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Augsburg. The Sothebys Italian coachman doesn't understand German, and took the wrong road to Lake Constance - Mrs Sotheby is quite unwell. Left Munich on 29th July and intended to spend only one night in Augsburg, but has remained so as to hear daily news of Mrs S's illness - will depart on 6th August for Ulm and then Stuttgart. Route from Munich to Augsburg, via Furstenfeldbruck and its closed Benedictine abbey (closed in 1806, and in fact Cistercian). Order of 'thriving' cities - 1 Frankfurt, 2 Milan and 3 Munich. The Munich fair - PE stayed at the Black Eagle (NB Mozart had stayed here in 1790) - the landlady Madame Albert had a birthday party with 40 guests, at which a huge amount of very expensive wine was drunk. Bavarians love burgundy and champagne more than metaphysics and mathematics. The reforms of Maximilian 1, the secularisation of Bavaria and its prosperity. The Augsburg cathedral is small and mean - several Lutheran churches (following the emancipation of the Protestants) - many streets named after members of the royal family. Mrs S at one point in danger of death, but now better - PE has not gone to Ulm, but has joined the Sothebys at Schwabhausen.

Baden. Finally left Augsburg on 13th August, a fortnight later than intended. Crosses Danube for first and last time at Ulm (old and ill-built); the Minster believed by the inhabitants to be the largest church in Germany (actually, it has the world's highest steeple); cheapest lodging so far on his travels. Ulm's change of dominion from Bavaria to Wurttemberg (1810) most visible in the colour of the postillions' jackets. Wurttemberg a small kingdom the king lives modestly (unlike his father). Stuttgart clean, well-built and dull - upper classes as mean with hospitality as the Italians. Left on 19th August - supped in same room in Karlsruhe as he had on 29th August, 1816. - nothing to see, so on the next day to Baden, a most agreeable watering hole. Gewrman custom of dining at 1.00 allows for long afternoon walks. Loses money at a public gaming table. Will remain until he hears from the Sothebys, and expects, after all the delays, to be back in England by Michaelmas Day (29th September) rather than 1st September. Apparently had been planning to leave again on 10th October in order to be in Milan by 1st November, but that now out of the question, since he would not have time to prepare himself, and he would not choose to cross the Alps in November.

Paris. Has heard from Foreign Office in Downing Street that he will be wanted in Naples at the end of October or beginning of November. Will leave Paris on 1st September, and remain in England for four weeks, since the journey to Naples will occupy nearly or quite a month. Tentative arrangements to dine with sister-in-law. Sorry that her brother's house in Ealing is for sale - suspects that he is finding it too expensive. Will travel via Calais and Dover.

Oxford. Tour of Scotland - Glasgow to Carlisle via Hamilton (awkward, inconvenient house, shabbily furnished, but some good pictures, chiefly portraits, and Rubens' Daniel in the Lions' Den). Remarks on Scotland - poor climate, wonderful scenery. The gentry, despite professing to love it, do not encourage agriculture or industry and do not live on their estates, preferring London or Edinburgh, so the country is poor (but Glasgow an exception, and also the Earls of Breadalbane). The lower classes are more intelligent than the English, but no more honest - very hospitable, however.

Ghent. Travelled by barge. Country flat and rich, and full of trees which obscure the view. Good dinner on board. Staying at Hotel de Flandre. Supper at 9.00 - very late. PE avoids the hot meat and eats salad and white asparagus. Ghent larger and busier than Bruges, but not as venerable. Manufacture of cloth. Description of cathedral - inhabitants paid the French

Brussels, Hotel de Flandre. Travelling without a companion. Quantities of white poplars - luxuriant vegetation and accurate cultivation. Houses and inhabitants poor and wretched. Entrance into Brussels like that into Paris - narrow, dirty, stinking streets, and shabby and lounging inhabitants. Upper part of town more agreeable. Allee verte - avenue of limes. Country side beautiful and accessible. Provisions good and cheap. Dines at hotel at 3 in the common room ; want of sitting rooms inconvenient to lovers - PE interrupted a tender conversation while in search of a newspaper. Walk to Laken, from which Buonaparte dated the proclamations which he had ready printed for circulation in case of defeating the allies at Waterloo. The chapel given over to various protestant sects in return for payment - PE preached at 2pm. The catholic churches contain little worthy of observation - the modern ones are hideous, but the three gothic ones might be handsome if stripped of their tawdry ornaments. It will be long before PE is reconciled to the Virgin wearing a brocade petticoat.

Utrecht, Le Vieux Chateau d'Anvers. Description of journey to Breda - stayed at Prince Cardinal, and left at 5am, so no time to see the Grote Kerk. 3 ferries between Breda and Gorcum, and 1 between Gorcum and Utrecht, so a slow journey. Countryside flat, wet and spongy, with many frogs and storks. Black and white cows, fastened by the neck in pairs to prevent straying. Gentlemen's villas, built as close as possible to the roads or canals, with the name in large letters over the door - carefully and expensively adorned gardens, but tasteless, with Chinese summer house, gothic castles, flying Mercuries and much topiary. The inn is good but expensive - had intended to go to Le Nouveau Chateau d'Anvers. Cathedral - nave destroyed by a storm a century before, so only chancel and tower (diagram) - church would have been handsome, if entire. Latin distich on Cain and Abel. On 3rd July 7 hours on canal from Utrecht to Amsterdam - on each side an unbroken succession of neat and elegant country houses. Impressed by the buildings of Amsterdam, but not by the smell of the canals. Charitable institutions run well and honestly (unlike the Irish). Remarks on beggars in various European cities. Staying in Doelen Hotel. Visit to service in synagogue (German, not Portuguese) - a cappella singing. Had intended to visit North Holland (purest Dutch manners, especially cleanliness) - idea abandoned, partly because of weather, partly because no one speaks English. Refusal to hire interpreter or guide - prefers to buy guidebook and make his own way. Female headdresses (a substantive farmer's daughter carries on her head the value of several cows in golden trinkets).

Paris, Hotel de Nimes, Rue de Grenelle. Cf. 297. Weather warm, and hotel tolerably quiet, clean and reasonable. If he were to stay long he would need to get introductions to respectable families - but not many of these, since one of the ingredients of respectability is wealth. Remarks on absence of French probity in selling, and on his new cotton stockings. Remarkable that relations can live so happily in the same house. Saw the Comte d'Artois (Charles X) with a carriage drawn by 8 horses, and surrounded by guards - last seen in Edinburgh in 1803, in very different circumstances. Sites in Paris are open every day and all day, and are free. Post-revolution churches are stripped of their ornaments (kept in an old convent), but the painted glass has survived. No pumps or wells in the city, but Seine water is good to drink.

London. Copy of Mr Romilly's opinion on Boylston's will (v. 294?). Reconciliation of Pitt and Addington. Items of gossip. PE has remitted to John the last portion of the family estate. The family has, however, a sixth interest in a new edition of Chambaud's dictionary (perhaps from his bookseller uncle Peter, d. 1802?)

No formal addressee or date or signature - apparently the draft of a love letter to one Mary Hallowell, first object of his youthful affection and chosen life companion of his later years, but also a letter of apology and regret