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6000233071 




THEOUGH SPAIN 
BY BAIL 



.IN 



18 7 2 



BY 



ALFRED BLWES. 





LONDON: 
EFFINGHAM WILSON, EOTAL EXCHANGE. 

1873. 



J5^3. 



Ji-0 



r- 



TO 



ROBERT W. WILKINSON, Esq., 



THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED 



AS 



A SLIGHT PROOF 



or 



FRIENDSHIP AND ESTEEM. 



PREFACE. 



Spain has had the advantage of being 
depicted by many and able pens. The 
charming and finished sketches of Washing- 
ton Irving, the caustic, humorous, and 
exhaustive pages of Ford, will be fresh in 
the minds of thousands of English readers ; 
and those who wish to study the treasures of 
architecture of the Iberian Peninsula may 
do so, with greater profit than heretofore, 
through the valuable productions of Street 
and others. 

The object of the present work is of a 
diflFerent and humbler character, and is suf- 



VI PREFACE. 

ficiently explained by its title-page. The 
letters which compose it were written on the 
spot, when the impressions they seek to 
convey were fresh upon the mind; and, if 
they possess no other merit, I may at least 
claim for them that of being a faithfiil tran- 
script of the places they describe. 

A. E. 



BbIOHTON ; 

March, 1873. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTEE I. 

PAGE 

Brighton to Paris vwfDiBPPE. — Newhaven — ^Dieppe 

LETTEE n. 

Paris to Bordeaux. —Paris— The Mi-careme — The 
Yalley of the Loii'e — Blois — ^Poitiers — Bordeaux . 5 

LETTEE rn. 

At Bordeaux. — Bordeaux — A Fair — The Theatre 

Fran^ais . . . . . .9 

LETTEE IV. 

Bordeaux to Biarritz. — The Landes — Pine Forests 
— Bayonne — Biamtz — Secluded Situation . . 12 

LETTEE V. 

At Biarritz. — General Aspect of Biarritz — Yilla 

Eugenie — Bareness of Trees . . .17 

LETTEE VI. 

Biarritz to Burgos. — Entrance into Spain — First 
Appearance of the Country — Spade Husbandry — . 
Troublesome Examination of Luggage — Miranda 
— Arrival at Burgos — A Spanish Fonda — Spanish 
Beggars — The Cathedral— Spanish Houses — Pub- 
lic Promenade . . . . .22 



VIU CONTENTS. 



LETTEE Vn. 

PAGE 

BxjEGOS TO Yalladolid. — Aspect of the Country — 
Country Towns — Yalladolid — Hotel Service — The 
Museum — Cathedral — Siiversmiths' Shops — The 
Market Place . . . . . .38 

LETTEE Yin. 

Yalladolid to Madeid. — Sterile Scenery— A Stony 
Tract — Large Olive Trees — Yiew of the Esconal — 
, Arrival at Madrid . . . . .46 

LETTEE EX. 

Madrid. — Spanish Cookery — Good Bread — First Ap- 
pearance of Madrid— Its Streets — Soldiers — Mili- 
tary Music . . . . . .53 

LETTEE X. 

Madrid. — A Missing Letter — Spanish Post-Office and 
its Officials — Cigarette-Smoking — Madrid Houses 
— Puerta del Sol — Spanish Women — Casas de 
Huespedes . . . . . .57 

LETTEE XI. 

Madrid. — The Museum of Pictures — The Spanish 
School— Yelasquez — Murillo — Eibera — Juanes — 
Coello — Zurbaran — Specimens of the Italian School 65 

LETTEE Xn. 

Madrid. — A Dreary Evening — The Opera House of 
Madrid — King Amadeo — The Prado — Paseo de los 
Recolletos — The Wet-nui-ses of Madrid . .72 

LETTEE XTTT. 

Madrid. — The Manzanares— Laundresses of Madrid — 
Bridges — Mules and Donkeys — Dogs — Beggars — 
Their Guitars — The Lottery . . .81 

LETTEE XIY. 

Madrid. — Yariations of Atmosphere — Umbrellas — 
A Wander Round the City — Dos de Mayo — Plaza 
Mayor. . . . . . .88 



CONTENTS. IX 



LETTEE XV. 

PAGE 

Madrid. — A Trip to the Escorial— The Approach from 
Madrid — Enormous Extent — Strange Design — 
The Chapel— The Pantheon . . .93 

LETTEE XVI. 

Madbid to Saeagossa. — The Eoad to Saragossa — 
Ancient Cities— Alcala de Henares — Guadalajara 
— The Henares Canal — Sigiienza covered with 
Snow — The Moors — Calatajud — Arrival at Sara- 
gossa — An Old Acquaintance . . . 101 

LETTEE XVn. 

Sabaoossa. — Aspect of the Streets — Ancient Houses 
—El Coso — The Casino— The Aljaferia — Two 
Cathedrals — The Ebro — Spanish Markets . .107 

LETTEE XVin. 

Pamplona. — Difficulties of Spanish Travel— The Beal 
Interest of Spain — Pamplona — Fine Situation and 
Picturesqueness — Tudela — Tafalla — Olite — Beau- 
tiful Moorish Euin ..... 114 

LETTEE XIX. 

Sabagossa — Gk)od Friday strictly observed — Lean- 
ing Tower — Costume of Country People — Beggars 
—Frightful Cripples — Waiting for the Procession 122 

LETTEE XX. 

Sabagossa. — The Easter Procession — Lay Figures — 
A Country Drive — Impossibility of Residing away 
from the City — ^A Desolate Estate — A Picturesque 
Guard. ...... 127 

LETTEE XXI. 
Sabagossa. — A Bull Fight .... 135 

LETTEE XXn. 

Sabagossa to Babcelona. — Companionship by the 
Way — Lerida — Manresa — Montserrat — Grand 
Appearance— A Splendid Prospect — ^Arrival at 



X CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Barcelona— Beautiful Situation — Busy Aspect of 
its Streets and Shops— Cathedral — Yiew of the 
City from Montjuis ..... 145 

LETTEE xxnr. 

Barcelona to Tarragona. — Environs of Barcelona 
— Fine Mountain Scenery — Lofty Situation of Tarra- 
gona — Picturesque Houses — Cathedral — Cloisters 
— Roman Aqueduct— Party Spirit . . . 152 

LETTER XXIV. 

Reus. — Uneasy Pavement — General Dulness — Ap- 
pearance of the Country .... 162 

LETTEE XXV. 

Tarragona to Valencia. — Richness of Vegetation 
— Tedious TraveDing — Orange Plantations — Their 
Wealth — Cathedral — Absence of Monks and 
Friars ....... 166 

LETTEE XXVT. 

Valencia. — Effects of Irrigation — Train Stopped by 
Brigands — The Alameda — Splendid " Plaza de 
Toros" . . . . . .173 

LETTER XXVn. 

Valencia to Madrid. — Festival of San Vicente, the 
Patron of Valencia— View from Summit of San 
Miguel — Orange Plantations — Wonderful Fertility 
— ^Alcina — Feast of Roses — ^La Encina— Aranjuez 
—Fine View of Madrid . . . .177 

LETTER XXVin. 

Madrid. — General Remarks on Travelling through 
Spain — Country singularly Uninteresting — Causes 
of Sterility . . . . . .183 

LETTER XXTX. 

Madrid. — A Charming Picture — ^A Villa in the Prado 
— Dislike of the Spaniards to the Country — An 
English Dinner — Rudeness of the Madrilenos to- 
waj^ the King — Inner Life of the Spam'ards . 189 



CONTENTS. XI 

LETTEE XXX. 

PAGE 

Madbid to Cordova. — ^Don Quixote's Country — Wild- 
ness of the Road — Rich Colours of the Flowers — 
Linares — Menjibar— Cordova — Its Narrow Streets 
and Moorish Buildings — Charming Pa^s— Court 
of Oranges — The Mesquita — ^Andalusian Women . 197 

LETTEE XXXI. 

Seville.— Road from Cordova to Seville — Oi*anges 
and Aloes — Mosquitoes — ^Andalusian and Gypsy 
Dances — Cathedral — The Giralda — Pompeian 
Arrangements ..... 207 

LETTEE XXXn. 

Seville. — The Alcazar — Beautiful Azulejos — The 
Gardens — Exhibition of Modem Paintings — The 
City Walls— House of Pilatus— The Museo— The 
Women of Seville — ^Alameda . , . 220 

LETTEE XXXin. 

Xebes (Shebby). — Fellow-Travellers — Arrival at 
Xerez — Peculiarity of Xerez Houses — Love-making 
—Wine Stores . . . . .230 

LETTEE XXXIV. 

Cadiz. — Vineyards — Salt-pans — First Appearance of 
Cadiz — Street Sights — Mules — Glazed Balconies — 
Custom-House Arrangements — Charming Ala- 
meda ....... 237 

LETTEE XXXV. 

GiBBALTAB.— Bay of Cadiz — The Voyage — Trafalgar 
— Tarifa — Algesiras — Confusion at Landing — 
Transformation Scene .... 249 

LETTEE XXXVI. 

GiBBALTAB. — ^Visit to the Rock— Fine Views— The 
Signal Battery — The Apes — Wealth of Vegetation 
— Cockney Houses ..... 266 

LETTEE XXXVn. 

Malaga. — Rough Passage — The Carabineers — Mar- 
billa — Difficulties of Landing — Aspects of the 



XU CONTENTS. 

PA.GK 

Town — Narrowness of the Streets — Want of 
Drainage — Democratic Behaviour — Cathedral — 
Fine View . . . . . .263 

LETTEE XXXVilL. 

Malaga to Gbanada.— Slowness of Travelling— The 
Diligence Journey — Picturesque Group — Beauty 
of Country outside Malaga — Alora — Arrival at 
Loja — A Mishap — First Impression of the Alham- 
bra ....... 273 



LETTEE XXXTX. 



// 



The Alhambea. — Visit to the Palace of the Alhambra 
— Impressions— Fine Views — The Tocador de la 
Reina— The Baths— P. V 285 

LETTEE XL. 

The Alhambba. — Charsoing situation of the Alham- 
bra — A Visit by Moonlight — Peris at the Gate of 
Paradise — Beautiful Effects of Light — Fascina- 
tion of the Alhambra — The Gypsies . 296 

LETTEE XLI. 

Granada. — Cathedral — Capilla de los Reyes— Tombs 
of Ferdinand and Isabella — The Cartuja — The 
Zacatin — Gil Bias — The G^neralife — Beautiful 
Situation — La Silla del Moro . . . 306 

LETTEE XLn. 

From Gbanada to Toledo. — Political Rumours — 
Another Diligence Journey — Solitude of Spanish 
Landscape — tfaen — Menj ibar — ^Alcazar — Castillejo 
— First Appearance of Toledo — Ancient Houses — 
Decay and picturesqueness . . . .317 

LETTEE XLin. 

Madbid. — Political Troubles — Uneasy Feeling in the 
Capital —Petty Conduct of the Grandees — The 
Male Population — In the Country and at Madrid 329 

LETTEE XLIV. 

Madbid to Pabis. — Quiet Journey Northward — An 
Old Acquaintance — His views of the State of Spain 
— Advancing Spring— Closing Remarks . . 337 



THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 



LETTER L 



BRIGHTON TO PARIS Vld DIEPPE. 



NBWHAVBN— DIEPPE — EOTXEN — PARIS. 

H6tel dn Louvre, Paris ; 
Ma/rch 7, 1872. 

• I ARRIVED at Newhaven in time to wait two 
hours before the starting of the boat, which 
did not leave till half-past eleven p.m. A 
tradesman's ball was being held at the Hotel, 
which did not tend to the comfort of travellers, 
who were turned out of coffee- and smoking- 
rooms into a musty back-parlour ; nor could 
they be expected to be consoled by enlivening 
music for their want of comfort, as they 

1 



2 THBOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

could hear it only by snatches, and then only 
the louder and more discordant notes. 

As the wind had been blowing rather 
freshly from the south-east, I expected, with, 
I beheve, the majority of my fellow-passen- 
gers, that there would be a heavy sea outside 
the harbour. This, however, was not the 
case, for the steamer glided almost imper- 
ceptibly from the shelter of the piers into the 
open channel, nor was there any movement 
to speak of during the crossing. 

The French coast was reached too early to 
enter the port of Dieppe and we were com- 
pelled to lay to for upwards of an hour. 
At length the appearance of the white 
funnels of the sister steamer issuing from 
the harbour on her voyage to Newhaven 
showed us that the tide was at a sufficient 
height, and we steamed in accordingly. 

The old town of Dieppe presented much 
the same appearance as usual as we drove 
round to the railway station where we had 
time for breakfast and a good deal to spare 
after it, the train not starting till nearly 
eight. 



