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that his other pursuits should have circumfcribed it within fuch narrow limits,-obliging him to pass over, almoft in filence, feveral of the chief objects of attention. Nor let any one detract from this praife, by fuggefting that it would be difficult to defcribe a journey through fuch countries as Spain and Italy, without affording amusement and information. This difficulty has been often furmounted, like other obftacles in the way of the adventurous traveller. Mr Lemaitre and Mr William Hunter made no more of it than they would of a steep hill or a rough ferry; and even Mr Kotzebue contrived to get almost entirely the better of it, although in his cafe the effort must have been far more painful.

Mr Semple's passage to Lisbon, and his residence there, afforded few occurrences worthy of attention. About the middle of July 1805, he set off for Madrid, by the way of Badajos, travelling post; that is to say, riding almost day and night on posthorses, which are changed at each stage. As the manner of travelling, and the accommodation at the inns, were almost the only subjects which a journey of this sort could introduce to our author, we have a very accurate and lively account of them. The following description of a Portuguese venta, or inn, may satisfy our readers probably better than if they had tried the reality. It appears, however, to be a favourable specimen of the accommodation in that country, and, as we shall presently see, far superior to any thing which the neighbouring kingdom has to boast of.

It was ten o'clock before we could leave Arrayolos, and the fun began already to be very hot. We defcended the hill, and, after riding a few miles, the country affumed a different aspect from what we had yet feen; the mountains rifing in a rounder form, and beginning to be covered with trees to their fummits. It was paft mid-day before we reached La Venta del Duque, a diftance of three leagues. We found it to be a fingle houfe, without a village or hamlet near it, and upwards of a mile from the post-house, which also stood alone on the top of a hill. As the heat, however, was now exceffive, without the fmalleft breeze, we determined to remain a few hours, and accordingly entered the house, which I will describe. A fingle room or hall occupied all the lower part, unfloored, and ferving as a retreat both to the family and their poultry, which were perched all round. At one end a feat was built along the wall, and, correfponding to it, a low table like that which hermits are reprefented as ufing, but formed of bricks and mortar instead of turf. On the oppofite tide of this immoveable table, great pieces of cork fupplied the place of stools, which, when we tried to lift them, furprized us by their lightness. On a large open fireplace flood two or three fall narrow-necked earthen jars, which formed the whole kitchen apparatus, and this completes the furniture of the

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lower room. The space above ftairs was divided into feveral apartments, furnished with mats, and one or two mattreffes for ftrangers to fleep on; and one room locked up contained the wealth of the family. Having fignified our wifh to eat, two fowls were inftantly killed, ftripped, cut into pieces, and put into one of the narrow-necked jars with a little water and other ingredients. The jar was then placed on the hearth, and hot embers fwept round the bottom of it; and this was the whole procefs of cooking. Meantime we lay down to fleen, and, when called to our meal, found all the riches of the houfe difplayed. Our table was fpread with a clean napkin, two earthen plates, one filver and fome wooden spoons, and a pitcher of tolerable wine. Hunger made us, pehaps, efteem the Portuguefe cookery more highly than we might otherwife have done; for we finifhed the contents of our jar, and agreed in calling them excellent. The heat of the day being paft, we prepared to mount our horfes, and, greatly exhilarated by a comfortable meal, and a draught of wine, where we had expected to find little or nothing, purfued our journey towards Eftremoz. Vol. I. p. 27-30.

Upon arriving at Madrid, our traveller orders his postiliion to stop at the hotel called La Cruz de Malta; and remarks, somewhat affectedly, Each of my travelling companions has houses and friends to repair to; but I am a stranger, and alone, and I go to La Cruz de Malta:' which is certainly a pathetic consideration, and yet we own it does not very deeply move us. At Madrid he remained several weeks, and mide excursions into the neighbourhood, for the purpose of visiting Toledo, St Ildefonso, the Escurial, &c. is descriptions Doth of the capital, and of those interesting spots, are extremely good; but we shall content ourselves with extracting his account of the Prado, which cannot fail to strike the reader as given in a sufficiently picturesque man

