a town in the province of New Castile, where the king of Spain has a palace and gardens which are reckoned the most delightful in the world.

This place is 20 miles from Madrid, by a noble road, planted on each side with trees, lately made at the expense of 120,000l. sterling. It is delightfully situated at the conflux of the rivers Tagus and Jarama; which run through the gardens, and add new beauty to this charming spot, where art and nature seem to go hand in hand with the most pleasing and rural simplicity. On one side fine avenues of stately oaks and lofty elms convey the truest ideas of magnificence, while they afford the most reviving shade; on the other, the sudden transitions to lawns and wildernesses, the cascades of water breaking through the thickets, the tuneful songs of numberless birds sheltered in these cool recesses, the occasional appearance and passage of the monarch attended by the grandees of his kingdom; all these objects united, and concentrated in one point, fill the imagination with pleasing ideas, and impress the mind of a traveller with a thousand agreeable sensations.

The general situation is in a very large plain surrounded with large hills, of a most disagreeable aspect indeed, but seldom appearing, being well hidden by the noble rows of trees that extend across the flat in every direction. The main body of the palace is an old building, to which have been lately added two new wings. The first part of the building was erected by Philip II, who purchased the estate, planted many of the avenues, and, in order to extend his chase, or to indulge his splenetic disposition, had all the vines that grew on the hills rooted up. By that means he drove away the inhabitants, and rendered the environs of his villa a perfect desert.—The apartments are good; but contain nothing very particular to take off from the enjoyment of so many fine objects abroad. In one of the new wings is a playhouse, and in the other a chapel. Part of the ceiling of the former was painted by Mengs, who was also sent to Rome to paint a holy family for the principal altar in the chapel. There are seven fine pictures of Luca Jordano in the apartment called El Cabinet Antiguo, and six others in that De los Mayordomos. The portraits of the grand duke and duchess of Tuscany, by Mengs, are in a new apartment called the king's dressing room. In the chapel, over the great altar, there is a fine picture of the Annunciation, by Titian, presented by him to Charles V, and brought from the convent of Jute, after the death of that emperor. The porcelain cabinet, where there are several large pieces of the king's own manufacture, is also an object of curiosity to a traveller.

As to the gardens, the whole of them may be thrown into three grand divisions, distinguished by the names of La Huerta Valenciana, Los Deleites, and El Cortijo. In the Huerta Valenciana, agriculture and gardening are carried on in the same manner as in that fruitful province, and they plough with horses. In the Cortijo they use oxen, as in Andalusia; and in other places they scratch up the ground with mules, as is still practised in some parts of Spain. Whichever way one looks round, a constant variety pleases the eye, and enraptures the mind. At one moment the sturdy buffalo moves before you, drawing his heavy burden; soon after, the slow camel, with his ponderous load; while the swift zebra with his striped garment frisks over the plains. If you approach the farm, every object of convenience is consulted, and in the dairy every degree of neatness. The Dutch cow enjoys a luxuriant pasture, the brood mares greatly enliven the landscape, and the stables are filled with the most excellent horses; and an immense nursery furnishes all manner of trees and plants. The fine avenue, which serves also for a public walk, called Calle de Reyna, has nothing equal to it at Versailles. It is three miles long, quite straight from the palace gate, crossing the Tagus twice before it loses itself in the thickets, where some noble spreading elms and weeping poplars hang beautifully over the deep still pool. Near this road is a flower garden for the spring, laid out with great taste by Mr Wall during his ministry. The gay variety of flowers Aranjuez, at this time of year is particularly pleasing to the eye; but its beauty soon fades on the approach of summer.

As the weather grows hot, the company that choose to walk retire to a garden in an island of the Tagus, on the north side of the palace. This is a heavenly place, cut into various walks and circular lawns, which in their primitive state may have been very stiff and formal; but in the course of a century, Nature has obliterated the regular forms of art; the trees have swelled out beyond the line traced for them, and destroyed the enfilade by advancing into the walks or retiring from them. The sweet flowering shrubs, instead of being clipped and kept down, have been allowed to shoot up into trees, and hang over the statues and fountains they were originally meant to serve as humble fences to. The jets-d'eau dash up among the trees, and add fresh verdure to the leaves. The terraces and balustrades built along the river, are now overgrown with roses, and other luxuriant bushes, hanging down into the stream, which is darkened by the large trees growing on the opposite banks. Many of the statues, groups, and fountains, are handsome, some masterly, the works of Algardi: all are placed in charming points of view, either in open circular spots, at a distance from the trees, or else in gloomy arbours, and retired angles of the wood. The banks of this wood, called the Ila, are also enlivened by elegant yachts for the amusement of the royal family.

The town or village formerly confined of the palace, its offices, and a few miserable huts, where the ambassadors, and the attendants of the court, endeavoured to lodge themselves as well as they could, but always very uncomfortably; many of the habitations were vaults half under ground. What determined the king to build a new town, and to embellish the environs, was an accident that happened at the nuncio's; a coach broke through the ceiling of his dining-room, and fell in upon the table. The court then began to apply very considerable sums to the purpose of erecting proper dwellings for the great number of persons that flock to the place where the sovereign resides; near 10,000 are supposed to live here two or three months in spring; the king keeps 115 sets of mules, which require a legion of men to take care of them. Above a million sterling has been laid out at Aranjuez since the year 1763; and it must be acknowledged, that wonders have been performed: several fine streets drawn in straight lines with broad pavements, a double row of trees before the houses, and a very noble road in the middle; commodious hotels for the ministers and ambassadors; great squares, markets, churches, a theatre, and an amphitheatre for bull feasts, have been raised from the ground; besides the accession of two new wings to the palace. Neatness and convenience have been more studied and sought for than show in the architecture, but altogether the place has something truly magnificent in the coup d'œil.