258 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



visit lands which our fathers knew only by report. It is 

 now not difficult for any one who has a long vacation to 

 visit every country of Europe. Sir Henry Holland did 

 more than this. During a busy professional life (he was 

 a. West End physician in large practice) he contrived to 

 visit every capital of Europe, most of them repeatedly, to 

 make eight voyages to the United States and Canada, to 

 visit the West Indies, to travel four times in the East, 

 thrice in Algeria, twice in Russia, besides making journeys 

 to Iceland, the Canaries, and many other places far from 

 home. The wonder is a little explained when we are told 

 that he lived to eighty-five, that he enjoyed a large income 

 during nearly the whole of his life, and that he was able 

 to leave London for two months every year, because nearly 

 all his patients left London too. But the record, after 

 all allowance has been made for favouring circumstances, 

 is a remarkable proof of energy. Sir Henry had his 

 reward. Foreign travel, joined to a hearty love of his 

 kind, and a natural power of engaging the attention of 

 noteworthy people, secured to him a kind of leadership 

 in a very exacting society. 



I am almost sorry to have mentioned Sir Henry Holland's 

 long career of foreign travel, for the excursions which I 

 want to stimulate are more particularly such as men of small 

 means, uncertain leisure, and length of days not greatly 

 exceeding threescore years and ten, can hope to enjoy. 

 A man who accomplishes one-tenth of Sir Henry Holland's 

 wanderings may be greatly exhilarated and enlightened 

 by his foreign experiences. To break through the routine 

 of home-life, to taste unaccustomed dishes, to hear un- 

 familiar tongues, and desperately, it may be, to attempt 

 to express our views or our wishes under every disad- 

 vantage of vocabulary, grammar and accent, is one way 

 of washing out the starch of respectability ; it makes 

 us more human, and gives us a brief chance of that in- 

 dependent activity which is too often impossible at home. 



The traveller is lucky indeed whose attention has been 



