130: 
adjoining to which is the town-nouse with 
a handsome front. Another editice well 
deserving the stranger’s notice, is the hes- 
pital of Von, John, situated oi the north 
side of the town, without the walls. It 
was built in the middle of the sixteenth 
century: the chapelis of the Doric order, 
and the courts are raised on arcades of 
Doric-and Sonic pillars. 
The walls of the city have, in the lapse 
of ages, undergone so many changes that 
it is ‘perhaps impossible to trace their va- 
views dates, The part inclosing the sum- 
mit of tse_rock, where the ground i is the 
least uneven is: composed in general of 
vast rude masses of stene, an evidence of 
very remote antiquity, and very unlike 
the mode of construction employed in 
such works, as from their nature and 
other circumstances ate unquestionably 
of Roman erection. 
The Goths who succeeded the Romans 
in Spain, and after them the Arabs, Moors, 
or Saracens, trom Africa, were long 
enough masters of this peninsula, to have 
made very considerable alterations in the 
place : indeed the Gothic prince Wamba in 
particular, is universally believed to ae 
surrounded the town with new walls, « 
the remains of the old, prior to the cae 
680 when he resigned the crown. 
Toledo and its environs afford many 
vestiges of Roman magnificence: bat all 
now in great decay. At the bottom of 
the hill on which the town stands, and on 
the west side, near the Franciscan con- 
vent of St. Bartholomew, are the remains 
of a Circus.. A gateway in the middle of 
one of the long sides is tolerably eutire ; 
and at the north end are to be seen the 
arches which supported the rows of seats 
for the spectators: the whole constructed 
of small irregular stones bound together 
by a very hard mortar. ‘The bieadih 
et this circus is about 100-yards, and 
the length may be traced in the foun- 
dations as far as 400 yards. The circular 
part at the north end was chosen for the 
punishment of offenders found guilty by 
the Inquisition : such exhibitions called 
Autos da fe have not however appeared 
in Toledo for these hundred years past. 
Paralle! to the west side of the circus 
and near thenerth end,arethe foundati ions 
of a building ‘vulgarly named the temple 
of Hercules: these inclose a. rectangular 
space.of ground about two hundred féat 
each way. They appear rather to have 
been the basis of massy columns or pilas- 
ters, than a continued wall, each side con- 
‘taining four: their construct ion also con- 
sists of a strongly cemented mags of small 
Account of recent Travels in Spain. 
[March 1, 
stones. Near St. John’s hospital, before- 
mentioned,are likewise shown the remains 
of a theatre, but too inuch defaced to ena- | 
bie the antiquary to ascertain its dimen- 
sions or parts, 
On the banks of the Tagus under the 
case are ruins of an aqueduct-bridge for 
conveyuig water across the river, at a great 
height, to supply the ald town. The piers 
are placed ou projecting points of the 
rocks; and in several places of the hill 
beyond the river are toe seen channels 
for condueting the water, with castella 
uqgué or reservoirs constructed, like the 
aqueduct itself, of small stones and mor- 
tar. In the neighbourhoed of this aque- 
duct are also observable remains of an 
ancient Roman road, formed of hewn 
stones. | 
[uscriptions abound in Toledo in Latin,. 
Hebrew,and Arabic : within the gateofihe 
castte is one in the former language by the 
people of this town to the Emperor Julius 
Philippus. 
it is nncertain whether there be now. 
in Foledo any buildings constructed under 
the Goths,whose reign vended with Rodrigo 
in 714, when the Moors fixed themselves 
in the country. The convent of St. Au- 
gustine, seated on the brink of the preci- 
pice at the south-west corner of the town, 
is supposed to be founded on the palace 
of the Gothic kings, which was afterwards 
occupied by the | Moorish princes, The 
most remarkable part of this building is 
the external wall, evidently a portion. ps 
the euclosure = the town, which, 
remedy the irregular line of the ae 
is insundry places supported on arches 
resting on pillars founded on projecting 
rocks at a great depth below. These 
arches. are formed of hewn Stone, with 
the peculiarity that they comprehend al-- 
ways more than a semicirele, the lower 
parts contracting in the shape of a horse- 
shoe., Arches of the same form are to 
be seen in various othér buildings in Toles 
do, and are usually supposed to be the 
w ae of the Moors. 
‘Toledo continued in fhe power of the 
Moors from 714 to 1090 when it was re- 
covered from them by Alphonso the 
Sixth: no monuments of their architectu- 
ral magnificence such as those which. 
adorn Granada, Cordova, and other parts 
of Spain are however now in existence.. 
Indeed the Christian churches in Toledo 
were, on their arrival, so numerous that 
those Mahometans had no need of erecte 
ing new temples for their mode of wor- 
ship; on the contrary, they assigned to 
their Christian subjects six churches, re- 
_ serving” 
