DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY. 339 



reduced to heaps of rubbish , were now so thickly 

 overgrown with weeds and shrubs, that scarcely 

 any trace of their former character was distin- 

 guishable. The grass touched our feet as we rode 

 along the footpaths, marking the places of the old 

 carriage-ways. Here and there parts of the town 

 had escaped the ravage, but these only served to 

 make the surrounding desolation more manifest. 

 A strange incongruity prevailed everywhere : of- 

 fices and court-yards were seen, where the houses 

 to which they had belonged were completely gone ; 

 and sometimes the houses remained, in ruins in- 

 deed, but everything about them swept away. 

 Near the centre of the town, a magnificent sculp- 

 tured gateway attracted our attention : upon in- 

 quiry, we found it had been the principal entrance 

 to the Bishop's Palace, of which there was not a 

 vestige left, although the gateway was in perfect 

 preservation. Many of the houses which did re- 

 main were uninhabited ; and such is the rapidity 

 with which vegetation advances in this climate, 

 that most of these buildings were completely en- 

 veloped in a thick mantle of shrubs, creepers, and 



