A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 1 (1777)

You will, as I am, be tired of hearing so much about Messrs. Wombwell, Curtoys, Adams, and Co.--but as there are some other persons here, which my last letter must have put you...

I never left any place with more secret satisfaction than I did _Barcelona_; exclusive of the entertainment I was prepared to expect, by visiting this holy mountain; nor have I...

Before I leave this kingdom, and enter into that of Spain, let me trouble you with a letter on a subject which, though no ways interesting to yourself, may be very much so _to a...

You will laugh, perhaps, when I tell you, I could hardly refrain from tears when I took leave of the _De Jardin_ family at _Rheims_,--but so it was. Good-breeding, and attention...

There are in Spain twelve councils of state, viz. of _War_, of _Castile_, of the _Inquisition_, of the royal orders of _St. Iago_, of _Arragon_, of the _Indies_, of the chamber...

_Monsr Anglois_ having sent me back my _passa-porte_, signed by _Don Philipe Cabine_, the Captain-General of _Barcelona_, accompanied by a very kind and friendly letter, I deter...

I have now crossed the _Pyrenees_, and write this from the first village in Spain. These mountains are of such an enormous height, as well as extent, that they seem as if they w...

From _Jonquere_ to _Figuere_ (about four hours journey, so they reckon in Spain) the road is intolerable, and the country beautiful; over which the traveller may, as nature has...

I have had (since I mentioned the Spanish Ladies in a former letter) an opportunity of seeing something more of them; what they may be at _Madrid_, I cannot take upon me to say;...

I have now been here some time, and have employed most of it, in visiting daily the _Maison Carree_, the _Amphitheatre_, the Temple of _Diana_, and other Roman remains, which th...

Upon our arrival at this town, we were obliged to wait at the outward gate above half an hour, no person being admitted to enter from twelve till one, tho' all the world may go...

In a very few days I shall leave this town, and having procured letters of recommendation from some men of fashion, now in England, to their friends in _Spain_, I am determined...

_Pere Pascal_ having invited me to high mass, and to hear a Spanish sermon preached by one of their best orators, we attended; and though I did not understand the language suffi...

I know you will not like to leave _St. Catherine_'s harmonious cell so soon;--nor should I, but that I intend to visit it again. I will therefore conduct you to _St. Juan_, abou...

I know you will expect to hear something of the Ladies of Spain; but I must confess I had very little acquaintance among them: when they appear abroad in their coaches, they are...

The second hermitage, for I give them in the order they are usually visited, is that of _St. Catharine_, situated in a deep and solitary vale: it however commands a most extensi...

As you are kind enough to say, that those letters which I wrote from this kingdom, nine or ten years ago, were of some use to you, in the little tour you made through France soo...

In the archives of _Montserrat_ they shew you a letter written to the Abbe by King Philip the second, who begins, "venerable and devout _Religieux_," and tells him, he approves...

I forgot to tell you that, though I left the Convent, I had no desire to leave the spot where I had met with so cordial a reception; nor a mountain, every part of which afforded...

Upon our arrival at _Chalons_, I was much disappointed; as I intended to have embarked on the _Soane_, and have slipped down here in the _coche d'eau_, and thereby have saved my...

Before I bring forth the treasures of this hospitable convent, and the jewels of _Neustra Senora_, it may be necessary to tell you, that they could not be so liberal, were not o...

We arrived at this city before the bustle which the coronation of _Louis_ the 16th occasioned was quite over; I am sorry I did not see it, because I now find it worth seeing; bu...

Never was a traveller more disappointed than I was upon entering into this renowned city; a city, the name of which my ears have been familiar to, ever since I first heard of di...

I am now come to _St. Dimas_, the last, and most important, if not the most beautiful of all the hermits' habitations. This hermitage is surrounded on all sides by steep and dre...

Before I leave Calais, let me remind you, that an English guinea is worth more than a _Louis d'or_; and observe, that the first question _my friend Mons. Dessein_, at the _Hotel...

After a voyage of one whole, and one half day, without sail or oar, we arrived here from Lyons. The weather was just such as we could wish and such as did not drive us out of th...

I must now lead you up to the highest part of the mountain; it is a long way up, not less than three thousand five hundred paces from _St. Madalena_, and over a very rugged and...

Little or nothing occurred to me worth remarking to you on my journey hither, but that the province of _Artois_ is a fine corn country, and that the French farmers seem to under...

On our way here we eat an humble meal; which was, nevertheless, a most grateful _repas_, for it was under the principal arch of the _Pont du Gard_. It will be needless to say mo...

I was very impatient till I had drove my horse from the British to the Mediterranean coast, and looked upon a sea from _that land_ which I had often, with longing eyes, viewed _...

The state in which that once-superb edifice, the Temple of Diana, now appears; with concern, I perceived that there remains only enough to give the spectator an idea of its form...

I cannot say a word to you on any other subject, till you have taken a turn with me in the shrubberies and gardens of the glorious (so they call it) hermitage of _St. Ana_. Comi...