adjoining to which is the town-house with a handsome front. Another edifice well deserving the stranger's notice, is the hos pital of St. John, situated on the north side of the town, without the walls. It was built in the middle of the sixteenth century: the chapel is 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 various dates. The part inclosing the summit of the rock, where the ground is the least uneven is composed in general of vast rude masses of stone, an evidence of very remote antiquity, and very unlike the mode of construction employed in such works, as from their nature and other circumstances are unquestionably of Roman erection.

The Goths who succeeded the Romans in Spain, and after them the Arabs, Moors, or Saracens, from Africa, were long enough masters of this peninsula, to have made very considerable alterations in the place: indeed the Gothic princeWamba in particular, is universally believed to have surrounded the town with new walls, on the remains of the old, prior to the year 680 when he resigned the crown.

Toledo and its environs afford many vestiges of Roman magnificence: but 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 entire; and at the north end are to be seen the archies which supported the rows of seats for the spectators: the whole constructed of small irregular stones bound together by a very hard mortar. The breadth of this circus is about 100 yards, and the length may be traced in the foundations 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.

Parallel to the west side of the circus, and near the north end, are the foundations of a building vulgarly named the temple of Hercules: these inclose a rectangular space of ground about two hundred feat each way. They appear rather to have been the basis of massy columns or pilas ters, than a continued wall, each side containing four: their construction also consists of a strongly cemented mass of small

stones. Near St. John's hospital, beforementioned,are likewise shown the remains of a theatre, but too much defaced to ena ble the antiquary to ascertain its dimensions or parts.

On the banks of the Tagus under the castle are ruins of an aqueduct-bridge for conveying water across the river, at a great height, to supply the old town. The piers are placed on projecting points of the rocks; and in several places of the hill beyond the river are to be seen channels for conducting the water, with custella aque or reservoirs constructed, like the aqueduct itself, of small stones and mor tar. In the neighbourhood of this aqueduct are also observable remains of an ancient Roman road, formed of hewn stones.

Inscriptions abound in Toledo in Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic: within the gate of the castle is one in the former language by the people of this town to the Emperor Julius Philippus.

It is uncertain whether there be now in Toledo any buildings constructed under the Goths, whose reign ended with Rodrigo in 711, when the Moors fixed themselves in the country. The convent of St. Augustine, seated on the brink of the precipice 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 of the enclosure of the town, which, to remedy the irregular line of the rock, is in sundry 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 atways more than a semicircle, the lower parts contracting in the shape of a horseshoe. Arches of the same form are to be seen in various other buildings in Toledo, and are usually supposed to be the work of the Moors.

Toledo continued in the power of the Moors from 714 to 1090 when it was recovered from them by Alphonso the Sixth: no monuments of their architectural 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 erecting new temples for their mode of wor ship; on the contrary, they assigned to their Christian subjects six churches, re

serving

now forming the harbour of Bilbao, called in ancient history Chalybs, and of the inhabitants of the environs called Chalybes, The manufacture of sword-blades was, until within these five and twenty years. carried on at Toledo by private artists:" but about that period the king removed all who wished to continue in that branch of industry to a spacious new building erected on the north bank of the river a little below the town, there to be employ

The bridge over the Tagus on the entrance from Aranjuez was either founded or considerably improved by the Moors, as appears from an inscription preserved in the gate at the end next the town, there placed when the bridge was repaired in 1258, when it and many others throughout Spain were carried away by very extraordmary floods in the rivers. This inscription states, that the bridge was constructed in 988: it is very lofty and narrow, consisting of a single arch about 130 feet in span, through which the whole water of the Tagus passes, with a small arch at each end. In the original construction or in posterior repairs, Roman materials have been employed; one bears an inscription to the memory of a Lady in these words Caeciliu Marcella H. S. E.

On the South side of the town is another bridge of five arches; and near it are the ruins of a third, supposed to have been erected by the Goths.

Besides the protection afforded to Toledo from its situation, its walls, and its castle, it had likewise a fortress seated on the hill to the eastward, commanding the plain on that side. The origin of this work is unknown; but it was repaired in -1399, and now presents a small rectangular court inclosed by walls of moderate thickness, and defended by round towers at each angle, with a large one in the middle of the north side, which overhangs the

river.

The Tagus or Tajo (pronounced Taho) formerly renowned for its golden sands, was subsequentlycelebrated for the temper its waters gave to the sword-blades made on its banks; so that a Toledo was synonymous with a sword of the first quality. It does not however appear that any iron was ever discovered in this quarter of -Spain; on the contrary, we are constantly told that the material was drawn solely fruin the mountains of Biscay, where especially in the environs of Mondragon it is still found in great abundance and of the best kinds. And from this circumstance were derived the names of the little river

the general opinion that the swords produced from this public establishment, were far inferior in quality to those for merly manufactured by the same persons in private.

