r_,
were our dessert.

And that you may not be alarmed about this mighty matter, (as it is by
many thought) of parting from _France to Spain_, by the way of
_Perpignan_, it may not be amiss to say, that I left the last town about
seven o'clock in the morning, in a heavy French _cabriolet_, drawn by
one strong English horse, charged with four persons, and much baggage;
yet we arrived here about three o'clock the same day; where at our
supper, we had a specimen of Spanish cookery, as well as Spanish beds,
bills, and custom-house officers: to the latter, a small donative is
better bestowed, than the trouble of unpacking all your baggage, and
much better relished by them: as to the host, he was neither rude, nor
over civil; the cookery more savoury than clean; the window frames
without glass, the rooms without chimneys. The demand for such
entertainment is rather dearer than in France.

Before I left _Perpignan_, I found it necessary to exchange some French
gold for Spanish, and to be well informed of the two kingdoms. There
were many people willing to change my money; though but few, indeed, who
would give the full value. Formerly, you know, the _Pyrenees_ were
charged with gold, from whence the Phoenicians fetched great quantities
every year. In the time of the Romans, much of the _Pyrenean_ gold was
sent to Rome; and a King of Portugal, so lately as the year 1512, had a
crown and sceptre made of the gold washed from those hills into the
_Tagus_; their treasures were known, you may remember, even to Ovid.

"Quod suo Tagus amne vehit fluit
Ignibus aurum."

But as I did not expect to find a gold mine on my passage into Spain, I
thought it best to carry a little with me, and leave nothing to chance;
and I should have been content to have found, by the help of my gun, the
bird vulgarly called the _Gelinotte des Pyrenees_; it has a curved bill
like a hawk, and two long feathers in the tail; but though I saw a great
number of different birds, I was not fortunate enough to find the
_Ganga_, for that is the true name of a bird, so beautiful in feather,
and of so delicate a flavour, that it is even mentioned by Aristotle,
and is a native of these hills.

P.S. I forgot to tell you, that the day we left _Cette_ we stopped,
according to custom, to eat our cold dinner, in an olive grove; from
whence we had a noble view of the Mediterranean Sea, and a most
delightfully situated _Chateau_, standing upon the banks of a salt