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The prado is ad mirable in all its parts, being a broad walk, adorned with handiome fountains, and divided into avenues by rows of trees; it bounds the whole of one five of the town, being termipated at each end by one of the gates of the city. The streets leading down to it are the broadeft and fineft in Madrid, and or the oppofite fide are the gardens, pleafure-grounds, and palace of the Retiro, worthy of the refidence of a prince, although at prefent only ufed by the King as a fhooting ground during his ftay at Madrid. The fountains of the prado are in general formed after antique models, and the water of one of them is the pureft in the whole city, and the only kind of which the prefent king drinks, water being his fole beverage. One very broad walk a dorned with thefe fountains, is thronged every fine evening with the best company; and on Sundays, the king, queen and royal family, ride up and down the carriage road, and falute the people conftantly as they pafs. It is on the prado that the ftranger may ftudy with advantage the drefs, the air, and the gait of the Spaniards; for then all pafs in review before him, from the prince to the beggar. The nobleman alights

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from his carriage, and faunters among the throng, feemingly carelefs about his fine drefs, and the ornaments at his button-hole, although nobody glances at them fo often as himself; the citizen dreffes in the mode general throughout Europe thirty years ago; whilft the lower claffes that venture on the prado, ftill wear their clothes thrown over the fhoulder, and thus preferve the laft reliques of the ancient toga. All the men wear large cocked hats, and all fioke cigars; for this latter purpofe boys run up and down the prado with a kind of flow torch, which burns without flaming, and ferves to light the cigars. In oppofition to them, water carriers, with their porous, earthen vafes and goblets, vend the cool water of the neighbouring fountains; and the various cries of fire, tire, and fresh water, water, are heard above the buzz of the mingled crowd. But the women principally attract the eyes of the itranger. Their fimple and elegant drefs, their veils, which ferve any purpose but that of concealing their faces, the freedom of their walk, and their looks attractive, but not immodeft, tend to make an Englishman forget for a moment that they are greatly inferior in point of real beauty to the women of his own country.

There is one custom which pleafed me much, and which no where produces fo ftriking an effect as on the prado. Exactly at funfet, the bells of the churches and convents give the fignal for repeating the evening prayer to the Virgin. In an intant the bufy multitude is hufhed and arrested, as if by magic. The carriages flop, the women veil their faces with their fans, the men take off their hats, and all breathe out, or are fuppofed to breathe, a fhort prayer to the protecting Power which has brought them to the clofe of another day. After a fhort, a folemn, and not an unpleafing paufe, the men bow and put on their hats, the women uncover their faces, the carriages drive on, and the whole crowd is again in motion as before. This is one of the few Catholic cuftoms which appears to partake of piety without fuperftition, and divested of altars, candlesticks, tapers and images.' I. p. 59—62.

Mr Semple left Madrid on the 22d of October, on his way to Cadiz and Gibraltar. Having heard before his departure, that positive orders had arrived for the combined fleets to sail and attack the English squadron, he was exceedingly anxious to see the battle, or, at any rate, to learn the event of it; and he performed the journey as before, on post-horses. The following short extract gives a fair description of a Spanish inn.

We reached Ocana, à village on the top of a steep hill, two leagues from Aranjuez. It being now quite dark, and the ftorm continuing, I determined to remain here till day-break. As I had formed no expectations, I was not chagrined to find fo few comforts in a Spanish inn. Although drenched to the fkin, fo that even my boots were filled with water, here was no cheerful fire, no clean room, no ready attendant. On each tide of a large fire place, fat an old woman and her daughter cowring over two or three fmoky bundles of wet brushwood; a chair, a table, and a finall glimmering lamp formed the furniture; and here was

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all to which I had to look for comfort for the night. The old woman, however, received me very kindly, and fhewed me to a room, which, though alfo ored with earth like the kitchen, was better furnished, and provided with a bed. While I here changed my drefs, fhe prepared my fupper, which confifted of eggs fried in lamp oil, and, together with coarfe bread and garlick, formed a mefs which a long faft and a ride of forty miles made me relish. When I was juft ready to choke with thirst, my kind hoftefs again appeared, and fet before me a small pitcher of wire, to wash down this precious compofition. This formed my fole companion till I chofe to go to rest, when, behold an alarming circumftance, and which might make a figure in romance. On removing a mat which lay at the bed-fide, I found that it ferved to cover a hole; the entrance, as I faw by the help of my lamp, to a long dark vault. This, thought I immediately, is to anfwer two purpofes; firft, for the murderers to come unawares upon the poor fleeper, and then to caft his body into. After fome paule, I covered the bole as before, and then piled up all the chairs in the room upon it, in fuch a manner, that with the leaft motion they must have fallen; then, having bolted the door, I placed my piftols ready cocked under my pillow; and thus fecured. in fpite of daggers and pale-faced aflaffins, foon fell fat afleep. Nothing diffurbed me till the break of day, when my poftillion cailed me at the hour I had appointed. I then took an opportunity of examining this dreadful cavern; and difcovered, oh gentle reader that it was indeed no other than a large wine vault dug un derneath the house, and the roof of which, being only supported by beams of wood, had in fome places decayed and fallen in; fo groundless are often our apprehenfions.' I. 117-119.