IN THE' SPRING OF 1872. 3 

All the clear sky we had been enjoying at 
Brighton during the last few days had quite 
abandoned us long ere this, and we ran 
through the pretty valley of the Seine with 
that accompaniment of wet mist for which 
Normandy is not unjustly celebrated. The 
rain, however, could not take from the 
picturesqueness of many of the old towns 
and villages we passed by. Rouen looked 
as beautiful as ever, both on approaching 
and leaving it. You remember how fine a 
glimpse you get of the ancient city when, on 
emerging from the last tunnel, you cross the 
Seine and behold the bridge and clustering 
towers of the capital through a frame- 
work of terraced gardens on the right, and 
the green island and velvety meadows on the 
left. The picture wanted sunshine, but not 
even a gloomy sky could take from its 
beauty, which was enjoyed to the fiiU by some 
of my fellow-passengers who saw it for the 
first time. 

The Louvre is fuller than when you and I 
were here last October, and they are even 
engaged upon a little painting and cleaning. 



4 THBOUQH SPAIN BY BAIL 

But it wxU be long, I fancy, before they see 
return those palmy days of the Second 
Empire, when a place at the table d^hote was 
unattainable unless bespoken in the morn- 
ing. 



IN THE SPBING OP 13.72. 5 



LETTER II. 

PARIS TO BORDEAUX. 

PASIS — THE MI-CASEOCB — THE VALLEY OP THE LOIBE — 
BLOIS — POITIERS— BORDEAUX. 

H6tel de la Faix, Bordeaux ; 
March 9, 1872. 

I HOPE you got my letter from Paris, as it 
will have relieved your mind about my 
comfort during the crossing and first part of 
my journey. After I had despatched it, 
although the rain kept falling, I flanged about 
the streets and discovered from the masks in 
various states of " bedraggledness " that it 
was the mi-caremej or mid-lent. The groups 
I saw were chiefly composed of students and 
ouvrierSj who amused themselves with the 
loudest " charivaris *' of discordant instru- 
ments. At night there was a masked-ball at 
the opera, and entertainments of a similar 
character were given in other less reputable 



b THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

places. The fun was kept up till daybreak, 
and, as I heard from an eye-witness next 
morning, extraordinary scenes of debauchery 
were going on all night. 

I gladly left Paris yesterday morning at 
10.45 a.m. for this city, and after a not un- 
pleasant journey I arrived at my hotel here 
a little before 11 at night. The sky had 
such delicious patches of blue at times, and 
the air felt so light and agreeable, that I 
thought I was about at once to revel in sim- 
shine, but before the train had got a hundred 
miles upon its course, heavy, black clouds 
discharged torrents of rain, and it has con- 
tinued raining from that hour to the present, 
although it is not now falling heavily. 

The valley of the Loire, through which the 
train conveys you at a capital pace, offers 
some very fine views. It is particularly rich 
in chateaux, which appear pile above pile with 
round towers and extinguisher tops — ^half 
chateau, half fortress. That of Amboise is 
especially striking. The vines are very 
abundant before reaching Blois, and continue 
from that district throughout the journey. 



IN TH^ SPBING OP 1872. 7 

The city of Tours, for some time the seat of 
the government when driven out of Paris in 
1870, looks very pretty as you get a glimpse 
of it up the Loire from the train, and Poitiers, 
famous in English history, is remarkably so, 
being perched on rocky heights, which must 
make its streets wonderfully up and down. 
There is a rapid stream, the Clain, which 
should yield good trout, running at the base 
of the rocks, and then rushing through green 
meadows and past rich, red banks, reminding 
me of parts of Devonshire. 

After dining at Angouleme at seven, the 
rest of the journey was performed in dark- 
ness, Bordeaux being reached at a quarter- 
past ten — as true to time as the French 
express trains generally are. 

Bordeaux is decidedly a fine, well-built 
city, looking very substantial with its square 
stone houses and many fine broad streets. 

The Grand Theatre, which, as you may 
remember, was used by the French Govern- 
ment at the end of 1870 for holding its 
sittings when the advancing Prussians made 
Tours too hot to be pleasant, is as fine a 



8 THEOUOH SPAIN BY BAIL 

building of the kind as you will see, more 
imposing in outward appearance than the 
Scala at Milan, or the San Carlo at Naples. 
A spacious colonnade running round it, 
supported by lofty pillars of stone, con- 
tributes very much to the grandeur of the 
edifice. 

This letter will, I reckon, be delivered to 
you about the time I am entering Spain. 
Tip to this point the travelling has been as 
e2:peditious as one could wish, and I find 
myself 364 miles south of Paris without being 
sensible of any fatigue. Once, however, over 
the border, and I expect all wiU be changed. 
I wish I could be sure of always getting such 
comfortable clean beds as I had at the 
Louvre, and find here. Still I will not an- 
ticipate discomforts, but determine rather, 
when they come — and come they will, if I 
am to believe all the accounts I hear — ^to 
meet them with due patience and resigna- 
tion. 



IN THE SPBIMG OP 1872. 



LETTER III. 



AT BORDEATTl. 



BOBDBAUX>-A FAIB~TH£ TUI^ItBE FRAN^AIS. 

Bordeaux ; 

March 9, 1872. 

In spite of the rain I have been wandering 
about the streets of this fine old city, which 
has a somewhat modem look, in spite of its 
antiquity. I managed to get to the Place 
des Quinconces, a grand and regular square, 
opening at one end, where there are two huge 
pillars with naval trophies in the Roman style, 
on to the Quay, which is said to run for three 
miles along the banks of the Gbronne. Here 
I found a huge fair was being held, a true 
" Greenwich " and " Old Charlton " concern, 
wifch its circus, its Richardson's Th^tre (a 
French Richardson, of course), its Wombwell's 
Menagerie, swings, roundabouts, fat women 
(plenty of the latter), ei hoc genus omne 



10 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

The Place, however, is so vast that there 
was no crowding, and the only noisy people 
were those on the stages of the various 
booths, the spectators looking on in a very 
tranquil, not to say apathetic manner. The 
rain, perhaps, had damped their spirits. 

In the evening I visited the Theatre Fran- 
5ais, where I sat one piece, " Papillonne," 
through, and the first act of another, " Un 
Troupier qui suit les Bonnes." Both these 
pieces derive the Kttle interest they possess 
from their gross immorality. If we are to 
accept such comedies as a reflex of French 
manners, we must look upon French society 
as rotten to the core. But I am sure it 
would be doing gross injustice to take such 
view. I must believe that there is virtue 
and there is continence in France as else- 
where — otherwise, the institution of marriage 
would, of a certainty, cease to exist; for 
who would care to give his name to a woman 
and his time and labour to the support of a 
family when his wife welcomes to her arms 
the first bold intriguant, and he cannot be 
certain the children are his own ? The 



IN THE SPUING OP 1872. 11 

writers who so depict their countrymen and 
women I consider to be calumniators. Surely 
life offers sufficient variety and interest to 
charm an audience with the representation 
of its phases without presenting to the pubhc 
eye scenes which are a disgrace to civilized 
society. 



12 T&BOUQH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER IV. 

BOBDBAUX TO BIABRITZ. 

THE LANPES — PINE FOBESTS — BAYONNE — BIABBITZ— 

SECLUDED SITUATION. 

Biarritz ; 

March 10, 1872. 

I WAS up at six this morning to pursue my 
journey southwards, the weather still lower- 
ing, and followed, as the day came on, by the 
rain which has hitherto accompanied me. I 
observed the ill effects of all this wet on 
driving to the station. The river had 
swollen over the quays and set various 
articles floating, and if the south-easterly 
gales, which have been so prevalent recently, 
do not abate, the damage may become con- 
siderable. 

The road was flat and uninteresting, that 
is, as regards scenery, and owing to vegeta- 
tion being but little advanced, the skeletons 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 1 3 

of the trees looked cold and dreary. There 
were forests of pine and deserts of sand 
covered with stunted briars and the with- 
ered leaves of the bracken fern. The pines 
were almost all tapped for resin— long strips 
of bark had been shced off to a height of ten 
or twelve feet from the ground, and one, two, 
or three little earthen pots were fixed to the 
bare places to receive the fatty matter as it 
exuded from the wound. 

In passing through these extensive Landes 
I looked out for the shepherds on stilts, but 
saw only one, a mere lad by a cottage door. 
I can well understand, however, the neces- 
sity of such " continuations " to perambulate 
these desert plains of sand and scrub which 
looked particularly miserable and sterile 
imder the gloomy sky and falling rain. 

The guard-houses of the railway, which 
are painted red and are chalet shaped, were 
almost the only habitations visible for fifty 
miles together. Where the soil allowed of it 
little gardens had been laid out in their 
vicinity, and although they were in them- 
selves nothing to look at, the blossom of the 



14 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

peach, almond, and pear, made them appear 
like oases in the desert. 

On approaching Bayonne I saw some fine 
olive trees, the lower portion of their trunks, 
say, for some six feet, being stripped of its 
bark. At Bayonne I caught my first glimpse 
of the Atlantic, looking very yellow and 
threatening, a strong breeze blowing at the 
time ; and twenty minutes afterwards I was 
deposited at the station of this little town, 
almost the only passenger. Fortunately, I 
found a conveyance to bring me on, though 
the rogue of a coachman charged me five 
francs for the accommodation, — but it was 
impossible to do without him as I was 
encumbered with luggage, and the station 
is nearly two miles distant from the 
town. 

The road is a good one, bordered by banks 
sprinkled with wild violets — very pretty 
although scentless — the hedges are all ex- 
hibiting their fresh green — and many of the 
early trees are in leaf. The weather, however, 
is as bad as ever ; a strong cold breeze blowing 
over the ocean, charged with rain, and the 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 15 

sky as gloomy as ever it looks in England, 
although I am as far south as Florence. 

You descend into Biarritz by rather a 
steep road, and when you get there you find 
yourself in an irregularly built but clean 
little place on the border of the Bay of 
Biscay, far removed from the noise and tur- 
moil of the great world. 

It reminds me somewhat of Ilfracombe, 
with the exception that the rocks are dark 
sand colour instead of being nearly black, 
and that there are not so many of them. 
The bathing must be very dehcious, for there 
are httle bays with, soft shelving sand, and 
an etablissement at the head of each for the 
convenience of the bathers. In the summer 
I should think it must be a delightful retreat, 
for there are plenty of quaint houses with 
bits of terraces and gardens in every direc- 
tion ; but with a few notable exceptions, the 
dwellings give you an idea of having been run 
up in a hurry, for though they are substan- 
tial enough they look rough and unpolished. 

There was a magnificent sea on, and I 
stood in a sheltered nook out of the rain to 



16 THfiOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

watch the big billows play in and out the 
caverns they have worn for themselves in the 
sandstone rocks with a noise like thunder. 
The most has been made out of every jutting 
cliff, for there are pathways leading round 
and over it, and under it too, which can be 
reached when the tide is low. There are 
grottoes and arches and bridges cut out or 
built up of the soft stone, and doubtless, 
when the place is fiill of a gay and smartly- 
dressed company, it must be very attractive. 
You see it is the border land of France and 
Spain, and you read in the street announce- 
ments ahnoBt as much of one language as of 
the other. I should think, however, that 
with the destruction of the empire a great 
deal of the prestige of Biarritz must have 
fled, and that it is never again likely to see 
the eclat which distinguished it when the 
Franco-Spanish Empress made it her tem- 
porary home. 

I intend leaving here to-morrow morning, 
and hope to be at Pamplona in Spain by 
night, but I can learn little of the movement 
of the trains, and shall have to pick up my 
knowledge as I go on. 



IN THE 8PE1N0 OP 1872. 17 



LETTER V. 

AT BIAEEITZ. 

GENEBAL ASPECT OP BIABRITZ — VILLA EUGl^NIB— 

BABENESS OF TBEES. 

* 

Biarritz ; 

March 11, 1872. 

I DID not intend that you should have 
another letter from Biarritz, but when I rose 
tins morning the sun was shining so beauti- 
fully that I determined to give myself ano- 
ther day before entering upon my long 
journey. I do not think though I should 
have done so, had it not been for my trouble- 
some leg, which the cold and damp have not 
improved. I considered that walking about 
in the sunshine instead of sitting the whole 
day in a railway train would be more likely 
fco do it good, and so I have remained, 
making a closer acquaintance with Biarritz, 
inhaling the now hght breeze from the Bay 

2 



18 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

of Biscay, baking myself in the sun, and 
cogitating over my proximate Spanish cam- 
paign. 

