* 536 
actuainted with different languages: and 
the entertainment is regulated in price by 
tables, hung up in the ditterent apartments. 
Leaving this comfortable fonda, I fol- 
lowed the great road for some time, and 
then struck off ‘to the mght along the 
northern ‘skirts of the hills, to the royal 
country seat of San Jidetonso, deeply 
embosomedin woods, on the slope of the 
mountains, with a boundless prospect 
towards the north, north-west, and west, 
From its generally elevated position, the 
vast extent of thick and iofty forest, and 
the prodigious abundance of excellent 
water streaming, spouting, and cascading 
in all quarters, this must, in the midst of 
a Madrid summer, be truly a delicious 
retreat. The palaceis a neat building of 
twe stories, containing thirteen windows 
on a floor, separated by Corinthian pi- 
Jastres: and the gardens, although 
laid out in the old French style, yet, by 
their long shady waiks, numerous 
fountains and basons, ornamented with 
statues and flower-plots, temples, grot- 
tos, &c. give an idea of some verdant 
Oasis in the midst of a Libyan desert. 
Besides the attractions of the palace 
and its paintings, and of the position and 
its environs, San Jidefonso presents? a 
manufacture of mirrors formed on the 
model of that at St. Gobin, in the north 
ef France. The Spanish glasses, as the 
workmen say, exceed in magnitude those 
of France, some having been cast whose 
dimensions were 144 English inches by 
70: on the other hand, strangers have 
been of opinion, that the Spaniards have 
not yet arrived at the art of giving their 
glasses the exquisite polish for which 
French mirrors have long been esteemed. 
Having taken a general view of the cu- 
riosities of San Jidefonso, and in the mid- 
dle of winter tried to conjecture the de- 
lights of such a spot in the heart of a 
parched Castille summer, I entered my 
caleza, and proceeded across a dull open 
plain, poorly cultivated, and thinly inha- 
bited, to Segovia, distant a couple of 
leagues. On approaching the town, I 
observed channels formed, and covered 
over, for collecting and conveying water 
to supply the celebrated aqteduct, con- 
structed in that town under Trajan. 
Segovia, a very ancient town, and once 
more considerable than at the present 
day, is singularly situated lke another 
Durham, on the ridge and slope of a pe- 
ninsular spot, partly surrounded by the 
little river Eresma, which runs northward 
tothe Duero, The river flows in a deep 
Account of recent Travels in Spain. 
[Jan. 3, 
narrow channel, bordered by rocky pre- 
Cipices, so that the town, although seem- 
ing to occupy the ridge of a hiil, is, in 
fact, only seated on a portion of the sur- 
rounding plain, but separated from it by 
the chasm i which the water runs, 
The town is neither very large, nor 
well built, nor convenient, but it still en- 
joys a considerable share of the woollen 
manufacture, the cloths of Segovia being 
highly esteemed: for it is situated in the 
midst of the best wool country of Spain, 
and the waters of the river, and the aque- 
duct, are said to possess properties pe- 
culiarly serviceable m the different pro- 
cesses of the manufacture. 
At the west end, as a miniature of 
Edinburgh, on a rock inaccessible all 
around, excepung next the town, is seated 
the castle; here called, as in many other 
places of Spain, by the Arabic name of 
ihe same import, d/ Cazar, presenting, — 
by its rocky foundations, and multitude of 
towers, turrets, spires, and pinnacles, an 
object singularly picturesque, impending 
over the rugged bed of the Eresma, This 
castle, once the abode of Gothic and 
Moorish princes, is now chiefly employed 
as an academy for the education of cadets 
for the royal artillery. 
The cathedral of Segovia is a spacious 
edifice, where may be traced a mixture of 
the northern Gothic with the southern 
Saracen architecture: but the grand an- 
tigue of Segovia is the celebrated aque- 
duct, erected, as is generally supposed, 
by Trajan, himself a Spaniard. This 
stupendous work commences at the chan- 
nels observed on the road from San Jide- 
fonso, even with the ground: but as the 
ground sinks, the watercourse along the 
upper part of the buildings is kept ona 
level, supported by semicircular arches, 
increasing gradually in height, until, in 
the middle of the town, where it crosses 
the market-place, the ground is sunk so 
much below the original level as to re- 
quire two stories of arcades to reach the 
required elevation, which is so great,’ 
that houses of three stories in height do 
not reach above one-third of the distance 
from the ground to the top of the aque- 
duct. 
This admirable and most useful work 
is constructed of vast blocks of stone, so 
well squared, and so compactly joined, 
that no appearance of cement can be dis- 
covered: perhaps they were united by 
iron bars let into their centres above ahd 
below. Excepting some slight repairs 
to the wate:-course above, this work 
sees 
