280 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
TO MISS GRACE NORTON 
Nahant, September 25, 1894 _ 
.-. Do you know that I am going to Europe for the 
winter with my dear Shaws? I have known it myself 
for less than a week, and as I only returned from New- 
port last Tuesday, I have been rather busy and very 
bewildered — in a sort of waking dream. My plans 
were all laid for a winter in Cambridge and I was 
hardly prepared for this change of front. But the fam- 
ily chorus is in one strain, “You must go,” and you 
can imagine that I could not go more delightfully. 
Remember that my European experience consists of 
one week in England, one in Paris and four in Switzer- 
land, that I know nothing of France, Germany or Italy 
— and to see the beautiful things that have been a 
dream to me all my life with Quin and Pauline!... 
Mrs. Agassiz sailed for Havre in October with Mr. and 
Mrs. Shaw, and two of their children. A month in Paris 
was followed by a winter in Italy; in the spring she went 
with her niece, Miss Mary Felton, and a friend, Miss Isa 
Gray, for a short visit to London, Cambridge, and Oxford, 
before joining Mrs. Richard Cary and Miss Cary, her 
sister-in-law and niece, in Venice for a few months of 
travel on the continent until October, when they sailed for 
home. Mrs. Agassiz’s itinerary, it will be seen, led her along 
well-trodden paths and into the usual experience of the 
American traveller who makes the “grand tour” with ease 
of material conditions, meeting old and new friends on the 
road. It is her own spirit that gives individuality to the 
account of her travels that she has left in her letters and 
