A chain of low mountains crosses the southern portion of the semicircle, in a parallel line with the Tagus. Some of its branches advance into this region, and terminate in detached peaks, which have afforded to the aristocracy of former times favourable positions for their strongholds; and a still greater number of proprietors, not being possessed of the same advantages of site, were compelled to confide in the solidity of their walls and turrets, which they constructed in the plain, usually adjoining the villages or towns inhabited by their vassals. The greater number of these edifices are of a date subsequent to the surrender of Toledo to the Christians, and were erected on the distribution of the different towns and estates among the nobility, on their being successively evacuated by their Moorish proprietors. The Count of Fuensalida, Duke of Frias, is the most considerable landed proprietor on this side of Toledo, and several of the ruined castles have descended to him. I will not fatigue you by the enumeration of all these remains, of which but a few are remarkable for picturesque qualities, and still fewer for the possession of historical interest, as far as can be known at present. One of them, situated ten miles to the south-east of Toledo, and visible from its immediate neighbourhood, attracts notice owing to its striking position. Occupying the summit of a conical hill, which stands alone on the plain, and placed at four times the elevation of Windsor Castle, you expect to find it connected with the history of some knightly Peveril of the Peak, but learn with surprise that it was the stronghold of the Archbishops of Toledo; and was erected by Don Pedro Tenorio, the same prelate who rebuilt the bridge of San Martin, and repaired the Moorish castle of San Servando. Before you ascend the peak, you pass through the village of Almonacid, from which the castle takes its name, and which, unlike that more recently erected pile, is completely Arab in aspect. All the houses are entered through back courts, and present no difference of appearance, whether shops, taverns, _posadas_, or private residences. After tying my horse in the stable of the posada, and giving him his meal of barley, which he had carried in the _alforjas_ (travelling bags) suspended behind the saddle, I took my own provisions out of the opposite receptacle, and established myself before the kitchen fire.