An excursion should be made to the Cartuja de Portaceli, in the opposite hills near Olocau, and about 2 L. N.E. from Liria, and 3 L. from Valencia. This suppressed convent commands a fine view of the plain and sea, was founded in 1272 by the bishop, Andres | de Albalat, and was once a museum of art. Here Alonso Cano took refuge after the death of his wife; for her imputed murder by him is an idle calumny of the gossiping Palomino, unsupported by any evidence; had it been true, would Philip IV. have made him a canon, or been his patron? He carved for the monks a crucifix, and painted several pictures, now gone. This majestic convent was renowned for its frescoes and rich marbles, now it is desolate, yet the picturesque wooded mountain situation is unchanged. The superb aqueduct is of the time of the Catholic sovereigns. The wine, "vino rancio," is excellent. From Liria to Chelva the direct road is through La Llosa. It is better to turn off to the 1. and visit Chestalgar, near the Turia, where are some remains of a Moorish aqueduct. All this district, up to 1609, was inhabited by industrious Moriscos. Chulilla, famous for apricots, is the extraordinary Salto, or leap: the Turia has cut its way through perpendicular walls of mountains (see particularly the peninsula of rocks at La Punta). Chulilla was the scene of much "little war" during the Carlists struggle. Re-entering the Campo, and keeping the Turia on the 1., is Chelva, a rich village; Pop. 4500. In the Rambla de los Arcos is a fine Roman aqueduct: the arches which span the defile are rare bits for the artist. One portion is injured, the other nearly perfect. The Campo de Chelva is most fertile; the "Pico" hill, distant 1 L., is singular. At From Chelva it is better to retrace the route to La Llosa, and thence to El Villar del Arzobispo, for the circuit by Alpuente and Yesa is tedious; then strike into the Lacobus hills, famous for rich marbles: a cross-road of 5 mountain leagues leads to Segorbe. At Alcublas, 2 L., which is in the heart of the rugged country, the road branches and leads W. through Oset to Andilla, distant about 3 L.; this hamlet of 700 souls, sunk amid the mountains, has a very fine parish church, and some noble pictures by Ribalta. The Retablo is classical and Corinthian, and enriched with statuary and basso relievos, the insides of the shutters are painted with the following subjects-the Visitation of the Virgin, her Presentation, Santa Ana and San Joaquin, and the Circumcision; the outsides with—the Dispute with the Doctors, a Riposo, the Birth and Marriage of the Virgin. These were executed in Ribalta's best period. Ponz (iv. 194) prints some curious details as to the erection and prices of this fine Retablo, which is buried in these lonely regions. 1 L. from Andilla is Canales; the villagers exist by supplying the snow, of which so much is used in Valencia, from the Bellida hill. Returning to Alcublas, about half way in the hills is La Cueva Santa, or a deep cave, in which is a sanctuary of the Virgin. The chapel is below, the rock forming the roof, and you descend by a staircase. This holy grotto is visited on the 8th of Sept. by the peasantry from far and near. Segorbe, which is considered to have been the Segobriga Edetanorum, contains about 6000 souls, and rises in its valley above the Palancia, surrounded by gardens, which, under a beneficial climate and copious irrigation, are incredibly fertile. The view from the rocky pinnacle above the town is charming. Segorbe was taken from the Moors by Don Jaime in 1245. There is a history of the cathedral, antigüedades, &c., by Francisco de Villagrasa, 4to., Valencia, 1664. The edifice is not remarkable, but has a Retablo of the Joanes school and a good cloister. Parts of the ancient castle and walls were taken down to build the Casa de Misericordia. The limpid Fuente de la Esperanza, near the Geronomite convent, gushes at once a river from the rock; the water has a petrifying power. San Martin de las Monjas has a Doric façade; inside is the tomb of the founder, Pedro de Casanova; inquire for the fine Ribalta, the Descent : of Christ into Hades. In the Seminario | in the modern houses; so true is the is the tomb of the founder, Pedro Mi- lament of Argensola :ralles; his effigy kneels on a sarcophagus, on which some of the events of his life are sculptured. Remains of Roman walls and cisterns are preserved, and some Doric pillars are let into the house of the D. of Medinaceli. Near the town is the suppressed Carthusian convent of Val de Cristo, with its picturesque paper-mills. Unresisting and unwarlike Segorbe was taken and sacked by Suchet, and again taken by Cabrera in 1835, who had only 440 men! For the high road to Zaragoza, through Xerica, Teruel, and Daroca, see Index of vol. ii. "Con marmoles de nobles inscripciones Teatro un tiempo y aras, en