At a time when rural education was viewed with suspicion, and Mrs. Hannah More was contending for the right of the poor to win knowledge, she and her clever elder sister opened the first Sunday-school in the neighbourhood. They also devoted several hours of every morning to teaching in the village dame school. The visit to France recorded in this diary extended from April 25th to August 12th, 1821. Mary Browne went abroad when she was fourteen, with her father and mother and five brothers and sisters, all but one being younger than herself, and all being alike in their childish loyalty to their own country, and their whole-hearted conviction that everything un-English must be bad; and that even to admire anything foreign was the blackest treason. Starting in this firm belief, they treasured up everything ugly, eccentric, or uncouth that they came across in their travels, as may be seen in the primitive but forcible illustrations of her diary, with no dawning suspicion that, though different, foreign customs might nevertheless be better than the familiar ways. They travelled slowly, in two of their own carriages, being a party of thirteen, including the six children, a governess, nurse, cook, manservant, and courier. The long journey; the brief sojourn at school; Madame Vernier, their cross landlady; and, above all, the children's delight at finding themselves again in their beloved England--these are all recorded with a vivid and naive wealth of detail, which makes the child life of the early days of the nineteenth century live again as we read of it. The eldest daughter, Catherine, had been in France before with her parents, in the spring of 1815, when Napoleon Buonaparte escaped from Elba. They were then obliged to leave Paris hurriedly, travelling night and day for fear of detention. To all the other children everything was new and marvellous, and their keen, though unconscious, delight in all that they saw is evident throughout these pages. E. S. BROWNE. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Dieppe Fishwoman The Home of Mary Browne, with Distant View of Solway Firth and Criffell Trees with Coverings like Tombstones.--The most amusing Thing in Miss Linwood's Exhibition.--A 'Pioneer' with Long Beard and Leather Apron.--Miss Wragge being sprinkled with Holy Water A French Woman and Child A French Boy and Girl, eating, at the Door Sœur de la Charité A French Postillion Limonadière Cabriolet Water-woman Part of the Funeral Procession Old Woman of Versailles A Priest in his Common Dress and a Boy Woman with the Curious Cap A Bonne and Children French Miller The Fountain with the Animals.--Latona's Basin.--The Cupid at Tivoli French Puppet Show Lavoir Cuirassier Madame Vernier Village Fête