640 WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON. 



conclusive. From 1865 to 1868 he was one of the Publishing 

 Committee of the short-lived Heraldic Journal, and wrote 

 much for it. In 1867, at the early age of twenty-seven, he was 

 honored with an appointment as one of the commission to at- 

 tend the annual assay of the United States Mint. It was a 

 well-merited compliment, and reflected scarcely less honor 

 on the administration which conferred it than it did on the re- 

 cipient. From 1864 to 1872 he was one of the Publishing 

 Committee of the New England Historical and Genealogical 

 Register. 



Immediately after graduating Mr. Appleton spent two 

 months in travel in Canada and the Western States ; and in 

 April, 1862, he went abroad for the first of six visits to Europe, 

 passing most of the summer and autumn in Great Britain, and 

 reaching home at the end of November. Inheriting from his 

 father, who died in 1861, and his mother, who died in 1867, an 

 ample fortune, he had no need to pursue any gainful pro- 

 fession ; but he nevertheless entered the Cambridge Law School, 

 and graduated in July, 1865, with the degree of LL.B. Two 

 weeks later he again sailed for Europe. He remained abroad 

 a little more than a year, and travelled in France, Belgium, 

 Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Palestine, 

 Egypt, Greece, and Italy. During a large part of this trip he 

 had Phillips Brooks, afterward Bishop Brooks, as his travelling 

 companion, and for four weeks in the Holy Land they rode side 

 by side during the day, and slept every night in the same tent. 

 In less than two years after his return, in June, 1868, he 

 started for a journey around the world. Besides countries 

 already mentioned he visited Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Rus- 

 sia, Poland, Dalmatia, Montenegro, and Spain ; and in January, 

 1869, he sailed from Marseilles for Bombay and the Far East. 

 After travelling in Hindostan and visiting most of the acces- 

 sible places of interest in the Philippines, China, and Japan, 

 he reached home by the way of San Francisco in the autumn 

 of 1869. While absent he was elected, in May, 1869, a member 

 of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and for nearly thirty- 

 four years, wdiether at home or abroad, he took a deep and 



