MANUSCRIPT. A Tour from Rotterdam to Bergen opt Zoom, Antwerp, Mecklin, & Brussells [sic]. [Brussels: N.p.:] June 6th 1753. 31pp., manuscript, 8vo (206 x 158mm.) Hand-numbered pages in a single, densely written legible hand relating a tour of the Netherlands, including numerous military, cultural, religious, and architectural observations. (Toning, minor spotting, slight creasing.) Original wrappers, title in manuscript to upper cover (damp-stained, chipping to extremities). Note: a week-long tour undertaken by several members of the 'Browne' family. Having paid eleven guilders for the use of a 'yacht' the writer records in meticulous detail the fortifications of various cities, noting that Bergen op Zoom had been taken by the French 'six or seven years hence' and, although much of it rebuilt, retained 'marks of violence'. He learns the manner of 'springing a mine' and notes the architecture of fortification. There are many visits to churches, nunneries and monasteries, many abounding in paintings by Rubens. He is especially struck by seeing Rubens' 'Elevation of the Cross'. In Brussels (where much 'bigotry abounds') he is impressed by the beer ('the best table beer…that we met anywhere'), and describes the tapestries and a visit to where they were made. It's a busy tour with considerable detail. At the ends he admits they'd hired a man in each city ('for two shillings a day') to be their tour guide.