e Wednesday Nov 30th 1859. The Hague.
The Arago which has come to convey me home to
you brings me your and Fanny’s letters of the 8th & 9th
instant and happily relieves me of my anxiety
about her. It remains only to close this letter in
reason for the mail which intervenes before my
departure. This therefore you will consider the last
you ^will^ receive from me –
I went yesterday with the Napiers

17
to Amsterdam, and renewed my recollections of that old
and respected city. When I saw it twenty years ago it
seemed not unworthy to be the parent of New York. But
all is changed now. New York is magnificent as
well as great. Amsterdam is plain as well as
small. Still it is a very interesting town. Traversed
by canals, it has some of the romance of Venice
but is a downright sober-busy town. We visited the
City Hall built by the municipality of Paris two hundred
years ago. It has af at least one chamber grander
and more costly than any thing in our Capitol, at
Washington. The expense of marble and sculpture is
Frightful. But I left it cheerfully to study
the pictures in the Museum, by Rembrandt, Van
Helden, Van Dyck and other Dutch masters. Not
forgetting Hondecoeter. It is a very fine ^and^ ^lasting^ national
collection.
We dined at Amsterdam, and returned to
an oyster supper – that Lady N. had provided out of
special memory of Washington.
To day all this blessed day I have spent
in trying to find some pieces of old Brussels lace suita-
ble and acceptable to the fastidious but just
tastes of some American lady who surpasses in my

18
respect and affection all the ladies I have seen
in either hemisphere or I do not know how far I
have succeeded but I shall bring my tribute home
to her – Perhaps you may know the Lady.
I stop at Brussels on my return to Paris
next Sunday. In one day, perhaps two, then to Paris
where I shall remain until the 11th or 12th then –
to Havre, and on the 13th I depart with the Arago
hoping to be with you on Christmas or the day after.
Ever your own Henry.

h25
Antwerp
November 24 ^th
1859