world manufacturing, technology and municipal administration. In Glasgow, as guests of Lord Blantyre, the delegation stayed at Erskine House and given tours of shipbuilding and steel fabrication facilities on banks of the River Clyde. In Newcastle upon Tyne the group arrived on 21 October staying in the Royal Station Hotel where they met the industrialist Sir William Armstrong. It had been ten years since the Bakufu mission had visited the town, but as a direct result of the visit significant new export orders were obtained for ships and armaments from Tyneside factories. The gentlemen were attired in ordinary morning costume and except for their complexion and the oriental cast of their features, they could scarcely be distinguished from their English companions. — Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 23 October 1872 They visited the Elswick Engine and Ordnance Works with Captain Andrew Noble and George Rendell, inspected the hydraulic engines and the boring and turning departments and examined the construction of Armstrong and Gatling guns. They also visited the Gosforth Colliery, descending into the mine itself. Further visits were made to Bolckow and Vaughan Iron Works in Middlesbrough and iron-ore mines in Cleveland. The Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce arranged a river trip on the Tyne, taking in the High Level Bridge, the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company Hebburn and the Jarrow Chemical Works. From Newcastle upon Tyne the group travelled to Yorkshire, visiting the open countryside and Bolton Abbey prior to inspecting textile manufacturing facilities at Salts Mill in Saltaire and Dean Clough Mill in Halifax. Accompanied by the British Envoy to Japan, Sir Harry Smith Parkes, the group toured not only manufacturing facilities but also village accommodation, schools, almshouses, hospitals and parks provided by Sir Titus Salt and Sir John Crossley for their workers. A visit to Chatsworth House on 30 October was followed by visits to Burton-upon-Trent, Birmingham, Worcester, Stoke on Trent and Chester. The delegation was presented at an official audience with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 5 December 1872. Another audience with the Prince of Wales took place at Sandringham on 9 December. The party finally left for France on 16 December. France, Germany, Italy and the return to Japan France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland were all visited by the mission during the first half of 1873. On the return journey, Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Shanghai