Indeed our author, like most travellers in the Peninsula, and in Italy, is a little more apt to perceive robbers and murderers than is altogether necessary. He admits, that he only saw banditti ence in Spain; and it does not appear to us at all certain that they were so. Ascending a small läll, he perceived two men with long muskets, running up as if to gain the height before him. His guide (as is by no means uncommon) said they were robbers. Upon which our author sent the guide in before, and followed with his right hand on his pistol in the holster, and looking upon them sternly, as they stood leaning upon their long musAs very composedly, while he passed. He conceives, that by

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disposition of his force, he prevented them from shooting nd his guide; but, in our humble apprehension, these must ve been shooters of birds and not of men, ctherwise neither A. Semple's mana uvre, ner his stern lock, could have prevented them from kilang ham as soon as his back was turned, and then disposing of his guide and baggage at their leisure. He is also stricken with melancholy feelings when he sees crusses ca tie road side, conceiving them aways to signify that a murder mas fect committed on the spot. Whereas, if he had inquired of

his guide, he would have learnt, that by far the greatest part of them were erected on account of some accidental deaths having happened there, the same ceremony being performed wherever a person has died without the last rites of the church.

During the latter part of his journey through Spain, our author met different couriers proceeding to Madrid from Cadiz; and various rumours were spread about of a great naval engagement. But he was kept in suspense by the different accounts which these gave of the result. Upon his arrival at the coast, all those doubts were cleared away; and he learnt the real extent of the victory, notwithstanding a good deal of gasconade, chiefly among the inferior classes of the people. He describes, in a very interesting and striking manner, some of the effects which he witnessed of that astonishing battle,—the greatest triumph of our arms, under the greatest of all our commanders,-and purchased too dearly by his loss. We shall make no apology for transcribing part of this melancholy description. It is certainly rendered less painful by the reflection, that it paints thè necessary effects of lawful hostility; and offers to our contemplation none of the atrocities which have, on other occasions, been forced upon the valour of our troops, in the pursuit of a barbarous and unprincipled policy.

The enfuing morning, being the 29th, I found feveral boats preparing to pass over to Cadiz, and accordingly placed myself in one of them with my faddle and portmanteau. I had not been long there bofore a number of failors, fome with fmall bundles, others with nothing. on them but a pair of trowfers and a fhirt, and others with their arms or heads bound up, came leaping one after another into the boat until it was quite full, and we put off. They were French failors, whofe veffek after efcaping had been fhipwrecked on the coatt, and of eleven hundred men who composed the crew on the morning of the battle, only ninetyfour, by their own account, had ever again reached the land. Soon after leaving the little creek on which el Puerto de Santa Maria is fituated, we open the whole bay, and some of the terrible effects of the latebattle became vifible. On the north-weft fide, between el Puerto and Rota, lay a large Spanifh fhip, the San Raphael, feventy-four, broadfide upon the rocks, bilged, and the waves breaking over her. At the bottom of the bay was a large French fhip, the name of which I have forgotten, aground, but upright. In the centre towards Cadiz lay a group of battered veffels, five or fix in number, bored with cannon ihot; fome with two lower mafts flanding, others with only one and a piece of a bowfprit, and one without a fingle ftump remaining from item to ftern. "That," faid the French failors," was the fhip of the brave Magon, and on board of which he was killed.”

As the wind was contrary to our crofling over, the boat was oblig ed to make feveral tacks. In one of thefe we approached fo near the fhore, that we plainly difcerned two dead bodies which the fea had thrown up. Presently one of a number of men on horieback, who for

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