I think as regards this Uttle town I know it 
thoroughly, for, although its aspect would of 
course be much changed by a brilhant com- 
pany, the features of the place must be the 
same. It is certainly pretty, but of course, 
just at present, rather duU, for there are 
very few of its not numerous shops open, 
and the announcement we have often joked 
about, a louer^ figures upon two thirds of its 
houses. Some of these notices, indeed — 
like the " Apartments *' at the west end of 
London — are painted up en permanence; 
these are somewhat larger buildings, but the 
majority are tiny hoxes^ in which a family of 
three or four would literally have to be 
packed, and, judging from the Uttle atten- 
tion to " sanitary matters '' in this part of 
the world, I should not much fancy one of 
these close lodgings in the height of the 
season. The houses, Uke those in the en- 
virons of Torquay, are built here, there, and 
everywhere, but Torquay, to my mind, is 



IN TEK SPRING OP 1872. 19 

beyond all compare superior to Biarritz. I 
look in vain here for trees ; there is nothing 
but scrub, and the want of shade must make 
it fiightfiilly hot in summer. But it must be 
a vrai Paradis to the French and Spaniards 
who care little or not at all for fine natural 
scenery, delicious turf, and well-ktid-out 
gardens, with perfect comfort and propriety 
vdthin doors. They would find here music, 
society, dress, play, intrigue, gaiety, and 
parade. What more can French or Spanish 
men and women require to make them 
happy ? 

The Yilla Eugenie is a fine, square building 
of red brick and stone, placed on a gentle 
eminence facing the sea, and just without 
the town. But it looks terribly bare — the 
only trees being some poor stunted pines, 
which have been enclosed to make a park, 
and are surrounded by an oaken fence, painted 
green. A chapel, with gilded eagles for 
capitals to the columns of the portico, 
stands at the entrance of the ground^ and 
might contain perhaps fifty people. Every 
entrance to the place is now placarded with 



20 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the words, " Propri^td Rationale," and during 
the late war the villa itself was turned into 
a hospital. I did not care to go inside it, 
but learned from a communicative facteur^ 
whom I interrogated, that it had been restored 
to something like order, and was exhibited to 
the curious. 

In its neighbourhood there are two or three 
other villas of some pretension to archi- 
tectural beauty, and more are building. The 
style of these new houses is superior. The 
little town evidently sprung up in the first 
instance "all in a hurry.'' Some of the 
streets appear to lead nowhere except round 
the comer, and many contain about half a 
dozen houses, all of which appear a louer^ 
and precious little hovels some of them 
must be. 

I am lodged at the H6tel d'Angleterre on 
the Place Sainte Eugenie. On the height 
behind the hotel, my landlord, a very worthy 
fellow, is building a splendid " caravanserai " 
commanding an extensive view of the Bay. 

The warmth of the sun, now it does shine, 
convinces me that I am in the south — a fact 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 21 

further revealed to me by seeing two 
Englishmen bathing in the open ; not a wise 
thing, by-the-bye, as the wind is still fresh. 
Vegetation, I find, where I can see it, for 
there is not much visible, is more advanced 
than I supposed. The lilacs are out in full 
blossom. The oleanders are flourishing in 
the open air, and the weeping wiUows are in 
leaf. But, I repeat, there is very little vege- 
tation to be seen. The storms to which this 
coast must be Kable, exposed as it is to the 
Bay of Biscay, would destroy all trees, and in 
fact, Biarritz and its neighbourhood are even 
more nude of them than Brighton, for at 
least the Pavilion Garden has some good 
specimens, and beautiful ones are to be found 
at Preston, on the one hand and Portslade 
on the other. 

On the whole, then, you will gather that I 
am not enthusiastic in praise of Biarritz, 
although I am quite wiUing to admit its 
quiet and secluded situation, and that full 
advantage appears to have been taken of its 
capabilities. 



22 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER VI. 

BIARRITZ TO BURGOS. 

ENTRANCE INTO SPAIN — FIRST APPEARANCE OP THE 
COUNTRY — SPADE HUSBANDRY— TROUBLESOME EX- 
AMINATION OP LUGGAGE— MIRANDA — ARRIVAL AT 
BURGOS — A SPANISH PONDA — SPANISH BEGGARS — 
THE CATHEDRAL— SPANISH HOUSES— PUBLIC PROME- 
NADE. 

Burgos; 

March 13, 1872. 

In accordance with the information I gave 
you in the envelope of the letter I posted at 
Biarritz yesterday, I started for Spain by the 
Paris train which passes the little station at 
one o'clock. 

A short run brought us to the frontier 
town, Irun, where the joint ceremonies of 
the examination of passports and overhauling 
of luggage were duly gone through. It took 
an hour to complete them, although I must 
say they were not very rigorously performed. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 23 

Here I had to make the first use of my 
Spanish, as the officials did not speak French. 
Not being able to book myself or my luggage 
through to Pamplona, I had to take a fresh 
ticket at Irun, which again they would only 
deliver me to Alsasua — ^the junction for 
Pamplona — ^where we were timed to arrive at 
five o'clock. As. however, I found that I 
should have a good hour and a half to wait 
there, I did not much trouble about the 
matter, but resumed my place when the train 
was ready to move on. 

You may imagine that as long as daylight 
lasted I kept my eyes wide open to catch 
everything interesting on the road. The 
land-locked bay of Pasages, and the height of 
San Sebastian formed pretty pictures as we 
slowly passed them by, and the country sub- 
sequently traversed by the line looked peace- 
ful and pastoral. The sheep gi'azing on the 
scanty pasture were small but qixowj white, 
with beautiful long wool, and the lambs were 
charming. The houses had in my eyes a very 
Italian look — that is, Italian of a second or 
third rate order, and one or two villas that 



24 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

we passed were very like «ome of the country 
houses in Piedmont. 

The pass of the Pyrenees also greatly re- 
sembles part of the road from Bologna to 
Pistoja, there being a couple of dozen tun- 
nels and one or two bold viaducts, whence 
were obtained some fine views into deep 
valleys, there is, however, no such grand 
panorama as that of the Val d'Arno with 
Pistoja nestled in the plain, nor are there any 
chesnut or walnut forests such as we are 
accustomed to in the Apennines. There 
are some imposing mountains with square 
tops on the left, in the direction of Navarre, 
and one or two of the more distant were 
covered with snow. But the passage of the 
Pyrenees, at the point selected by the rail- 
way, cannot for a moment compare with any 
of the passes of the Alps from Switzerland 
into Italy. 

On descending towards Alsasua the few 
trees hitherto observable had almost dis- 
appeared, and every lateral branch of those 
that remained had been lopped away. The 
husbandmen in this part of the world have a 



IN THE SPBING OF 1872. 25 

horror of every thing that will produce a 
shade, which they consider prejudicial to their 
crops, and their very vines are cut down to 
within a foot or so of the ground. How 
unlike the system prevalent in Lombardy ! 
where every species of vegetable product 
flourishes, and where the vines, trained in 
festoons from tree to tree — the very trees 
themselves, the mulberry, being productive — 
are succeeded by crops of every description : 
wheat, Indian com, hemp, flax, rice. Here 
in Northern Spain, the monotony after a time 
becomes painful, nor can the eye rest, as it 
does throughout Italy, upon picturesque old 
towers, perched like eagles' nests on the top 
of every commanding height ! The houses, 
where visible, are as I have mentioned, some- 
what similar in character to those of Italy, 
but there is no attempt to trail the vine, as 
in the latter country, over trellis, or terrace, 
— a custom which gives such a charmingly 
romantic air to most of the Italian villas. 

I observed some specimens of the Spanish 
spade husbandry, which appears excessively 
laborious and must be very inefficient in a 



26 THBOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

country like this, for the spade never pene- 
trating beyond the same depth must 
naturally render the sub-soil as hard as 
flint and but little fitted to receive the roots 
of tender plants. Three labourers (whereof 
two were generally women) drove their 
pointed spades into the ground in a row, and 
then, at a signal all raised the sod together. 
The result was a very irregular fiirrow, and 
I should say that a plough of even the 
simplest construction would do the work 
better in a third of the time. This, how- 
ever, I leave to be decided by those better 
acquainted with such matters than myself. 

On reaching Alsasua I learnt, to my 
annoyance, that there would be no train for 
Pamplona till one o'clock the next day. It 
was then five in the afternoon. Now, 
Alsasua is a village without a commonly 
decent inn, and those who know anything of 
Spain will not feel surprised at my experi- 
encing a little alarm at the idea of perhaps 
sleeping in an outhouse and going almost 
without food for twenty hours. Making, 
then, the best use of my time, I succeeded in 



IN THE SPUING OP 1872. 27 

getting a ticket for Burgos, and as it was 
too late to have my trunk re-registered I 
persuaded the guard to let it be put back in 
the luggage van and allow me to settle for 
its carriage on arriving at my fresh destina- 
tion. This he did very courteously and I 
managed to get all through before the train 
started. 

It was not the faidt, however, of some 
over-zealous custom-house officials that I was 
not left behind after all, for whilst I was 
getting my ticket, my belongings stood in the 
middle of the platform, and being espied by 
the said gentlemen in authority, who were 
lounging about muffled in their cloaks and 
smoking cigarettes, they insisted upon my 
unstrapping my portmanteau, that they 
might see what it contained. I vainly ex- 
plained that it had been examined at the 
frontier. They had made up their minds to 
investigate its contents, so, with as good a 
grace as I could command — the guards 
vociferating meanwhile " Senores Viajeros al 
tren^^^ tantamount to our " Gentlemen take 
your places," — I hastily undid the fastenings 



28 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

and throwing open the trunk gratified the 
curiosity of the officials and that of a score of 
idlers who had gathered round us. The 
search was confined to a dirty hand being 
thrust through my clean linen, which it 
simply rumpled and soiled by the operation, 
after which I was blandly told that I might 
shut up again. This I did very willingly, 
and the chief guard having considerately 
stopped the train till my luggage was put 
into the van, I jumped into the first carriage 
where there was room and we were once 
again in motion. 

In the compartment in which I now foimd 
myself there were three other passengers, 
and, curiously enough, we all four repre- 
sented distinct nationalities — a Frenchman, 
a Spaniard, a Hungariau, and myself, an 
Englishman. The Spaniard, a Sefior F — , 
happened to be known to me, and like his 
two fellow-travellers, he was on his road 
from Paris to Madrid. He told me that I 
was visiting Spain at a time when a great 
deal of agitation was likely to prevail, owing 
to the approaching general elections, and he 



IN THE SPRING OP 1873. 29 

seemed to take an ultra-gloomy view of the 
young King's prospects, I happened to 
inquire whether the king was making pro- 
gross in the language. " I behove so," was 
his reply, "but I much doubt whether he 
will remain long enough to finish his 
education." 

Night now came on. We got out at 
Miranda (the junction for Zaragoza) where 
I made my first acquaintance with a Spanish 
mesa redonda or table d^hdte. The food was 
tolerably abundant, but the nieat tough, and 
fish was served in the middle of the dinner. 
After a cigar and Httle more chat following 
upon the resumption of our. journey, my 
companions, who were entering on their 
second night, went to sleep, in which bhssful 
state I left them on my arrival at Burgos at 
ten o'clock. 

I was glad to find an omnibus outside the 
station to convey me to my hotel, the 
" Fonda del Norte." But what an omnibus ! 
Its patched windows had surely never been 
cleaned since they were put into their mise- 
rable, paintless, make-shift frames, and the 



30 THROUGH SPAIN BT. BAIL 

body of the vehicle was on a par with its 
covering. It gave me a foretaste of the 
place to which I was bound, and wisely 
prevented my expectations being too highly 
raised. 

After entering the town, which was in 
darkness, and rattling over some very uneven 
stones, the omnibus pulled up at a door 
where a dirty stone staircase led up into the 
house. On reaching the landing I found a 
couple of black- eyed, slatternly wenches, who 
being summoned by a loud call from the 
driver, were prepared to show me my room, 
the door of which was opened by a key as 
large as two of our ordinary street door keys 
welded into one. As I anticipated, the 
chamber was in unison with the omnibus and 
attendants, containing merely a bed on an 
iron frame, two worm-eaten chairs, a dirty 
console and a dirtier commode, all of walnut, 
and precisely of the kind we are accustomed 
to in Italy, without the marble top, and 
many, many shades cloudier. The brick 
floor was, however, covered with a carpet 
made of odds and ends, put together without 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 31 

any regard to pattern, but as the night was 
very cold there loomed upon me the chance 
of escape from the misery of the live-stock, 
with which, I am sure, the place was well 
inhabited. 

Having walked about the room for a good 
half hour, one of the aforesaid maids brought 
me the linen which she assured me, in 
answer to my inquiries, was seco y limpioj 
well aired and clean. It certainly was white, 
and having passed a night between the sheets 
I have every reason to believe they were 
dry. Any way, poor as the accommodation 
w&s, I felt thankful at having escaped 
Alsasua. 

