Chap. XII. 
DEPARTURE FROM YEDO. 
201 
Japanese either wore straw shoes, or were not 
shod at all. One day an officer came to Mr. Harris 
and asked him to lend him his horse, and to be 
good enough to ask no questions as to the purpose 
for which the animal was required. This strange 
request was good-humouredly complied with, and 
the horse, after being away for a short time, was 
duly brought back. The officer to whom it had 
been lent came to the American Legation a few 
days afterwards, and told Mr. Harris, as a great 
secret, that the Prime Minister had sent for the 
horse to examine his shoes ; and now, he said, the 
Minister’s horse had been shod in the same way, 
and all the horses of the other officers were like- 
wise being shod ! 
As I did not wish to embroil myself in any way 
with the authorities of Her Majesty’s Legation, I 
left Yedo on the following morning, and took the 
road to Kanagawa. 
In this and in former chapters I have endea- 
voured to give a description of the Japanese 
capital and suburbs, and I shall now end my ac- 
count with a few general observations. Although 
Yedo is a large city, and remarkable in many 
ways, it cannot be compared with London, Paris, 
or any of the chief towns in Europe, either in the 
architecture of its buildings, the magnificence of 
its shops, or in the value of its merchandize. It 
has no Woolwich or Greenwich — no St. Paul’s or 
Westminster Abbey — no Champs Ely sees or Ver- 
sailles ; it has nothing to show like the Boulevards 
