ESCURIAL, a monastery and royal palace in Spain. ' It is situated to the north of Madrid, in a country the surface of which is covered with rocks, and where there is little shelter from the winds, which makes this elevated place very cold in the winter months. It is dedicated to St Lawrence, on account of Philip the Second having gained the battle of St Quentin, in 1557, on the day sacred to the memory of that saint. It is whimsically built in the form of the gridiron, on which that saint is said to have been broiled alive.

The cross bars of the gridiron, forming ranges of buildings, bètween which are courts, are inhabited by monks and ecclesiastics, and the pile of building which represents the handle is the royal palace.

The square part of the building is six hundred and forty feet in length, and five hundred and eighty-in breadth. The projection which forms the royal palace is four hundred and sixty feet in length. It is about sixty feet in height, and at each angle is a square tower two hundred feet high. It is one of the largest, and perhaps one of the ⅛ost tasteless, buildings in Europe.

The church, in the centre of this uncouth mass of stone, is very large, rich, and of a species of architecture calculated to fill the mind with awe on entering it. The high altar is most profusely adorned with marbles, agates, and jaspers, and the gold and silver furniture are of the most costly kind. The cupola which covers this church is the most correct object in the whole of the vast pile. The Pantheon, a repository beneath this church, is the place of interment for the royal family, the bodies of whom are deposited in tombs of marble placed in niches, one above another. The richest part of this palace, however, was that which contained the valuable pictures to be seen in almost every part of it, and which altogether formed the best collection of the productions of the first masters that any place in Europe displayed. We speak of what it was; for the French, when in possession of the Escurial, robbed it of some of its best treasures, and it is not accurately known what portion has been left in the place. The best productions of Reubens, Titian, Spagnoletti, Raffaelle, Baroccio, Velasquez, Murillo, and others, adorned this place, and were little known except by the descriptive catalogue, as very few travellers have heretofore visited Spain with a view principally to the contemplation of the fine arts.

The most valuable treasures of the Escurial are, however, the immense collection of ancient manuscripts which is preserved in the library of that place. Thousands of volumes of the Arabian writers are buried, and their names scarcely known, which, if carefully examined, would throw much light on the history of science and the arts at that period when the mind of Europe, emerging from the darkness of the middle ages, first began to develope those higher qualities, the improvement of which was prodigiously accelerated by the invention of printing, and the impulse which the reformation gave to the minds of men in all parts of Europe. It would be doing injustice to the literary character of Spain not to state that the learned societies of Madrid have, as far as their limited powers would admit, examined, classed, and described these treasures. Some of them have been translated into Latin, others into Lastillian, and more attention was being given to the subject than it had previously attracted, when the irruption of the French suspended every pursuit that was not directed towards the purposes of warlike defence.

There are some good statues, busts, and medallions in the Escurial. That of St Lawrence, the patron, is very excellent, and said to be an antique; but some of the e⅛t of the Spanish artists have averred that the head was rom an ancient statue of Bacchus, and the body of more modem workmanship, but nearly approaching in execution: to the original portion. These kinds of treasures are, however, less valued by the monks who show the place, than the autographs of several of the saints, which, as they affirm, are preserved here, and certainly exhibited with great veneration, and implicit faith in their genuineness.

As this place has been chiefly occupied by the royal family for the sake of the sports of the field, for which the surrounding country affords ample means in game of every description, it has been generally inhabited during the winter months, when, from its exposed situation, it is a most uncomfortable place of residence. To obviate some of the evils of the situation, a town has been built near the monastery; but, like all forced operations of the kind, it has never flourished, and is now rapidly declining. The centre of the monastery, by accurate observations, is in west longitude 3. 37. 35. from London, and in north latitude 40. 35. 50.