Item 34 - Peter Elmsley to his sister-in-law [Mary Hallowell?]

NB Some of the following letters, up to and including that of 18th July, are not signed off - they read like an extended journal, and were despatched all together under one cover. Antwerp, Hotel d'Angleterre. Goes through his accounts since Ostend - has lived very cheaply, though without stinting himself. Could have stayed a few weeks longer in Brussels - PE the only English clergyman, so performed the office of pastor to the very smart English residents - indeed, he would like to smuggle to his sister-in-law several yards of white silk, which he received for burying the daughter of Lord Robert Fitzgerald, who died of a consumption. However, he must hasten into Holland, before hot weather makes the canals offensive and unwholesome. Description of journey from Brussels to Antwerp = well-built villages and no beggars. Antwerp itself extremely handsome. Walk to cathedral - 3 paintings by Rubens recently returned from Paris (where Napoleon had taken them, and where PE had seen them 2 years before) - but hung as if for sale, like pictures in Mr Christie's great room. Jesuit church - mixed feelings - first church with galleries he has seen on the continent. Hotel quite dirty. Dutch performance of Othello. Excellent costumes, variable but reasonable acting. Text taken from the adaptation by Jean-Francois Ducis. Royal Academy of Fine Arts - nothing remarkable apart from the pictures recently recovered from Paris. Walk along the quai - saw some merchantmen - many American ships, and the shops display signs in Flemish, French and American English (e.g. osiers instead of hawsers). Commerce uncertain, because nobody knows who will rule Antwerp in 10 years - it may remain Dutch, it may be reconquered by France, or it may be demanded by Prussia in any new division, to gain access to the German sea. To the north Buonaparte constructed a basin for 60 men of war, now innocently occupied by American vessels.