hangs a full-length of the present King, so execrable, that one would
wonder it was not put, with the painter, into the Inquisition, as a
libel on royalty and the arts. I am told, at _La Fete Dieu_ there are
some processions of the most ridiculous nature. The fertility of the
earth in and about the town is wonderful; the minute one crop is off the
earth, another is put in; no part of the year puts a stop to vegetation.
In the coldest weather, the market abounds with a great variety of the
choicest flowers; yet their sweets cannot over-power the intolerable
smell which salt fish, and stinking fish united, diffuse over all that
part of the city; and rich as the inhabitants are, you will see the
legs, wings, breasts, and entrails of fowls, in the market, cut up as
joints of meat are in other countries, to be sold separately: nor could
I find in this great city either oil, olives, or wine, that were
tolerable. I paid a guinea a day at the _Fontain d'Or_ for my table;
yet every thing was so dirty, that I always made my dinner from the
dessert; nor was there any other place but the stable of this dirty inn
to put up my horse, where I paid twelve livres a week for straw only;
and whoever lodges at this inn, must pay five shillings a day for their
dinner, whether they dine there or not.

_Catalonia_ is undoubtedly the best cultivated, the richest, and most
industrious province, or principality, in Spain; and the King, who has
the SUN FOR HIS HAT, (for it always shines in some part of his
dominions) has nothing to boast of, equal to _Catalonia_.

As I have almost as much abhorrence to the Moors, as even the Spaniards
themselves, (having visited that coast two or three times, many years
ago) you may be sure I was grieved to meet, every time I went out, so
many maimed and wounded officers and soldiers, who were not long
returned from the unsuccessful expedition to _Algiers_. There are no