Part 8 (1/2)
I stay'd but very few Days at _Barcelona_, and then proceeded onat which Place I deliver'd reat Civility; and to double it, acquainted me at the same time, that the Governor of _Alicant_ had wrote very h it was a known Part of that noble Lord's Character, that the first Iest, I had Reason soon after to close with another Saying, equally true, _That general Rules always admit of so of the Town of _Lerida_; the Prince of _Hesse_ (Brother to that brave Prince who lost his Life before _Monjouick_) retiring into the Castle with the Garrison, which he bravely defended a long ti ence that the Eneave ineer After I had receiv'd my Orders, and taken Leave of his Lordshi+p, I set out, resolving, since it was left to o by way of _Barcelona_, and there take shi+pping for the Place of my Station; by which I propos'd to save_Montserat_, a Place I had heardDesire to see it To say Truth, I had been told such extravagant Things of the Place, that I could hardly i but _Spanish_ Rhodo too natural to that Nation
_MONTSERAT_ is a rising lofty Hill, in the very Middle of a spacious Plain, in the Principality of _Catalonia_, about seven Leagues distant fro to the North At the very first Sight, its Oddness of Figure proiven at that Distance the ProspectPyra themselves all at once to the Eye, look, if I may be allowed so to speak, like a little petrify'd Forrest; or, rather, like the awful Ruins of some capacious Structure, the Labour of venerable Antiquity The nearer you approach the more it affects; but till you are very near you can hardly for like what you find it when you coine it a perfect Hill of Steeples; but so internitude, as well as Beauty, that your Admiration can never be tir'd, or your Curiosity surfeited Such I found it on my Approach; yet much less than what I found it, was so soon as I enter'd upon the very Premisses
Now that stupendious Cluster of Pyramids affected me in a Manner different to all before; and I found it so finely group'd with verdant Groves, and here and there interspers'd with aspiring, but solitary Trees, that it no way lessened ht Those Trees, which I call solitary, as standing single, in opposition to the numerous Groves, which are close and thick (as I observ'd when I ascended to take a View of the several Cells) rise generally out of the very Clefts of the , to Appearance, but a Soil or bed of Stone for their Nurture But though some few Naturalists may assert, that the Nitre in the Stone etables; these, in my Opinion, were all too beautiful, their Bark, Leaf, and Flowers, carry'd too fair a Face of Health, to allow them even to be the Foster-children of Rock and Stone only
Upon this Hill, or if you please, Grove of Rocks, are thirteen Herradually advance to every one, fro Ascent; which to do would otherwise be Ih there is a winding Ascent to every Cell, as I have said, I would yet set at defiance the er, to find it feasible to visit theo_, or old ass, that with Paniers hanging on each Side of hiularly, and daily, up to every particular Cell The Manner is as follows:
In the Paniers there are thirteen Partitions; one for every Cell At the Hour appointed, the Servant having plac'd the Paniers on his Back, the ass, of hioes to the Door of the Convent at the very Foot of the Hill, where every Partition is supply'd with their several Allowances of Victuals and Wine Which, as soon as he has receiv'd, without any further Attendance, or any Guide, he radually, in their due Course, till he reaches the very upper'd his Duty, he descends the sahter by the Load he carry'd up This the poor stupid Drudge fails not to do, Day and Night, at the stated Hours
Two Gentlemen, who had join'd hted, that the End of it was so well answer'd I could easily discover in their Countenances a Satisfaction, which, if it did not give a Sanction to my own, much confirm'd it, while they seem'd to alloith me that these reverend Solitaries were truly happy Men; I then thought the withintheir Errors, and lesser Superstitions,to a happy Life, where all things necessary are provided without Care? Where the Days, without Anxiety or Troubles, ratefully passed aith an innocent Variety of diverting and pleasing Objects, and where their Sleep sand Slu s, natural Cascades, or the various Songs of the pretty feather'd Quiristers
But their Courtesy to Strangers is no less engaging than their Solitude
A recluse Life, for the Fruits of it, generally speaking, produces Moroseness; Pharisaical Pride too often sours the Temper; and a mistaken Opinion of their own Merit too naturally leads such Men into a Conteood Men (for I ht them) seee others, that at the saations upon themselves This is self-evident, in that Affability and Co the Rarities of their several Cells; where, for fear you should slip any thing worthy Observation, they endeavour to instil in you as quick a Propensity of asking, as you find in the such Questions of Curiosity as their own have inspir'd
