Publisher's Synopsis
William Schellinks, a 17th-century Dutch artist with some experience of foreign travel, was trusted to accompany the 13-year-old son of a rich Amsterdam merchant on his Grand Tour, starting in England and lasting more than four years. Throughout this time Schellinks made topographical drawings, many of which are preserved in Vienna, and kept a diary, the manuscript of which was rediscovered in Copenhagen.;Schellinks' visit to England, about a year after the Restoration, covers a period of dramatic change: the re-establishment of the Anglican church and ousting of Presbyterians, executions of regicides and others, the return of pageantry, all described in a lively manner. The diary also includes much information on daily life and customs, social and economic conditions and valuable descriptions of buildings and towns, chiefly in the southern countries from Kent to Cornwall and East Anglia, visited by the party.;Associated research further shows how a second generation of Huguenot weavers in London captured the opportunities to share in Holland's Golden Age, using their contacts in England to advantage.
