February 25th, 1873. Still no end to the snow.

Den Haag, also known as The Hague, is the capital city and royal seat of Holland. The city is girdled by canals of calm water, the banks lined with rows of luxuriant trees. Dutch people are fastidiously clean by nature, and the city has a neat and tidy appearance, with no dead branches on the trees, no rubbish floating in the water and not a speck of dust in the streets. There are very few carriages and horses, and throughout the day no loud voices are to be heard. The houses are built of red brick with large windows all over the façades; few of them are of stone, but nevertheless there are a great number of beautiful residences.

At the end of some streets are open squares with stone and bronze statues around which trees are planted. Wide avenues are lined with trees, and sand is strewn below them to form long strips of parkland. The people are greatly attached to trees since there are so few of them in Holland, and many trees in the city have aged trunks and gnarled branches.

At four o'clock the steward of the royal household arrived with carriages and a cavalry escort to take us to the royal palace, where we had an audience with King Willem III.