I was awakened once or twice in the night 
by the velador or watchman calling the hour, 
as our own used to do in the days of my 
childhood, accompanying his cry, as the 
" Charlies" did of old, with information 
about the weather. It says something in 
favour of Spanish nights, that he is so 
accustomed to vociferate sereno at the end 
ot his monotonous cry as to have obtained 
that designation as a nick-name. The sound, 



32 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

the appearance of all around me, and the 
** internal economy/' of which I had had a 
glimpse, were wonderfully suggestive, and 
drove my memory back two score of years at 
least. 

After getting some breakfast I lighted a 
cigar and strolled into the streets, but had 
only got as far as an open EspoloUf or espla- 
nade, by the river Arlanzon, than I was 
marked out as fair prey by several most im- 
portunate beggars, who, wrapt in their patch- 
work cloaks, made of every variety of brown 
cloth, stiff with dirt and grease, but with one 
end cast majestically over the left shoulder, 
followed me about and gave me not a 
moment's peace while attempting to examine 
some wonderfully heavy statues and a couple 
of fountains with which the plaza was in- 
tended to be adorned. One ragged imp, 
about twelve years of age, pursued me for 
upwards of an hour, and even followed me 
into the cathedral, where he stood and stared 
at me whilst I listened to the service. He 
got nothing, however, for his pains beyond, 
perhaps, satisfying an ardent curiosity. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 33 

The cathedral, made familiar to me by 
engravings^ and more especially by Eoberts's 
beautiful picture, is certainly a magnificent 
gothic structure. It reminded me in its 
external appearance somewhat of the Church 
of St. Ouen at Eouen, though, of course, 
having in its favour all the venerableness due 
to its six centuries of age. Grand as the 
interior is, and splendidly as the light is 
disposed, it is greatly disfigured by a coro and 
reya, or bronze grating; the latter is very 
massive and elaborate, but both are terribly 
in the way, as they utterly prevent your 
taking in the whole, or even great part, of 
the building at a glance. The church is rich 
in statuary, principally bas-reliefs, and the 
Capillay or chapel, del Oondestable is ad- 
mirable. 

There are no chairs in the cathedral, and 
the women as they enter the central portion, 
surrounded by the reja referred to, fall 
directly on their knees upon the estera^ or 
matting of the country, which there covers 
the pavement. The women occupied the 
centre, the men kept to the sides, and they 

3 



\ ; 



34 THROUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

remamed upon their knees or sitting back 
upon their heels (the females then looking 
like squat black balls) for a good hour and a 
half. All wore veils, a kind of bastard 
mantilla, a few of lace and the rest of some 
soft wooUen manufacture, and being all black, 
you might have thought you were assisting 
at a ftmeral. Mass was followed by a sermon, 
or rather homily, to which great attention 
was paid. The congregation, however, must 
have had better ears than myself if they 
could make out the whole of the preacher's 
discourse, for like many ministers in our own 
country, he had a habit of dropping his voice 
at the end of each sentence and finishing it 
ofi* in a mumble. 

From the cathedral I turned into the town, 
examining its houses and peering into its 
shops. The former have a very Italian 
air, though few are famished with per siane. 
Some of the balconies have a neat contrivance, 
which very much takes my fancy, and which 
has most probably been borrowed from the 
Moors. I refer to a species of conservatory 
built over them, not, indeed, for the reception 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 35 

of plants, but the conyenience of the ladies, 
who are thus suspended over the street and 
can see all that is going on without being 
exposed to the air. Some are neatly curtained 
inside and adorned with rude carving ex- 
teriorly, so that they become really pretty 
objects. The shops, as might be expected, 
are poor. Spain produces little of herself, 
but she admires the gewgaws, tinsel, and 
articles de fantaisie of Paris. The windows 
therefore display a quantity of cheap rubbish 
and a few of those gaudy and not very decent 
prints exhibited in the Eue de Eivoli and the 
Passages. There were show-plates of various 
photographers appended to a dozen door- 
ways, but the models must have been un- 
exceptionally ugly, and the execution was of 
the commonest. 

Dogs seem abundant in the streets, and 
make them resound with their barking and 
howling. They are otherwise harmless, which 
is fortunate, as they are chiefly mongrels of 
the mastiff breed, and some are very large. 
Many seem to have no owners, but wander 



36 tfiBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

about picking up offal-— true Oriental scaven- 
gers — and looking 'wl'etchedly thin. 

Tired of the town, I wandered into the 
country, and climbing the heights behind the 
castle, which played a conspicuous part in 
the Peninsular war in 1812, enjoyed a fine 
view of the Pyrenees I had quitted capped 
with snow, and of the city which lay at my 
feet — ^the delicately carved spires of the 
cathedral rising majesticaUy from the mass 
of houses. 

On descending firom my "point of 'vantage," 
where I had been perfectly alone, I struck 
into the public walk along the banks of the 
Arlanzon, bordered by poplars. There was a 
good sprinkling of people, and there were 
some well-looking ladies, who had nothing, 
however, special either in feature or dress to 
distinguish them from the Milanese. One or 
two bonnets were visible among them, but 
the veil formed the head-dress of the majority. 
The men were becloaked to the eyes. It is 
amusing to see how these Spanish " lords of 
creation " take care of themselves by cover- 
ing in triple broad cloth, whilst their women 



m THE SPEING OF 1872. 37 

folk have only a lace veil to protect their 
head and shoulders from the cold. 

If you find this letter written somewhat 
" up and down " please attribute it to the 
real cause, viz., my want of accommodation. 
My room does not boast of such an article of 
furniture as a table, and the commode which 
I am using makes but a poor substitute, more 
especially as one of the feet or knobs on 
which it originally stood is missing, and the 
ill-graraed meuble tips up just when it is 
wanted to be most steady. 



38 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTEE VII. 

BUBGOS TO VALLADOLID. 

ASPECT OP THE COTJNTEY — COUNTRY TOWNS — VALLA- 
DOLID— HOTEL SEBYICE — THE MUSEXTM — CATHEDRAL 
— SILYEBSMITHS' SHOPS — THE MABEET PLACE. 

VaUadoHd ; 

March 14, 1872. 

Anotheb stage upon my journey ! I was 
up this morning at four, and long before day- 
light was being carried slowly along, a soli- 
tary passenger in a first-class compartment 
fortunately supplied with hot-water foot- 
boxes or I should have suffered with the 
cold. 

As soon as the rising sun permitted me to 
see the road I perceived we were traversing 
a treeless tract, with roughly cultivated 
fields, extending to a low range of sandy- 
coloured hills on either side, which, with 
scarcely an exception, formed the scenery 



IN THE SPRING OF 187:*. 39 

that met my eye during my five hours* 
journey. Nothing could well exceed the 
monotomy of such a scene, and as to the one 
or two httle towns which were visible, such 
as Villodrigo, Torquemada, Venta de Bafios, 
and others of less note, they looked the very 
abomination of ugliness and sterility. The 
bettermost houses are built of such stone as 
the country affords, and approach so nearly 
to the colour of the soil that you have much 
ado to separate them from it. The poorer 
habitations or rather hovels are composed of 
mud, and there is not a tree — scarcely a 
shrub — observable ; and as vegetation is not 
much advanced in this bleak region, there 
was only occasionally the relief of the young 
green com. You do not, as in traversing 
the Eomagna, where the country too is often 
savage enough, get a glimpse of those fine 
mountains crowned with an ancient city or 
fortress. Here you have only flat dun-hued 
hills, which show neither habitation nor vege- 
tation, and, in fact, where the only objects 
that break the sameness are a shepherd or 
two, or perhaps a team of mules, mounted or 



40 TEXCfCGB SPAES FT £AIL 

munoimted as the case may be, cofovejing 
sofitaiy traTeDers or ligiit goods from one 
Tillage or townlet to another. The sole 
interest of the jonmej la j in the loungers 
and passengers at the Tarioos little stations, 
at each of which we were detained an inor- 
dinate length of time. Some of these men 
looked picturesqne enongh,and an occasional 
neatherd with s{^ sheep^in hy way of 
breeches, ronnd hat, sandals, lm>nzed &ce, 
and the eternal cloak, or a striped blanket 
which did dntj for that garment, made a 
picture of himseH. 

I find Talladolid in character very similar 
to Bnrgos, but much larger, and with some- 
what better shops. Owing too, in part most 
probably, to the presence of the University, 
there is more life in the streets, and the 
market is a particularly gay scene, being well 
provided with vegetables, salads, and green 
peas. The wonder to me is, where they can 
have come from. 

The Plaza Mayor is a fine open square, and 
there are one or two others of sufficient 
space. The theatre too has struck me as a 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 41 

very capacious building viewed, as I was 
only able to view it, from the outside. As 
there is plenty of granite not so very far off, 
this material is extensively used for pillars 
and the basements of the larger buildings, 
but the houses are for the most part mean, 
of one to three stories in height, built of 
brick and roughly plastered over. You tra- 
verse part of the city under arcades, formed 
of square pillars, all alike, and therefore pos- 
sessing none of the picturesqueness of Padua, 
or the mixed quaintness and grandeur of 
Bologna. The streets are badly paved, but 
most of them are fiimished with footpaths, 
which is so far a comfort. The shops as at 
Burgos display only the commonest articles, 
but they are chiefly of French origin, but 
occasionally some famiUar EngHsh trade- 
mark affixed to a box of comestibles or an 
article of wearing attire will give you a 
friendly wink of recognition as you pass. 

My hotel is the " Fonda del Siglo " or of 
the century J a grand designation indeed, but 
I do not pretend to guess the age referred to, 
whether the 19th or the 16th. It is a supe* 



42 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

rior house to the "Norte" at Burgos in 
respect of fittings and accommodation, but 
inferior in one particular — that of attendance. 
At Burgos we were waited upon at table by 
two very wUUng if not overclean damsels, 
and a niece of the landlady, a bright black- 
eyed girl, who spoke French very tolerably, 
having spent some time at Angoiilfeme. 
Here, at Valladohd, the only attendants are 
two unkempt and slovenly boys, one about 
sixteen the other fourteen, who give you 
your bread with their dirty fingers, and 
pitch rather than place your plate, knife, and 
fork before you when they need changing. 

I must remark too of these northern 
Fondas (my own Umited experience being 
fortified by that of older Spanish travellers 
whom I met at table) that there is no one to 
receive you on your arrival but the porter 
below, and on proceeding up-stairs, the base- 
ment floor being generally a storehouse, you 
have a room assigned to you as if by favour, 
and get httle or jio attention when inside it. 
God help you ! if alone and you are taken ill. 
Few things I should dread so much as any 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 43 

serious maJady in the Peninsula. On the 
other hand, the Fonda of the north is not 
expensive. You get a cup of coffee or choco- 
late and two hearty meals a day, breakfast or 
luncheon at 11 or 12 and dinner at 6, have 
no " service " or bougies put down to you in 
the bill, and pay from thirty to forty reals 
per diem (six to eight shillings). This of 
course includes the wine, which by-the-bye is 
not much to my taste, being dark and heavy, 
and tending rather to the port than to the 
Bordeaux flavour. 

The museum here contains a few tolerable 
pictures and specimens of sculpture. Its 
most curious objects are, however, the 
painted and gilded wood sculptures taken 
from suppressed and ruined convents, which, 
however good they may have appeared in 
their right places, give you a notion when 
beheld here of a collection of huge dolls, 
only fitted for the nursery of Brobdignagian 
infants. 

The cathedral is in strong contrast to that 
of Burgos, which, as I have mentioned, is 
gothic, with all the beautiful tracery peculiar 



44 THEOUQH SPAIN BT ItAIL 

to that style of architecture. The church at 
Valladolid is, on the contrary, square and 
classical, and at the first glance reminded me 
of Sta Bosalia at Palermo, though four centu- 
ries younger than that remarkable edifice. 

It is the work of Herrera, the architect of 
the Escorial, and has the grandeur and defects 
of that master's style. It is blocked up in- 
teriorly by an immense reja^ and further dis^- 
figured by a huge wall of masonry, so that 
you have no chance of taking in the interior 
as a whole. This, however, is not the 
architect's work and is more to be regretted 
as the proportions of the building are 
evidently very fine. 

VaUadolid possesses, like Grenoa and 
Florence, a street of gold- and silver- smiths*, 
or, rather, the latter, for silver-plate is alone 
visible, Some of the designs are quaint and 
many are very elegant, but the workman- 
ship appeared to me to want finish, I was 
struck with a table ornament for salt and 
pepper. The two little cellars were in the 
conventional shape of a himian heart, the 
upper parts or covers of which were trans- 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 45 

fixed by arrows, from which a chain led to 
the centre handle; by twisting this the 
chains tightened and the lids of the cellars 
were raised. 

