Portugal is not one of the very popular tourist lounges, and the ordinary person has a hazy idea of it as connected with port wine, and the earthquake at Lisbon, and has probably heard of Inez di Castro, Vasco de Gama, and Prince Henry the navigator; and the Jubilee of 1887 made us all acquainted with the fact that the Royal Family of Portugal are near relations of our own, as on that occasion the Crown Prince and Princess were seen very frequently about London. Perhaps many of my readers may know also that Camoëus is the great Portuguese poet, who was the author of the _Lusiad_, a poem which has received such recognition in England that it has been translated four times, the last time by Adamson, who wrote a biography of the poet, and the late Lord Strangford translated some of his minor poems. The only really good book on general Portuguese history is that in “The Story of the Nations Series” by H. M. Stephens. There is also a book by W. A. Salisbury, _Portugal and its People_, which is a popular work and well compiled. _Round the Calendar in Portugal_ is a book by Oswald Crawford, which I have enjoyed very much, but I think that there is plenty of room for another or even two or three more about Portugal, which perhaps some of my girl-readers would like to undertake. Amongst Mrs. Pennell’s delightful books, the whole of which are worth reading, is one dealing with Hungary and Roumania, which is called _Gipsyland_; and Mrs. Elliot has a _Diary of an Idle Woman in Constantinople_. There are one or two lives of Carmen Sylva, the Queen of Roumania. Egypt has had plenty of explorers, and I think you will enjoy Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs_, Mariette Bey’s writings, and Miss Edwards’ delightful books. Then there is Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, and as a really delightful thing you had better read Miss Gates’ book, the _Chronicles of the Cid_. Stanley Lane Poole’s book on _Cairo_, and Alfred Milner’s _England in Egypt_, are quite modern works, and Charles Warner has written a very interesting one too. For the Soudan, Major Wingate’s book is a good one, and you ought to be charmed with all those written by Mr. and Mrs. Bent. There are many books on Palestine, but none more useful than Thomson’s _Land and the Book_, for those who wish to travel through the Holy Land with the Bible in their hands. And now I think I may leave my task of guiding my readers into such reading of many books as will give them enjoyment in their travels in foreign lands. I have not done more than speak of some of the many works which have interested me, for I find others that have been perused, but which do not seem important nor useful enough to be mentioned. In many Continental cities there are fairly good libraries, from which you can procure books dealing with the city in which you are staying; and if you are a rapid reader, you can do much in the way of skimming-over the ground, and a few photographs will remind you of the objects you most desire to recall.