The 26th of July I passed by a straight and commodious river through Delft to the Hague; in which journey I observed divers leprous (([“Perhaps,” says Southey in vol. xix. of the Quarterly Review, “ this is the latest notice of lepers in Europe being thus thrust apart from the rest of mankind, and Holland is likely to be the country in which the disease would continue longest ”(p. 5).] – AH))  poor creatures dwelling in solitary huts on the brink of the water, and permitted to ask the charity of passengers, which is conveyed to them in a floating box that they cast out.

Arrived at the Hague, I went first to the Queen of Bohemia‘s court, where I had the honor to kiss her Majesty’s hand, and several of the Princesses’, her daughters. Prince Maurice was also there, newly come out of Germany; and my Lord Finch, not long before fled out of England from the fury of the Parliament. It was a fasting day with the Queen for the unfortunate death of her husband, and the presence chamber had been hung with black velvet ever since his decease.