The latter seen from a distance resembles a medieval castle crowning a hill-top.

Deep valleys winding through the barren foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built villages, with their masonry towers or da y s, crowning every height, replace the collection of *mud walls and brushwood huts of the low country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their mountains.

Liniers was viceroy on the arrival of the news of the crowning of Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain, but as a Frenchman he was distrusted and was deposed by the adherents of Ferdinand VII.

None the less, he gives a more vivid impression of his, age than any other English chronicler; and it is a matter for regret that his great history breaks off in 1259, on the eve of the crowning struggle between Henry III and the baronage.

But even in this crowning triumph the cramping egotism of his nature - a mental vice which now grew on him rapidly - fatally narrowed his outlook and led him to commit an irretrievable blunder.