Autograph letter signed : Utrecht, to The Duke of Leeds, 1708 August 24.

Explaining that he could not write the previous week because he was traveling with his two charges and their sisters, Mary and Bridget; telling the Duke that they visited three stately homes in the province of Gelderland, the Het Loo Palace, De Voorst, and the Castle Rosendael; describing the connections between the first two houses and England: "Yr. Grace knows the first did Belong to King William (It is at present in dispute betwixt the King of Prussia & the Prince of Frizeland, & that dispute will not be determined till the war is at an end) the Second (that is Vurst [Voorst]) is the Earle of Albemarle's, & was built (as every body knows) at King Williams charges"; praising the house and gardens of the first two seats, and dismissing the third: "the Last is an Old Kind of Castle, the Gardens whimsical, & the water works nothing but Babbles fit for Children only"; noting that, to see the houses, they have made a trip of over a hundred miles and experienced some "unpleasant Lodgings", but the young lords and ladies "Performed it Chearfully enough", they are all in good health, and they are curious to hear about their grandfather's journey to Yorkshire; writing that "The Eyes of all Europ are attentive upon the Siege of Lisle [Lille], where the trenches were opened the 10 / 21 Instant"; describing the French troops at Lille, under the command of "a Mareschal de France" (the Chevalier Boufflers); writing that Prince Eugene intends to take the town within sixteen days; predicting that "If the Marshal does not defend it better then he did Namur, we may expect to take it soon, notwithstanding the threatnings of the Duke of Burgundy."