We rested for a short time at a house of entertainment on the banks of the canal, where we were refreshed with buttered rolls, which had slices of cheese laid between the divided halves. At half after two, we arrived at Amsterdam, and took up our residence at the Wapen van Amsterdam, instead of the City of Hamburg Hotel, to which we had been recommended, a mistake we were not aware of until some hours afterwards; however, it was one of the best inns in the place, so that we had no reason to feel disappointed. At the table d’hôte, charged thirty stivers per head, we met with a countryman of ours, Mr. W., with his wife and daughter; and after dinner, were conducted by him to a coffee-house, where, from the English papers, we became acquainted with the particulars of her late majesty’s death.
On the following day, August the 16th, notwithstanding it was disposed to be rainy, we accompanied Mr., Mrs., and Miss W⸺ to Broeck, and Saardam. After passing in a ferry-boat to Brocksluyh, we engaged a tilted carriage, capable of containing nine persons, constructed like a caravan, the sides with neat open work, and canvas curtains to keep out the weather.
We arrived at Broeck for breakfast, and the day now proving fine, our party were delighted with the novel and extraordinary appearance, and cleanliness of this little paradise. In each house, there is one particular door which is always kept closed, except on the occasion of a wedding or funeral. The gardens are the very picture of elegant neatness; in some of them the shrubs are arranged and cut into the shapes of tables and chairs, or other fanciful forms; the ground is laid out in pleasing walks and parterres, and the eye enchanted with the most beautiful variety of flowers.
We now proceeded to Saardam, where the first circumstance which attracted our notice, was a new married couple, returning from church to take coffee, previous to enjoying the wedding dinner; on this occasion, we were informed that the bride’s fortune was a number of windmills, an article that Amsterdam and its neighbourhood abounds with. Our leading object, however, was to visit the house once occupied by Peter the Great, consisting of two small rooms with an enclosed recess for a bed; the door of which we opened, while some of us stepped within the frame on which the bed had rested. A board was suspended from the ceiling, with an inscription in the Dutch and Russian languages, of which, the following is a translation.
“Nothing is too little for a great man.”
The Emperor Alexander visited this spot in the year 1813, and left two Latin inscriptions on marble, commemorative of the event.
After this, we walked about the village, visited the church, and returned to Amsterdam for a late dinner, highly gratified with our day’s excursion.
We devoted the greater part of the next day to examining the city of Amsterdam, which is so intersected with streets, canals, and bridges, bearing a strong similarity to each other, that it is not an easy matter to gain an accurate knowledge of it. It takes its name from the river Amstel, and Dam, signifying a mound, raised to prevent this river from overflowing the surrounding country. The city is principally built upon piles, driven into the morass to form a solid foundation, and of which it is said, that no less than thirteen thousand are fixed under the Stadt-house alone. We visited the Exchange, one of the finest buildings of the kind in Europe. After this, we entered a Jew’s synagogue, the noisy and discordant devotion of which, soon tired us, so that we were glad to take our departure, particularly as we had no expectation of being permitted to bid for the key of the sanctum sanctorum. We regretted this day, parting from our new and agreeable acquaintance, Mr. W⸺ and his family, who left us for Utrecht.
On the following morning, one of the partners of the bank of Messrs. Melvil and Co. with whom I had done business the day before, called to rectify some trifling error in the discounts, and understanding that I was proceeding alone, kindly gave me a letter of introduction to a friend at the Hague.
The time was now approaching, when my friend C⸺ felt compelled to separate from me; he had from day to day deferred his departure for St. Petersburg, in hopes of effecting a more agreeable arrangement for his journey, than had previously offered itself; for he would have been obliged to have pursued his journey partly by canal, and partly by land, and the latter night and day, for nearly a week unremittingly, through a wild country, and along dreadful roads. He had, however, some prospect, as far as Hamburg, of the company of the Swiss clergyman, who travelled with us from Nimeguen to Utrecht, but here he was disappointed, for this gentleman was uncertain when he could depart, and on account of the advanced state of the summer, and possibility of the winter setting in early, my friend thought it imprudent to delay any longer; he therefore concluded upon setting out in the evening of Sunday the 19th, by a vessel which crosses the Zuyder sea to Lemner, from whence he was to proceed by diligence or canal to Groningen, where he would find a conveyance to Bremen and Hamburg.