Jew amiably offered to purchase the donkey. On the evening of 25th
Jan. Borrow accordingly took his place on the diligence, and reached
the capital the next morning.

On arriving at Madrid, Borrow first went to a Posada; but a few days
later he removed to lodgings in the Calle de la Zarza (the Street of
the Brambles),--"A dark and dirty street, which, however, was close
to the Puerta del Sol, the most central point of Madrid, into which
four or five of the principal streets debouche, and which is, at all
times of the year, the great place of assemblage for the idlers of
the capital, poor or rich." {167a}

The capital did not at first impress Borrow very favourably. {167b}
"Madrid is a small town," he wrote to his mother, {167c} "not larger
than Norwich, but it is crammed with people, like a hive with bees,
and it contains many fine streets and fountains . . . Everything in
Madrid is excessively dear to foreigners, for they are made to pay
six times more than natives . . . I manage to get on tolerably well,
for I make a point of paying just one quarter of what I am asked."

He suffered considerably from the frost and cold. From the snow-
covered mountains that surround the city there descend in winter such
cold blasts "that the body is drawn up like a leaf." {167d} Then
again there were the physical discomforts that he had to endure.

"You cannot think," he wrote, {168a} "what a filthy, uncivilised set
of people the Spanish and Portuguese are. There is more comfort in
an English barn than in one of their palaces; and they are rude and
ill-bred to a surprising degree."