1. A postal order for 10 shillings.

2. Anna, who lived and worked in Welwyn, was looking for a new situation (FR b954, b2765 and b2769). See the text of the advertisement at the end of the letter.

3. Willemien had been staying with Anna at Welwyn since mid-August 1875; on 13 May 1876 she travelled back to her parents in Etten (FR b2356 and b2749).

4. Two drawings Van Gogh made of this place – Spencer Square – have survived; one was sent in letter 83. There is no proof that the other known drawing of the square, View of Royal Road, Ramsgate (F Juv. XXVI / JH -) was enclosed with the present letter, as assumed in earlier editions. See also cat. Amsterdam 1996, p. 61, cat. no. 9, fig. 9. Vincent might have enclosed it in a letter to his parents, because on 2 June 1876, Mrs van Gogh wrote to Theo: ‘Early in the week we received a letter from Vincent with a nice little drawing of his house, but he didn’t write about anything in particular, so we’re already looking forward to the next letter. We’ve asked him to tell us about everything, which we hope he’ll do’ (FR b2752).

A photograph of Spencer Square (of c. 1900) is to be found in exhib. cat. London 1992, p. 12.

5. Mr van Gogh regularly conducted divine service for the Protestant community in the nearby hamlet of Hoeven; cf. Kools 1990, p. 121.

6. Part of the Protestant service.

8. Vincent and Theo’s younger brother Cor, who was nearly nine.

10. Van Gogh wrote the text of the advertisement below his signature. The advertisement appeared a week later, in exactly the same words, in the Oprechte Haarlemsche Courant of 28 April 1876.

11. According to information supplied by the Postal Museum in Bath (UK), this abbreviation presumably stands for ‘General Holding Mail’.