In the market-place I caught sight, for the 
first time, of the pig-skins used for the 
conveyance of wine. They were lying in the 
sun like actual porkers sans bristles, head, 
and trotters, but retaining in their bloated 
condition a sufficient resemblance to the real 
hog to make the look of them unpleasant. 
One of these unsightly carcases stood beside 
my portmanteau at the station at Burgos, 
and on my inquiring, as I pressed my finger 
on it, whether it contained wine,— seeing it 
to be stained with what I took to be the 
generous liquid,— its owner answered ^^ No, 
SenoTy es Sangre.^^ It was blood I 



46 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAII# 



LETTER VIII- 

VALLABOLID TO MADRID. 

BTBBILE SCENEBT— ▲ STONT TRACT — LASaB OLITB TBBBS 
— YIEW OF THE ESCOBIAL— ABBITAL AT MADBID. 

Madrid; 

March 16, 1872. 

I QUITTED Valladolid yesterday at the same 
hour as I reached it the moming before, at 
9 a.m,, and on entering the carriage I had to 
contemplate nearly twelve mortal hours 
before I could arrive at Madrid. 

If you wish to see the country through 
which you are passing — a not unnatural 
feeling for an inquisitive traveller who visits 
new scenes for the first time — you have no 
alternative but to take the luggage train to 
which passenger carriages are attached, and 
the rate of speed from first to last is about 
ten miles an hour. The faster trains, mis- 
named Express, only run at night. 

And what a picture of nakedness it was 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 47 

whicli I did behold during the twelve hours 
of daylight I After leaving VaUadolid some 
distance behind, we came upon a forest of 
stone pines, not the tall graceful trees be- 
loved of Turner and Harding, and introduced 
into their ItaUan landscapes, but stunted 
things with cauliflower heads, looking, in 
fact, like some gigantic, sickly vegetable. 
Then followed scores of miles of a treeless 
tract of a dirty brown, but without one 
blade of grass or other green thing in the 
fields (for though there were no hedges, walls, 
or ditches, to divide them it was evident 
that they were separate plots) which were 
grubbed up rather than prepared for the 
crops, and occasionally there appeared some 
black stumps pruned down to within a few 
inches of the soil, which were presumably 
vines ; but how unlike those of Lombardy or 
Tuscany I 

The few villages discernible were scarcely 
fit for human habitation. But for the steeple 
of the church rising in the midst, the eye 
might pass over the cluster of houses unob- 
servant, as they had no verdure near them. 



48 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

and were the exact colour of the soil from 
which they sprang. Where a bank allowed 
of it, the peasantry had burrowed into it like 
rabbits, and then closed the entrance with a 
door. 

We stopped for refreshment at* the station 
of Avila, and as this same city is the capital 
of its province-*— has played no mean part in 
early Spanish history— has two or three 
churches and a Gothic cathedral dating back 
to 1107, and seems to have been strongly 
fortified for the date of its construction, I 
expected to find a very different place. Ford 
says, " its distant appearance is imposing ;" 
perhaps, as that same distance "lends en- 
chantment to the view," I was not far enough 
off J or it may look different from the carriage 
to what it does from the rail road. It seems 
old enough to belong to the early ages of 
mankind, but the dusky colour of the granite 
of which it is built, the sterile look of the 
country in the neighbourhood, and the slimy 
banks of the Eiver Adaja, by which it is 
watered, render it a forbidding-looking 
place. 



IN THB SPEINa OF 1872. 49 

On quitting it we came upon a tract, the 
like of which I only remember in the com- 
mencement of the descent of the Spliigen on 
the ItaUan side, A region of granite boulders 
of the most extraordinary size and character. 
Monsters of every shape appeared there. 
Huge toads, sea-horses, vast slugs, and those 
antediluvian animals with which modern 
science has made us acquainted, were pre- 
sented to my wondering gaze in turn, watch- 
ing in grim, eternal silence the passage of 
the snorting engine. Busts of men in 
armour, sleeping giants, and other incon- 
gruous shapes were not wanting. Up or 
down, before and behind, there was nothing 
but granite stones ; and great, indeed, must 
have been the labour and expense which 
attended the driving of the iron road through 
such a perverse and desolate region. As the 
men employed upon the line could find no 
villages where to lodge during their ungenial 
toil, temporary houses had to be erected for 
them along the line, and the removal of the 
timber (that valuable commodity in this 
country) as they went on, by creating a 

4 



50 TUBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

constant succession of ruins, contributed not 
a little to increase the desolation of this 
region. 

These stones were succeeded by a forest of 
ohves, which did not look the yoimgest pro* 
duction of that ungracious soil, so gnarled 
and hard appeared their trunks that one 
could not help fancying the granite had 
entered into their composition, and that an 
axe laid to their roots would blunt as though 
struck upon veritable rock. 

More stones and more olives— ^then the 
two mixed up together in one scene of con- 
fusion, with the distant mountains soaring 
beyond, covered with snow. 

The enormous pile of the Escorial came in 
sight as the evening was faUing — perhaps the 
most favorable time to observe it — as the 
reddish stone of which it is built was 
brightened by the rays of the setting sun . It 
stands at the top of an eminence, and is 
backed by the sierra. It looks a huge 
barrack, having, they say, 11,000 windows, 
with a dome in the centre. 

Although but twenty miles from Madrid, it 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872; 51 

took OUT train two hours and a half to perform 
the journey, and it was therefore quite dark 
when I reached the capital. 

The confusion at the terminus occasioned 
by touters, porters, omnibus drivers, cabmen 
and idlers, was something startling, accus- 
tomed as I have been to such scenes for 
years. I got into a poor little omnibus at 
last, marked " Servicio Publico," and desired 
the driver to convey me to the Hotel Penin- 
sulares. 

What a drive that was I Whether the man 
was impatient at having waited so long, with 
such a small result as a single passenger with 
a solitary portmanteau, I cannot say, but he 
covered the ground from the station to the 
city at a hand gallop, and I found myself, 
owing to the wretched nature of the road, 
flying between my seat and the roof every 
few seconds, while clouds of dust made all 
outward objects indistinguishable. 

Whether true or not, a man who stood at 
the door of the " Peninsulares " told me there 
was no room, but conducted me to a house 
opposite. It turned out to be a " Casa de 



52 THB0tJG3 SPAIN BY BAIL 

Huespedes,'* or private boarding establisli- 
ment, kept by a lady and her two daughters. 
I was shown into a heat httle carpeted 
gabinete^ or sitting-room, with a tefl^ace look- 
ing on to the street, the Alcala, the principal 
calle of Madrid, close to the Puerta del Sol^ 
and having an Alcoba attached, in which was 
the bed, separated from the gaUnete by glass 
doors. It looked, as I have found it, Very 
clean and comfortable, and I am glad of the 
chance which has conducted me hither rather 
than to the hotel. 

A cup of very decent tea, obtained from a 
neighbouring caf(S, was welcome after the 
journey and dust, and a good night's rest has 
quite recovered me from my fatigue. 



JN THE SPEING OF 1872. 58 



LETTER IX. 

MADRID, 

SPANISH GOOKBBY— GOOD BEBAD—FIRST APPBAEANCB OF 
HADBID— ITS 8TBBBTS—S0LPIBBS— MILITARY MUSIC. 

Calle de AlcaU ; 

March 16, 1872. 

I OPENED my eyes this morning for the first 
time in Madrid, to salute a bright sun and 
deliciously blue sky, though I found on 
getting intp the air that it was very keen. 

At half-pp,st eight themo^so, Faustino, brought 
me in a cup of cafe au lait with half a roll 
toasted, but ^o butter, (I have only tasted 
that comestible cmce since I left France, and 
have felt no inclination to try it again.) The 
breakfast hour is half -past eleven. Dinner is 
served at half-past six. Breakfast consists 
of eggs fried pr boiled, or an omelette ; then 
chopped kidneys or something analogous ; a 
piece of pieat with potatoes ; cheese, fruit, 
and wii^e. Piuner is composed of soup. 



54 THBOUQH SPAIN BT BAIL 

kidney beans, or gardanzas (chickpeas), and 
two meats served one after the other, the 
atter with salad; some sweet cake or pre- 
serve, cheese, and fruit. 

The meat is tough, stringy, and tasteless, 
and the oil in which the things are fried is 
green and very rank, so that when cooking it 
is enough to turn a delicate stomach ; garlic 
enters largely into the flavouring, and alto- 
gether the food is coarse, greasy, and little 
nourishing. The bread and water are both 
good. The Spanish wheaten bread is perhaps 
a Uttle too close^ somewhat like our aerated, 
but it is deliciously white. French bread 
{pan frances) is most in use, and is very 
light and agreeable. The wine is not to my 
taste, being flat and inclining to sweetness. 
It is supposed to l)e from ValdepenaSj but as 
that district has a reputation, one may take for 
granted that " it knoweth not such origin." 

The windows of my gabinete open on to 
a balcony nearly opposite the Custom House, 
an imposing building of red brick, with stone 
facings. On my left hand is the " Puerta del 
Sol," that favourite lounging place of idlers, 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 55 

and to the right I look down towards the 
"prado" which, on reaching the bottom of 
the street, stretches to the right and left. 
The calls itself rises and then dips consider- 
ably towards the public walk. Indeed, few of 
the streets of Madrid are on the level, as the 
city is built on several sand hills, and, with 
the exception of some half-dozen main 
thoroughfares, the calles wind and twist 
considerably* They are almost all provided 
with foot-paths, but the road pavement of 
the older portion of the town is composed of 
flints, and is very trying to your feet and 
patience when driven off the narrow foot- 
ways, a common occurrence enough, as the 
Spaniards, I perceive, give room to no one, 
male or female. 

The Alcala, a fine street enough, is to 
my mind disfigured by a double line of tram- 
way, or tramvia as they have translated it. 
Distances are not so great in Madrid that 
ordinary omnibuses would not have answered 
the purpose, and the " Oalle de Alcala" is 
not broad enough for this mode of convey- 
ance. Everything has naturally to make 



56 THCOrCH fcPAOl BT KAIL 

way for the huge onmibiis of the line, and 
when the troops are passmg up and down 
the streets tiiey have to turn aside and break 
the order of their march, which greadj des- 
troys the martial effect. 

A propoM of these same soldiers. The 
infantry (fine stalwart fellows on the whole) 
when marching out to parade wear, for the 
most part, no boots, but a leather sole £Ei8- 
tened on with sandals or thongs (the true 
ancient Roman foot-covering), and as many 
dispense with stockings, their dirty toes give 
them a slovenly look, rather out of character 
with the rest of their attire. The uniform is 
composed of a blue loose coat, red or blue 
trousers with red stripe— very wide and 
baggy — ^black gaiters, the aforesaid "san- 
dalled shoon," and white or green gloves. 
Their drams and trumpets are neither 
pleasant nor musical. Noisy they are, for 
the first perform a continual rub-a-dub, and 
the latter are sounded often without the 
least reference to the band behind, and 
whose music is completely destroyed by the 
discordant accompaniment. 



IN THE SPBING OF 1872. 57 



LETTER X. 

MAPBID. 

A MISSING LETTER — SPANISH POST-OFFICE AND ITS 
OFFICIALS— CIQAEBTTB-SMOKINCI — MADBID HOUSES— 
PUEBTA DEL SOL — SPANISH WOMEN — CASAS DE 
HUESPEDES. 

CaJle de AloaJa ; 

March 17, 1872. 

I POSTED you a letter last night and should 
have sent you this to-day, but that wishing 
to write a few lines to A. and J. I put it 
off till too late, as the post leaves early here. 
However, this will start to-morrow and you 
will be the gainer by getting a longer 
letter. 

I made particular inquiries at the post- 
office this morning about your missing letter, 
for I am sure you have written to jne. They 
are so obtuse here and so msouciants that I 
feel convinced the missing epistle is lying in 
some pigeon hole to which it does not belong, 



58 THBOUOH SPAIN BT BAIL 

owing to their not nnderstanding your E in 
my name. I begged the officials to look 
nnder G and LI. This, after a little demur, 
they did, without success in the instance at 
which I required it, that is to say your letter, 
but it brought to light one from W., which 
their perspicuity had also failed to under- 
stand. If I am able to give you another 
address whilst in Spain I will ask you to 
print your E thus, £> so that there can be no 
possibiHty of a mistake. 

