VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 313 



occasion of such election under the new rule, 

 Sir John Lubbock and Mr. James (now Lord) 

 Bryce were selected for the distinction. 



At midsummer of this year Sir John gave up 

 the secretaryship of the London Bankers, which 

 he had held for over a quarter of a century. 

 Lord Hillingdon conveyed to him the regret of 

 the bankers and their thanks for his past services 

 in a highly complimentary letter, and a little 

 later Lord Hillingdon was himself elected as their 

 chairman with Sir John as Deputy. 



On August 5 he started for a little tour in 

 Switzerland. At Geneva M. Correon joined him 

 and they went together to Saas Fee. They 

 found the glacier advancing and pushing up the 

 turf, etc. Then over the Monte Moro to see the 

 great moraine at Ivrea : then by the St. Bernard 

 to Vevey and on to Homburg, where he met 

 Lady Lubbock and the children. They went to 

 see the Roman lamp at Saalberg and the Alt 

 Konig where Brunhild slept in the ring of fire. 

 " There are two great rings of stones," he writes, 

 " but I saw no evidence of fire." 



It has been noticed that in his diary the entries 

 recording games of fives have quite ceased and 

 are generally replaced by brief accounts of golf, 

 but on September 14, at Homburg, he was playing 

 lawn-tennis. A few days later the Empress 

 Friedrich drove him out to see her new Schloss. 

 " When we were alone," he says, " she spoke of 

 her great sorrow and loneliness, poor thing ! We 

 looked all over the Schloss and grounds, had tea 

 and drove back. She talked very freely of 

 European politics, and spoke with great affection 