In particular, I re Leave at the Door of his Cell, to which out of his great Civility he acco by the Air of our Faces, as well as our Expressions, that we thought ourselves pleasingly entertain'd; to divert us afresh, advanc'd a few Paces fro Flock of pretty little Birds, variegated, and of different Colours, ihting upon his Shoulders, soe on his snow-like Head, andto feed out of his Mouth; each appearing emulous and under an innocent Contention, how best to express their Love and Respect to their no less pleased Master
Nor did the other Cells labour under any Deficiency of Variety: Every one boasting in so equally agreeable and entertaining Nevertheless, crystal Springs spouting frohest to the lowest, common to them all; and, in most of them, they had little brass cocks, out of which, when turn'd, issu'd the most cool and crystalline Flows of excellent pure Water And yet what more affected me, and which I found near more Cells than one, was the natural Cascades of the sa froave not rateful Refresh froher tu Mur Rocks, that it were impossible to see or hear therateful only in a beautiful Verdure; Nature renders the them with Clusters of Berries of a perfect scarlet Colour, which, by a beautiful Interht In short, it uish or determine, whether the Neatness of their Cells within, or the beauteous Varieties without, most exhaust his Ad'd by the frequent View of some of those pyraht, to recline and seek Support frohbourhood
When I ht to have forgot to particularize the glorious Prospects presented to your Eye from every one of them; but especially from that nearest the Summit
A Prospect, by reason of the Purity of the Air, so extensive, and so very entertaining that to dilate upon it properly to one that never saw it, would baffle Credit; and naturally to depaint it, would confound Invention I therefore shall only say, that on the _Mediterranean_ Side, after an agreeable Interval of soest Opticks; and although _Barcelona_ bounds it on the Land, the Eyes are feasted with the Delights of such an intervening Champion (where beauteous Nature does not only smile, but riot) that the Sense must be very temperate, or very weak, that can be soon or easily satisfy'd
Having thus taken a View of all their refreshi+ng Springs, their grateful Groves, and solitary Shades under single Trees, whose Clusters prov'd that even Rocks were grown fruitful; and having ran over all the Variety of Pleasures in their several pretty Cells, decently set off with Gardens round the, equally fragrant and beautiful, ere brought down again to the Convent, which, though on a small Ascent, lies very near the Foot of this terrestrial Paradise, there to take a Survey of their su Repository; and feast our Eyes with Wonders of a different Nature; and yet as entertaining as any, or all, we had seen before
Immediately on our Descent, a Priest presented himself at the Door of the Convent, ready to shew us the hidden Rarities And though, as I understood, hardly a Day passes without the Resort of soratify their Curiosity with the Wonders of the Place; yet is there, on every such Occasion, a superior Concourse of Natives ready to see over again, out of otry and Superstition, what they have seen, perhaps, a hundred ti notice, however, that the Priest treated those constant Visitants with much less Cereers of what Nation soever; or, indeed, he seee those, as he did Pleasure in obliging us
The Hall was neat, large and stately; but being plain and unadorn'd with more than decent Decorations, suitable to such a Society, I hasten to the other
When we enter'd the Chapel, our Eyes were ie of our Lady of _Montserat_ (as they call it) which stands over the Altar-Piece It is about the natural Stature; but as black and shi+ning as Ebony it self Most would ih her Retinue and Adorers will allow nothing of the Matter On the contrary, Tradition, which with theion, has assur'd them, and they relate it as undoubted Matter of Fact, that her present Colour, if I may so call it, proceeded from her Concealment, in the Time of the _Moors_, between those two Rocks on which the Chapel is founded; and that her long lying in that dis'd her once lovely White into its present opposite Would not a Heretick here be apt to say, That it was greaty pity that an I so many Miracles, could no better conserve her own Coood Catholick, to carry along with it Matter of Reproach to the fair Ladies, Natives of the Country, for their unnatural and excessive Affection of adulterating, if not defacing, their beautiful Faces, with the ruinating Dauberies of _Carmine_?
