished I would come and chain these dogs to another truck, as he was afraid to touch them. Thinking I was on the side of a platform, I stepped down to the rail doubling up one knee. The pain was excruciating, and I had hurt myself a good deal. I found the dogs were doing no harm. The knee got better without much difficulty, but in the following winter, I slipped in the snow and again doubled the same knee under me, which caused me great pain. However, I went on shooting for several days, walking nearly twenty miles a day, and at the end of that time my usual rough waggon drive back to Galatz, a journey of several hours getting very much stiffened in the process.

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This confirmed the lameness and I was troubled with it for some years. In the year 1866, we all went to Mehadia, in the hope that the change would benefit my wife and children, and that the water would cure my injured joint.

This year was an important one in many ways for the war all through that winter put a stop to our hopes of getting the loan from the North German Bank at Hamburg, with which we were in negotiations and the financial difficulties of the Commission became very great. I had always taken a leading part in obtaining funds for our works, and I suggested that we should raise £10,000 by issuing bonds paying a good rate of interest which would induce people to take up, and so enable us to carry on the work till we could tide over our difficulties. This plan was adopted and I was able to get many of the Bonds subscribed for by friends in England and on the Danube. During our stay at Mehadia the war between Austria- Hungary and Prussia was going on, and I used to read the accounts of the campaigns in the English newspapers sent to me there, as I lay in the baths of the Sulphur water which I was taking to try and get my knee well. The Establishment included a Military Hospital, and we met there some of the wounded and others who had taken part in the campaign, and gathered that the number of men of different nationalities brought together in the Austrian Regiments, rather weakened their cohesion. Wallachians, Moravians, Italians, and Germans mixed together did not feel the same reliance upon one another as if they had all been one nationality. The Hungarian regiments were I was told, more homogeneous in their composition.

After we got back from Mehadia, Gina returned home from England having finished her education. She had a beautiful voice which had been trained, and her singing gave great pleasure to us all and to our friends also. In November of that year I had the great grief of losing my only sister, who succumbed to Bright's disease. This complaint for a long time sapped her strength; and really originated in a serious attack of scarlet fever, which she had had fourteen years before - its existence had not been discovered until after the birth of her first child. Her death was a great grief to us all, as her character was a very beautiful one, and she was beloved by everyone who knew her. We felt very deeply for her husband St. John Blunt, and his dear little boy, only eight months old.

The winter of 1866-7 passed without any remarkable incident. The Mehadia Baths had not done much for my knee and I was still very lame. our works at the mouth of the river were resumed in the spring and as my knee was giving me great trouble, I determined to take the Baths at Hall in the Salz-Kammer-Gut, and later in the year got leave of absence for the purpose. We agreed that my wife should at the same time, make a visit to England to be with her boys in their holidays. So, leaving Gina and the younger children under the care of their Governess we took the steamer on the 25th of May for Vienna. There I called on my old friend Lord Bloomfield, and saw Mr. Weikersheim, our Consul- General, whom I tried to interest in helping the Commission to raise the money required. On the 31st of May I left Vienna for the little station of St. Peter's, whence I drove to Hall, passing through Styr, a quaint old town, at the junction of the Ems and Styr rivers. My wife saw me established in my lodgings, and I accompanied her next day to Wels, another station on the railway, whence she took the express train for Paris and London. I began treatment at Hall on the 2nd of June and remained there until the 4th of July. I derived great benefit from the treatment, of lodwasse (iodine water) which I drank, bathed in, and used in a bandage round my knee. It was rather lonely work living at Hall, but the country round it was beautiful and I was able to amuse myself by sketching and I had also plenty of books. There being a regular postal communication with Galatz and England, I also had many letters to read and write.

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The affairs of the Commission naturally occupied much of my thoughts and, during my stay at Hall, I got a summons to Vienna in order to further the objects of the Commission with regard to the loan. I went into Vienna on the 16th June and, for the next two days was closely occupied with negotiations with Mr. Weikersheim which, however, did not come to a satisfactory conclusion. I had the advantage at Vienna of discussing the affairs of the Commission with Mr. Mallet of the Board of Trade, with the result that I received a telegram from Lord Stanley (subsequently Lord Derby) who was then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, desiring me to repair to London. On the 4th July, therefore, I journeyed, via Stuttgart and Cologne, to London. On the road I heard of my promotion to Lieut. Colonel.

