's complaint--'Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to
drink.' The peasantry are amply provided with brandy. I passed
yesterday about thirty houses where they get it for two sous, not
quite a penny a glass. I wonder all your friends at Brown
Brothers' do not swarm to such a land....

"I have no doubt everything is beautiful, I hope also fruitful,
about Morton. I feel sure of one thing, that mamma has abundance of
her favourite flowers.--Love to all from your affectionate papa,
J.H. BURTON."

* * * * *

"REGENSBERG, _21st June 1879_.

"MY DEAR LOVE,--I have but a scrap of paper available....

"Fine weather at last. Eating cherries. Last night I got a
comfortable sleep for nothing. For reasons good no doubt, but
unknown, the train stopped from 9 P.M. to 5 A.M., at a country
station. I lay on a bench, with my head on my small bag, and never
had a sounder sleep.--Your affectionate

J.H. BURTON."

* * * * *

"DONAUWOeRTH, _27th June 1879_.

"MY DEAR COS,--This afternoon I expect to be at Blenheim, and so at
the farthest limits of my battle-fields. I spoke of not going to
the Alps, in consideration of the depressing of our neighbours the
Pentlands; but being so close to them, I can't resist a step
farther, and then the Pentlands are not so very ill used, for they
are put much on a level with the Grampians. At the beginning of
next week I expect to be moving homewards, and I still think, as I
wrote to mamma, the last place to catch me at, before taking to the
water, is Antwerp.

"This is a very fishy place, not of the Danube rolling majestically
not many yards from where I am writing, but of the sea. The inn I
am in is called the Krebs or Crab, round the corner is the
Crawfish, and somewhere else the Shrimps.

"I wonder what you are now all doing in the Belvidere,[20] and what
projects you are all making for the summer, and whether you have
ripe strawberries, and there is good promise of cherries and
apples; and so, with kind love to all, adieu from your affectionate
papa, J.H. BURTON."

[Footnote 20: A tower within the grounds of Morton, used by his
sons as a workshop.]

* * * * *

"DEGGENDORF, BAYERISCHER WALD,
_1st Jul