run southward.

We have passed through the South Downs, and there, at last, is the sea before us.' 12. 'Yes! We have left Lewes on our left, and here we are at Brighton, the gayest of gay wateringplaces.

13. But we have no time to stay here. Our

train goes on, along the sea-coast, passing a number of the little watering-places, that we saw from the ship last year, and bringing us at last to the great naval harbour of Portsmouth.

14. Now, Johnny, I'll give you a treat: instead of going on by train, we will take a boat, and row

up Southampton Water, to meet the rest of our party at Southampton.

15. Here is Spithead, and farther on, to the westward, is the Solent, with the bright, smiling Isle of Wight on the other side. We turn up this long inlet, leaving the ships of war behind us, and threading our way among steam-packets and other smaller vessels, till we find Green and his companions waiting for us on the quay at Southampton. 16. 'Well, Green! How have you got on?' 'It was pretty for a little way,' says Green, 'while we were in the valley of the Thames.

17. 'Then we got to higher ground—I suppose we were crossing the hills. We saw Aldershot, with the military camp, and then, I think, there was nothing that we cared much about till we came to Winchester.'

18. 'No! Hampshire is not an interesting county. And the most interesting part of it is what lies beyond Southampton-the New Forest.'

19. Shall we go through the New Forest to morrow?'

'No! I think not. We might go that way to Weymouth, and then by Yeovil into Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. But we should be passing over short branch-lines, most of the way, and we only want to see the main lines. So we will

find our way by Salisbury and Bath to Bristol, and return to London by the Great Western.'

IV. EASTERN DIVISION.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

I. 'WELL! That's funny!' says Johnny; 'how can the Great Western Railway be in the Eastern Division?'

'It's all right,' says Green: 'I know how it is. It is called Great Western, because it runs out of London to the westward; but it is in the Eastern Division, because it passes through a part of England where the rivers run eastward.'

2. 'Wrong! Green,' shouts Johnny; 'look out of the window. Don't you see that stream? It's running back to Bristol, while we're going away from Bristol. So, if we're going eastward, the stream is running westward!'

3. 'Wait a moment, Johnny,' answers Green; 'give me time to think. Now I have it! We are in the Western Division; but we shall soon be out of it. That stream is the Bristol Avon, running round from the Cotswold Hills, through Wiltshire and Somerset, to join the Severn, below Bristol. Very soon we shall be in the basin of the Thames; and then, all the way to London, the rivers will be

running the same way as we are going, from west to east.'

4. Right! Green. We follow the Avon, northward, through Wiltshire, for some distance; and then, you see, we turn to the north-east, passing near the sources of the Kennet; and the Kennet, you remember, is a tributary of the Thames.

5. 'At Swindon you may observe a branch-line running north-westward, through a beautiful pass in the Cotswolds, to Stroud and Gloucester, and then from Gloucester to Herefordshire, or to South Wales.

6. From Didcot, in Berkshire, another branch would take us to Oxford, and through Worcestershire and Warwickshire to Birmingham.

7. 'And now, we cross a broader stream. What is this, Johnny?'

'The Kennet?'

'No! It is the Thames itself; not very large yet, but getting larger and larger as we go on. We follow it for the rest of the way, seeing bits of several counties, till we run into Paddington Station, and find ourselves once more in London.'

8. I liked the last bit of the journey,' says Johnny, 'when we could look out on the river, and catch peeps of hills. But I don't like the long tunnels, and they always come just when we are