Diary of an un-named visitor to Germany between 1 February and 1 May 1888, with notes of a later trip to Paris 2 to 8 August [1889] after an unrecorded interval of over a year. The majority of entries for Germany are dated between 1 February and mid-April 1888, during the writer's time in Berlin; they continue for a further three weeks as he travels to Braunschweig and Magdeburg. There is no conclusive evidence of the writer's gender but it is more likely to have been a man.
There are detailed descriptions of the writer's day to day experiences, with personal impressions of buildings, scenery and the people he meets. The early entries include several references to health, giving some suggestion that that the writer might recently have been ill. Music and education are running themes through the German entries. There are almost daily visits to concerts, trips to the opera and references to musicians amongst the people he meets, including Josef Hofmann (1876-1957), and his sister Wanda, and mention of attending lectures, and giving classes in French at the school which is the home of his hosts. His notes provide a perspective on what was being discussed in Berlin at the time, including the Crown Prince's ill health and funeral, and the possibility of war. There is a change in style with the Paris entries which have more the flavour of a sightseeing tour.
The diary is written in English with intermittent German words and phrases. The inside cover pages are annotated with English names and addresses, French and German names and titles.