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279 the scenery, which was new and striking. We dined at Valdestillas, a mean little town, and in the evening reached Valladolid, where bigotry may be said to have established its headquarters. The gate of the city, which is of modern construction, consists of three arches of equal span, and that very narrow; the centre of these is elevated with a tribune, and upon that is placed a pedestrian statue of Carlos III. This gate delivers you into a spacious square, surrounded by convents and churches, and passing this, which offers nothing attractive to delay you, you enter the old gate of the city, newly painted in bad fresco, and ornamented with an equestrian statue of the reigning king with a Latin inscription, very just to his virtues, but very little to the honor of the writer of it. You now find yourself in one of the most gloomy, desolate and dirty towns, that can be conceived, the great square much resembling that of the Plazamayor in Madrid, the houses painted in grotesque fresco, despicably executed, and the whole in miserable condition. I was informed that the convents amount to between thirty and forty. There is both an English and a Scottish college; the former under the government of Doctor Shepherd, a man of very agreeable, cheerful, natural manners; I became acquainted with him at Madrid through the introduction of my friend Doctor Geddes, late Principal of the latter college, but since Bishop of Mancecos, Missionary and Vicar General at Aberdeen. I had an introductory letter to the Intendant, but my stay was too short to avail myself of it; and I visited no church but the great cathedral of the Benedictines, where mass was celebrating, and the altars and whole edifice were arrayed in all their splendor. The fathers were extremely polite, and allowed me to enter the sacristy, where I saw some valuable old paintings of the early Spanish masters, some of a later date, and a series of Benedictine Saints, who, if they are not the most rigid, are indisputably the richest, order of Religious in Spain.

Our next day's journey advanced us only six short leagues, and set us down in the ruinous town of Duenas, which, like Olmedo, is surrounded by a Moorish fortification, the gate of which is entire. The Calasseros, obstinate as their mules, accord to you in nothing, but in admitting indiscriminately a load of baggage, that would almost revolt a wagon, and this is indispensible, as you must carry beds, provisions, cooking vessels, and every article for rest and sustenance, not excepting bread, for in this country an inn means a hovel, in which you may light a fire, if you can defend your right to it, and find a dunghill called a bed, if you can submit to lie down in it.

Our sixth day's stage brought us to the banks of the Douro,

which we skirted and kept in sight during the whole day from Duenas through Torrequemara to Villa Rodrigo. The stonebridge at Torrequemara is a noble edifice of eight and twenty arches. The windings of this beautiful river and its rocky banks, of which one side is always very steep, are romantic, and present fine shapes of nature, to which nothing is wanting but trees, and they not always. The vale through which it flows, inclosed within these rocky cliffs, is luxuriant in corn and wine; the soil in general of a fine loam mixed with gravel, and the fallows remarkably clean; they deposit their wine in caves hollowed out of the rocks. In the mean time, it is to the bounty of nature rather than to the care and industry of man, that the inhabitant, squalid and loathsome in his person, is beholden for that produce, which invites exertions that he never makes, and points to comforts that he never tastes. In the midst of all these scenes of plenty you encounter human misery in its worst attire, and ruined villages amongst luxuriant vineyards. Such a bountiful provider is God, and so improvident a steward is his vicegerent in this realm.

It should seem, that in this valley, on the banks of the fertilizing Douro, would be the proper site for the capital of Spain; whereas, Madrid is seated on a barren soil, beside a meagre stream, which scarce suffices to supply the washer-women, who make their troughs in the shallow current, which only has the appearance of a river when the snow melts upon the mountains, and turns the petty Manzanares, that just trickles through the sand, into a roaring and impetuous torrent. Of the environs of Madrid I have already spoken, and the climate on the northern side of the Guadaramas is of a much superior and more salubrious quality, being not so subject to the dangerous extremes of heat and cold, and much oftener refreshed with showers, the great desideratum, for which the monks of Madrid so frequently importune their poor helpless saint Isidore, and make him feel their vengeance, whilst for months together the unrelenting clouds will not credit him with a single drop of rain.

Upon our road this day we purchased three lambs at the price of two pisettes (shillings) a piece, and, little as it was, we hardly could be said to have had value for our money. Our worthy Marchetti, being an excellent engineer, roasted them whole, with surprising expedition and address, in a kitchen and at a fire, which would have puzzled all the resources of a French cook, and which no English scullion would have approached in her very worst apparel. A crew of Catalunian carriers at Torrequemara disputed our exclusive title to the fire, and with their

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arroz a la Valenciana, would soon have ruined our roast, if our gallant proveedór had not put aside his capa, and displayed his two epaulets, to which military insignia the sturdy interlopers instantly deferred.

There is excellent morality to be learned in a journey of this sort. A supper at Valla Rodrigo is a better corrective for fastidiousness and false delicacy than all that Seneca and Epictetus can administer, and if a traveller in Spain will carry justice and fortitude about him, the Calasseros will teach him patience, and the Posadas will enure him to temperance; having these four cardinal virtues in possession, he has the whole; all Tully's offices can't find a fifth.

On the seventh day of our travel we kept the pleasant Douro still in sight. Surely this river plays his natural sovereign a slippery trick; rises in Galicia, is nourished and maintained in his course through Spain, and as soon as he is become mature in depth and size for trade and navigation, deserts and throws himself into the service of Portugal. This is the case with the Tagus also: this river affords the Catholic King a little angling for small fry at Aranjuez, and at Lisbon becomes a magnificent harbor to give wealth and splendor to a kingdom. The Oporto wines, that grow upon the banks of the Douro in its renegado course, find a ready and most profitable vent in England, whilst the vineyards of Castile languish from want of a purchaser, and in some years are absolutely cast away, as not paying for the labor of making them into wine.

