The Virginia Gazette

Character of Charles the third, the present King of Spain.

"The King is a much better looking man than most of his pictures make him; he has a good natured laughing eye; the lower part of his face, by being exposed to all weather, is become of a deep copper colour; what his hat covers is fair, as he naturally has a good skin; in stature he is rather short, thickly built about the leg and thighs, and narrow in the shoulders. His dress seldom varies from a large hat, a plain grey Segovia rock, a buff waistcoat, a small dagger, black breeches and worsted stockings; his pockets are always stuffed with knives, gloves, and shooting tackle. On gala court days, a fine suit is hung upon his shoulders, but as he has an eye to his afternoon's sport, and is great economist of his time, the black breeches are worn to all coats. I believe there are but three days in the whole year, that he spends without going a shooting, and these are noted with the blackest mark in the calendar; were they to occur often his health would be in danger, and an accident that was to confine him to the house, would infallibly bring on a fit of illness. No storm, heat, cold, or wet, can keep him at home; and when he hears of a wolf being seen, distance is counted for nothing; he would drive over half the kingdom rather than miss an opportunity of firing upon that favourite game. Besides a most numerous retinue of persons belonging to the hunting establishment, several times a year all the idle fellows in and about Madrid, are hired to beat the country, and drive the wild boars, deers and hares, into a ring, where they pass before the royal family. A very large annual sum is distributed among the proprietors of land about the capital, and near the country palaces, by way of indemnification for the damages done to the corn. I was assured that in seventy thousand pounds sterling for the environs of Madrid, and thirty thousand for those of St. Ildefonse. In order to be entitled to this reimbursement, the farmers scatter just as much seed corn over their ground, as will grow up into something like a crop; but they do not always give themselves the trouble of getting in the scanty harvest, being sufficiently paid for their labour by the royal bounty.

Being naturally of an even, phlegmatic temper, the King is sure to see events on their favourable side only, and whenever he has determined in his own mind, that a measure is proper to be pursued, he is an utter stranger to alteration. As far as I can judge by comparing the different accounts I have had, he is a man of the strictest probity, incapable of adopting any scheme unless he is perfectly satisfied in his own conscience that it is just and honourable; of such immovable features, that the most fortunate or the most disastrous occurrences are alike unable to create the smallest variation in them; rigid in his morals, and tenaciously attached to his religion, but he does not suffer his devotion to lay him open to the enterprises of the Court of Rome, or the encroachments of his own clergy; on the contrary, they have frequently met with rougher usage at his hands than they might have expected from a free thinker. The regularity of his own life renders him very strict about the conduct of his children, whom he obliges to be out fishing or shooting as long as he is absent on the same business; this he does to prevent their having time or opportunity to harbour bad thoughts; and truly I believe he goes out so constantly himself to keep down the vigour of his own constitution. He seldom addresses himself to any young men of his court, but delights in conversing and joking with elderly persons, and such as are of his own age, especially Monks and Friars. He is very partial to Naples, and always speaks of that country with great feeling."