Manuscript account of the journey of a party of female travellers (named as Rachel Roberts, Isabella Brown, Charlotte Roberts and Jemima Murray; unclear which, if any, of them is responsible for this journal) by rail, road, and water through France, Belgium and Germany, leaving London for Calais on June 19th, 1858. From here they intended travelling to Brussels, but the headache of one member of the party forced them to stop at Ghent, where they visited the Cathedral with its Van Eyck altarpiece. From here they travelled to Liè€ge before crossing into Germany at Aachen. The next stop was Cologne, from where they travelled by river down the Rhine to Koblenz, which occasions an amusing account of the donkey ride up to the Stolzenfels, Sankt Goar, Kassel and Mainz, eventually reaching Frankfurt. They stayed here several days, attending a performance of Der Freischutz at the Opera, before returning by way of Brussels to Lille, where the party separated, with some continuing on to Paris and others, including the writer, returning to London. Although there are descriptions of the sites visited, the journal is perhaps more interesting for its lively descriptions of the social minutiae of the journey, such as the bureaucracy involved in international rail travel and the atmosphere in each of the hotels they stayed in. Leaves paginated on recto only.
