1. The early sermon at 7 a.m. on 15 July could have been either the one preached by the orthodox minister Gerrit Jan Vos Adr.zn. in the Noorderkerk or the sermon preached by Theodorus Matthijs Looman in the Zuiderkerk.

2. The Oudezijdskapel (Sint Olofskapel) was situated between Zeedijk and the continuation of Oudezijds Enge Kapelsteeg (now Nieuwebrugsteeg).

3. Matt. 16:6.

4. Between 1816 and 1920, orphans were required to wear red and black clothing. See B. de Ridder, ‘De vroegere klederdracht der burgerwezen’, Ons Amsterdam 17-8 (1965), pp. 244-251.

5. This part of the city, now Prins Hendrikkade 58-87, was named after the tar factories located there until 1644.

6. Booksellers’ Row was the unofficial name of the area around Paternoster Row and Honeywell Street in London (near the Strand), where a large number of booksellers and publishers were concentrated. See H.B. Wheatley, London past and present. Its history, associations, and traditions. 3 vols. London 1891, vol. 1, p. 222 and vol. 2, p. 228.

7. The Amsterdam minister Jeremias Posthumus Meijjes, the son of Reinier Posthumus Meijjes, was married to Jeanne Louise Agathe Tilanus, the daughter of Christiaan Bernard Tilanus, a professor of medicine at Amsterdam University. One of the two sons Van Gogh saw must have been Christiaan Bernard, who did in fact become an architect. The other one (‘attending the gymnasium here’) could have been Reinier or Willem or even Leonard. From letter 136 it emerges that in December Reinier was undergoing training in Den Helder.

8. In 1875-1876 what was then the Kattenburgerbrug (1842) was moved to a slightly different location.

9. The Westerkerk is located in Westermarkt, between Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht.

10. Between May and November 1878, Mauve worked at Kranenburg farm near Loosduinen, where he had a studio built. It is possible that he was already working there in July 1877. See Engel 1967, p. 55. Mr van Gogh also urged Theo to visit Mauve: ‘I hope that you, too, will go and see Mauve again. I’d find that wonderful’ (FR b2541, 17 July 1877).

11. Van Gogh is referring to the neighbourhood to the west of the town centre, now known as Oud-West. Until 1862 the Leidsepoort, built in 1661-1662, closed off the Leidseplein; the barrier that replaced the gate kept the name Leidsepoort. Vondelpark was opened in 1865, reaching its present size in 1877 by means of an extension designed by L.P. Zocher.

12. Jas. 1:5.

13. Cf. 2 Cor. 7:10.

14. It is not known of which drawing Van Gogh received a photograph; the theme occurs frequently in Mauve’s work. Van Gogh would return to this subject in letter 357.

15. Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, gentleman (1856).

16. On 29 May 1877, Fletcher Harper (born in 1806) died in New York. He was the publisher and co-owner of Harper & Brothers, which published such magazines as Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and Harper’s Weekly. There is however nothing to prove Van Gogh’s assertion that ‘Harper’ had been the head of a London bookshop or that the character in the novel had been patterned after him. The reason for his assuming so is perhaps the fact that articles commemorating Harper’s life and character appeared on 16 June and 23 June 1877 in Harper’s Weekly. Moreover, Mulock Craik wrote the poem ‘In Memoriam’ (published in the Harper’s Weekly of 7 July 1877), which prompted this editorial note: ‘The following beautiful little poem was written by the author of John Halifax, gentleman, upon hearing of Mr Harper’s death ... It is a significant tribute from one of the most popular of English authors to an American publisher’. Halifax and Harper are here mentioned together. Cf. also J. Henry Harper, The house of Harper. New York 1912. Perhaps the name mentioned in the opening line of the novel was also responsible for Van Gogh’s misapprehension: ‘Get out o’ Mr Fletcher’s road, ye idle, lounging, little –’, even though this refers to Abel Fletcher, the father of the fictional character Phineas Fletcher.

17. Van Gogh’s association of John Everett Millais with John Halifax could have been prompted by the fact that the first inexpensive edition of Mulock Craik’s John Halifax contained a steel engraving after this artist. See Mitchell 1983, p. 50.

18. John Everett Millais, The parable of the lost piece of money (now Lost), a depiction based on Luke 15:9. Millais ‘adopted his series of drawings for illustrations to the Dalziel Brother’s The parables of Our Lord into one of his most dramatic paintings, The parable of the lost piece of money, which [Henry] Graves published as a fine mixed-method engraving by William Henry Simmons’, 1863 (London, British Museum). Ill 1838 . See Engen 1995, pp. 63, 122. Millais also painted A widow’s mite, 1870 (Birmingham, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery), but the etching made after it by Charles Albert Waltner dates from 1880 and could therefore not be the one referred to here.

19. John Everett Millais, Chill October, 1870 (private collection). Ill. 1839 . Van Gogh could have seen the painting on 24 April 1875 at the Samuel Mendel sale at Christie’s in London. See exhib. cat. Nottingham 1974, p. 19; exhib. cat. London 1992, p. 136, cat. no. 75.