My visit to England was very interesting in many ways. I joined my wife and children at the sea-side, and was able to get orders for her and my eldest son to go on board the "Tanjore" to be present at the Naval Review, which Her Majesty had ordered for the Sultan of Turkey, who was then on a visit to England. The "Tanjore" was a ship told off to carry of ficial people and had a place next the Queen's yacht in the procession through the fleet. The fleet consisted of two squadrons, one of the old screw line-ofbattle ships that had taken part in the Crimean war, and the other of the new ironclads which this country had begun to build in those days.

It had been intended that these two squadrons should manoeuvre outside, but the weather was so bad on the appointed day that the manoeuvring was given up, and the two squadrons remained in parallel lines, the Queen and her Guest passing between them, and taking up a position at the further extremity to witness a sham fight as they lay at anchor. It was a most picturesque scene, for the high wind carried away the smoke which generally obscures a naval action and the flashing guns of the ships seen through the drifting smoke had a very fine effect.

After a time, when this was over, we had the advantage from our ship of seeing a most interesting ceremony. I could distinctly make out thrugh my glasses and I have no doubt others on board saw as clearly as I did, Her Majesty decorating the Sultan with the order of the Garter. I met several friends on board, and it was altogether, a most interesting day, especially to my wife, and to my son, who was then a boy of 16.

As regards my Commission business, I was able to make much progress with H.M.'s Government. I had frequent interviews at the Foreign Office and the Board of Trade and as usual, met with very little encouragement from Mr. Hammond, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. But, to my great satisfaction, I found Lord Stanley fully alive to the representations which I was able to make to him with regard to the position of the Danube Commission, and the importance of our being able to obtain the money to complete the works at the mouth of the Sulina and in the Branch. I had urged upon his Lordship that if the other Powers would not give any assistance, that it would be to the British interest in the River, that this country should advance the money by itself. I pointed out to him that there was not the slightest risk to be incurred in making that advance, as the dues which we were raising at the mouth of the river were already so large, that they were amply sufficient to pay off the interest and sinking fund on a loan; especially if we could get this loan on the moderate terms which a Government guarantee would render practicable.

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We were now paying as much as 10 or 12 per-cent for the money, but a Government guarantee should reduce the interest to some 3 or 4 per-cent and thus make the burden lighter. Lord Stanley took a broad and statesmanlike view, and directed Mr. Hammond to draw up a memorandum for him to send to the Treasury urging my point. I must say that Mr. Hammond, although himself opposed to the measure drew up an admirable paper which he desired me to look through, and which I could not myself have written more forcibly urging my Board of Trade which had always stood by me in this matter, eventually consented that either this country should make the loan itself or should join with other Powers in guaranteeing the amount required. This was a most satisfactory conclusion to my visit to England. l was able also, to confirm the interest which my wife's uncle, Mr. H. Maynard, took in the affairs of the Commission. He had long been trying to procure a loan for us in London where his large business connection enabled him to put us in communication with financial houses. This following up of the thread of our affairs through Mr. Maynard was still necessary, because, although Lord Stanley had taken up my proposal so warmly, I could not know for some time after that, what reception the Treasury would give to his proposals. Therefore, I continued my endeavour to form a financial combination which should be of use to the Commission, supposing that eventually the Treasury would not consent.

With regard to my private and personal matters, the visit was one of great happiness to me. It enabled me to see my dear Mother again, as it turned out, for the last time before her death. My wife and I visited many of our friends until the middle of September, when we went over to Paris and stayed for a few days to see the Great Exhibition which, at that time, was in full swing. My wife then returned to London, and I started for Galatz, via Vienna, where I met my former colleague, Mr. de Becke, and Count Beust with whom I had subsequently more important dealings. I remained three or four days in Vienna and on arriving at Galatz I visited the works at the mouth of the Sulina, and found they were making very satisfactory progress, though on a small scale. The winter of 1867-8, was much occupied with matters connected with the raising of the loan for the permanent works and with correspondence and discussions relative to the proper light-house to be established for the navigation of the Danube.

On the first day of 1868 my dear Mother died, at the age of 76. Her latter years had been soothed and comforted by my brother's widow, with whom she lived latterly and, in whose house at Reading she died. she was buried at Cobham.

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The spring of 1868 saw the consummation of the efforts I had made and of the support given by Lord Stanley, as, on the initiative of H.M. Government, all the Powers, except Russia, had consented to guarantee the loan for the permanent works. The Government consented also at my suggestion that the firm issuing the loan should apply to them in the first instance, for payment of any sum required to make up the annual charge of interest and sinking fund, and that they should recover their share from the other Governments. This, of course, simplified negotiations with the financial firm, and I may here say that neither H.M. Government nor any other was ever called upon to make good any annual payment, because the revenues of the Commission were always amply sufficient for the purpose. An act of Parliament was passed called "The Danube Works Loan Act" authorizing Her Majesty to give this guarantee, and I received on the 30th. April 1868, full powers under the Great Seal of England, to sign a convention for the purpose.