The scene enacted at the post-office 
window during these enquiries was so 
Spanish that I cannot refrain from describ- 
ing it to you. Knowing that the officials 
and I should not agree about the pronimcia' 
Hon of my name, I exhibited my passport and 
asked if they had letters for the person 
therein described. A clerk, who was leaning 
against a table, doing nothing, leisurely took 
the credentials, and having examined them 
and mumbled the name over to himself, 
suddenly remembered that he had not had a 
cigarette for the previous ten minutes. 
Whereupon, lying down the document, in 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 59 

whicli " We, Lord John Russell, request and 
require, in the name of Her Majesty, that 
A. E — may be afforded every assistance, &c., 
of which he may stand in need," the worthy 
emjpleadOy from one pocket drew his roll of 
papers, and from another his tobacco pouch, 
and having carefully rolled up the desired 
delicacy, with fingers dyed of a deep saffron 
colour from constant occupation of the same 
kind, he took from a third pocket a box of 
wax matches, the lid of which was orna- 
mented with a not too decent representation 
of a French lorette^ and having expended two 
in procuring a hght, for the head of the first 
rolled off when applied to the sandpaper, he 
blew through his nostrils two streams of 
smoke, much to his gratification and, doubt- 
less, to the clearing of his faculties. This 
done, he condescended to re-examine my 
passport, and having again listened to my 
humble request, he proceeded, with that 
gravity which became a Spaniard, to do the 
httle work for which he was placed there and, 
I presume, paid for to perform. 

I am now in a position to give you some 



60 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

notion of what I think of Madrid, having 
spent a couple of days in walking about its 
streets and attentively examining every 
object that has come in my way. 

It is certainly a fine city being, in parts, 
very regularly built, with some grand palaces 
and pubUc buildings. These have very much 
the appearance of Italian ones, granite taking 
the place of marble. The majority of them, 
however, are of brick covered with com|>o, 
only the compo is harder than with us, and 
does not peel off with the alternations of the 
weather. Here, as in Burgos and Valladolid, 
the glazed terraces are not uncommon, and 
some of them being tastily covered outsidQ 
and neatly curtained within, not only have a 
pretty appearance but form admirable nookg 
whence to observe the passers by. But 
all said, Madrid has a very modern aspect j 
there are not many vestiges of antiquity 
about it; one looks, of course, in vain for 
any traces of the Moor who has leffc such 
graceful and indelible marks of his presencQ 
in other parts of the Peninsula and thq seal 
of age does not appear to be specially im- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 61 

press^ on any edifice or monument. This 
may be in part due to the atmosphere, for 
the Plaza Mayor is upwards of two centuries 
old. 

I am in the Oalle de Alcala, the finest 
street in Madrid, which, like the Oorso at 
Milan, leads to the principal drives and 
walks. Fortimately, my bed is placed in an 
alcoba or recess, shut in with glass doors, 
otherwise the noises of this noisiest of 
thoroughfares and latest of cities would be as 
unpleasant as the Corso, just mentioned, on 
one occasion proved to you. I am also close 
to the Puerta del Sol, which is not a gate as 
its name would imply (there was one there 
originally), but a rather fine Plaza or 
" Squarr," as the French have it, into which 
eight large streets debouch, whereof the 
Alcald is one. 

This Puerta del Sol, as you know by 
repute, is the favourite lounge. It has 
always a sunny and a shady side, it has some 
good shops, and there, from the passion of 
the Spaniards of all classes for lounging, all 
sorts of costumes and all sorts of people may 



62 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

be studied in it. The Puerta del Sol has 
been famous during the thousand and one 
revolutions that Spain has gone through, and 
if one might judge from the aspect of a great 
part of its habitues there are plenty of ele- 
ments for a rising at any given moment. 

The cloak which Spaniards of every 
degree seem so fond of gives them a sinister 
air. Even when the sun shines brightly 
they wrap themselves in this capa to the very 
eyes, and there is no doubt that in many 
instances it is used to hide the Httle more 
than nakedness beneath. The beggar's 
cloak is a thing to behold. Made of so many 
patches that it is hard to determine of what 
material the original garment was composed, 
the end of it is yet thrown jauntily over one 
shoulder, and it is very evident that the 
constant asking of ahns has not diminished 
the self-esteem of the wearer. Peasantry of 
various districts are always found too loung- 
ing in the Puerta del Sol. Some of their 
hats are wonderful ; round, turned up at the 
brim, and furnished with two or three tufts 
or puffs of floss silk or wool. Braided and 



IN THE 8PEIN0 OF 1872. 63 

Telvet jackets are also common, with breeches 
and gaiters. Many wear no shoes, but in 
their place soles of pigskin fastened to the 
feet by thongs of leather. 

The women have a very Italian look, and 
a very Milanese look among Italians. The 
eyes are perhaps finer, and I think, on the 
whole, the Madrilenas are better looking. I 
certainly have seen not a few fine women in 
the Prado. They get very stout after a cer- 
tain age, and whether they wear " dress 
improvers" or not, or whether nature has 
been specially bountiful to them, I cannot 
say, but their proportions are large. A great 
many, indeed most of them, still wear the 
mantilla, and a few the high comb; but, 
however Spanish the latter may be, the veil 
looks more graceful without it, more par- 
ticularly with the present fashion of dressing 
the hair. 

I believe I told you I am not in an hotel, 
but in one of the numerous Casas de Huespedes 
or boarding-houses. The family consists of 
the father (a nonentity), the mother and mis- 
tress of the establishment, a stout, kind, old 



64 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

soul, and two daughters, who have beautiful 
eyes, and are otherwise good-looking enough 
if they would only be a little more particular 
about their attire, and Faustino, a big, long- 
legged, but very good-natured fellow, is the 
mozo or waiter and general chamber-man. 
The inmates are a Spanish colonel, a Peru- 
vian, two brothers, Spanish merchants from 
Barcelona, and myself. With the exception 
of the brothers, who know a Kttle French, 
they speak no language but their own, and I 
am compelled to exercise my Spanish. I 
would advise all who wish to derive pleasure 
and profit from a journey through Spain to 
get up some knowledge of the language, for 
in scarcely any European country will the 
traveller find so few who are capable of 
holding converse in any tongue but that with 
which they are bom. 

Their proficiency in English may be esti- 
mated by an announcement which appears in 
large letters over a first-class restaurant in 
the Calle de Alcala, where one reads with 
bewilderment that "Dinners" are served 
" by the ca/rt:' 



IN THB SPRING OP 1872. 65 



LBTtER XI. 

MADBID. 

THE WJBEXm OF PICTURES— THB SPANISH SCHOOL— 
VEliASiiUEe—MirBIIiLO— BlBERA-^JTrAlTES— COBLLO — 
ZUBBAEAK— SPECIMENS OF THE ITALIAN SCHOOL. 

Calle de AlcaUL ; 

JlforcM?, 1872. 

I WBOTB you a few lineE^ from Bordeaux, 
and as K tells me you have seen most of the 
intermediate letters I need not go over the 
old ground. You know^ that I have reached 
thia capital, the only court, if we are to take 
the Madrilefios' dictum as gospel, "/SoZo 
Madrid es corte^^ and I propose this evening 
to give you a brief account of the Museum 
of pictures in which I have spent some few 
hours* 

It contains an immense number of works, 
more than 2000, and of course an infinite 

5 



66 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

deal of spoiled canvas. On the other hand, 
it has treasures beyond all price, and some 
beautiful specimens of the Italian and 
Flemish schools. 

I was struck at once by the works of three 
men of whose labours I had hitherto Been but 
few examplars, Velasquez, Murillo, . and 
Eibera. The first is a grand and masculine 
painter. Every canvas to which he put his 
vigorous hand seems to live and breathe. 
Whether portraying the Don or his Jester, 
the Sefiora or her Dwarf, he is equally in 
earnest, and never before had I conceived 
how great was his power. On a close exa- 
mination his colours seem to have been 
literally thrown upon the canvas, as if he 
wielded his brush like a sword and slashed 
at his work, but the effect, when viewed at a 
little distance, is truly marvellous. There is 
a Christ crucified, with the partly-clotted 
hair hanging over the drooped head, that 
makes you shudder, so wonderful is its exe- 
cution, so terribly like unto death. Murillo, 
on the other hand, is sweet, delicate, and 
fascinating. His women are dehcious, but 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 67 

his Madonnas after all are but lovely amiable- 
looking women, 

" . . . . not too bright and good . 
For human nature's daily fbod." 

They want that indescribable divinity which 
distinguishes Raphael (whom, by-the-bye, 
Valasquez could never appreciate). His 
Madonnas, indeed, seem made to be wor- 
shippedy Murillo's to be loved. Murillo's 
flesh colour and draperies are charming, and 
one marvels where in this country he could 
have obtained his models, for their type is 
very northern. Of course, I have not yet 
seen many Andalusian women, and when I 
visit Seville, Murillo's native place, I may 
find there the counterpart of his Madonnas. 
There is a fine picture of his in the long 
gallery on the right, styled a Holy Family, 
but it is no more holy in character than any 
innocent domestic interior can be so desig- 
nated, where a man and woman in the 
prime of life are watching with loving eyes 
the awakening intelligence of their first- 
bom. 



68 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Bibera, known in Italy as lo SpagnoletiOy 
wields a grandly vigorous penqil, but his: suK 
jects are simply detestable. Hermits reduced 
to the last stage of emaciation, martyrs suf- 
fering under torture, blood, and dissection, 
these are the themes in which he delights, 
but, although admitting his power^ I for my 
part incline to that naughty Don Juan's doc^ 
trine, and prefer turning from-- 

. . . " Saints and martyrs, hairy, 

To the sweet pictures of the Virgin Mary." 

There are some delightful pictures by Juaa . 
Juanes, called the Spanish Raphael. They 
are certainly Italian in manner, but are 
nearer in style to Pietro Perugino, Raphae>rB 
master, having a stiffness and hardness from 
which Raphael was wholly free. Some of 
his heads, though, are beautiful; their 
colouring is all that could be desired— whilst 
athers are pure caricatures. Witness the 
caput of Judas Iscariot in the Last Supper, 
with its flaming red hair, hooked npse, 
cunning eyes, and generally diabolical ex- 
pression. That man could surely never have 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 69 

wormed himsetf into the <5onfideiice of any- 
one except an idiot. It is decidedly a, portrait 
charge. 

The gallery has also several specimens of 
another Spanish artist, hitherto unknown to 
me except by name, Znrbaran ; and until I 
came here, I must confess myself to have 
been lamentably ignorant of the works of 
Sanchez and Claudio Coello, both fine 
peters. 

The ItaUan School is well represented, 
though the chief pictures are by Venetian 
masters. There is a replica in the long 
gallery of that splendid Danae of Titian, one 
of the glories of the Museum at Naples, but 
the Madrid exemplar is in an unfinished 
state* At a Uttle distance higher up there 
are two large pictures by the same master, 
which are puzzling. They represent in 
almost identical positions, and with the same 
background — a garden — a young man play- 
ing on a spinnet) with his face turned to- 
wards the naked figure of a woman lying on 
a silken couch behind him. In the first of 
these pictures the woman, whose model has 



70 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

evidently been the same as that of the 
two celebrated Venuses in the Tribune at 
Florence, and who is depicted with aU the 
charm of colour proper to Titian, is toying 
with a Uttle dog ; in the second she is listen- 
ing to the whispers of a prettly little cupid. 
At the first glance I thought I saw in this 
change of playmate the effect of the gentle- 
man's harmony, converting playfulness into 
love ; but, to the destruction of my theory, I 
afterwards perceived that the man was older 
and bearded in the "dog" picture, and a 
mere youth, a perfect dlanc bee, in 
the other, though evidently intended for 
the same individual ; the woman being in 
both cases of the same age. I could find no 
one to enlighten me on the subject, and the 
catalogues are discreetly silent. 

The gallery contains two magnificent 
Raphaels ; one, the celebrated " Perla," 
originally the property of our Charles the 
First, and purchased of Cromwell for Philip 
IV, who exclaimed at sight of it — " This is 
the pearl of all my pictures," — hence its 
name. The other is the equally celebrated 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 71 

Agnus Dei, which has suffered at the hands of 
restorers, I noticed also an old acquaintance 
of Velasquez, Los Borrachos^ of which there 
is a repUca much esteemed and copied in 
the Gallery at Naples, representing a group 
of peasants carousing, one half-drunken 
fellow being covered with vine leaves, by 
a companion. It has all the manly vigour 
noticeable in the works of that great 
master. 



72 THBOUGH SPAIN BI BAIL 



LETTER XII. 

MADBID. 

▲ PBEABY EYES nrO — THE OPERA HOUSE OF MADSID*^ 
EIKQ AMADBO — THE PSADO— FASEO DE LOS &ECOL- 
LETOS — THE WET-NUSSES OF MADBID. 

Oalle de Alcali ; 

March 19, 1872. 

Pleased as I am to write to you, knowing 
with what satisfaction you will read the hnes 
I trace; it is a very one-sided kind of 
pleasure, as I can get no acknowledgment in 
return. 

