I stay’d but very few Days at Barcelona, and then proceeded on my intended Journey to Tarraga; arriving at which Place I deliver’d my Packet to the Lord Galway, who receiv’d me with very great Civility; and to double it, acquainted me at the same time, that the Governor of Alicant had wrote very much in my Favour:  But though it was a known Part of that noble Lord’s Character, that the first Impression was generally strongest, I had Reason soon after to close with another Saying, equally true, That general Rules always admit of some Exception.  While I was here we had News of the taking 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 time after.

When I was thus attending my Lord Galway at Tarraga, he receiv’d Intelligence that the Enemy had a Design to lay Siege to Denia; whereupon he gave me Orders to repair there as Engineer.  After I had receiv’d my Orders, and taken Leave of his Lordship, I set out, resolving, since it was left to my Choice, to go by way of Barcelona, and there take Shipping for the Place of my Station; by which I propos’d to save more time than would allow me a full Opportunity of visiting Montserat, a Place I had heard much Talk of, which had fill’d me with a longing Desire to see it.  To say Truth, I had been told such extravagant Things of the Place, that I could hardly impute more than one half of it to any thing but Spanish Rhodomontado’s, the Vice of extravagant Exaggeration being 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 from Barcelona to the Westward, somewhat inclining to the North.  At the very first Sight, its Oddness of Figure promises something extraordinary; and given at that Distance the Prospect makes somewhat of a grand Appearance:  Hundreds of aspiring Pyramids presenting 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 form in your Mind any thing like what you find it when you come close to it.  Till just upon it you would imagine it a perfect Hill of Steeples; but so intermingled with Trees of Magnitude, 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.