In France we are very well off for books in all languages; but in the way of history, Guizot’s is rather a long business, and any shorter history which is available is less tiring, if you be not a rapid reader. Viollet le Duc will be a great delight to you, I am sure, and Hare’s _Walks in Paris_ and _Ways near Paris_, and Eastlake’s _Notes on the Louvre_, with a good guide, should be enough for the capital. In the way of romance, you have Victor Hugo’s _Hunchback of Notre Dame_. Miss M. B. Edwards’ _France of To-day_, _A Year in Western France_, and _Holidays in Eastern France_ are charming books, and so are Hamerton’s _Round my House_, _Modern Frenchmen_, and _A Summer Voyage on the Saône_. Miss Pardoe’s books on the Court of France are also well worth reading for the historical side of life. Switzerland I have always thought most resembles England, in the interest of its history, and in the character of its people. In many ways it is the model country of Europe, for the Swiss are ever open to change and improvement, and to trying experiments in all the social walks of life into which many other greater nations would shrink from embarking. A book recently published on _Social Switzerland_ gives a view of their charitable and other institutions, and shows this very clearly, and it is worth reading if you be interested in that side of the country. General Meredith Reade’s two great volumes of _Vaud and Berne_, deal entirely with the historical, descriptive, and family side of the country, and are very interesting. Foreigners have done much to make Switzerland delightful, and especially the English, for have we not that delightful _Playground of Europe_ by Leslie Stephens, and J. A. Symonds’ _Swiss Highlands_, _Tyndall’s Glaciers_ and _Whymper’s Alps_, to say nothing of a long series of most excellent guide-books, and histories, and the finest of poetry, beginning with Coleridge’s _Hymn to Mont Blanc_, and Byron’s _Prisoner of Chillon_. There seems to be hardly a foot of this most delightful country that is without its interest, and its literature; and if we read French and German it is well worth the trouble to read Vinet, the philosopher and religious writer, and Amiel’s Diary, the saddest and most beautiful of records.