Sagunto Fabrican hoy tabernas y mesones." The name Murviedro (Murbiter of the Moors) is derived from these Muri veteres, Muros viejos; the la vieja of Spaniards, the a of Greeks, the citta vecchia of Italy-Old Sarum. So the Italian names Viterbo, Orvieto, Cervetri; and others represent the Urbs vetus, Vetus urbs, Ceres vetus, &c. Fragments of the once famous red pottery are found, the Calices Saguntini, Mart. xiv. 108, on which the Conde de Lumiares wrote an 8vo., Barros Saguntinos, Val 1772. Many coins are dug up here; indeed, the mint of Saguntum struck 27 specimens (Florez, M.' ii. 560). The modern town, straggling and miserable, contains about 5000 inhabitants, agriculturists, and winemakers. The great temple of Diana stood where the convent of La Trinidad now does. Here are let in some 6 Roman inscriptions relating to the families of Sergia and others. At the back is a water-course, with portions of the walls of the Circus Maximus. In the suburb San Salvador a mosaic pavement of Bacchus was discovered in 1745, and soon after was let go to ruin. The famous theatre, placed on the slope above the town, to which the orchestra is turned, was much used up by Suchet to strengthen the castle, whose long lines of wall and tower rise grandly above; the general form of the theatre is, however, easily to be made out. Murviedro, with a poor posada, lies on the Palancia. The long lines of walls and towers crown the height, which rises above the site of Saguntum, founded, 1384 years before Christ, by the Greeks of Zacynthus (Zante) (Strabo, iii. 240), and one of the few emporiæ the jealous Phoenicians ever permitted their dreaded rivals to establish on the Peninsular coasts. It was formerly a seaport, but now the fickle waters have retired more than a league. No Iberian city has been more described in history. Being the frontier town, allied to Rome, and extremely rich, it was hated by Hannibal, who attacked it. The obstinacy and horrors of the defence rivalled Numantia. Sil. Italicus (i. 271) gives the sad details. The town perished, said Florus (ii. 6, 3), a great but mournful monument of fidelity to Rome, and of Rome's neglect of an ally in the hour The Roman architect took of need; Saguntum was revenged, as advantage of the rising ground for his its capture led to the second Punic upper seats. It looks N.E. in order to war, and ultimately to the expulsion secure shade to the spectators, who from Spain of the Carthaginian. It was thus, seated in balcones de sombra, as at taken in 535 U.C. See also Pliny, iii. 3; a modern bull-fight, must, like those · and read on the site itself Livy, xxi. 7. in the Greek theatre at Taorminia, in Saguntum, rebuilt by the Romans, Sicily, have enjoyed at the same time became a municipium, and fell with a spectacle of nature and of art. The the empire, the remains having been local arrangements, such as are comever since used by Goth, Moor, and mon to Roman theatres, resemble those Spaniard, as a quarry above ground. of Merida, and have been measured As with Italica, mayors and monks and described by Dean Marti; Ponz, have converted the shattered marbles iv. 232; in the Esp. Sag., viii. 151. to their base purposes. Mutilated There is also a Latin and Spanish letter fragments are here and there imbedded in 4to. Val. 1711, to Josef Ortiz, dean Spain.-I. S of Xativa; and a Disertacion, by Enrique Palos y Navarro, 4to. Val. 1807. Ascending to the castle, near the entrance are some buttresses and massy masonry, said to be remains of the old Saguntine castle. The present is altogether Moorish, and girdles the irregular eminences. The citadel, with the towers San Fernando and San Pedro, is placed at the extreme height, and probably occupies the site of the Saguntine keep described by Livy (xxi. 7). Suchet stormed the fortress from this side. The castle is rambling and extensive, with some Moorish cisterns, built on the supposed site of a Roman temple. There is a remarkable echo, and a few fragments of sculpture neglected as usual by the inæsthetic governors, and mutilated by Suchet's soldiers. The views on all sides around are very extensive, especially looking towards Valencia from the governor's garden. This fortress is the key of Valencia, which never can safely be attacked from this side while it remains untaken; yet, although ample time and warning of coming calamities were given, neither Blake nor the Valencian junta took any steps to render it tenable; but the gallant governor, Luis Andriani, everywhere repulsed the French, and as Suchet's only chance was the winning a decisive battle, a Fabian defensive policy, on the part of the Spaniards, must have caused him to retreat, and if Blake had only done nothing, Valencia was saved; but he was determined, like Areizaga at Ocaña, to "lose another kingdom by the insatiable desire of fighting pitched