NOTES ON TEAVEL 287 



families still" live in the homes made famous by their 

 ancestors, and keep up the tradition of simple and 

 gracious hospitality without suggestion of rush or 

 effort, has a special old-world charm of its own. Long- 

 fellow's house, where they spent an afternoon with a 

 daughter of the poet, is left as it stood a great part 

 of last century, with its " old clock on the stair " still 

 ticking its " never for ever " as it did in his time. In 

 every direction they were reminded of the great names 

 of Boston's past. Time was made to pay a two days' 

 farewell visit to Dr. and Mrs. Nichols in Brooklyn, and 

 for a run to Philadelphia, where Kamsay received the 

 Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin Society of 

 Pennsylvania, the oldest society of the kind in the 

 States. It was in returning from this visit that for the 

 first time the Ramsays saw the beauty of the true 

 American " fall," as the maples had just begun to change, 

 and their colour was indeed dazzling in the clear bright 

 air of the Indian summer then in its perfection. All 

 this was a bad preparation for the voyage, which, like 

 many return voyages, was dull and grey, not to be 

 wondered at in mid-November, however, but giving the 

 more time for " revolving many memories." 



NOTE. The proceedings at the inauguration of the 

 Rice Institute are recorded with full detail in The Book 

 of the Opening of the Rice Institute, the title-page of which 

 also adds the following words : " being an account in three 

 volumes of an academic festival held in celebration of 



