Holograph diary of the author's trip to France with his older brother Robert. Writing in a consciously literary style, the author describes the passing scenery during his travels by boat and coach; his impressions of an opera he attends at the Chief Theatre in Rouen; and his excitement at visiting Luxembourg Palace. He takes a tour of an abbatoir where he witnesses the slaughter of livestock and visits a gambling establishment where he is initially denied entry until he promises not to play. The volume concludes with a description of the author's journey back to England, during which he suffers greatly from seasickness, and provides a reflective comparison between England and France. The author prefaces the work with an introduction in which he calls his diary "the offspring (I fear abortive) of some few, vague, indeliberate...notes" made during the tour, when he was 17 years old, and intended for his own amusement when calling to mind "the scenes of childhood." Bound into the rest of the manuscript are 13 engravings of various sights on his tour, including the Rue de Rivoli; the Monument d'Abelard et d'Heloise; and L'Eglise de St. Eustache.
