LETTER I.

JOURNEY from LONDON to MADRID.

LEFT LONDON, in company with two other gentlemen, on Saturday the 10th of May, 1760, fet fail from FALMOUTH on the 20th, and arrived at CORUNNA on the 26th of the fame month.

as you

THE harbour of CORUNNA prefents you with a fine prospect fail into it; on your right are The Tower of HERCULES, the fort, and the town; before you the shipping; all terminated by an agreeable view of the country: On your left you fee CAPE PRIOR, the entrance of FERROLL, and a ridge of barren mountains, with a large river running between them. CORUNNA is well built and populous, but, like moft other Spanish towns, has an offenfive fmell. Their method of keeping the tiles faft, on the roofs of houfes, is by laying loofe flones upon them. The Spaniards, to my great mortification, have quitted that old drefs, which looks fo well on our English ftage: The men wear a great flapped hat, a cloke reaching down to their feet, and a sword, generally carried under the arm: The women wear a short jacket of one colour, a petticoat of another, and either a white or black woolen veil. We stayed at CORUNNA a whole week, because we could not procure a vehicle to convey us to MADRID, nearer than from MADRID itfelf: Nor could we travel on the freight road to ASTORGA by any other convenient method, than riding on mules or horfes, for we rejected the litter, as difagreeable and fatiguing, and no other carriage could pafs the mountains that way: We wrote therefore to MADRID for a coach to meet us at ASTORGA, which is about 150 miles from CORUNNA.

B

THE

THE Spaniards call the Tower of HERCULES by a wrong name: It is amazing, when the infcription still remains as an evidence, that it was the Tower of MARS, that they should be fo perverfe as to give it to HERCULES. The words are:

MARTI. AVG.

SACR.

C. SEVIUS. LV P V S.

ARCHITECTVS.

A. F. DANIENSIS.
LVSITAN V S. EX V L.

It is very plain, that the Romans intended this for a watch-house, or fpeculum, and the Spaniards use it as a light-house now.

THE poorer fort, both men and women, at CORUNNA, wear neither shoes nor ftockings. We lodged at the best inn; but all inns throughout SPAIN afford miserable accommodations: It was kept by an Irishman named OBRIEN. We were well entertained by the Spanish Governor DoN LOUIS DE CORDOUVA, and the English conful Mr. JORDAN. The town is pretty, and supplied with water by an aqueduct. Our route from CORUNNA to AsTORGA and MADRID was as follows:

3

Leagues 29

4

From ASTORGA to BANEZA,

TO LA VENTA,

TO BENEVENTE,
TO VILLALPANDO,

TO VILLAPRAIS,

TO VEJA,

3

Leagues, 46

TOMEDINA DEL CAMPO,}Tenth day,

TO ARTIQUENES,

TO OVEJA,

TO LABAJOS,

TO ESPINAL,

TO GUADARAMA,

TO LAS ROSAS,
TO MADRID,

Eleventh day,

}Twelfth day,
}Thirteenth day,

Leagues 102

THE extent of this ROUTE is called 450 miles; but their computation by leagues is very uncertain, like the miles in CORNWALL, gueffed at from one town to another. The only way to know the true diftance in SPAIN is by your watch. The Spanish league is computed equal to about three miles and three quarters English.

We set out from CORUNNA the 3d of June, being honoured with a discharge of guns from the packets in the harbour. You muft carry your provifions and bedding with you in SPAIN, as you are not fure of finding them in all places. We feldom met with any thing to eat upon the road, or a bed fit to lie upon. After having paffed the fertile mountains of GALLICIA, and the barren rocks of LEON, we came to ASTORGA the 8th of June. B 2 Here

Here we refted till the 11th, and then fat out in a clumfy coach, drawn by fix mules, with ropes inftead of traces: This furprifed me at first, but I found afterwards, that the grandees, and people of rank in MADRID, ufe ropes conftantly at the Prado and Promenade, places of airing fomewhat refembling the old ring in Hyde Park.

AFTER paffing over the immenfe plains of OLD and NEW CASTILE, which feem more like feas than plains, we arrived at MADRID the 18th of June, being the 7th day from our leaving ASTORGA. Though we travelled fo long a tract of country, we faw few cities or towns, that were confiderable for their extent, ftrength, riches, manufactures, or inhabitants. VILLA FRANCA in LEON is extremely beautiful, and ftands high; PONFERRADA neat, anciently called intra fluvios, because it was between the rivers SIL and BOEGA, afterwards ftiled Pons Ferratus, from its bridge on the hard rock. MEDINO DEL CAMPO in CASTILE is an agreeable fituation; there is a large fquare in the middle of it, and fome of the nobility refide there.

LUGO in GALLICIA is a remarkable ancient city, furrounded with a most fingular fortification; as near as I could judge, a fquare; and at the distance of about every twenty feet a circular bafion of thick and lofty walls: The city fortified on every fide in the fame manner, having rather a tremendous appearance, and. must have been extremely ftrong, before the ufe of that villainous. faltpetre, as SHAKESPEARE calls it. It ftands near the fource of the MINHO; the turnips here are faid to be fo large, as to weigh fifty pounds each: But who can believe it? Its ancient name was Lucus Augufti, and thence corruptly called LUGO.

THE city of ASTORGA in LEON is fituated in a wide plain; the most remarkable thing in it is the Cathedral, which is a noble Gothic building; a bafilica, confifting of fix pointed arches, fupported by tall, light, neat pillars, in a good tafte; the portal a large round arch, with a vaft number of mouldings; there are foven or eight fine altars, but the High Altar is exceedingly magnificent;

nificent; it confifts of twenty compartments of marble-fculp-
ture in alto relievo, the figures as large as life; the fubject the hif-
tory of our SAVIOUR; at the fummit GOD the Father crowning
the Bleffed Virgin. The glary is well expreffed; for being cut
through the frame, and a lamp placed behind it, the light
fhews the rays.
We happened to attend at the Vefpers; the
mufic of the organ was fine; the number of tapers, the rich-
nefs of altars, in fhort, the whole fcene was ftriking. This city
gives the title of Marquis to the family of Oforio, inferior to
few, either for antiquity or valour.

BENEVENTE in LEON is encompaffed by three rivers, and remarkable for little more than giving the title of Earl to the faVILLALPANDO is in a pleafing plain, has a mily of PIMENTEL. large fquare, and contains a palace of the Conftable of Caftile, to whom the town belongs. The only river we paffed of note was a branch of the MINHO; a noble current, almost as broad as the Thames at Windfor, and to appearance deep; finely wooded on each fide, the trees larger and taller than you ufually meet with in SPAIN. The place where we paffed it was called HOSPITAL DE Efchemofo.

THE forks nefts upon the tops of the churches, with the birds. hovering over them, or just peeping out, are pleafing as you pass. It was fo in old ROME: The ftorks built their nefts in great numbers on the fummits of their temples, as their poets often tell us. -Thus JUVENAL fays of the Temple of Concord:

Quæque falutato crepitat Concordia nido.

It was cruel to kill fuch focial birds as thefe; and yet we find by HORACE, that the Epicures of his times could not keep their knives from them; though it was an abfolute violation of hofpitality. Speaking of the luxurious dishes of thofe days, he fays, their ancestors never eat turbots nor ftorks:

Tutus erat rhombus, tutoque ciconia nido. This bird is often mentioned in Scripture. In the Pfalms,---The fir-trees are a dwelling for the fork: And in JOB, Who giveth the

fork

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