The collection comprises travel diaries of Sir John Frederick, 4th Baronet (1708-1783), of Burwood Park, Walton on Thames, Surrey, in Italy, Austria and Germany, September 1737 to October 1738, and letters from Henry Vansittart (1732-1770), Director of the East India Company, writing to Frederick from Fort St George, 1752-1757, and Fort William, 1761-1764, in India, and the Cape of Good Hope, 1769.
The content of the diaries is as follows:
Volume 1, diary of Sir John Frederick in Italy, Sep-Nov 1737, with notes of money drawn 1737-1739. Small paper volume (20cm x 15cm), bound in vellum with broken clasp.
The text is entered notebook style, with the binding at its head on the recto and at its foot on the verso of each folio. A little over half the volume is blank. The last two folios have been used for entries of money drawn, which commence from the rear of the volume.
Brief note of contents:
f1: 'Books to be enquired after'
ff2-13: Genoa 30 Sep - 18 Oct
f13v: Tortona
f14: Pavia
ff15-26: Milan
ff26v-27: blank
ff27v-29v: Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, Modena (leaves Milan 5 Nov)
f30v: to Bologna
ff31-84: blank
ff85, 86: notes of money drawn 10 Oct 1737 (Genoa) to 28 Apr 1739 (Paris)
Volume 2, diary of Sir John Frederick, in Italy, Austria and Germany. Small paper volume (15cm x 19cm), bound in pulp board.
Brief note of contents:
ff1-2v: notes in pen and pencil, apparently mainly relating to Bologna
f3: Bologna
f4: Forli
f4v: Rimini
f5: Pesaro
f5v: Ancona, Loreto
f6v: Foligno, Spoleto, Terni
f7: Narni
ff7-18: Rome (from 28 Nov)
ff19-23: blank
f23v: Tivoli, Frascati, Albano (brief notes only)
f24: Naples (heading only)
f25: blank
f26: Caprarola
f26v: Viterbo
f27: Siena
f27v, 28: Leghorn (Livorno)
f28v: Pisa, Lucca
ff29-33v: Florence (to 27 Jul 1738)
f34: Bologna
f35v: Modena
f36: Mantua (and lay school at 'Bomporto')
f36v: Verona
f37v: Padua
f38: Fusina, and thence by gondola to Venice
ff38v-43v: Venice
f43v: left Venice via Mestre (30 Aug 1738)
f44: Gorizia, and through the lands of the Duchy of Carniola to Vienna
f44-48: Vienna (from 7 Sep 1738)
f48: via Melk to Munich
ff48-50v: Munich (to 8 Oct 1738)
ff51-53: Augsburg, Rastatt, Strasbourg
f54: blank