for
the guards, &c. to eat their dinner. As I had no letter to any person in
this city, but to the French Consul, I had previously wrote to a Mr.
Ford, a merchant at Barcelona, with whom I had formerly travelled from
London to Bath, to beg the favour of him to provide lodgings for me; I
therefore enquired for Mr. Ford's house, and found myself conducted to
that of a Mr. Curtoys; Mr. Ford, unfortunately for me, was dead; but the
same house and business is carried on by Messrs. Adams and Curtoys, who
had received and opened my letter. After this family had a little
_reconnoitred_ mine, Mr. Curtoys came down, and with much civility, and
an hospitable countenance, told me his dinner was upon the table, and in
very pressing terms desired that we would partake of it. We found here a
large family, consisting of his wife, a motherly good-looking woman;
Mrs. Adams, her daughter by a former husband, a jolly dame; and several
children. Mrs. Adams spoke fluently the Catalan, French, English, and
Spanish tongues; all which were necessary at a table where there were
people who understood but one only of each language. Mr. Curtoys pressed
us to dine with him a few days after, a favour which I, only, accepted;
when he told me, he was nominated, but not absolutely fixed in his
Consulship of this city; that he had obtained it by the favour of Lord
Rochford, who had spent some days at his house, on his way to Madrid,
when his Lordship was Ambassador to this Court; and before I went from
him, he desired I and my family would dine with him at his country-house
the next day: instead of which, I waited upon him in the morning, and
told him, that I had formerly received civilities from his friend, Lord
Rochford, and believed him once to have been mine; but that,
unfortunately, I found now it was much otherwise; and observed, that
perhaps his politeness to me might injure him with his Lordship; and
that I thought it right to say so much, that he might be guided by his
own judgment, and not follow the bent of his inclination, if he thought
it might be prejudicial to his interest; and by the way of a little
return for the hospitable manner in which he had received and
entertained me, and my family, I took out an hundred and twenty-five
pound in Banknotes, and desired him to send them to England; adding,
that I had about thirty pounds in my pocket, which I hoped would be
sufficient for my expences, till he had an account of their safe
arrival. But