MANUSCRIPT. [A hand-written account of a tour of Switzerland by two English women. N.p.:] August 1849. 31pp., manuscript, 4to (235 x 184mm). A densely-written mostly legible single hand, recto only, on 31 leaves an account of a tour of the Swiss Alps, the Falls, and descriptions of the sights and encounters in hotels and trains, numerous blank leaves to rear. (Toning.) Original blind-stamped full calf, g.e., silver clasp with lock and key, printed cloth dust-cover (browned, small tears). Note: this is a varied and adventurous trip undertaken by two cultured English women who sail the Soho Steamer into Antwerp (where they see Van Dyke’s ‘Crucifixion’) and, taking trains into Bonn, Mainz and Berne, they visit the Rhine Falls, hear Mozart, visit cathedrals and churches and, using their Murray’s hand-book, make useful connections between historical turmoil and the 1848 political revolutions in Prussia. They talk to hotel owners in Switzerland who are over-run with Prussian soldiers (‘they are always polite at dinner and stand up and bow to ladies’) and find political refugees who have fled from Baden. They keep running into Russian friends on their tour (who are themselves friends with the Russian Emperor: an ‘amiable man’) and they run into some surprising people (‘Mr. Forbes- a geologist’ [Edward Forbes?]) and the poet and clergyman Robert Montgomery (‘a conceited man’) who tells them how many times his book ‘The Christian Life’ has been reprinted. After a trip to see more glaciers and waterfalls, the account ends rather suddenly.