[Sketchbook recording a tour in central and southern France, with a few British views] [art original].

An album of sketches largely comprised of images drawn by a traveller in central and southern France in the late 1820s and early 1830s. The images, executed in a variety of media and styles, are mostly skillfully drawn landscapes, elevations of buildings, and people in local costume, with captions in French (with some English), many of which show scenes in the Bagnères-de-Bigorre (September-October 1828) in southwestern France as well as scenes in Pau (1827), Saint-Étienne (1828), Peyrehorade (1828), Nimes (1828), Bayonne (June 1828), Toulouse (May 1829), Montpellier (June 1829), Bordeaux (August 1830), and Royan (1831). The picturesque views include: a shepherd on stilts ('berger des Landes'); a couple on a cacolet at Bayonne; a rear view of a farmer sitting on a wall; a view of a chateau near Toulouse silhouetted against the red night sky, and another of the Tour des Pins at Montpellier glowing in the dark. Several drawings demonstrate an interest in architecture and antiquities: there are detailed, very skilled architectural drawings of the Thermes de Marie Thérèse at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, and Latin inscriptions copied from Roman monuments. Landscape drawings include a tall chestnut tree at the convent of Notre-Dame de Médoux and Narcissa's tomb at Montpellier (with a quote from Young's Night Thoughts). The album also includes five British scenes by another artist: the Tower of Refuge, Isle of Man; Netley Castle in Hampshire England; Carisbrooke Castle, Isle of Wight; the ancient well at Wavertree and Prince Rupert's headquarters, Everton, both near Liverpool (these last two signed 'Alex Aikin').