cell, but each cell
was a house, full of conveniences, with an extensive garden, in which
they cultivated with the greatest care fruits and vegetables of the most
delicious kinds. They were forbidden to give presents or even alms; but
they allowed visitors to take from their gardens whatever they pleased.
In Granada there was a famous Father Reyes who devoted himself to the
cultivation of flowers, and from his garden all the elegant ladies of the
city were furnished with the choicest descriptions. Their male friends
were sent to gather them, nor was the reverend father altogether ignorant
of the fair uses to which they were about to be applied.

The Carthusian dined alone in his cell, into which his food was conveyed
by means of a _torno_, a kind of revolving cylindrical cupboard with
shelves, into which were put the numerous and abundant dishes composing
the dinner. The _torno_ being then spun round on its axis, the shelves
were unloaded of their sumptuous contents by the Carthusian himself.

As these monks were prohibited the use of meat, they kept up in their
monasteries a great stock of live fish and a number of turtles; these
latter being a delicacy they greatly prized. The place in which they
killed these turtles was called the _Galapagar_. They fed them in a
curious manner: at night there was thrown for them, into a large dry
tank, the carcase of a cow or a calf; and such was the voracity of the
amphibious animals, that, in the morning, nothing remained of these
carcases but the bones.

The dinner of the Carthusian generally consisted of eight or nine
distinct dishes, and their friends were accustomed to pay their visits
about the hour of dinner; for, as invitations were not allowed, they were
dispensed with. The wines they grew were always those of the best
quality, and there were no persons in all Spain who fared so sumptuously
and deliciously as did those devoted recluses.

None but presbyters were admitted to the Carthusian order, and even these
were generally only such as had exercised some dignity in cathedral or
collegiate churches; hence nearly all of them were learned men--men of
good morals and great experience in the affairs of the world. Sometimes
a military man of good attainments, a person high in the ministerial
office, or a member of the higher courts of justice, sought admission
within their walls; and although such acquisition was considered as very
useful and very honourable, they we