battles with undisciplined troops, led by inexperienced officers." (Disp. Nov. 27, 1811.) Accordingly, he marched from Valencia with 25,000 men, and attacked Suchet, who had less than 20,000, in the plain, Oct. 25, 1811. Before the battle he made every disposition to ensure its loss, and, in a very short time after it began, fled with his whole army under the very eyes of the garrison, who caught the infection and capitulated that very night-unworthy children of Saguntine ancestors, and forgetful of the religio loci. The loss of Valencia This, the regular diligence-road, coasts along the Mediterranean, and is not particularly interesting, excepting at Tarragona and its vicinity; the coach from Valencia reaches Barcelona in about 40 h. On leaving Valencia to the rt., amid its palms and cypresses, is the once celebrated Geronomite convent San Miguel de los Reyes, formerly the Escorial of Valencia. It was built (the ruins of Saguntum serving as a quarry!) in 1544 by Vidaña and Alonso de Covarrubias for Don Fernando, Duke of Calabria. This illfated heir to the throne of Naples surrendered to the Great Captain, relying on his word of honour, and was perfidiously imprisoned for 10 years at Xativa by Ferdinand the Catholic. Released by Charles V., and appointed Viceroy of Valencia, he raised this convent for his burial-place; the effigies of the founder and his wife were placed at each side of the high altar. The marbles and cloisters were superb. All was sacked by Suchet, who burnt the precious library, while Sebastiani bought the lands for less than one-fourth of the value, and even this he did not pay. A trial took place in Paris in 1843 between him and the heirs of one Crochart, a French paymaster, who speculated in these joint investments. The curious evidence lifted up a corner of curtain, and revealed how these things were managed under the empire. And next to Soult and Sebastiani this gentleman was one of the chief "collectors" of Spanish art, with small reference to picture pay-ing. Now everything is going to the dogs, and the conversion of the ex-convent into a cigar manufactory, is prayed for as a salvation. To the 1. is Burjasot, built on a slope amid its gardens, and the favourite country resort of the Valencians: on the way to the hermitage San Roque are 41 curious enclosed Moorish mazmorras, or caves, excavated in the rock, for preserving corn. Here they are called siches, in Spanish scilos. These old crypts resemble those on the Martires at Granada the Sicilian Sili (see p. 315). The esplanade on which they are placed commands a charming view of Valencia: the figs are excellent; the plants, transported to Marseilles and Genoa, denote their parentage in the names Bougasotes and Brogiotti. It was here that the troops of Cabrera, March 29, 1837, wound up a banquet with the feu d'artifice of shooting their prisoners Cosas de España. Passing Albalat, Puig lies to the rt. near the sea; here Jaime I. in 1237 routed the Moorish king Zaen, and in consequence captured Valencia. We now approach the sites of one of the worst of Blake's multifarious disgraces, by which the Spaniards lost this capital on the same field where it was won by their better-led ancestors. Crossing the Palancia, and leaving Murviedro, under the spurs of the Sierra de Espadan is Almenara, Arabicè the lantern, the pharos, or place of light, with its ruined castle on a triplepointed hill, on which once stood the temple of Diana, to which the sea formerly reached. A stone pyramid, with 4 coats of arms, marks the jurisdiction of 4 bishoprics-viz. Tortosa, Mayorca, Valencia, and Segorbe. 66 The good road continues winding through hills, amid vines, carob-trees, and aromatic shrubs, to Nules, a town of 2500 souls, fortified with towers and walls, with regular streets and gates. Villa Real was built by Jaime I. as a royal villa" for his children. The octagon tower of the tasteless Parroquia is remarkable. After crossing the Millares by a noble bridge, built in 1790, we reach Castellon de la Plana, of "the plain," so called because Jaime I., in 1233, removed the town from the old Moorish position, which was on a risinga L. to the N. Inn, decent, Parador del Leon. This flourishing place, in a garden of plenty, is fed by an admirable acequia, and very uninteresting. Pop. 15,000. Here Ribalta was born in 1551. The churches and convents once contained some of his finest works. There is some talk about a provincial Museo. In the Sangre, a church disfigured by modern stucco, some of these paintings were abandoned to dust and decay. The Sepulcro is so called from a tomb at the high altar which was sculptured by angels. In the modernised Parroquia, which has a good Gothic portal and tower, is a Purgatory" by Ribalta. The Torre de las Campanas is an octagon, 260 feet high, and built in 1591-1604. These towers or belfries