1309.) 
so combined as to give solidity, consisten- 
cy and authority to the whole. In this 
case I should recommend that one or two 
at most should be the principal labourers, 
that the rest should be contributors, revi- 
sers or correctors; thata certain portion, 
when prepared, should be revised ata 
stated period by the society, once, twice, 
or oftener, as might be found necessary, 
and that nothing be admitted for the pub- 
lication unsanctioned hy the majority. 
As this is at present but a general pro- 
position, 1 bave only to add, that as soon 
as I have published the third part of the 
“ Preceptor and his Pupils,” which will 
be a preparatory work on the force and 
signification of English words for the use 
of schools, I intend to offer a specimen 
of what conceive ty be a proper ana- 
lysis of words for the purpose of a dictio- 
nary; and should my views meet the ap- 
probation of the public, I shall willingly 
submit iny labours to such aliterary tri- 
bunal. Your's, &c. GEORGE Crass. 
Walworth, Sept. 18, 1808. 
UE 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT of RECENT TRAVELS in SPAIN, 
in which particular avTENTION was 
puid to the aNviQuITIES of that CouUN- 
try.—Continued from p. 444. 
ADRID, the capital of Spain, and, 
WN for these two centuries past, the 
residence of its sovereigns, although now 
one of the handsomest towas in Europe, 
was long but an inconsiderable place ; 
and even at this day is only rated as a 
town of the second order, or villa, in- 
stead of a city, or ciudad, being neither 
a bishop’s see, a university, nor a gdr- 
rison. The old kings of Castile succeeded 
to the Moorish princes in occupying the 
castle (Alcazar), situated where stands 
the present palace. This circumstance, 
the purity of the-air, and of the water in 
the fountains, and the convenience of 
the chace, induced the emperor, king 
Charles the Fifth, to project at Madrid 
a suitable residence ; but the execution 
fell to his immediate successors, Philip 
the Second, ‘Vhird, and Fourth. 
_ Madrid stands on a plain, varied by 
gentle inequalities, and washed on the 
west and south by the Manzanares, an 
inconsiderable stream, partaking so much 
of the torrent as at one time to overflow 
its banks, and at afother not to cover one- 
third of its bed. From the town to the 
fiver isan casy sloping bank of from $50 
to 500 yards in breadth, 
I we follow the lofty brick wall, ins 
Account of recent Travels in Spain. 
$33 
closing the whole town (for there are no 
suburbs), and constructed not for de- 
fence, but to prevent the transit of artl= 
cles of necessary consumption without 
the payment of certain duties:—if we 
follow the course of this wall, which come 
prehends the royal palace at Buen Retiro, 
with its gardens, the renowned public 
walk of the Prado, and some other va- 
cant places of less extent, the circuit of 
Madrid will be about six English miles: 
but the space occupied by buildings ap- 
proaches to a parallelogram, the length 
from north to south being above one 
mile and three-quarters, and the breadth 
from west to éast about one mile and 
one-third. 
The face of the country, the appear- 
ance of the villayes, the state ofsimprove- 
ment in cultivation, the travellers to and 
fro’ on the road from the north, announce 
to the stranger nothing to prepare him for 
a view of the capital of Spain: hut the 
entrance of the magnificent gate of Al- 
cala in the wall already mentioned, placed 
on an eminence, the palace and gardens , 
of Retiro on the left-hand, the public 
magazines on the right, the broad street of 
Alcala sloping downand crossing the Pras 
do, then rising up, and gradually contract= 
ing as it yently ascends to the Puerto del 
Sol, now in the very'heart of the town, 
and lined on both sides with palaces of 
the first nobles, the vreat custom-house, 
and other public buildings; all these ob- 
jects more thaa amply imdemnify the 
Spectator for his previous disappointe 
ments. 
This street continues under different 
names across the whole breadth of the 
town, and terminates near the palace, 
on the brink of the slope leading down 
to the bridge of Segovia on the Manza- 
nares. The otber principal streets are 
all directed from the circumference of 
the new, towards the centre of the old 
town, the bounds of whigh may yet be 
traced in the winding circular course of 
the streets in the neighbourhood of the 
bridge of Segovia. This old part of Ma- 
drid may have been about one mile and a 
quarter in circuit; and upon a farther 
extension it reached eastward to a spot 
where was the gate of the Sun (Puerto 
del Sol), which in the present enlarged 
state of the town, is become the centre 
of Madrid; and as several of the_princis 
pal streets unite in that spot,a long irregu- 
lar, open space is formed, exhibiting the 
great Post-office for both letters and trae 
velling horses, with some other publi¢ 
buildings, and the best hotels for strane 
Sersy 