Never, perhaps, have I felt a separation 
from all my dear friends so severely as the 
present. No doubt part of this arises from 
my feeKng less at home in Spain than in 
Italy. With the latter country I have been 
familiar from my childhood, but here, indeed, 
I feel alone. I sent you a long letter yester- 
day, written on Sunday evening, but it is very 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 73 

^flBcult to do anything by the Kght of two 
miserable attenuated candles, and with pale 
ink. Last night, therefore^ I was obliged to 
givo up this generally effectual cure for 
my loneliness, as I naturally feel less solitary 
wLjottiBgdownnoteswhiohlkoow^ 
reach your hands and be read by your 
eyes. 

At dinner there were only the Colonel and 
jnyself, and he was under marching orders 
for Murcia. After he had gone Dofia Maria, 
my landlady, and her two daughters kept 
me company during dessert, and we talked 
tant hien que mal^ but rather mal than 
otherwise, at least on my part, about various 
matters. I showed them your portrait in my 
locket, which they declared in loud terms to 
be rrmy guapita. At last I retired to my 
room, took my coffee and a cigar, and read 
for an hour. I then, as I mentioned, tried 
to write, but, owing to the miserable " illumi- 
nation," gave it up in despair. Ennuy^ed 
beyond bearing, I seized my hat — it was then 
9 o'clock — and went into the bustHng street, 
chance, rather than design, leading me in the 



74 THROUGH SPAIN BY EAlt 

direction of the Opera House. I procured a' 
ticket for a butaca or fauteuil and went in. 

A second-rate Italian company were in the 
middle of the first act of L' Africaine, the said 
Africaine being quite ugly enough for her 
part without the paint. She did not sing very 
well, but she showed quite sufficient passion for 

* 

the copper complexion she wore. The tenor 
was good, the rest as usual, were so so. The 
house, which is at the side of the Plaza del 
Oriente, and close to the royal Palace, is a very 
fine one; I should say nearly as large as Covent 
Garden. There is no pit, properly so called, 
the whole of the area being occupied by stalls 
or butacas of red velvet and very comfortable. 
My ticket cost me only eight francs. Rather 
different to London opera prices. There 
was very little, indeed no beauty, that I 
saw. The mantilla was universal, and, with 
very few exceptions, the ladies wore high- 
necked dresses. The Spanish ladies, I 
understand, are not partial to the display of 
their — necks. There were three, however, 
quite uncovered enough in a box above me, 
one having the entire edge of her dress lined 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 75 

or bordered rather with artificial flowers, 
which gave her the appearance of a 
variegated Clyte. The Eoyal box is 
placed, as in Italy, in the centre of the 
house. 

By-the-bye, talking of royalty, I saw from 
my balcony yesterday afternoon the young 
King Amadeo ride down the Alcala with a 
general officer on each side of him, and 
followed by a couple of footmen in scarlet 
hvery, and a few dozen lancers. 

It was painful to me to observe the dead 
silence which attended his progress. The 
street was prowded, yet not a single " viva" 
did I hear. "No man," as York says of 
Richard, ** cried God save him." Nay, 
scarcely a hat was raised, although it struck 
me that the young king sedulously looked 
about in order to acknowledge by a miUtary 
salute the nonchalant way in which some few 
touched their hats as he passed. 

I cannot but sincerely pity his position 
amid this pompous, empty, and restless 
people. His fate may not be so tragical as 
that of Maximilian, but he is amongst a cog- 



76 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAtL 

nate race, and if any outbreak do occur, he 
may esteem himself lucky if lie escape from 
Spain with life. ^^ Mais que diahle aXLaiUil 
faire dans cette galere?^ as Molifere makes 
G^ronte exclaim. He certainly would have 
better consulted his own happiness by stop- 
ping at home. But then, I suppose, these 
sons and daughters of monarch s are just as 
anxious to obtain kingdoms of their own as a 
merchant's son is to enter into business on 
his own account. 

The king was followed by Her Majesty, his 
royal spouse, who, judging from her face, is 
a woman resolved to hold her own as long as 
possible. It is a determined, even a haughty 
countenance, though not wanting in a certain 
dark beauty, but a strong contrast to her 
sister-in-law, the sweet Princess Marguerite. 

I have not yet spoken to you of the public 
promenades which are always well frequented 
in the afternoon, and most interesting to a 
curious stranger, from the contrasts they 
present. The " Paseo de HecoUetos " in the 
Prado is at the present time the most fashion- 
able resort, and the authorities have done 



m THE. SPRING OF 1872. 77 

whsA they could, by the planting of shrubs to 
make it attractiYe. The result^ in the way 
of shade, is nothing to boast oi^ but in an 
arid climate Uke Madrid one gets thankful for 
very amaU mercies in the shape of verdure. 
In process of time this particular walk will be 
muqh improved, for it is being, bordered by 
fine houses and detached and semi-detached 
villas — quite a new feature in this part of the 
wQdd, 

At the entrance ia ac marble statue of Gybele 
8Q5kted in a car drawn by two horses, water 
spouting from, beneath their feet into a car 
pacious basin. The execution is bold, but 
the result of the whole, is. unsatisfactory, the 
&ieia4}ed figure looking far too squat for dignity. 
There is a corresponding fountain represent- 
ing Neptune at the end of the Salon, or the 
opposite part of the Prado which faces the 
museum, and another of Apollo, not wanting 
in grace, stands between the two. 

There are several paseos, or promenades, 
scattered about Madrid, all of which are 
similar in character, being bordered by 
stunted trees, and require to be well-watered 



78 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

to keep down the dust. At the " RecoUetos," 
the road for carriages runs between two 
broad footways, and there is also a narrow 
♦ slip for horseriders, likewise bordered by 
footways. There were a few, say half a 
dozen, young ladies on horseback when I 
visited the paseo yesterday, and perhaps a 
couple of dozen cavahers ; but the space is 
so confined that accidents must often occur 
through reckless riding. I myself saw one 
young fellow on a restive horse come into 
collision with another and fly out of his saddle 
with more expedition than grace. He wasn't 
hurt, however, only sandied, and his horse 
being stopped by a young officer, he was able 
to remount and continue his way. The 
carriages were greater in number and fer 
better horsed than I could have thought 
possible, judging from the population of the 
city. Many of the ladies in them were bare- 
headed, if women in this age of chignons and 
elaborate coiffures can be so called; many 
others wore the mantilla, and the minority 
were in bonnets. This same rule, as regards 
headdress, held also among the promenaders. 



IN THE SPRING OP 18/2. 79 

where occasionally the high Spanish comb 
was visible. 

Beyond the mantilla, there was. nothing to 
distinguish them in dress from the ladies of 
London or Paris. The gowns were just as 
long, and, as a consequence, on returning 
from the promenade they were disfigured 
with the dust which they swept up on their 
way. Black silks were most numerous, but 
there were some maroon, one or two vivid 
green, which is not inharmonious with their 
complexions and eyes, and one orange 
colour. 

The men were as three to one lady. They 
all looked well dressed, but without any- 
thing distinguishable. Occasionally one met 
a majo dandy, with well-made black trousers, 
short, well-fitting velvet jacket, ornamental 
waistcoat, and round wool cap, but he was 
the exception. 

I must not, however, omit to mention the 
wet-nurses, who, Hke those of Paris and the 
Italian cities, appear in gorgeous array. 
Those of Madrid are generally peasant women 
from the Asturias. They wear a white cap, 



80 THBOTOH SPAIN* BY BAIL 

with a short gown, often of cerise colour, 
trimmed with gold or silver lace, and" a white 
embroidered apron. They are ferav© in 
trinkets, and some of their ear pendants 
and brooches are cnrious specimens of old- 
fashioned jewellery. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 81 



LETTER XIII. 

MADBID. 

THB MANZANABBS — LATTKDBBSSB8 OF MADBID — BBIDGBS — 
— MXTLBS AST) DONKBYS — < DOGB— BEOGABS — THEIB 
OUITABS — THB LOTTBBY. 

Calle de Alcal4 ; 

March 20, 1872. 

I HAVE traversed this city in every direc- 
tion, and think I know its features tolerably 
well. Every one who comes to Madrid is at- 
tracted first to the " Puerta del Sol," where 
in former days there stood a gate, hence its 
name of Puerta^ and which constituted origin- 
ally one of the limits of the city. It is now 
a spacious place^ in the very centre of the 
town. It has a fountain in the middle, and 
some good buildings and shops round it, the 
chief hotels being above them. The principal 
streets radiate from this 2?Zaza, audit is there- 

6 



82 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

fore always full of life and motion. As there 
is one side always sunny while the other is in 
the shade, crowds of idlers bask there, al sol 
in winter and spring time, and a la sombra in 
summer. 

Go when you will into the " Puerta del 
Sol," you are sure to see many of the same 
faces, as if their owners Uved there, and, so 
far as concerns the greater part of their lives, 
they most probably do, rolling up cigarettes 
and smoking them at their leisure all day 
long. 

This cigarette-smoking must be an enormous 
resource for these idlers, as time is naturally 
"killed," as they themselves style it, in 
the preparation and consumption of these 
dainties. I wonder if any Spanish statisti- 
cian has ever calculated how many valuable 
hours of their lives are expended in this 
way I 

I walked down to the Manzanares in order 
to see the great washing-ground of the 
Madrid laundresses. It is a curious sight. 
The muddy banks are literally lined with 
women engaged in their occupation; the 



m THE SPRING OP 1872. 83 

stream being diverted into several narrow 
channels for greater convenience. Thousands 
of garments were hanging in the sun, and 
the gabble of many women and the melan- 
choly songs of others (for they sing as con- 
stantly and much in the same style as the 
peasantry of Italy) filled the air. 

The Manzanares is crossed by three or four 
bridges. Two of those I visited, the Toledo 
and the Segovia, are of vast proportions, 
qiiite out of character with the miserable 
stream ; but then they deserve just as much 
the name of viaducts as bridges, for most of 
their arches are dry. 

The Royal Palace looks very fine from this 
part of the town, and it is, indeed, one of the 
grandest buildings in Europe. 

In the poorer localities I traversed to reach 
the great washing-ground above described, 
I found much more life and character as 
there are situated manv inferior hostelries 
{posadas and ventas), where the peasantry of 
the surrounding districts put up, and about 
the entrances of which they crowd. The 
women are undistinguishable from the Nea- 



84 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

politans of the same class, going bare-headed, 
or wearing a silk handkerchief over the back 
of the head. Fair or light-brown hair is by 
no means uncommon; in &ct, I saw more 
fair women than I have usually seen in 
France. 

Mules and donkeys (the latter much 
larger than with us) perform most of the 
labour allotted elsewhere to the horse and 
cart. They carry everything upon their 
backs, from water to paving-stones. Their 
owners disfigure the poor creatures to the 
eye by cutting off all the hair of the upper 
part of their bodies — I could not learn 
whether to prevent vermin or make them 
more impressionable to the stick — and the 
skin is black and tanned, as if it were 
already converted into leather. Indeed, so 
evenly is the hair removed that I thought, at 
first, each beast was covered with a leather 
cloth. When these animals are very thin, as 
is most frequently the case, and exhibit 
their poor ribs to view, the sight of the 
carcase is most unpleasant; and when the 
stick falls upon the bare back or sides (which 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 85 

alas I it too often does) the sound is like the 
beating of a carpet. 

Dogs, a species of mongrel mastiff, abound 
in Madrid as, in fact, in every town of the 
Peninsula I have yet visited. As they are 
constantly thrusting their noses into the 
heaps of rubbish collected in the streets and 
their prominent ribs show that they would 
not be particular about their food, they 
must serve, in some degree, as pubUc scaven- 
gers. They seem very quarrelsome among 
themselves and are snarling and fighting 
great part of the day and night, but no one 
seems to pay the sUghtest attention to them, 
except to bestow a kick upon some lanky 
carcase to make it move out of the way. 

Water being one of the great necessities in 
all countries, and more particularly in Spain, 
this valuable article is sold about the streets 
and at every railway station by regular 
vendors — aguaderos qr aguaderas, for they 
are most commonly women — and the cry of 
Agua^ Agua I Quien quiere agua ? is one of 
the commonest that salutes the traveller's 
ear. In the " prado " and along the Calle 



86 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

de Alcala leading to it, these water-sellers 
abound, and judging from my observation,, 
the quantity consumed must be considerable. 

The beggars of Madrid have attracted a 
good deal of my notice from the fact of their 
being so unUke those of any other city. 
They are almost all blind and almost all, male 
and female, are furnished with a guitar. 
Not that they play or seem capable of play- 
ing any tune on it. They simply strum, 
strum, strum, and twang, twang, twang, 
across the strings, with or without the ac- 
companiment of the voice in nasal, dolorous 
accents. One stout, blind fellow, with this 
eternal instrument in his hand had fastened 
a string round the waist of a dirty little imp 
of six or seven years old, who thus led his 
progenitor or master like a dog. The sturdy 
fellow, meanwhile, as he ping-pinged, fol- 
lowed his small leader and puffed away at a 
cigarette which lolled out of the corner of his 
mouth. In fact, Uke their betters, these 
mendicants are constantly smoking, and are 
becloaked in the same style. 