The city and castle of Burgos are well situated on the banks of the river Relancon. Two fine stone bridges are thrown over that stream, and several plantations of young trees line the roads as you approach it. The country is well watered, and the heights furnish excellent pasture for sheep, being of a light downy soil. The cathedral church of Burgos deserves the notice and admiration of every traveller, and it was with sincere regret I found myself at leisure to devote no more than one hour to an edifice that requires a day to examine it within side and without. It is of that order of Gothic which is most profusely ornamented and enriched; the towers are crowned with spires of pierced stone-work, raised upon arches, and laced all through with openwork like filigree: the windows and doors are embellished with innumerable figures, admirably carved in stone, and in perfect preservation; the dome over the nave is superb, and behind the grand altar there is a spacious and beautiful chapel, erected by a Duke of Frejas, who lies entombed with his duchess, with a stately monument recumbent with their heads resting upon cushions, in their robes and coronets, well sculptured in

most exquisite marble of the purest white. The bass-reliefs at the back of the grand altar, representing passages in the life and actions of our Saviour, are wonderful samples of sculpture, and the carrying of the cross in particular is expressed with all the delicacy of Raphael's famous Pasma de Sicilia. The stalls of the choir in brown oak are finely executed, and exhibit an innumerable group of figures: whilst the seats are ludicrously inlaid with grotesque representations of fauns and satyrs, unaccountably contrasted with the sacred history of the carved work that incloses them. The altars, chapels, sacristy and cloisters are equally to be admired, nor are there wanting some fine paintings, though not profusely bestowed. The priests conducted me through every part of the cathedral with the kindest attention and politeness, though mass was then in high celebration.

When I was on my departure, and my carriages were in waiting, a parcel of British seamen, who had been prisoners of war, most importunately besought me that I would ask their liberation of the Bishop of Burgos, and allow them to make their way out of the country under my protection. This good bishop, in his zeal for making converts, had taken these fellows upon their word into his list of pensioners, as true proselytes, and allowed them to establish themselves in various occupations and callings, which they now professed themselves most heartily disposed to abandon, and doubted not but I should find him as willing to release them, as they were to be set free. Though I gave little credit to their assertions, I did not refuse to make the experiment, and wrote to the bishop in their behalf, promising to obtain the release of the like number of Spanish prisoners if he would allow me to take these men away with me. To my great surprise, I instantly received his free consent and permit under his hand and seal to dispose of them as I saw fit. This I accordingly did, and by occasional reliefs upon the braces of my carriages marched my party of renegadoes entire into Bayonne, where I got leave, upon certain conditions, to embark them on board a neutral ship bound to Lisbon, and consigned them to Commodore Johnstone, or the commanding officer for the time being, to be put on board, and exchanged for the like number of Spanish prisoners, which accordingly was done with the exception of one or two, who turned aside by the way. I have reason to believe the good bishop was thoroughly sick of his converts, and I encountered no opposition from the ladies, whom two or three of them had taken to wife.

We pursued our eighth day's journey over a deep rich soil,

with mountains in sight covered with snow, which had fallen two days before. There was now a scene of more wood, and the face of the country much resembled parts of England. We advanced but seven leagues, the river Belancon accompanying us for the last three, where our road was cut out of the side of a steep cliff, very narrow, and so ill defended, that in many places the precipice, considering the mode in which the Spanish Calasseros drive, was seriously alarming. The wild woman of San Andero, who nursed my infant, during this day's journey was at high words with the witches, who twice pulled off her redecilla, and otherwise annoyed her in a very provoking manner till we arrived at Breviesca, a tolerable good Spanish town, where they allowed her to repose, and we heard no more of them.

From Breviesca we travelled through a fine picturesque country, of a rich soil, to Pancorvo, at the foot of a steep range of rocky mountains, and passing through a most romantic fissure in the rock, a work of great art and labor, we reached the river Ebro, which forms the boundary of Old Castile. Upon this river stands the town of Miranda, which is approached over a new bridge of seven stone arches, and we lodged ourselves for the night in the posada at the foot of it: a house of the worst reception we had met in Spain, which is giving it as ill a name as I can well bestow upon any house whatever.

A short stage brought us from Breviesca to the town of Vittoria, the capital of Alaba, which is one portion of the delightful province of Biscay. We were now for the first time lodged. with some degree of comfort. We showed our passport at the custom-house, and the administrator of the post-office having desired to have immediate notice of our arrival, I requested my friend Marchetti to go to him, and in the mean time poor Smith passed a very anxious interval of suspense, fearing that he might be stopped by order of government in this place (a suspicion I confess not out of the range of probabilities), but it proved to be only a punctilio of the subminister Campo, who had written to this gentleman to be particular in his attentions to us, inclosing his card, as if in person present to take leave; this mark of politeness on his part produced a present from the administrator of some fine asparagus, and excellent sweetmeats, the produce of the country, with the further favor of a visit from the donor, a gentleman of great good manners and much respectability.

The Marquis Legarda, Governor of Vittoria, to whom I had a letter from Count D'Yranda, the Marquis D'Allamada, and other gentlemen of the place, did us the honor to visit us, and