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.