1. In this week, on 25 December 1882, Mr van Gogh wrote to Theo: ‘It is a better Christmas for us this year than last, with that sad business with V. But we are getting good letters from him and always full of satisfaction with his work’ (FR b2238).

2. Given the other Daumier engravings Van Gogh acquired from De Hollandsche Illustratie and a print after Jacque mentioned elsewhere, in this case two prints are possible candidates, namely, Reizigers met een pleiziertrein (On a day out by train), in De Hollandsche Illustratie 2 (1865-1866), no. 21, p. 168; and Met den pleiziertrein – Te laat! (On a day out by train – Too late!), in De Hollandsche Illustratie 2 (1865-1866), no. 4, p. 32. Both are in the estate. Ill. 57 and Ill. 2023 . (t* 1056 and t*15). Het eerste april-gras (The first grass in April) after Jacque was on the same page as Reizigers met een pleiziertrein; above Met den pleiziertrein was De vier leeftijden van den drinker (The four ages of the drinker). For these prints, see letter 267, n. 32 and 33.

3. Henry Monnier’s Croquis à la plume (1858) consists of 28 dramatised conversations. The story ‘Un voyage en diligence’ is set ‘in the offices and in the interior of the diligence. Parents, friends, acquaintances, porters, messenger boys and idlers throng about the travellers. The horses are harnessed’ (dans les bureaux et dans l’intérieur de la diligence. Les parents, les amis, les conaissances, les portiers, les commissionaires et les oisifs se pressent autour des voyageurs. Les chevaux sont à la voiture). Ed. Brussels 1858, pp. 5-98 (quotation on p. 5).