1. Van Gogh was in the Borinage from some time around the beginning of December 1878 to around early October 1880 (see letters 149-158).

2. Van Gogh added this remark in brackets later.

a. Means: ‘onderdak’ (roof).

3. See for this walk to Courrières: letter 158.

4. By then Van Gogh had been in Drenthe for 17 days.

5. In The Hague Van Gogh had seen a map on which Hoogeveen was shown as a town. See letter 378.

6. This must have been the funeral of Alberdina Slot, on Friday, 28 September 1883. See Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 101-102, 124-125.

7. A photograph of Wolter Alberts Kok, a serving minister at the time, shows him wearing the characteristic garb that Van Gogh describes. He was to wear this eighteenth-century regalia, the official dress of the strict orthodox school, for 43 years. Ill. 2117 . See Dijk and Van der Sluis 2001, pp. 101-102, 124-125, and Honderduit. Een eeuw gereformeerde kerk in Hoogeveen. Lambert ter Haar et al. Hoogeveen 2000, pp. 171, 183 ff.

8. Van Gogh had stored his things in the attic of the house where he had been living in The Hague; see letter 382. A great deal of it is unknown.