As the Custouishi+ng Piece of Civility to Strangers) e approach the black Lady (who, I should have told you, bears a Child in her Arms; but whether maternally Black, or of the _Mulatto_ Kind, I protest I did not reat Civility, offers you her Arm to salute; at which Juncture, I, like a true blue Protestant,my Word of Command, fell foul on the fair Lady's Face The Displeasure in his Countenance (for he took ood Lady her self) soon convinc'd reater Token of his Civility, having ad with my Companions and me, is pass'd off the better; and his after Civilities norance by his Co him that I had a Set of Beads, which I erly co them on her Arm for the space of about half, or somewhat short of a whole Minute, he return'd reat deal of Address and most evident Satisfaction The Reader will be apt to admire at this curious Piece of Superstition of id Protestants have, in this Country, thought it but prudent to do the like; and likewise having so done, to carry them about their Persons, or in their Pockets: For Experience has convinc'd us of the Necessity of this most Catholick Precaution; since those who have here, travelling or otherwise, come to their Ends, whether by Accident, Sickness, or the Course of Nature, not having these sanctifying Seals found upon them, have ever been refus'd Christian Burial, under a superstitious Iination, that the Corps of a Heretick will infect every thing near it
Two instances of this kind fell within e; one before I came to _Montserat_, the other after The first was of one _Slunt_, who had been _Bo kill'd while we lay at _Campilio_, a Priest, whom I advis'd with upon the Matter, told rew, his Body would not only be taken up again, but ill treated, in revenge of the Destruction of so much Corn, which the People would on no account be persuaded to touch; for which Reason we took care to have him lay'd in a very deep Grave, on a very barren Spot of Ground The other was of one Captain _Bush_, as a Prisoner withsent, as I was afterwards, to Saint _Clemente la Mancha_, there dy'd; and, as I was inforht, bury'd in a Corn-Field, he was taken out of his Grave by those superstitious People, as soon as ever they could discover the Place where his Body was deposited But I return to the Convent at _Montserat_
Out of the Chapel, behind the High-Altar, we descended into a spacious Roos ht in the Chapel it self I had seen the Riches of the Universe, I found a prodigious Quantity of more costly Presents, the superstitious Tribute ofa Multitude of others, they show'dof _Charles_ the Third, then King of _Spain_, but now E a Heretick, I couldsuch a Sword to a King of _Spain_, than for a King of _Spain's_ presenting such a Sword to a fair Lady: And by the Motto upon it, _Pulchra tara_, it was plain such was his Opinion That Prince was so delighted with the Pleasure's of this sweet Place, that he, as well as I, stay'd as long as ever he could; though neither of us so long as either could have wish'd
But there was another Offering frolorious and costly; but much better adapted; and therefore in its Propriety easier to be accounted for That was a Glory for the Head of her Ladishi+p, every Ray of which was set with Dia to the very Extreht be about half a Yard Long; and I iht be about one Hundred of them In short, if ever her Ladishi+p did the Offerer the Honour to put it on, I will though a Heretick, venture to aver, she did not at that present time look like a humane Creature
To enumerate the rest, if my Memory would suffice, would exceed Belief
As the upper Part was a plain Miracle of Nature, the loas a compleat Treasury of miraculous Art
If you ascend from the lowest Cell to the very Summit, the last of all the thirteen, you will perceive a continual Contention between Pleasure and Devotion; and at last, perhaps, find your self at a Loss to decide which deserves the Prehear Acceptation, as the little Dormitories of solitary Monks: No!