We fared better than my poor horse, for not a grain of oats or barley
did this city afford; nor has he tasted, or have I seen, a morsel of hay
since I parted from my little _Dona_, near the foot of the _Pyrenees_.
Tomorrow we have seven hours to _Barcelona_; I can see the high cape
under which it stands, and from under which, you shall soon hear again
from me.




LETTER XVIII.

BARCELONA.


Upon our arrival at this town, we were obliged to wait at the outward
gate above half an hour, no person being admitted to enter from twelve
till one, tho' all the world may go out; that hour being allotted for
the guards, &c. to eat their dinner. As I had no letter to any person in
this city, but to the French Consul, I had previously wrote to a Mr.
Ford, a merchant at Barcelona, with whom I had formerly travelled from
London to Bath, to beg the favour of him to provide lodgings for me; I
therefore enquired for Mr. Ford's house, and found myself conducted to
that of a Mr. Curtoys; Mr. Ford, unfortunately for me, was dead; but the
same house and business is carried on by Messrs. Adams and Curtoys, who
had received and opened my letter. After this family had a little
_reconnoitred_ mine, Mr. Curtoys came down, and with much civility, and
an hospitable countenance, told me his dinner was upon the table, and in
very pressing terms desired that we would partake of it. We found here a
large family, consisting of his wife, a motherly good-looking woman;