were interested in the Channel Fleet. But I could take no
interest in Steam Ships and Iron Rams.

WOODBRIDGE, _August_ 4, [1863].

MY DEAR GEORGE,

I have at last done my Holland: you won't be surprised to hear that I did
it in two days, and was too glad to rush home on the first pretence,
after (as usual) seeing nothing I cared the least about. The Country
itself I had seen long before in Dutch Pictures, and between Beccles and
Norwich: the Towns I had seen in Picturesque Annuals, Drop Scenes, etc.

But the Pictures--the Pictures--themselves?

Well, you know how I am sure to mismanage: but you will hardly believe,
even of me, that I never saw what was most worth seeing, the Hague
Gallery! But so it was: had I been by myself, I should have gone off
directly (after landing at Rotterdam) to that: but Mr. Manby was with me:
and he thought best to see about Rotterdam first: which was last
Thursday, at whose earliest Dawn we arrived. So we tore about in an open
Cab: saw nothing: the Gallery not worth a visit: and at night I was half
dead with weariness. Then again on Friday I, by myself, should have
started for the Hague: but as Amsterdam was also to be done, we thought
best to go there (as furthest) first. So we went: tore about the town in
a Cab as before: and I raced through the Museum seeing (I must say)
little better than what I have seen over and over again in England. I
couldn't admire the Night-watch much: Van der Helst's very good Picture
seemed to me to have been cleaned: I thought the Rembrandt Burgomasters
worth all the rest put together. But I certainly looked very flimsily at
all.

Well, all this done, away we went to the Hague: arriving there just as
the Museum closed for that day; next Day (Saturday) it was not to be open
at all (I having proposed to wait in case it should), and on Sunday only
from 12 to 2. Hearing all this, in Rage and Despair I tore back to
Rotterdam: and on Saturday Morning got the Boat out of the muddy Canal in
which she lay and tore back down the Maas, etc., so as to reach dear old
Bawdsey shortly after Sunday's Sunrise. Oh, my Delight when I heard them
call out 'Orford Lights!' as the Boat was plunging over the Swell.

All this is very stupid, really wrong: but you are not surprised at it in
me. One reason however of my Disgust was, that we (in our Boat) were
shut up (as I said) in the Canal, where I couldn't breathe. I begged Mr.
Manby to let me take him to an Inn: h