The eighth and last morning of our journey dawned grey and unpromising. How often have we sighed for our comfortable Chinese travelling chairs, never more than as the weary hours wore slowly away under a drizzling rain. For the last few days we had seen scarcely a flower and heard few birds; the dear larks were silent, and the passengers hurried along under umbrellas, waterproof-covered hats, and an occasional grass coat. The villages were more numerous, and wonderful groups of devil posts, ten or twelve in a row, faced each other at each end of them; many of these looked comparatively new, and were painted brick-red and green, with white markings. A noticeable feature of Korea is the absence of temples, and the disrepair of the shrines; we never saw any sign of worship by the people at these wayside shrines. They are, many of them, simply empty huts, or have a little writing on the walls, and occasionally a picture. On sacred trees strips of paper are hung, and the passer-by, if devout, adds a stone to the heap round its roots. We donned our shilling paper coats and found them an admirable protection from the rain, but we must have been a funny sight. As we rode along we came to a Japanese regiment on the march, headed by its officers in military capes. One of the officers, despite the rain, threw his cape back in a _négligé_ way before he met us, so that a dazzling row of decorations should not pass unobserved. Certainly his appearance was in striking contrast to ours. We entered the city of Seoul from the north by a fine old gateway, the whole scene being most picturesque. I returned to sketch it the following day. The impression of the country people gained by our trip was that they were not particularly friendly, but thoroughly inquisitive; it looked as if there were little extreme poverty, but a general air of comfort seemed to prevail everywhere. The village street is swept daily, so that in the early morning there is a pleasant look of tidiness about it. The cattle are sleek and well cared for, and even the dogs have a prosperous air.