I may here mention a sad occurrence which took place just about this time. My Italian colleague, M. Susinno, took very much to heart my renouncing, on the part of the English Government, any intention of taking up permanent works in the mouth of the St. George. His reasons for this were quite inexplicable to us, as he had had no part in the original decisions; he thought, however, that the course taken reflected in some sense on his performance of his duties, and committed suicide. This, of course, had a very painful effect upon his colleagues, and especially on myself, as he attributed to my action what he judged to be a misfortune, though I never could consider that anything I had done or said entitled him to take this view. This occurrence, to some extent, marred my satisfaction at the triumph of my recent policy. The issue of the loan was now undertaken and carried out by the house of Bischoffsheim and Co., with whom Mr. Maynard had put us in communication, and on terms very favourable to the Commission. The loan was concluded at 4 per-cent, the interest and sinking fund to be paid off in 14 years after the payment of the last instalment of the loan to the Commission.

The works could now be taken up with energy. Those at the mouth of the river, were speedily concluded and those in the river branch were continued. The works at the mouth consisted principally in converting the old timber piers into solid reefs of cement blocks raised on a sub-stratum of loose stone, which had been thrown in pell-mell on either side of the piles, and had with time consolidated into a very firm foundation on which to build permanent piers. The result of this consolidation of the piers was to increase the depth from 17 to 21 feet in the navigable channel; a result on which we could look with great satisfaction when we considered the state of the mouth at the time of undertaking our duties in 1856.

In this year, 1868, I made a very interesting journey, with my wife and daughter and Lieut. Collins of the Royal Navy, to Odessa and thence to the Crimea. At Odessa we made the acquaintance of our Consul, Mr. Stevens, and of the Governor-General, General Kotzebue, from whom we received much attention. We stayed some days in Odessa and very much enjoyed the change from the half-civilized and ill-organized town of Galatz, where the streets were hardly paved, and the Municipal Government was most lax, to the highly centralized authority of Russia in one of its most thriving towns, where the buildings were good and the streets well paved; where too, there was a good theatre, and a fine harbour. It was altogether, a pleasing contrast to what, at that time, we were accustomed in Moldavia.

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We took boat at Odessa for Sebastopol where we put up at a modest hotel. We found that at that date, Russia had done nothing to restore the town from the destruction which the siege had caused 13 years before. The forts were still in ruins and the harbour and docks had hardly been touched. The Government seemed occupying itself only in building churches in memory of the men who had fallen in the siege. A very fine church, dedicated to the Twelve Apostles was being built in the town itself, and on the north side, at the top of the cemetery where so many gallant Russians lay buried, a pyramid had been constructed, the interior of which was beautifully fitted as "The Church of the Four Evangelists". This was so far advanced that we could judge of the eventual beauty of it from the rich marbles with which the four angles of the church, in the corresponding faces of the pyramid, were decorated.

We traversed the ground, on which the English and French armies had been encamped and where they had had constructed works against the town: and we visited the cemeteries where our own and the French dead lay buried. General Kotzebue had assured us that there were 116 of these cemeteries and represented to me the sad dilapidations of the greater part of them, urging me to report to H.M. Government the desecration of the English graves. He pointed out that the French had collected all their dead in one spot which was properly cared for, but that nothing had been done to protect the English grave-yards. I told him that I was there only as a private individual on a visit, and I did not conceive it to be any business of mine: but when I got to the Crimea and visited these graveyards, I found even the principal one on the Cathcart Hill, which had been fenced in, and where the graves had been marked by handsome tombstones, in a very bad state. When I saw how the fencing was broken down so that the cattle could get in, that many of the stones were overthrown and defaced, and that, in fact, as the General had represented, the whole of these cemeteries showed signs of the most painful neglect, I resolved to make a report upon them to the Government. I noticed the care with which the French had collected in one large cemetery as many of the bones of their dead as they could bring together. In the centre was the chapel where a daily service was held by a priest, to whose care the whole place was confided. Surrounding it, on the four sides of the enclosure, there were a number of small buildings, each representing a brigade of the French army. On each of these was given the number of the Brigade, the names of the Officers who had been interred, with the Regiments they belonged to, and the number of men in each building where they had been laid together. In this way the whole place presented an aspect of being cared for; there was evidence of respect for the dead and no desecration could occur. I felt that we could not possibly undertake such a scheme, as I thought that the stationing of a retired non-commissioned officer in an out-of-the-way country, where he could have no companions and no supervision, would probably end in his neglecting his charge. I therefore proposed to the Government that they should erect a large pyramid in the most conspicuous part and that they should get leave from the Russian Government to exhume the various bodies scattered about over the Crimea, and bury them in one common grave over which this monument should be built, the names of the Officers and men being inscribed upon it.

