metal shoes, without heels, into which he thrusts his sandalled feet. He has a sword thrust into his waistbelt, and he keeps his lean and shaggy horse going at a rough trot or a still rougher canter.

Occasionally we meet a well-knit, active-looking man, bared to the waist, who is running along at a regular jogtrot, never stopping, never speaking, but preceded by another man who clears the way for him. He is a courier, and bears across his shoulder a bamboo staff, in the split end of which is fixed a bundle of letters or dispatches. He will run for two or three miles, and then, reaching a post-house, will be immediately relieved by another courier.

Often we pass two or three maidens, with bright costumes and broad parasols, walking, perhaps, to some friend's house, and carrying on a lively gossip en route. Little children stand at the roadside and stare at us, or scuttle out of the way, calling out To-jin, to-jin!'— Foreigners, foreigners!' while babies, strapped on the backs of their mothers or their elder sisters, squall in concert, or remain slumbering peacefully in their awkward positions, their little heads hanging down over their backs as if their necks were broken.

Halfway to Yedo we dismount at a tea-house in the village of Kawa-saki. Close to this is the river Lok-go, which is crossed by a ferry, and which forms a boundary stream to the capital, tolls being collected on it and passes examined, from persons wishing to enter Yedo. The teahouse is full of people, and evidently does a roaring trade, most travellers stopping here on the way, to rest, or to arrange for the transport of their goods and chattels across the stream.

After passing the Lok-go, four miles more of the Tocaido bring us to the southern suburb of Yedo, Sina-gawa, said to be a quarter with a bad reputation, even among

the natives, as being the favourite haunt of outlaw robbers, assassins, and other bad characters. Near the northern end of Sina-gawa, on the rising ground to the left of the road, are the several temples and monasteries which have been assigned by the Japanese government as the residences for foreign embassies. Near one of these, in a tasteful native-built house, commanding a fine view over the Bay of Yedo, lives the Secretary of the British Legation. In this little nook we pass the evening, while our host regales us with much interesting and valuable information about the parts of Yedo best worth seeing, and about many of the manners and customs of the Yedoese.

Before midnight we are in the Yedo Hotel, a large rambling building, close to the waters of the bay, erected originally on speculation as a house of business, and afterwards converted into a Joint-stock Hotel. It is still almost the only European-looking building in the city, and consequently attracts, daily, numbers of Japanese sightseers, who are allowed to go through it, and seem to do so with almost as much interest as a group of British excursionists from the country go through the Tower of London.

The three full days which we pass in Yedo are occupied from morning to night in seeing what we can of its great extent and its many interesting features. But who can attempt to give anything like an accurate or exhaustive account of a great capital in which he has only spent half a week, and of the language of whose inhabitants he knows scarcely a dozen words? A Japanese gentleman, landed at Dover, and taken up to London for three or four days could hardly be considered to know the metropolis after his short sojourn, even though he spent it all in a diligent round of Westminster Abbey, the Tower,

the Kensington Museum, and other recognised sights. But, at all events, when he returned to Japan he could impart some information about the British Yedo to his countrymen who had never been there at all, and while confessing the superficial character of his narrative, might still hope to interest his hearers. On the same grounds we shall endeavour to give the best account we can, however superficial, of the Capital of the Mikado,' so recently known as the Capital of the Tycoon.'

Not many years ago, before foreigners could obtain admission to the jealously guarded city, extraordinary accounts were related, as they have been with reference to almost every Eastern city, of the size and population of the place. It has now been ascertained, with little doubt. as to the accuracy of the calculations (for the city is carefully laid down in native maps), that Yedo covers an area of thirty-six square miles, of which space, however, rather more than half is occupied by temples and rice-fields. It will be found that an area of thirty-six square miles is equivalent to that which would be bounded by a line drawn from Hackney Wick through Lewisham, Clapham Common, and Primrose Hill, and back to whence it started. But deducting the space occupied by temples and paddyfields, there remain only sixteen square miles-an area equal to that contained by a line drawn from Hackney Wick to Deptford Royal Dock Yard, thence to the Kennington Oval, and thence viâ King's Cross back to Hackney Wick.

Nor is Yedo by any means a densely populated city. Even of these sixteen square miles, twelve are occupied by the Daimios' residences and the Imperial buildingslow-built structures covering a great acreage compared to the number of their inmates. Hence some of the best recent authorities have considered that 1,500,000 is as

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near an estimate of the population as can be obtained; and of this number 450,000 are retainers of the various Daimios, who merely reside by turns at the capital for six months in each year. Within the last few years this enforced residence of the Daimios and their retainers at the capital seems to have been partly discontinued, and many of the Daimios' buildings are uninhabited. This will tend to diminish greatly both the importance and the population of Yedo.

Hard by the

We may begin our rapid round of the lions' of this great city close to where we first entered it. house of the Secretary to the British Legation is a small but much venerated spot, which well illustrates one of the peculiar features of Japanese character and custom. It is the burial-ground of The Forty-seven Ronins.' These men were once retainers of one Takumi-no-Kami, who, because he attacked in the Tycoon's castle-grounds one Kotsuké-no-Suké, a fellow-daimio who had insulted him, was compelled to perform the 'hara-kiri,' that is, to undergo a voluntary suicide. These forty-seven faithful retainers thereupon bound themselves by a great oath never to rest till they had revenged their lord by slaying Kotsuké-no-Suké. To effect this they became 'ronins' -outlawed adventurers-and spent several years in trying to compass their object. At last they succeeded, killing Kotsuké-no-Suké in his own house.

But by this act they had broken a standing law of the empire, and therefore they all solemnly and with much ceremony committed the 'hara-kiri.' They have ever since been looked upon as deified heroes; here they lie buried, a small stone pillar, before which incensesticks are constantly burning, marking each grave; while a forty-eighth stone marks the grave of a Satsuma retainer who, on a false suspicion, vilely slandered the

leader of the Forty-seven,' and afterwards, discovering his mistake, died with them.

Close to the burial-ground is a small temple, in which are forty-seven wooden figures, lacquered and painted, and representing with much skill and expression the Fortyseven in various warlike attitudes.'

Going northwards from the Ronin Temple, and keeping not very far from the Bay, a quarter of an hour's ride or drive brings us to Siba, or Shiba, the burial-place of the Shoguns. This sacred enclosure was never entered by a foreigner till within the last two years; but now that the Mikado has got his own again,' the resting-place of the remains of the descendants of Iyeyasu is almost daily visited by foreigners, under a guard of Yakonins. This guard is supplied by the Government, and generally consists of three or four mounted Yakonins, who follow the party of foreigners directly they leave the hotel, and ride in front or alongside of them throughout the day.

Shiba is surrounded by a massive stone wall of something like a mile in circumference. We pass through the wall by a large and handsome gateway, and drive for 200 yards along a broad and well-laid road, with tall trees on either side, to a second gateway, of wood, which leads into an open quadrangle. On the opposite side of this quadrangle is a large temple, much like those which we saw in Osaka; to the right and left are smaller shrines, and a porch erected over a large bronze bell. Going out of

The tale of the 'Forty-seven Ronins' is told at length in Mr. Mitford's recently published 'Tales of Old Japan,' a book containing much new and trustworthy information on many of the most interesting points of Japanese character and customs, laws and traditions.

We may take this opportunity of mentioning another recent work on Japan, which, with its numerous and excellent illustrations, will give the reader a better idea of the scenes and scenery, the people and costumes of Japan, than any other book we know. We refer to M. Humbert's 'Le Japon Illustré.' Paris: Hachette et Cic.