country to boast things of excessive price, which they
would have admired on that account, as if because they are foolish
merchants, the ware they buy too dear, were therefore the more valuable.
These are my observations of the so famous Escurial, adorned only by
some small parterras and fountains; one side of it affords a handsome
prospect, but the ground near it is the greatest part rock or heath,
some walks and groves are planted about it, but being cold and windy,
trees thrive not. There are some deer in a kind of park, ill-designed,
and with very low walls, the way to it is nothing pleasant, and the King
who goes thither thrice every year, one of which times is in the winter,
cannot certainly find any great diversion in those journeys, for during
three months all is covered with snow."

Nothing need be added, I think, to so graphic a "boutade" as this,
which, though somewhat satirical, would not appear to have been much too
highly coloured for the occasion.

[Illustration: PLATE 28

SEGOVIA

GATE IN WALLS

MDW 1869]

PLATE XXVIII.

_SEGOVIA_.

GATEWAY IN THE CITY WALLS.

THERE is probably no city in all Spain, and few perhaps in any part of
the world, in which within a similar compass, so many good, although
fragmentary, materials could be found for illustrating styles and
inflections of style in building, from the days of the Romans through
those of the Moors and Christians, up to the period of the Renaissance,
than Segovia. Of this last named period, two of the greatest masters,
Gil de Ontanon and his son Rodrigo, have nobly left their mark in the
splendid Cathedral, a worthy rival to that of Salamanca, also executed
from the designs, and under the personal superintendence of the elder of
the two Ontanones. The city, probably, owes these varied monuments to
its merits, as a strong, as well as a beautiful position. Under these
circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that its old walls should
offer many features of interest as well as picturesqueness. In fact, to
the educated eye, the former is almost a necessary ingredient to making
up the latter. As I wended my way upwards, therefore, from the railway
station to the town, through this gateway, about which I caught
indications here of one style, and there of another, Roman, Moor, and
Christian doing here a jot and there a little, that I should linger on
my way for awhile; partly, perhaps, to cool myself, and partly to make
the little sketch