We then moved on to Florence and had a few most enjoyable days there; the picture galleries were most fascinating--so many pictures that one has known and loved all one's life (from photographs), and will now love all the more for having seen the originals. The town is very interesting, and the surrounding country is lovely. Our last day in Florence was wet. This was disappointing, but as it was the first rain I had seen since last September I could hardly complain. We spent a night in the train, and then stayed a few hours in Milan, just to see the very beautiful cathedral, and then got on board a corridor train to cross the St. Gothard. Near Milan the fields were thick with primroses and anemones, and it was quite hot, but we soon got up amongst the snow, and then the scenery was simply grand. We stayed a few days with some Swiss friends in Zürich. They have a delightful house looking over the lake, and the snow mountains in the distance are such a restful sight. One day we went out by train, and then did a little climbing, and got up amongst the snow: it was so funny after all the scorching we have had just lately. From there we travelled by night on to Paris; and now we have come to the end of our "saunter" across the Continent, and I am sure it has done us all good, and has been most refreshing. I have just been out to get my hair shampooed, and I think I have now got rid of the last remains of Egyptian dust. To-morrow we make tracks for England, and then I don't quite know what is to be my next move, but more work, I hope, of some kind or another. XXIII GENERAL HOSPITAL, LONDON, _January 1899_. I don't think I have written to you since I slipped back into my work here. We got back from Egypt in April, and I spent a little time at home and paid a few visits, and then the Matron asked me if I would return to take charge of one of the women's surgical wards for four months while the sister was away on sick leave; so back I came at the beginning of July, and it seems as though I am likely to remain. I had such a nice welcome back from every one (from the surgeons down to the porters), that I soon felt quite at home again. At first it was rather strange, as they have changed the "off duty" times, and all the nurses get more time off, so that means you have more nurses, and when they were all on together it seemed such a crowd to me: in that ward for twenty-two beds and four cots I had a staff nurse, a senior probationer, and three other probationers, and two lady pupils, seven besides myself on day duty and a staff nurse and a probationer on night duty; but it is seldom they are all on at the same time, and I have to run around and see that those who are on attend to the work of those who are off, and that things are not neglected because "it is not my work"!