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Glasgow. Comfortable night at Dalnacardoch. Grounds of Taymouth Castle (but not inside, due to the imminent arrival of Lord Bradalbane and his bride). Killin and the burial ground of the Lairds of MacNab (the current Laird, while wooing a lady, promised her the grandest burial place in Scotland - she refused him). Night at Tyndrum - inns in Scotland inferior to the English, but far superior in terms of wine, rum and brandy (inns in Yorkshire an exception to this). Loveliness of the Vale of Glenorchy and of Loch Awe. Splendours of Inverary Castle...but the town a paltry deception. Description of journey from Inverary to Arrochar. Visited Inchtavannach. Night at Dumbarton (a dirty town, with one dirty inn), and castle before church the next day. Finally to a splendid inn in Glasgow (whose coffee room alone is larger than the assembly room in Ramsgate).

Dunkeld. Prevented from writing of Edinburgh by the attentive hospitality of the MacKnights. Barnbougle Castle far superior to Hopetoun House. Left Edinburgh yesterday and spent the night in Kinross (the trout not much larger than a Ramsgate whiting). Strath earn a lovely and rich valley. Perth today - disappointing. Dunkeld similar to the suburbs of Canterbury. To see Blair Atholl the next day. Veysie is PE's travelling companion (Daniel, Bampton Lecturer 1795?).

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.

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.

Paris. Mary's (PE's niece?) letter arrived for PE in Paris via Milan, apparently enclosing an introduction by Lord Lansdowne to Mr de Brome - but PE could not have fully profited from it, since after arriving in Milan on 29th June excessive heat drove him away on 10th July. Sister-in-law has been preoccupied by a Mrs Gee having to defend a will in court - PE has received threatening letters in his time (which his sister-in-law may find among his papers if she survives him), and is none the worse for them. Arrived in Paris on 28th July, and will stay at least a month; intends to be in Oxford by 10th October. A letter has reached PE via Milan - the government means to engage PE to examine some mss. in Naples. On return to England may land at Brighthelmston (official name of Brighton until 1810). Has bought his sister-in-law some eau de Cologne. 15 night journey from Milan to Paris. Paris said to be full of the English, but PE knows only one (who has a pretty country house just outside the city, but only one cow). Has received a letter from Sotheby explaining a bit more about the Neapolitan expedition (but nothing about the timing). Love to the girls, and thanks to Mary in particular for her letter - short, but exceedingly fairly written. (On the 1st page the letter continues, written interlineally in red - an experiment in how to cram even more onto the sheets. Women are indefatigable scribblers, and have many ways of getting a great deal of matter onto paper. Then a story of an Italian lady, courted by two men - she chose the Englishman by drawing his name from a hat, and said that he must be faithful to her, since if she lost him she would not be able to recover the other man; she was not choosing a husband, however, having one already, but a lover. Some remarks on the attitudes to love of various nationalities, and the story tails off...else PE will lose his dinner.)

Florence. Short opening times of the Laurentian library - about 14 hours a week - but able to work in his own room, so does not have to kill time. Italians a race of professed loungers. Loves Florence, but despises the Florentine gentry for their meanness. Depends on expatriate Englishmen for society - many half-pay officers (who would be dandies if they had the means of being so). The Hon. Brownlow-Charles Colyear a good example of the travelling youth of England (died in Rome because of wounds received from bandits whilst en route from Naples - but according to PE from a typhus fever). Dreadful weather over the winter - rain and fog - so cold that the cellars of confectioners contain blocks of ice thick even by English standards. Now lovely, though odd to see the surrounding hills white with snow. The weather changed with the arrival of the Emperor of Austria on 7th March, a person of mean presence. His fourth wife young enough to be PE's daughter - daughter married to Napoleon, and allowed to speak to no one. Florence very cheap - has only spent

Florence. A short letter, but being sent free of charge - thinks it rude to send a short letter since the recipient has to pay the costs. Is well, and has not used his travelling medicine chest. Travelled with Hallam to Bologna via Geneva, Milan and Venice, and came on to Florence on 5th October. Treasures in library of San Lorenzo, but, like those of the Vatican, not very accessible - only open 3 hours a day, and often shut altogether. Does not expect to finish his task until Easter, but happy to have a pretext to stay in Florence. More English and Irish in Florence than in Brussels in 1816. Has met an old acquaintance - trained as an attorney, got no business, married advantageously, acquired a situation in the West Indies, and now living very smartly in Florence, at the top of society; but planning to move to Bath in the spring, where they be able to afford very little, and will be cut by the people who now court them. 'Almost anyone can be great somewhere or other.' Has south facing lodgings, and can sit in late November with the window open - wishes Michelangelo had orientated San Lorenzo the same way. Intends to go to Milan when he has finished in Florence - will probably be out of England for a year, but will certainly return after a year in Oxford publishing his findings. Asks her to sell some stocks in mid-January.

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.

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.

Munich. Only 4 nights in Venice - hurried away because of the heat, and also to catch up with the Sothebys. Venice comparatively empty of visitors and natives - grass growing in St Mark's Square. Met Matthew Lewis (OW) at a comedy, who expects Byron to arrive the following day and promises to introduce PE at the Teatro San Benedetto - not keen, but doesn't want to offend an old school-fellow. They fail to show up, and PE leaves the next day, travelling via Treviso and Bassano (having come down via Padua - he is now satiated with churches and pictures). Description of journey to Trent(o). The Sothebys are 2 days ahead, but it would be a foolish to hurry through the Tyrol (like the Englishman who did not see Rome on his way to Naples because it happened to be midnight when he passed through it). Departure delayed by rain - musical mass in honour of St Aloysius Gonzago. On to Neumarkt - language changes from Italian to German - and Bolzano, where he stumbles and hurts his knee (this part of the letter written on 18th July in Innsbruck). The Verona diligence to Brixen (a private carriage exorbitantly expensive), but arrives at 3a.m., so decides to continue to Innsbruck. Steeper ascent, so the diligence needs 6 or 8 horse rather than the normal 4. At Brenner one brook leads to the Black Sea and another to the Adriatic. Description of route from Bassano to Innsbruck - Sothebys now 1 day ahead. On to Munich - at Fussen PE checked to ensure he was not bringing plague into Bavaria. Finds Sothebys - they proceed to Lake Constance, but PE remains to examine Augsburg mss (now in Munich) - will meet again in Baden. No wine, but very cheap beer. Praise for reforms of Joseph II. Amusing translation of an innkeeper's advertisement into English.