
L E T T E R XVII.
iObfervatiens made in the city o f Valencia and its ewirons.
TT'AIR Valencia! how ihall I defcribe thy tranfcendant
-*• beauties, or fpeak o f thofe infinite glories that adorn
thee? I f celebrated architects have not graced thy capital
city with fumptuous palaces, or given a more pleafing
form to thy ilreets, be contented that the great Architect
o f the univerfe has poured on thee bleifings innumerable
to render thy happinefs compleat, arid make thee the
admiration o f the world, infpiring at the fame time thy
fons with the moil exalted talents to fing perpetually thy
praife (a).I
4,
The city o f Valencia is liappily fituated about three
miles from the fea on the Weil fide of the river Guada-
laviar, with five ilone bridges over it, which afford a
wariety o f agreeable outlets from this pleafant city,
exultingly riling out o f a foreil of mulberry trees,
/a) A n account o f the writers of the kingdom of Valencia only, makes a work of two volumes
in folio. See “ Efcritores del reino de Valencia, chronologicamente ordenados defde
el ano 1238 de la Chriftiana conquifta de la mifma -Ciudad hafta el de 1748 por Vicente
Ximeno Preibitero, 8cc. Valencia, 1749. 2 tomos en folio.
which
which bring an immenfe wealth to its citizens. The
branches o f thefe trees are made to grow horizontally,,
in order to pick the leaves more eafily, and the trees
are pruned every two or three years, to preferve the
leaves foft and tender, that the filk may be finer, cleaner
and lighter than that of Murcia, where the trees are only
pruned once in four years, which renders the leaf
woolly and tough. In Granada they do not prune them
at all, and .yet fuppofe their filk is the fineil in Spain;
but' their trees are of the black fort, and thofe of Valencia
and Murcia'are o f the white mulberry, for which rea-
fon the worms of thefe two lail provinces when carried
to Galicia, where they have none of the white fort, never
fucceed, while the worms o f Granada thrive admirably
well, in meeting with a fimilar leaf to that of their own
country.
I ihall not enter into a detail of the manifold branches
o f cultivation in theenvirons of Valencia, where nature always
fmiles, and where thevery air is conftantly embalmed
with the fragrant perfume of an infinite number of fruit
trees and odoriferous herbs-. The cedrats are fo large as
fometimes to weigh more than fix pounds, when the tree
that produced themisnot above two or three feet in height:
as to flowers and plants, their beauty and variety are wonderful,
as well as the amazing quantities of pomegranates,
figs, cherries, pears, and grapes the moll delicious imaginable,