make zaffre; this Kieffelftein is a true white quartz of the antient volcanos of Spain, but to know and understand these matters clearly definitions are not fufficient, they must be seen."

LETTER

XXIII.

Return to Valencia and Caftile. Mine of fal gem at Mingranilla. Source of the river Guadiana. Mine of antimony near Santa Cruz de Mudela in La Mancha.

IN

going from Barcelona towards Valencia you crofs a fine bridge, lately built, over the Lobregat, at Molino del Rei §; further on, another bridge over a deep valley has been attempted with a triple row of arches at an immense expense, the foundation has given way, and a long time must pass before it is compleated. The new road was finished in 1778, as far as Villa Franca de Panades. The country is hilly and affords a variety of rural profpects. The antient city of Tarragona ftands near the fea, on an eminence that commands a fine prospect over a beautiful vale.

In the fecond volume of the Spanish translation of Muller's fortifications, there are views of the bridges of Molins, Martorel, Acantara, Almaraz, and Aranjuez.

vale. The city exhibits feveral remains of Roman antiquities and infcriptions. The learned Don Antonio Auguftin archbishop of Tarragona is buried in the cathedral t; proceeding from Tarragona the next town is Reus, a commercial place, which of late years has greatly encreased in buildings and population. Here the merchants of Barcelona have their factors and warehoufes, and

ship

+ Don Antonio Auguftin, archbishop of Tarragona, born in 1516, son of Don Antonio Auguftin, vice-chancellor of the kingdom of Aragon, was famous for his writings on canon and civil law and antiquity. All the great men of his age were unanimous in their praises of his learning and virtues. He came over to England with Cardinal Pole, and affisted in fuch regulations as were then drawn up for the purpose of ecclefiaftical difcipline. Of all his works, none were more eagerly fought after than his dialogues on antient medals and infcriptions, "Dialogos de medallas infcriciones y otras antiguedades ex bibliotheca Ant. Auguftini archie¬ pifcopi Tarraçon, en Tarragona, por Felipe May, 1587 4to. This edition is so scarce, that Padre Feijoo relates in his Theatro critico, that an English gentleman travelling through Spain offered thirty pistoles to any one who would bring hima copy, which being complied with, he offered thirty more for another. I faw this edition in the library of Don Gregorio Mayans at Valencia; there are only plates to the twe first dialogues; it has been tranflated into Latin, and Italian; a new edition of it was printed at Madrid in 1744, in the fame form as the Tarragona edition, and may be had for about five fhillings. The life of this archbishop has been written by the learned Don Gregorio Mayans.

thip off their wines and brandies as the ships come. to an anchor in the road of Salo, about three miles from Reus. Catalonia furnishes annually thirty-. five thousand pipes of brandy, which require a hundred and forty thoufand pipes of wine to make them, besides which near two thousand pipes of wine are alfo annually exported: and of frult about thirty thousand bags of hazel nuts every year chiefly for England, and worth about twenty fhillings a bag on the spot.

It is a few hours excurfion across the country. to the northward, through Monblanc to the royal convent of Poblet, founded by Alfonso first king of Aragon, in the twelfth century, for monks of Ciftercian order; the abbot is a temporal baron and has an extensive jurifdiction, with a confideraable revenue. Several of the kings and Several of the kings and queens of Aragon are buried in the church with ftately monuments, as well as fome of the dukes of Medina, celi, and Cardona: on viewing these tombs the emotions are only felt by an Englishman, that occur when he perceives in an obfcure corner, on an humble ftone, the name of an English Peer, Philip duke of Wharton an unhappy nobleman; at the pinnacle of glory in the dawn of life, but alas! whofe evening was clouded with mifery and fcorn. After leaving his native country, he meanly crouched to the pretender, affumed the infignia

of

of the order of the garter, bore arms against his country abandoned and defpifed by all, he was kindly received in the laft moments of his wretchedness, and was interred by the hofpitable abbot of Poblet. Thus ended Wharton, an exile and an outcaft, fhewing how little availed the highest dignities, fortune and talents, without virtue and love for his country. His line is extinct, and the faint inscription on his tomb, at present nearly effaced, will foon be totally obliterated, while the energetic lines of Pope, fo defcriptive of his character, will hand down his failings as an example to pofterity.*

It is a tedious journey from Reus to Tortofa, on the banks of the Ebro, where there is a bridge of boats that is croffed in paffing to Valencia. I fhall now resume the itinerary in going from Valencia towards Caftile; the ground continues to rife gradually as far as the chain of hills that di

vide

The infcription on his tomb in the church of Poblet is as follows, and faid to be of the duke's compofition.

His jacet Exs. Dom Philipus Warton, Anglus, Dux, Marchio et Comes de Warton, Marchio Marburfiæ et Carlagh Comes Rathcafrem, vicecomes de Winchester Baro de Tramlon Eques Sti. Georgii alias de la Geratera, obiit in fide Ecclefia Catholica Romana Povuleti, die 31. Maii,

1731.

vide that kingdom from La Mancha, with a very fteep afcent at the Puerto de Bunol. Near Utiel the country is covered with dwarf furze called Erizo by the Spaniards, from its fimilitude to the prickles of a hedge-hog: it is a beautiful plant, and at the proper season of the year is covered with blue flowers, which give in the appearance of a prodigious amethyst, forming a cup of three feet diameter, so close and firm withal, that a man might ftand upon it. Clufius was the first who defcribed and gave a plate of it. It is the Anthyllis erinacea of Linnæus.

The afcent ftill continues to Villagorda, through a rugged country, broke up every where by gullies occafioned by torrents that gush from the mountains. On the highest of them there is a quarry of grey marble, veined with red; the river Cabral runs at its foot. At its fummit there is a briny fpring, where they make falt with a boiling heat. It is a conftant descent from these hills to the village of Mingranilla: half a league from the village, there is a diftrict of limy foil, with fome hillocks about half a league in circumference, having below this bed of lime, a folid mine of fal gem, equal to the fuperincumbent ftratum; its depth is not known, for when the excavations exceed three hundred feet, it becomes very expensive to extract the falt; the mine frequently gives way and fills with water, which obliges