Caitiles, I came in five hours to Xadraque, and four
leagues further, to Flores ; about half way, there is a
place where there are hills with great clefts. One evidently
fees they were caufed by the rains which carry
away, the limy, earth, and that all that country had been
a plain, for the parts that remain without gullies, have
a bottom o f hard rock, and in proportion as the water
makes its way through, they form gullies ; I faw fome
juft beginning, with a likelihood of riling into hills in the
courfe of twenty years ; from whence I conjecture, that
i f fome hills give way, and crumble into plains, others,
in the courfe of time by the motion of waters, gradually
form themfeiv.es into mountains.
s In paifing this road, you go through a wood of fear let
oak, whofe leaves are covered with the gall infeCt, and
on coming out o f the wood, find a well cultivated
country with vineyards, corn fields, and plenty of
thyme, lavender, fantal, and fage; then pafs by the
village of Hita at the foot of a pyramidical hill, rearing
its lofty creft above the others, like a great rock in the
fea, with an old Moorilh caftle on its fummit.
Having eroffed the river Henares you enter a fertile
plain with a great deal o f finall grained fandy pebble. It
is remarkable that on entering New Caftile, ftone of
this kind is always found, even in hills of limy earth r
after
after pafling a range of cultivated hills I arrived at the
famous city o f Alcala de Henares, with an univerfity
founded in 1499, by that great ftatefman Cardinal
Ximenez de Cifneros, who alfo endowed it with a good
library, and printed here, at his own expence, the firft
polyglot bible, known by the name o f Complutenfian.
The univerfity is a handfome ftru&ure, Ximenes is buried
in the church with an elegant monument, by Dominico
o f Florence. The medaillon o f the Cardinal has
been removed from the tomb into the library. Before
I leave Alcala, let me entertain you with a ftory related
by the witty Don Antonio Ponz, fecretary o f the royal
academy o f San Fernando, at Madrid, in his tour
through Spain, who, vifiting the convent of San Diego,
belonging to the Francifcans, thus expreffes himfelf;
“ I could not fwallow two pills that my condu&or endeavoured
to ram down my throat, which, for his part,
he feemed to have very eafily digefted. He ihewed me
a pidure o f St. Jerome in a cardinal’s robe, and a red
hat, which is quite out o f chara&er, and wanted to per-
fuade me it was a portrait o f Cardinal Wolfey; after that
would make me believe it was valued at fifteen thoufand
dollars {£. 2500) though I was ftartled at the fum, I did
not choofe to difpleafe the perfon who was doing me a
favour. I muft not forget to tell you I alfo faw, in a
chapel, on the altar o f St. Francis, the head o f that
faint in clay, painted to imitate nature. I do not know
what