are very common in Arragon and Catalonia, to which we are approaching; indeed, the towns, peasants, and products along this route are very like oue another. This place may be made the head-quarters of the naturalist, who hence can make excursions to the hilly group Las Santas, to Peña Golosa, the highest knoll, and the nucleus of the chain, and to Espadan, where mines of copper, cinnabar, lead, &c., abound. The chief mineral baths are at Villacreja (3 L. from Nules). There is a statistical Memoria of Castellon de la Plana, by Santillan, 1843. The district was much impoverished during the Carlist civil war. 66 The lover of rustic fêtes should attend, the 3rd Sunday in Lent, the pilgrimage to S1 Ma. Madalena, on a hill 1 L. E.; a grand procession made to the site of the old town. A Porrate or Fair is then and there held at noon, and Gayates, illuminated cypresses, carried at night. The whole is very Pagan and picturesque. The Ecclesiologist may visit the Cueva Santa, near the Alcublas; the Carthusian Vall de Cristo, near Altura, and the Bernadine convent at Benifasá, built in 1233 by Jaime I., and where Cabrera spent the summer of 1834. The road now passes the aromatic spurs of the Peña Golosa hills, emerging near Cabanes (3 L.), in its pestiferous undrained marshes. Near Oropesa, whose fine castle was dismantled by the French, are the remains of a Roman arch. Traversing the plains of Torreblanca, we reach Alcalá de Gisbert, a tortuous town with a fine Parroquia, which has a classical portal and a good belfry of masonry, erected in 1792. On emerging from a gorge of hills, the promontory of Peniscola, with its square castle on the top, appears to the rt., looking like an island or a peninsula. Peñiscola, Peninsula (Pop. 1500), is a miniature Gibraltar; it rises out of the sea, inaccessible by water, about 240 ft. high. It is connected with the land by a narrow strip of sand, which sometimes is covered by the waves. It surrendered to Jaime I., who ceded it to the Templars, a portion of whose church yet remains. At their dissolution it was given to the order of Montesa. Here Pope Luna, Benedict XIII., took refuge after he was declared schismatic by the Council of Constance, and from Dec. 1, 1415, to Jan. 29, 1423, surrounded by his petty conclave of cardinals, fulminated furious bulls against his enemies. His tower, La Torreta, was destroyed by the French bombardment, with much of the town, which has never recovered. Peñiscola is supplied with a fountain of fresh water, the one thing wanting to Gibraltar. There is a singular aperture in a rock, through which the sea boils up; which is still called El Bufador del Papa. Peñiscola is a miserable place. It is a plaza de armas. Wanting in everything the rock is girdled with battlements, and all was much strengthened for Philip II. in 1578 by his Italian engineer Antonelli. It was scandalously betrayed to the French in Feb. 1810. One Pedro Garcia Navarro was appointed governor by Blake, because anti- English! with whom Suchet opened a correspondence and bought the fortress, as Soult purchased Badajoz of the scoundrel governor Imaz: this Navarro was then made a member of the French Legion of Honour! All this is blinked by Madoz, xii. 795. Benicarlo, Pop. 6000, is a walled town, with a ruined castle and a sort of fishing-port called el grao, but is miserable amid plenty; being a residence of poor agriculturists, the streets are like farm-yards. The ch. has its octangular tower. This district is renowned for red and full-flavoured wines, which are exported by Cette and the Languedoc canal to Bordeaux to enrich poor clarets for the English market: the liquor, when new, is as thick as ink, and deserves its familiar appellation, "black strap;" it is much used to concoct what the trade call curious old port. Much bad brandy is also made, and sent to Cadiz to doctor up worse sherry. During the vintage the mud of these towns is absolutely red with grape-husks, and the legs of the population dyed from treading the vats. Nothing can be more dirty, classical, and unscientific than the modus operandi. The torcular, or press, is rudely classical; the filth and negligence boundless; but everything is trusted to the refining process of Nature's fermentation, for "there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." The town was much battered by Cabrera, who took it in 1838. Vinaróz: Parador, inn. This busy old seaport on the Cervol has crumbling walls and an amphibious population of some 8500 souls, half-peasant halfsailor. The sturgeon and lampreys are excellent. In the Palacio here the Duc de Vendôme, the descendant of Henry IV., and a caricature of his virtues and vices, died of gorging the rich fish -a death worthy of a man whose habits were only fit for the pen of a St. Simon or a Swift. Philip V. removed to the Escorial the body of |