On my return to Odessa I mentioned to General Kotzebue, that I had decided to make a report to the Government. I told him what I proposed to do and enquired whether, if the Government undertook it and sent a man-of-war to superintend the exhumation of the dead and their interment afterwards with proper honours, that course would be sanctioned by the Russian Government. He assured me that no difficulty would be placed in our way. I was, therefore, able to incorporate this assurance in my report. I must confess that I put in this report with some diffidence, questioning whether the Foreign Office would approve of my having gone out of my way and proper sphere of duty in addressing them on the subject. I got no answer to my appeal, but, in the following year, when I was at Home, I asked the question as to whether they had received the despatch and what had been the upshot of it. It appeared that, the despatch had been well received at the Foreign Office and forwarded to the Treasury with a recommendation that something should be done. As to the cost, I had mentioned the sum of £20,000 but, unfortunately, this was too large a sum of money for the Treasury to sanction, which fact only showed a painful forgetfulness of the services rendered by the men 14 years before.

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Before leaving the Crimea, we determined to visit some of the other places of interest. We therefore engaged an interpreter and set off by carriage to Balaclava. We took boat and rowed down the harbour, a most remarkable inlet with high towering cliffs on either side of a narrow entrance, but all deep water inside, in which during the war our ships were able to lie in perfect security, and support the military operations. After our little boating excursion, we made our way up the Baidar valley, so often visited by our troops during the siege, and there we had the misfortune to find that our carriage, the only one we could get in Sebastopol, was of very bad construction, for the axles heated, and the wheels became fixed, so that they would not revolve. Consequently, a couple of miles out of Baidar, we had ignominiously to leave our carriage and get a yoke of oxen to draw it up the hill. In the village we found smiths who were able to detach the wheels from the axle and repair them, and the next morning we were able to resume our journey. Our plans for that night had been sadly interfered with, as we had intended to go on to the beautiful palace of Alupka, the property of Prince Woronzoff, where he hospitably placed at the disposal of travellers a nicely furnished lodge, where they may put up, and be entertained by the servants who are always kept up there. Unhappily, we had to stop at the village of Baidar, where sleep was impossible, as the whole place was infested with fleas. We spent a most miserable night, half-starved, having only tea, and eggs and such bread as we had with us, and when we heard that the carriage was mended we determined to start off the first thing in the morning, and to get down to Alupka, as we had been told that the view of the sunrise from the top of the pass, before descending to that place, was a magnificent sight. We were quite ready to set off at any hour of the morning for we had not slept a wink all night, so we arrived early at the pass, where an archway had been built to mark the spot whence the view was to be obtained. It was certainly lovely, and we highly appreciated it, as well as some hot coffee we got there. We got down to Alupka, and there found the most hospitable entertainment at the palace of Prince Woronzoff. We had a substantial repast, and the most delicious fruits. We were there just at the height of the vintage, and grapes and peaches abounded. Then we visited the palace which is a splendid building of green porphyry, and arranged with all the luxury possible. We went down to the sea and were able to bathe at the bottom of the gardens, which were very beautiful: in fact, the whole place seemed a paradise. Unfortunately, our scheme of journeying had been thrown out by the misfortune of the Baidar valley, so we were only able to push on to Yalta, the fashionable watering place for the inhabitants of the Crimea and of Southern Russia. We passed on our road, Livadia, the palace of the Czars, but it was too late in the day to attempt to visit it. We got rooms at the hotel at Yalta and passed the night comfortably enough. We planned to go to Simferopol the next day, via Acushta. I must here say that we were tied to time because the steamer that was to take us to Odessa was due at Sebastopol on a certain day, and if we missed that, we should have to wait another week at Sebastopol: we were therefore bound to push on, and hurried up through the mountains under the Schafsberg to get to Simferopol.

