es and shrubs, about a thousand paces, fatigued in body, and
impatient for a safe resting place, we arrived at a small hole in the
rock, through which we were glad to crawl; and having got to the secure
side of it, prepared ourselves, by a little rest, to proceed further;
but not, I assure you, without some apprehensions, that if there was no
better road down, we must have become _hermits_. After a second
clamber, not quite so dreadful as the first, but much longer, we got
into some flowery and serpentine walks, which lead to two or three of
the nearest hermitages then visible, and not far off, one of which hung
over so horrible a precipice, that it was terrifyingly picturesque. We
were now, however, I thought, certainly in the garden of Eden! Certain I
am, Eden could not be more beautifully adorned; for God alone is the
gardener here also; and consequently, every thing prospered around us
which could gratify the eye, the nose and, the imagination.

"Profuse the myrtle spread unfading boughs,
Expressive emblem of eternal vows."

For the myrtle, the eglantine, the jessamin, and all the smaller kind of
aromatic shrubs and flowers, grew on all sides thick and spontaneously
about us; and our feet brushed forth the sweets of the lavender,
rosemary and thyme, till we arrived at the first, and peaceful
hermitage of _Saint Tiago_. We took possession of the holy inhabitants
little garden, and were charmed with the neatness, and humble
simplicity, which in every part characterised the possessor. His little
chapel, his fountain, his vine arbor, his stately cypress, and the walls
of his cell, embraced on all sides with ever-greens, and adorned with
flowers, rendered it, exclusive of its situation, wonderfully pleasing.
His door, however, was fast, and all within was silent; but upon
knocking, it was opened by the venerable inhabitant: he was cloathed in
a brown cloth habit, his beard was very long, his face pale, his manners
courteous; but he seemed rather too deeply engaged in the contemplation
of the things of the next world, to lose much of his time with _such
things_ as _us_. We therefore, after peeping into his apartments, took
his benediction, and he retired, leaving us all his worldly possessions,
but his straw bed, his books, and his beads. This hermitage is confined
between two pine heads, within very narrow bounds; but it is artfully
fixed, and commands at noon day a most enchanting prospect to the East
and to th