Views taken at Hamburg, Hannover, Göttingen, Goslar, Elbingerode, Halle, Prague, Leopoldsberg, Laibach, Venice, Pontecentino, Perugia, Foligno, Otricoli, Civita Castellana, Rome, Terracina, Vesuvius, Naples, Civita Vecchia, Marseilles, Folkestone, Chalon sur Saone, Boulogne, Neuilly, Paris and Antwerp. A fine album of continental and English views by Burchell, the explorer and naturalist, which post date his travels in Africa (1810-15) and Brazil (1825-30) for which he is best known.

He produced hundreds of drawings in St Helena, Africa and Brazil, the majority, along with his sketches in England, Wales and on the continent, now in the MuseumAfrica, Johannesburg, for which see R.F. Kennedy (ed.), Catalogue of Pictures in the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, 1971, VI, (Supplement: A-G), pp. 42-130 ('His drawings of English and European subjects and those of Brazil are included in this catalogue because Burchell's work in South Africa was so important that everything relating to his life, work, and travels should be included in an Africana collection.'). There is just one sheet in Johannesburg from his tours represented here, a Tivoli subject, Kennedy B2359). 'For Burchell, as for Humboldt, the art of visual representation - especially the depiction of landscape - was a vital tool of scientific description. At the age of fifteen, Burchell received instruction in landscape drawing from Merigot, a French artist settled in England. His knowledge of perspective had been acquired from John Claude Nattes, a master in topographical drawing and watercolour painting. ... In accordance with an influential strand of contemporary opinion in Britain, Burchell suggested that the travelling artist should adopt a more disciplined approach than the artist who regarded nature "as the medium through which he may display his art, and afford amusement" and, instead, consider his "art the means of exhibiting nature, and of conveying information." ' (L. Martins and F. Driver, ' "The Struggle for Luxuriance": William Burchell Collects Tropical Nature', in L. Martins and F. Driver (eds), Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire, Chicago and London, 2005, pp.66-8)