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ber of dogs, who keep watch over the sheep. The chief-shepherd is on horseback, and has a salary of about sixty pounds English. The wages of the inferior shepherds vary according to their skill and usefulness. The best paid have about thirty shillings a month; and the worst, not more than eight: but to these last two pounds of bread a day are given. Every shepherd may have a certain number of sheep and goats of his own; but their wool belongs to the proprietor of the flock. The shepherd has only the milk, the flesh and the young ones they produce.

"Abundant supplies of salt are provided: the sheep eat as much of it as they like. The annual consumption for a thousand animals, is two thousand five hundred pounds.

"The Mesta is composed of proprietors possessing, some four, and others sixty thousand sheep." "The mayoral, or chief-shepherd," said Edward, "had need to be an intelligent man."

"He is selected for his activity, good sense, and experience. He is also obliged to have some knowledge of the diseases of sheep, and their cure. The march of these large flocks is regulated by particular laws, derived from immemorial custom. The sheep have a right of pasturage in all those waste lands which are reserved for that purpose, paying a fixed price to the proprietors, beyond which they can exact nothing. They cannot enter

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OBJECTIONS TO THIS SYSTEM.

upon cultivated grounds; but the owners are obliged to reserve them a passage, forty-five fathoms wide. The sheep travel two leagues a day in their own pastures; but they go six, when they pass through arable lands. Their emigrations extend to a hundred and twenty, and a hundred and fifty leagues.

"The Mesta has its particular laws, and a tribunal called the Honourable Council of the Mesta.' It is composed of four judges; and one of the members of the Council of Castille is their president."

"Pray, papa," said Ellen, "what are the objections to this system? Who are hurt by it?"

"The kingdom at large, my dear. The cultivation of corn is neglected, which if more carefully attended to, would benefit the whole country, and give more permanent employment to the labouring classes.

"The feeding sheep benefits only their owners, who bear a very small proportion to the population of Spain.

"Within the last hundred years the value of wool has doubled, whilst the cultivation of grain, which requires so much labour, and is so precarious in its produce, has scarcely risen in price."

"Do you know, sir," said Edward, "the profit derived from a flock of ten thousand sheep?"

"Ten thousand sheep produce about five-hun

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dred weight of wool, which will yield about twothousand pounds of our money; from which the wages of the shepherds, losses, and all attendant expenses are to be deducted. The profit, however, is still very considerable: no risk attends the occupation, and the expenses may be estimated almost to a fraction, one year with another."

"And when are they shorn?" said Frank. "I love sheep-shearing time."

"I have been expecting that question," said his father. "It is in the month of May, when the fleece begins to be troublesome, that the wool is cut off. They begin their travels about April: and whether it be habit or instinct that then draws them to the climate most proper for them at that season of the year, it is said that the uneasiness they show to be off might, in case of need, serve as an almanac for their conductors."

"Does the shearing," said Frank, "take place in the fields? How I should like to see it!"

"This, in Spain," said Mr. Delville," is an operation of great importance. It is performed in great buildings, contrived so as to receive whole flocks of forty, fifty, and even sixty thousand sheep. Each flock belonging to one proprietor is called cavana, to which is added the name of the proprietor. Some flocks have a greater reputation than others; and none but the wool of those accounted the best is used at the manufactory of

Guadalaxara, where the best cloth in Spain is made. These sheep-shearings are seasons of great festivity, the same as the vintage, or the harvest. It is a time of rejoicing both to the owner and workmen. The latter are divided into two classes; each of which has its distinct employment. A hundred and twenty-five shearers are necessary for every thousand sheep; and what is worthy of remark, each sheep produces four sorts of wool, more or less fine, according to the part from whence it is taken.

"As soon as the shearing is finished, the wool is made up in bags, and sent to the different seaports, where it is shipped without any other preparation. If it is not to be exported, it is sent to the different scouring-places in various parts of Castille."

"Pray, papa, how is it scoured ?"

"At Segovia, Ellen, we will go and see the process, which will make it much clearer than my description. And see, children! you are fortunate: there are two shepherd-boys on the hill with their dog. Look well at them."

"How wild, yet happy, they look," said Ellen. "The shirt, I suppose, is made of sheep's-skin."

“Yes, and underneath that is another of the same kind. What a fine dog! is it not Edward ?" "Yes; but it has not the perfect head and figure of Rover."

"No," said his father, with a smile, "I did

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not mean to insinuate that any dog could equal Rover."

They were now approaching Segovia,* the Arevatorum of the ancients. Their way led through a steep and winding road, on the side of an immense rock between two valleys.

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"The sumptuous fêtes given to Anne of Austria, in 1570," said Mr. Delville, prove how much more opulent the place was then than it is now. The goldsmiths, the jewellers, and the cloth and woollen merchants, were then the most opulent of the burgesses; but the introduction of foreign stuffs has greatly hurt the commerce of the place."

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Money," said Edward, "used to be coined here. I have at home a silver Segovia coin."

Only copper money is coined here now. more precious metals are stamped at Seville.

The

"The machine for stamping money is most ingenious. The stream of the small river Eresma, which you saw wandering at the foot of the mountain, turns all the wheels; and the whole process is performed almost without the assistance of man. A die, put in action by particular wheel-work, strikes at the same time both sides of the coin, and completes the border; which last is usually

It was of the bridge of Segovia, which he had himself built, that Philip II. remarked, "That so fine a bridge only wanted a river."