The depression and irritability which were gathering upon Ruskin, after his return to the fray, seemed to be relieved by travels in Northern France. In August 1880 he set forth to revisit some of the cathedrals, in view of a series of Sketches of Christian History and Architecture which he had now projected. He desired in particular to revisit Amiens, as he had promised to give a lecture on the cathedral to the Eton boys. The tour was in two parts. He went first for six weeks with Laurence Hilliard and one of his sisters; then crossed to Dover and stayed for some days with his friends, Miss Gale and her sister, at Canterbury; and next returned to France, being accompanied by Mr. Arthur Severn and Mr. Brabazon. Those who saw the Ruskin exhibition in London in 1907 will remember many drawings made on this tour, and among them one, inscribed as sketched in company with Mr. Brabazon, which shows an impressionist “breadth” not always characteristic of Ruskin's work. Mr. Severn recalls an incident at Amiens which greatly amused Ruskin.