Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	great_a	king_n	philip_n	3,390	5	9.0449	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41525	The present state of the princes and republicks of Italy with observations on them / written originally in English by J. Gailhard ...	Gailhard, J. (Jean)	1671 (1671)	Wing G125; ESTC R40437	100,916	272

in sundry places thus they make good their Proverb cada loco con su tema every fool hath his fancies Benefit and pleasure are the two great ends of Travellers but in Spain neither is to be had the people of it not being sociable and there is hardly any thing worthy of a mans curiosity or at least the pains to go to see it all Spain doth not afford one noble and stately City Pamplona in Navarra is noted for the Citadel in 't Burgos the Metropolis of Castilla the old for the great Church and an inconsiderable Castle Valladolid where formerly the Court hath resided for a considerable time is a proverb Villa per villa Valladolid en Castilla but there are not so much as walls about it Salamanca hath the famous University of Spain their is the Bridge built by the Romans and the Bull at one end of it Segovia hath without the Monasterie called Parral the Mint a Palace and the Aqueducts the fine Cloth made there Toledo the chief Arch-bishoprick of Spain hath a great Church a thing called the Treasure within it Water-works so at Granada is the Palace of the Palace of the Kings of the Moors the Altrambra Cordova hath the Mosquea or Church of the Moors Sarragossa is a good place and to be short their Sevile the chief of Andaluzia of which their Proverb says El que non ha vista Sevilla non ha vista Maravilla indeed about it grow good fruits the River Guadulquivin runs by and after falls into the Sea by San Iuan de Burrameda but certainly in other places are much better Churches Palaces Bridges Universities c. and I say that all these things together are not worth the pains and the charges of going so far to see them except a man hath absolutely a mind to be able to say I have seen neither is a good breeding to be gotten there Indeed there are in Spain two things worth seeing and no more one is a work of nature the River Guadiana in Estramudara sinking under ground beyond Placio del Rey and then raising about Miajada nigh upon 14 short leagues off upon this account 't is said they have the best bridge of Europe the other is the Escurial the Master-piece of the great and wise King Philip 11. though 't was no part of wisdome in him to have at once 3 such great designs to conquer England uphold the league in France and to recover the Low-Countries all which came to nothing because as the Italian saith Chi troppo abraccia nulla stringe however he built the Iscuriale where the Courts the Kings and Queens Lodgings the Fryars Cloysters the water the Gardens the Library the Chappel in a word the whole is a rare thing but not so miraculous to those who have seen other parts of the world the Pardo buen retiro and Aranjuez I will hardly mention those forenamed are the best things in Spain but he who hath a mind to suffer so many inconveniences before he comes thither must do it by way of Penance as for Cities Barcelona is certainly the most populous of any in Spain The rest of these towns are full of pride idleness misery cheats treachery murthers and other oppressions caused by their ambition animosities covetousness desire of revenge luxury and jealousies about Wives Concubines Daughters Sisters Neeces and what other relations they have of that Sex they account themselves obliged to be watchful over yet for all their poverty they are taken with the vanity which is too common in other places nor to observe a distinction of cloaths according to the quality of persons for I have seen Carpenters and Shooemakers in Silver cloath doublets and in extraordinary fine cloath but I know it to be their humour that the poorer they are the more they indeavour to hide it the best countenance they put on and the greatest shew they make their very Alguazils or Bailies who are the vilest sort of People think themselves as good as the best in the land and to see them walk with a switch lifted up in their hand one would perceive in them as much lostiness as if they were high stewards or high chamberlains of the Kingdome But to speak of somthing which is or ought to be the best in Spain we must come to Madrid the ordinary place of the Courts residence which is far from being numerous and their way is particular and different from others the generality of Women about it are antient and tanned but they use painting very much as a remedy to it Yet I confess I have seen in Spain some with a very white skin but these are scarce a brown hair and a lively black eye but there is not that honest Society of both Sexes which is found in other places and great men do so affect gravity and stand so much upon their formalities and points of honour that amongst them there can be no sincerity nor satisfaction Coaches in Madrid are drawn by mules in them Ladies sit in the same Gravity which men do affect they are almost like Statues without motion and when they think fit to move the head 't is done in so slowand so lingring a way that one who is not used to it would admire to see it for all this I believe if they had the liberty which others enjoy in other places some of them would prove the wittiest and most gallant Women in the World even as were the Moors in Granada but as things stand they must live a very retired manner of life On the other side no greater prostitution in the world then there is in that Town for the generality of Women mothers make no difficulties to sell their daughters maidenhèads four or five times and as often as they can to cheat men young girles begin to keep mens company when they are but ten eleven or at the most twelve years old this is the cause of so much infection there in that kind that it is a lamentable thing for any one who hath the curiosity to see their Hospitals of incurables besides that horrid sin which to punish sufficiently no pain was found upon earth but God was pleased to pour down as it were hell from heaven causing fire and brimstone to rain and shower down upon earth about this horrid sin they have this proverb in their language En Spania los Cavalleros en Francia los pedantos en Italia todos A thing observable in the Court is the way of their Grandees who sit down and put on their hats in the Kings presence of these men there are three sorts some have it by a personal priviledge and special favour of the King others have it as an hereditary right and propriety derived from their parents and others in the third place have it by a right of their charge and place as namely the President of the Council of Castilla who though he be not a Grandee yet enjoys the same priviledge as they do Charles the fifth was the Author of these Grandees to gratifie the Spanish Nation and in some kind make some of them equal with some German Princes who followed him in that voyage and who by their quality and extraction had the right of sitting and being covered in his presence a thing which other European Kings do not allow of Portugal excepted Again at Madrid is to be seen that cruel Bull-fighting a remainder of those bloody spectacles used by the Romans for to give a pleasure to the spectators men as mad as the Bulls they fight against must encounter those wild creatures and hazard in a combate which hath proved fatal to the lives of so many What shall I say of Madrid it self where are neither good streets nor stately buildings antient or Modern not considerable for the materials or for the rules of Architecture in winter there is nothing but dirt and dust in summer so that if for the space of three or four hours men have been to walk their cloaths shall be as white for dust as if they had been at the Mill so that 't is no wonder if their cloaths and Taffity hats that is overlaid with Taffita grow greasie so soon Above all let not one who is there walk abroad late at night nor very early in the morning for as they have no houses of office they fling it up and down the streets and how unpleasant these objects are to the Nose and the Eye let any one judge yet about 9 or 10 of the Clock there is nothing to be seen but all is dissolved into dust as men say that one stench poison drives away another so their use of Onions and Garlick is by them thought to be a sovereign remedy against these Spanish Perfumes we are now speaking of the Air indeed is the only good thing at Madrid for 't is very pure and free from the Plague But if for all this men have a mind to go to see that stinking place I will say to them in Spanish Sea con pie derecho that is in an English sence Much good may 't do to them FINIS