April ii.
I quit my lodgings at Rotterdam, and remove to the Hague. The day following I visit the church of Launsdone where I found this inscription under two brass basins: Margareta, Hermani Comitis Henebergae uxor, filia Gulielmi Caesaris, anno MCCLXXVI 365 enixa est pueros etc. sicut in hac tabula ex vetustis tam manuscriptis, quam typis excusis, chronicis positum ac enarratum est. The same afternoon I pass on to Honstardyke, where I see the orangery four hundred and fifty yards long; the East India buffalo, male and female; the aviary, in which is a white peacock, the birds called lepelaars, and variety of foreign ducks and geese; the stable of foreign beasts, among which is the mamót of East India (like a stag, but with twisted horns) and a cassaware; the gardens, in which are several beautiful statues, particularly one of a gladiator; the house consisting of one intire quadrangle within two good galleries, the Queen’s japan cabinet, and the King’s well furnished with curious paintings.
April xvii.
I now return again to Amsterdam, by the way of Gouda, in company with Mr. Vandeput. Here we stop to observe the excellent painted glass in the several windows of that church; and then proceeding in our passage by the treck schuyt arrive at Amsterdam by six a clock next morning, and after diner make a visit to Dr. Cockburn. The next day we are introduced by the Doctor to see Mr. De Wild’s cabinet, richly furnished with coins, gems, sculptures, and statues. Among the rest of his curiosities he has an excellent piece, representing the Massacre of the De Witts, a good brass Otho, and a fine Venus Anadyomene. The day following the Doctor procured for us the like favour from Mr. Vincent, whose cabinet consists of a very numerous and well disposed collection of animals and shells.
April xxii.
Mr. Cockburn, son of the Doctor, Mr. Vandeput, and I, divert ourselves, by making a short excursion to Sardam, in North Holland, remarkable for the great number of windmills that surround it, and the large quantity of timber, which always lies there ready prepared for building of ships. We return in the evening to Amsterdam; and the next day I purchase of Mynhéer Visscher a set of Geographical Charts, both Old and New; and then visit Mynhéer Uilenbroek, a curious gentleman, possessed of a very large and well chosen library, as also a cabinet of coins and other rarities.
April xxiv.
I depart for Harlem, and there visit the learned Antony Van Dale, by profession a physician, in opinion an anabaptist. He entertained me very obligingly with a sight of the neat gardens, costly tulips, and other amusements of that place. In discoursing with him on divers subjects of learning, he seemed in some things over sceptical, questioning particularly the authority of the Apocalypse. I go the same night to Leyden, and from thence the next day to Rotterdam.