Fruit gardens of Palma 1759

LETTER XLVI

Seville, July 12th 1759

I WILL pass over what happened to us during our stay at Palma, as the time was moftly employed in visiting, seeing processions and being regaled with sweetmeats. One morning, indeed, we rode out to see a little of the country. We went down towards the river Henil, which we had passed in coming; and along the side of which there are a great number of fruit gardens, for Palma furnishes a great part of the neighbouring country with fruit, which, indeed, is the only sort of commerce they have. Fruit gardens in this country are always situated upon the banks of rivers, or in places where they can have plenty of water, as otherwise they would be burnt up by the sun. They have different kinds of [320]engines which convey their water in pretty little neat rills to every part of the garden. One of them called a noria feems to be the cheapest, most simple, and, therefore, the best of the kind I ever met with, merely pitchers fastened to a great perpendicular wheel turned by a horizontal one. After having been about a great many of these gardens, gathering the fruit from the trees as we rode along, (for none begrudge plumbs, pears, or apples in this plentiful fruit climate), we went to another spot about two miles from where we then were, to see the place where the Henil and Guadalquivir unite their streams and form but one river, which goes on afterwards by the name of the latter, and under that denomination proceeds to Seville, and so on to the sea at St. Lucar. It was a pretty place enough, but the heat begun to be so strong that we were glad to get to our inn, which accordingly we did in less than an hour after.

Letters from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany in the Years 1759, 1760, and 1761

Christopher Hervey

London MDCCLXXXV [1785]