A propos of swords-At a celebrated convent of Hieronymites near Toledo was shown the very identical blade which was used in the decollation of St. Paul at Rome under Nero. This sword having been carefully preserved in that city until the beginning of the 16th century was then presented by the sovereign pontiff to Cardinal Albornos, who carried it to Spain and deposited it in the hands of the Hieronymites.

The convent is situated in one of the most barren, bleak, and rugged spots that can easily be found, and offers nothing attractive to the vulgar traveller excepting this same sword, which had it been genuine and really a Roman sword, must have been truly a curiosity, nearly I may say unique; the only certain rival being, I believe that preserved in the king of Naples' museum at Portici. I must be understood in so speaking to allude to Roman swords of iron; for others of hardened copper and mixed metals are far from rare in many collections; at the same time it is to be observed that these last swords are very uncommon in Italy where the Romans certainly lived and fought, but very common in the northern parts of Europe where the Romans never appear

ed

The weapon however preserved at La Sisla, the convent before mentioned, must depend on evidences of its authenticity very different from those drawn from its form and substance: for it is shaped like a modern cutlas with one convex cutting edge ending in a sharp point. The blade and hilt seem to be of one piece, but the iron cross has been fixed on. The blade I imagine to be of hardened copper from the fine glossy rust with which it is covered: and on each side towards the back are vestiges of an inscription, in Roman capitals of a golden colour, alluding to the beheading of St Paul; the words on one side being Paulus . . .

capite

was extricated from its perilous situa tion to the no small satisfaction of the other which seemed to caress and lick it, as if it had been one of her own offsprings.

Every observer of the animal creation, must be aware, what a regular degree of subordination exists among herds of cattle that have been long accustomed to ruminate together; the instinct of the cow, in this respect, is by no means the least predominant. When a farmer makes his first selection, he, of course, has a great variety of the same species, and (if we may presume to judge from analogy) endued with a diversity of dispositions; hence, for some time it is entertaining to behold the many disputed points that arise among the candidates for precedence, before the business can be amicably adjusted; for it is very servable, they always walk in lineal procession, preceded by a chieftain, or leader, which is unanimously acknowledged by the whole herd; the rest follow in or der, according to their contested decisions, each being most tenacious of her allotted station; which did not escape that accurate delineator of nature. Bloomfield, who, in his "Farmer's Boy," makes the following beautiful allusion; "The right of conquest all the law they

know:

ob

supplied the inferior military ranks among the followers of those redoubted champions, or assisted in rowing and navigating the gallies which performed the an nual caravance against the Turks. The modern knights, like most of the old worn-out governments of Europe, imitated their predecessors only in a vain ostentation and parade. They performed no prodigies of valour; gained no trophies pomp and cirof conquest; but still, the " cuinstance," of a continual war against the infidels, supplied pretexts for oppressing the industry of the native Maltese, and for precluding them from almost every species of traffic, especially that which might have been beneficially carried on with Barbary and the Levant Hence the agriculture and commerce of Malta alike languished. At present, the scene is changed; Malta is become one of the greatest depôts of merchandize in the whole Mediterranean: and the natives, in the midst of a war peculiarly levelled against the commercial intercourse of the world, have acquired habits of industry, and developed sources of profit, to which they were formerly total strangers.

It is no less curious than amusing, to view the diversities of dress and appearance among the motley crowd which business daily assembles on the Marina, or shore of the harbour of Valetta. Besides the English soldiers, sailors, and merchants, (many of whom have their warehouses placed there), oue sees Barbaresque traders wrapped in their long shawls, and adorned with waistcoats of most splendid embroidery, with white or green turbans, black bushy beards, yellow gipsy-like countenances, and dark sparkling eyes. They generally sit with pipes, a yard long, in their mouths, or walk up and down very leisurely, while they negociate matters of business. Their settled gravity is contrasted with the noise of the Maltese boatmen and porters, who are a lively set of people, having much more of the Italian than of the African character, although some of them evidently appear to be of the latter origin. These men wear the peculiar dress of the lower classes of Maltese, a berretta, or cap, red or black, a checked shirt, commouly tucked up to the elbows, & coarse cotton waistcoat and trowsers, generally

buttons, a girdle of various colours bound round the loins; their feet are either bare, or protected by a rude kind of sandals; and to protect them from rough weather, they wear in the colder seasona

grego,