THE NORMANDY TOUR KEPEATED 341 



Oxford and Cambridge at both which Universities Dr. 

 Gray received an Honorary degree. We thus missed the 

 Jubilee demonstrations in London and I cannot say I re- 

 gretted this, for I am too old to like a crowd, and illumina- 

 tions have no great attraction for me. I did, however, go 

 to the Queen's Garden party, which was a very pretty sight. 

 The Queen and all the Princes, Princelings and personages, 

 European and exotic, walked in a very long scattered pro- 

 cession through an avenue formed by the visitors, bowing 

 and shaking hands here and there, and ranging right and 

 left without formal order of march or other ceremony, so 

 everyone saw everybody without crowding or inconvenience. 

 I never before saw the Queen looking so happy and pleased, 

 and this she here looked, smiling and bowing and chatting, 

 leaning on an ebony cane but what a little bit of a thing 

 she is, amongst a crowd of tall and stately Britons ! 



To the Rev. John Gunn (his uncle by marriage) 



Sept. 19, 1887. 



We returned only a fortnight ago from a short tour in 

 Normandy, where I took Mr. Turner's Tour. It was very 

 interesting to look at the original of Cotman's Etchings and 

 my Grandmother's drawings, and I can pronounce them all 

 to be admirable. We were charmed with the picturesque- 

 ness of the country and people. . . . 



I saw a lovely Vincent at Christie's rooms the other day, 

 but dared not buy. 



On this trip they spent * two weeks with the Grays amongst 

 the churches of Kouen, Caen, Bayeux, St. Lo, Coutances, 

 Avranches, and Mt. St. Michel, and a fortnight at a desolate 

 watering place south of Granville.' The reference to Mr. 

 Dawson Turner's tour is explained in a letter of September 26, 

 1897, to Mrs. Henry Lyell. (See also pp. 197, 203.) 



My father and mother went on a tour in Normandy, 

 with Mr. Turner, Mr. Lyell, and some of my aunts. All 

 I believe sketched ; I think this was in 1815 : my Grand- 

 father went in 1815, 1818, 1819, and was accompanied on 

 one or more occasions by Mr. Cohen (afterwards Sir F. 

 Palgrave) and Mr. Cotman, by whom many of the illustra- 



