y 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.

Now that stupendious Cluster of Pyramids affected me in a Manner
different to all before; and I found it so finely group'd with verdant
Groves, and here and there interspers'd with aspiring, but solitary
Trees, that it no way lessened my Admiration, while it increased my
Delight. Those Trees, which I call solitary, as standing single, in
opposition to the numerous Groves, which are close and thick (as I
observ'd when I ascended to take a View of the several Cells) rise
generally out of the very Clefts of the main Rock, with nothing, to
Appearance, but a Soil or bed of Stone for their Nurture. But though
some few Naturalists may assert, that the Nitre in the Stone may afford
a due Proportion of Nourishment to Trees and Vegetables; these, in my
Opinion, were all too beautiful, their Bark, Leaf, and Flowers, carry'd
too fair a Face of Health, to allow them even to be the Foster-children
of Rock and Stone only.

Upon this Hill, or if you please, Grove of Rocks, are thirteen Hermits
Cells, the last of which lies near the very Summit. You gradually
advance to every one, from Bottom to Top, by a winding Ascent; which to
do would otherwise be Impossible, by reason of the Steepness; but though
there is a w