. 
1808.) 
— Teagties, that seeing we should be be- 
Highted if we attempted to reach’ the 
next station, we agreed to remain where 
we were; and we found ourselves far 
letter received and entertained in the 
humble wenta, or inn, than had some- 
times been the case in others of more 
promising appearance. : 
Truetcha lies within the vast domains 
of the Duke of Medina-Celi, whose de- 
serted family castle is to be seen on a 
-hill to the south-west. | Notwithstanding 
the neglected state in which Jay many 
parts of this duchy, a great revenue was 
raised to the proprietor, who, in ‘some 
measure to atone for his continual ab- 
sence from his vassals, © distributed 
amongst them very considerable sums 
~ in charity and other useful and benevo- 
lent channels. 
As far back as in the days of Charles 
the Vth. in the beginning of the 16th 
century, his historiographer, Marinzeus 
Siculus, estimated the revenue of’ the 
Duke of Medina Celt at thirty thousand 
ducats, or crowns. As this estate was 
only the eighth in rank from the Duke ot 
Frias, constable of Castille, whose re- 
venue was valued at sixty thousand 
ducats, some idea may be formed of the 
prodigious wealth of the Spanish gran- 
dees of those days. FA : 
“Leaving our little inn on the morning 
of the 2nd of November, we travelled to 
a village called Alcolea del ‘Pinar, dis- 
tant no less than fourteen leagues, so 
that it was very late before we arrived. 
The road Jeads over a continuation of the’ 
same uneven hilly country, generally 
covered with forest, but in some parts 
cultivated, although very thinly inha- 
bited. 
‘Alcolea the people imagine'to be the 
most elevated village in Spain: ‘that itis 
very elevated is unquestionable: for 
from the” Ebro hitherto, ‘a stretch of 100 
‘miles, it is upon the whole a sensible as- 
cent, and in the neighbourhood is ‘the 
tract of country which gives ‘vise to the 
Tagus flowing to the Atlantic’ below 
Lisbon, to the Xalon falling into the 
- Ebro above Saragossa, and to the Xucar, 
which discharges itself into the Medi- 
terranean to the southward of Valencia, 
The epiihet Pinar, attached to this vil- 
lave, refers to the vast forests of pine 
aud other trees, which cover the 'sur- 
rounding hills; for there are many Al- 
goleas, aterm of uncertain meaning, ‘ins 
troduced by the Moors, who long kept 
oo of this part of Spain, and who 
ay ; 
3 
de 
Account of recent Travels in Spain. 
413 
in the names of towns, rivers, &c. have 
left very evident marks of their absolute 
possession of the country.’ The castle of 
Medina Celi furnishes’ another proof of 
the dominion of tlie Moors, for Medina 
isa common Saracen or Arabic word, 
signifying a town or city, and in this 
sense occurs in other parts’ of Spain, as 
at Medina Sidonia, &c. and’ the old ca- 
pital of Malta, in the centre of the is- 
land, called by the Italians CitraWecchia, 
is known to the genuine inhabitants by 
the generic name of Medina, or The City, 
pronounced like mdina, the e being very 
little sounded. 
The progress of the Sd was from Al- 
colea to Algora, four leagues right across 
a succession of ridges and intervening 
vallies, in general waste lands, excepting 
inthe bottoms; but the country is des- 
titute of trees, and thinly peopled.’ From’ 
this village to the Venta del Purral, where 
we Slept, a course of three leagues crosses 
a tract of country still very elevated, but 
less uneven than that traversed in th 
morning, ; 
The Venta is placed on the east brink- 
of avery deep ravine, or narrow valley, 
with steep sides, but the bottom is well 
peopled and cultivated, and watered by 
a small river. . 
On the 4th, we advanced four leagues 
to, Torrija, a place, if we are to judge 
from the remains of its castle and walls, 
formerly of much importance, but now 
greatly reduced. On leaving this town 
we descended from the lofty plains down 
asteep bank to ‘gain the valley of the 
river Henares on thé west, which we fol- 
lowed for nearly three leagues, and then 
turned up a short way to the south-east, 
and arrived for the day ‘at Guadalajara. 
The valley or véea of the Henares is 
extremely agreeable, especially to one 
descending from the wilds to the north- 
ward: the bottom producing large sup- 
plies of corn and wine: while the hills 
that spring up abruptly on each side are 
richly clothed with olives, ‘The Henares, 
a considerable stream rising in the moun~ 
tains, some forty or fifty miles to the 
northward, after watering thisgvale and’ 
the plains of Alcala, receives some tribu- 
tary waters, and at last is lost in the 
Tagus néar Aranjuez.‘ 
Guadalajara is a bishop’s see, and a 
considerable town,- containing sixteen 
thousand inhabitants, but chiefly notice. 
able on account of the great royal manu- 
factory of broad cloth. The work=people 
have sgnietimes been upwards’ of fone 
3 thousand 
/ 
