September 29th, 1872. Cloudy; in the evening a fog descended and there was thunder.

It had been arranged that, at the invitation of the British government, a party of nine members of the Embassy, escorted by Sir Harry Parkes and General Alexander, and accompanied by Mr. Aston as interpreter, would tour parts of England and Scotland. At four o'clock in the afternoon we left our hotel to go by carriage to Euston Station, where we boarded the special train the government had arranged for us and departed for Liverpool in the north-west. This was the same line by which we had travelled from Liverpool to London when we first arrived in Britain, but as it had been night on that occasion this was the first time we were able to observe the scenery along the way.

It was 201 miles from London to Liverpool by rail. The terrain was for the most part level, with no more than the occasional low hill. Everywhere the countryside was divided up like a chessboard, the boundaries being marked by trees planted at intervals along them. The gaps between the trees were filled by hedges, with ditches running alongside. The land within these boundaries formed fields, most of which were pasture where sheep and cattle grazed at liberty.