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We were fated, however, to misfortune in our travels through the Crimean Mountains for when we got into the hills, we found it blocked by trains of waggons, and we had to wait. Night at length fell, and found us in a miserable village, something like Baidar, where we were obliged to stop, and we experienced an exact repetition of the miserable time we had had two nights before at that place. There was nothing to eat, and an abundance of fleas. Continuing our journey next morning, we passed through beautiful country getting on to the road again at daybreak, and reached Simferopol in time for Breakfast, and we could not afford time to remain long there. It was a place of no very great interest, so we set our faces to get back to Sebastopol the next day to be ready for our steamer. As we journeyed along our interpreter said, "Would you like to see Bakhtcheserai?". "Certainly, if there is anything to be seen" we answered. "It is very well worth seeing and lies just over there" he said. We could discover nothing whatever till we got to the edge of the plain, where the town lay below us. It has been a source of satisfaction ever since that we made this divergence from our route. The Russians had had the good taste to leave the palace, mosques, and everything in perfect preservation, as they had been found at the end of the last century, when Suvaroff captured the place from the Tartars. The palace of the Tartar Khan had been kept up in exactly the same condition in which it was found by Suvaroff, and the tombs of the old Khans were all preserved in their original state. The streets of the town were like a reflection of the "Arabian nights". in the front of the houses there were booths in which the various copper-smiths or carpenters were pursuing their trades and cobblers were sitting, crosslegged, working away in front of their houses.

Leaving the town, we passed on to a set of caves, which we entered and found therein a beautiful church ornamented and decorated in the Byzantine style. We were told that these were the caves where Christians had held their services in the old days when the Mussulman rule prevailed. They pointed out to us in the distance on the hill-side, the place where the Jews had lived, who were supposed to be remnant of the ten tribes of Samaria. We did not attempt to explore the caves, but all we saw in Bakhtche-serai interested us exceedingly, and made us feel that we had come upon a real bit of old Asiatic life. We were bound to push on for Sebastopol so as to reach the town by nightfall.

Next morning we got on board our vessel and returned to Odessa. There we visited a great Fair, resorted to by traders from all parts of the South of Russia and the neighbouring provinces of Turkey in Asia and to which great quantities of Asiatic produce, silks, furs, jewels, carpets &c, had been brought down, and we were able to make some purchases of which some remain until this day. From Odessa we made our way back to the Danube, having enjoyed a most interesting fortnight.

After the usual meetings of the Commission in the Spring, I went home to England with my youngest boy, Alfred, to place him at school with his brothers. Another object of my journey was to let Sir William Fergusson operate on Arthur's mouth to close the open palate with which he had been born. This was done, and great hopes were entertained of his speech becoming much clearer than it had been. Another object of my visit home was to make arrangements for the voyage of my son Charles to South Australia. He had suffered so much from asthma for several months that I had been obliged to remove him from school, and place him with a family at Torquay, where we hoped that the mild climate would enable him to get through the winter, 1868-9. Now, late in the following spring, seeing that no permanent improvement seemed likely to ensue, I had decided to send him out to my brother Frank in South Australia, who had kindly undertaken the charge. With this object, we all went down to Plymouth in the beginning of August, and saw Charles embark on the "Yatala" for Adelaide.

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To give the other boys the benefit of a pleasant tour during the holidays, we stayed at Plymouth, going over the dockyard and visiting the beautiful seat of Lord Mount Edgecumbe. We took our journey hence along the South Coast to Penzance, from whence we visited Land's End and St. Michael's Mount. From Penzance we journeyed to llfracombe where we spent some days in the company of my sister, Mrs. Edward Stokes and her daughter Margaret. We all travelled together via Barnstaple to Lynton, where we met Mrs. Murray and her children. Mrs. Murray's husband had been Rector of Southfleet, not very far from Cobham, where he died in 1854 of scarlet fever, and at that time we had become very intimate with them. In Mrs. Murray and her children, I have always taken the greatest interest. We had a week at Lynton. The weather was very lovely and the country in great beauty: the moor-lands glowing in the rich colouring of gorse and heather. The beautiful scenery about Waters-Meet and the Valley of Rocks, and walks and drives in the neighbourhood, made our sojourn there most delightful, and the company of the Murrays and other friends whom we met, added to this pleasure. At the end of our week we went by coach along the North coast of Devon to Taunton. We had a lovely drive and took train for Bristol where we parted with Mrs. Stokes and her daughter and paid a visit to my wife's brother Alec Maynard, who, with his wife, was living at Horfield Barracks. From Horfield we visited Clifton and the beautiful church of St. Mary Redcliffe at Bristol. Here we were met by Capt. Johnstone R.N. who had commanded H.M.S. "Weser" on the Danube, and who had been a frequent visitor at my house at Galatz, where, among other things, he had taken a great part in the festivities of the Carnival of 1865 which I have previously mentioned. St. Mary Redcliffe is a lovely church and made a great impression on us. After leaving Horfield, I took my boys back to school and eventually returned to the Danube.

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