您8月7日的信.1 和坳. 8街的史密斯家. 14日到达. 在这个地方. 我们星期一离开了海牙, I wrote you an account of our excursion, 到星期四晚上, 当我去看戏的时候. The house is small and ordinary, the Actors as good as one commonly finds them in England. It was the birth day of the Princess of Orange, it was not distinguished that I know of in any other manner, than that both the French and English ministers Box was drest upon the occasion. The peices which were acted were in French, one of them was Fanfan 和坳as.2 The house though small was not half full, the Court being all absent. I have visited the Princes house in the Woods, 他住在哪里?, and holds his court during the summer, also his cabinet of Paintings which is small but well chosen, 他的自然史陈列柜 &c. I have also been to see the collection 在这里, 和植物园, 每一次我都发现了新的东西, but in general they are the same species, 的鸟类, 319野兽, 矿物质, 和植物, 鱼, and reptiles which we find in greater order and perfection in the Museum of Sir Ashton Lever.3

我们去看了花园 &c，法格尔部长;4 and 在这里 I was led a jaunt of three miles, through a sand like Weymouth Hill. 我吹着气, sat down whenever I could find a seat, 我想这景色, 不值得劳累, 天气很暖和, 和昏暗的天气, especially after having seen Pains Hill, 而其他地方优越得多.

A Saturday Evening we went to the French Ambassadors, 所有的外交部长都在这里, 一些官员, 和镇上的绅士们, 哈里斯夫人, and three other English ladies whom I dined with at Sir James's, 两个丹麦人, and two Dutch ladies made the company, 总共大约有六十个人. 卡片, were the object till about eleven oclock, 晚饭铃响了, and his Excellency escorted me into an elegant room, 一顿丰盛的晚餐, about one we returned to our Lodgings. Sunday I regretted that I could not go to church, to hear Dr Mac Lean,5 谁到这个国家去了. Your papa dined abroad; it was very rainy, I tarried at home and read Plutarch's Lives, but I am determined if it should ever fall to my lot to travel into a foreign Country again I will make Don Quixote my companion. What with reading the Lives of these Roman Emperors, 其中大多数都表现出暴政, 残忍, 毁灭和恐怖, 参观教堂, 在这里 whose walls exhibit the gloomy Escutcheons of the silent inhabitants, 阴暗沉闷的牢房, I have been haunted every night with some of their troubled Ghosts, 虽然很少情绪低落, I have 在这里 felt the influence of climate, 和我所看见的景物, t在这里 is a silence and a dead calm which attends travelling through this Country, the objects which present themselves are meadows, 树, 和运河, 运河的树木, 和草地, 这是我的缺憾 亲爱的品种, that I really believe an English Robber would have animated me. The roads from the Hague to Harlem are one continued sand, so that one has not even the pleasure of hearing the wheels of the carriage. 莱顿 is the cleanest City I ever saw, 街道很宽, 房子的砖, all neat even to the meanest building. The River Rhine runs through the City. We tarried at 莱顿 till Thursday morning, and then set off for Harlem, at which place we dined. A curious circumstance took place after dinner. 我们先把约翰打发上船去了, and he had very carefully locked the carriage, 把钥匙带走了, 该怎么办呢? We sent for a Smith to force the lock, but that 320无法生效, after much deliberation upon 该怎么办呢 I proposed getting in at the window, 哦，那是不可能的! however a ladder was brought, and the difficulty was surmounted! 真的，我向你保证. 当我们走到一半的时候, 在这里, 我们该见谁呢?, 但可怜的约翰在全速奔跑, 手里拿着钥匙, looking so mortified that one had not the heart to blame him.

And 在这里 let me advise you never to travel the road when a great man is in motion, 当我们到达这里的时候, we were obliged to go to five different houses, before we could get any apartments even to sleep in for one night. Prince Ferdinand had taken the whole house called the Arms of Amsterdam, 还有从斯帕回来的同伴, 填满了其他的, we were obliged for last night to shift as they say, 能拿多少就拿多少. 今天我们的情况好多了. As to Amsterdam I can say nothing about it yet. I was disappointed in finding Mr Parker gone to London when we arrived. 我们今天来了一些客人, and are engaged to dine at Harlem tomorrow with Mr Willink, 在他的乡间别墅,6 on Monday we are also engaged, and Wednesday. I fancy we shall make out our month, without 去马德里. 让我听听你和你家人的消息, if an opportunity offers to send Blair to America before our return, Col Smith will be so good as to purchase it.7 再见了，亲爱的, I should be loth to tell you how often I have wished myself in London since I left it, till this day I cannot say I have felt well since I crost the water. 晚饭来了，我躺在笔旁. 邮差十点发. You see that this letter was written part at 莱顿, and part at Amsterdam, begun the 15th. 完成了第18场比赛. 我在海牙给你写了信.8