Illustrated journal of a tour of Belgium, Germany and parts of the Austrian Empire (now Austria and the Czech Republic), 19 August-17 September 1853, by Thomas Letts, accompanying his son Thomas Alton Letts to Vienna to take up a job at a printers in the city (pp. 1-60, 81-300).
The journal contains numerous anecdotes concerning individuals encountered on the journey, as well as descriptions of churches, cathedrals, castles and other sights visited. Letts travelled by carriage, rail and steamer, with cruises along the Rhine (pp. 84-92), the Danube (pp. 163-209) and the Vltava and Elbe (pp. 264-278). The itinerary included Calais (pp. 3-8), Gand [Ghent] (pp. 11-22), Anvers [Antwerp] (pp. 23-34, 38-51), Brussels (pp. 34-38), Cologne (pp. 56-60, 81), Koblenz (pp. 85-90), Wurzburg (pp. 107-119), Nuremberg (pp. 122-132), Munich (pp. 133-161), Ratisbon [Regensburg] (pp. 166-175), Walhalla (pp. 177-182), Passau (pp. 189-204), Vienna (pp. 209-238), Brunn [Brno] (pp. 240-252), Prague (pp. 252-264) and Berlin (pp. 284-287). The journal was partly written up during the journey but was only completed on 22 October 1853 (see p. 300); there are occasional later corrections and additions in pencil and ink. The volume also contains twenty-one pages of illustrations and sketches in pencil, watercolour and wash (pp. 61-73 passim, 234a, 322-340 passim) and another twenty-two thumbnail sketches and diagrams accompanying the text (pp. 15-299 passim). Also bound into the volume are copies of Ethelbert Müller, Donaustauf and Walhalla (Ratisbon, 1846), a tourist guide (pp. 343-428), and the 'Railway Chronicle Travelling Charts: Basingstoke, Winchester, Gosport' (pp. 429-430; a single leaf folded twenty-six times).