I find the Lottery, sanctioned by Govern- 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 87 

ment, as great an institution here as in Italy, 
and there are as many offices for the sale of 
tickets as there are estancos or licensed 
tobacconists. It is true the prices of the 
tickets are not so low as in the country just 
mentioned, but, on the other hand, as they 
are divisible into fractions it comes virtually 
to the same thing. 



ft8 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 



LETTER XIV. 

MAD£ID. 

YABIATIOKS OF ATM08PHESE — XTMB&ELLAB — A. WAimEB 
BOUND THE CITY— DOS D£ MAYO— PLAZA MAYOB. 

Galle de Alcala ; 

March 23, 1872. 

The weather up to yesterday had been iin- 
interruptedly clear and bright from the 
moment of my setting foot in Madrid. The 
sun was hot, but the wind remained still 
keen, and no wonder, for although this 
capital is as far south as Naples, it is 2000 
feet higher, and the Guadarrama chain of 
mountains, visible from different parts of the 
city, is covered with snow. Still, the heat 
was sufficiently great to compel the soldiers 
to put on their puggeries, and very pretty 
they looked when marching in a body. 

But yesterday a change came over the at- 
mosphere. The wind blew in gusts; rain 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 89 

clouds shut out the sun, so that it turned very- 
cold, while perfect tourhUlons of dust made 
the air misty. 

To-day the same menacing clouds have 
melted into rain, which has continued to pour 
down for many successive hours. 

The umbrellas it has brought to light are 
marvellous to behold ; they differ in size from 
an ordinary dinner-plate to a small tent, and 
their colours are as various as the tints of the 
rainbow. We Northerners, with our sober 
notions and liking for blacks and browns, 
can form a poor conception of the taste which 
a Spaniard displays in this useful article, the 
paraguas. The hues of his umbrellas, run 
through every gradatipn of colour, from 
yellow to green, from blue to indigo, from 
pink to the richest maroon. I saw some like 
a huge golden pippin or melon cut in two. 
I observed others of a hue as deep as the 
pomegranate blossom or damask rose, and, 
in fact, as I gazed upon them from the 
height of my terrace, I thought I beheld a 
paHerre of flowers or a collection of circular 
leaves, whose colours ranged from the fresh 



90 THROUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

green of spring to the autumnal tints upon 
the Virginian creeper. 

As soon as the rain a little abated I put on 
my thickest paletot, for it was bitterly cold, 
and turned into the streets, which were, of 
course, nearly deserted. 

The cabs here are furnished with a little 
tin flag bearing the inscription " se aJquila ** 
(for hire), which is raised when empty and 
depressed when engaged. The idea was 
borrowed, you may remember, in London a 
year or two ago, but, as usual with us, not 
being strictly enforced, it has, like the cab- 
men's tickets, fallen into disuse. The Madrid 
coachmen evidently think this printed an- 
noimcement a sufficient indication of their 
being at your service, for they seldom or 
ever ask if you need a coach, but doze upon 
their boxes or make and smoke cigarrettes 
till they are hailed. On this particular after- 
noon, however, one actually, seeing me plod- 
ding through the mud, did inquire whether I 
wanted a conveyance, but as I had no notion 
where I was going to, I declined the 
profEered service. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 91 

Chance led my footsteps to the prado, and 
in the opposite direction to the " RecoUetos," 
or fashionable promenade. Passing by the 
gate of the gardens of El Buen Uetiro^ that 
have been closed during the whole time of my 
stay here, I traversed the Salon del Prado, 
and having passed the Museum, which occu- 
pies one side of it, came upon an obelisk 
enclosed within an iron railing, whereon 
appeared the simple inscription, Dos de Maya. 

The words recal one of those sanguinary 
episodes which hideously mark the presence 
of Napoleon's troops in Spain. General 
Dausmenil, acting under the orders of Murat 
on that fatal 2nd of May, put to the sword un- 
numbered groups of old and young, not even 
sparing the clergy, and this monument is 
intended to hold up the memory of that 
ruthless chief to the execration of pos- 
terity. 

Passing up the CaUe de Atocha I at length 
reached the Plaza Mayor, the most regular 
and one of the most interesting squares in 
Madrid. It was here, as we may read, that 
the Auto8'de-Fe were celebrated, and on state 



92 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

occasions bull-fights were held in the Plaza, 
for which the locality is well fitted. Philip 
IV here entertained our Charles I to one of 
these spectacles, and as recently as 1833 a 
grand entertainment of the kind was given 
on the inauguration of Queen Isabel, when it 
is stated that nearly one hundred bulls were 
converted into beef. 

If the weather improve I propose making a 
trip to-morrow to the Escorial, as on Monday 
I start for Saragossa and the towns on the 
east coast. As next week is the Semana Santa 
I expect to find more play than work going 
on. The streets of Madrid are placarded 
with the notices of exciu*sion trains to Seville, 
whither half the world of Spain seems flitting, 
and where, as usual on such occasions, a fine 
harvest is being garnered by the hotels and 
other places of public lodgment. 

If I am not too tired to-morrow night I 
shall have the pleasiu*e of giving you my 
impressions of the Escorial, a building as 
abused by some as it is belauded by others, 
and which the majority agree in dubbing one 
of the " Wonders of the World.'*. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 93 



LETTER XV. 

MADRID, 

▲ TBIF TO THB ESCOBIAX — THE APPBOACH FROM 
KADRID — ElfORMOUS EXTENT — STBANOB DESIGN — 
THE CHAPEL— THE PANTHEON. 

Galle de Alcald ; 

Mwrch 24, 1872. 

In common I suppose with a good many- 
others of my fellow-creatures, I had formed 
the most erroneous notions of the situation 
and character of El Escorial. 

In the first place, before I came to Spain 
I was under the impression that it was in the 
immediate neighbourhood of Madrid instead 
of being twenty miles away {two hours by 
rail) J and secondly, I had conceived the idea 
of its being half palace, half museum, whilst 
it is much more of a monastery and a mauso- 
leinn than either of the former, as Philip 
II, for whom it was built, must be considered 



94 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL' 

as living the Kfe of a monk rather than a 
monarch, and the edifice was osten^bly raised 
for a royal burial-place. 

I have already spoken to you of the utter 
barrenness of the country which so painfiilly 
affected me on approaching the monstrous 
pile from the north. Darkness came upon 
me after leaving it behind on my journey 
from Valladolid to Madrid, so that when this 
morning I started for the spot with the huge 
building for my destination, I had some 
curiosity to gratify. 

Better would it have been, perhaps, if the 
darkness which then enveloped the country- 
still continued to cover it, for my fancy 
might have turned some of the desert into 
smiling landscape and peopled the two or 
three intermediate villages with a gay and 
pleasant population. As it was, the fiill light 
of day was thrown upon the arid stony tract 
and the begrimed and gloomy-looking people, 
and the result upon the spirits became 
depressing in the extreme. 

You will say this was not a very proper 
frame of mind in which to visit and estimate 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 95 

the vast monument I had come out to see, 
but yet somehow the two seemed to be in 
harmony with each other. I was about to 
behold one of the gloomiest of piles, and I 
arrived at the station from whence it becomes 
clearly visible in as melancholy a condition as 
if I were to become one of its inmates. 

It stands upon lofty ground, and has 
an attempt at green shrubs and stunted 
trees about its base. A little village is 
huddled beneath its walls, the houses of 
which look all the smaller from the enormous 
size of the building which overshadows them. 
A bare, desolate sierra rises behind it, and 
far as the eye can reach — north, south, east 
and west it alights upon the same dun- 
coloured soil, streamless, treeless, hedgeless, 
with nothing but some scattered stones to 
break the monotonous surface. 

Tour whole attention is therefore soon 
rivetted upon the vast granite pile before you. 
You wonder how it could have stood, roasted 
by the suns of summer, and beaten by the 
snows and tempests of winter, for more than 
300 years, and yet look so fresh and new. 



96 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Its strength must be enormous^ or it eould 
not have stood sucli trials as it has done, bat 
it looks as if it were intended to stand a siege,^ 
and its vast size and the smallness and bare- 
ness of its countless windows give it the ap- 
pearance of a barrack. 

Built by two of Spain's best architects, 
Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de 
Herrera, it was dedicated to St. Lawrence, 
and in further honour of that saint its 
ground plan is that of a gridiron, whilst the 
saint himself, represented in stone upon one 
of the portals, is roasting in all due form, 
somewhat after the fashion sculptured over 
the chief entrance to the cathedral at Genoa. 

It would be quite beyond the limits of a 
letter to attempt a description of a building 
which has been described as "at once a 
temple, palace, treasury, tomb-house, and 
museum," and about which many volumes 
have been written. The guide who con- 
ducted myself and others through its vast 
courts and cloisters so bewildered my head 
with details, which he gabbled through as 
long as he had breath, that I cannot for the 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 97 

life of me remember whether he said there were 
3000 staircases and eighty feet of fresco paint- 
ing, or the reverse, but as the reading of those 
numbers the other way would seem to be 
more correct, I suppose they should be taken 
in a different order to what I have put them. 
I saw for myself that there were sixteen 
different patios, or courts, and that the foun- 
tains — some of which were playing — were 
very numerous. 

There is a chapel in the centre of the huge 
building surmounted by a cupola, the propor- 
tions of which are beautiful and harmonious. 
It is rich in marbles, and the frescoed roofs 
by Italian artists are very effective. The 
most striking objects are kneeling effigies in 
bronze gilt of Charles V, Philip II, and many 
female members of their families. These are 
well worth careful study, but the guide allows 
you but short time for their examination ; and 
the light, too, as usual, is too scanty and 
broken to allow you to judge of the pictures 
by a dumb Spanish artist, Juan Fernandez 
Navarrete, sumamed on account of his inflic- 
tion El Mudoj which are described by Ford as 



98 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

« magnificent .... possessing the bravura 
of Rubens, without his coarseness, and with 
a richness of colour often rivaUing even 
Titian." How he could manage to see all 
this is more than I can divine ; my sight is 
none of the weakest, and I tried very hard 
to examine them properly. The subjects are 
in harmony with the place, being full-length 
figures of saints and apostles. 

The "Pantheon," strange name for a 
Christian place of burial, is situated beneath 
the high altar. You descend to it by a stair- 
case lined with jasper, and on reaching the 
bottom you find yourself in an octagon-shaped 
vault, adorned with costly marbles and gilded 
bronze. The sides are hollowed into niches, 
containing black marble urns, which are 
actually filled with the remains of Spanish 
royalty, whose names and titles are indicated 
by appropriate inscriptions. The polished 
marbles, and rather profuse gilding, seen by 
the light of the wax tapers carried by the 
guide and visitors, make a magnificent show, 
but the feelings of reverence which the abode 
of death naturally excites, and the reflections 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 99 

which mc\^. place, in connexion with such 
names, are apt to engender, are smothered as 
soon as formed in company of such a guide, 
and when bored by the presence of a dozen 
sightseers of the character with which my lot 
happened to be cast. I would have given 
something to be permitted to turn them all 
out, the guide more especially, and spend half 
an hour in the place alone. 

I should extend my letter to too great a 
length if I attempted to describe the cloisters 
or yatios — some of them with fish-ponds — 
the library, the kitchen and numerous solas 
spread about the building, most of which were 
visited in turn tiU brain and legs got tired out 
together. And yet there were few or no 

pictures on the walls, and but few movable 

• 

artistical productions. Some of the former 
have found their way to the Museum at 
Madrid, others were removed to France, and 
have never been returned, whilst La Houssaye 
and others, either moved by a hve of art^ or, 
as his detractors say, a fondness for the 
precious metals, carried off everything he 
could lay his hands on in the shape of silver 



100 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

and gold, and thus unwittingly read the 
Spaniards a lesson out of the very books 
which had served for the instruction of Cortes, 
Pizarro, and a numerous band of followers. 

This trip to the Bscorial has occupied me 
the day, and has left an impression on my 
mind of a monstrous waste of masonry and 
splendour. How such a building is to be 
kept up, at so great a distance from the 
capital, and with an exchequer so impover- 
ished as that of Spain, and what use it can 
possibly be put to, are questions which will 
somehow force themselves upon the mind. 
They did not, however, so trouble mine as to 
prevent me going fast asleep as soon as the 
train on its return journey was lazily put in 
motion, and it was in such a blissful state of 
forgetfulness that I was conveyed almost to 
the terminus at Madrid. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 101 



LETTER XVI. 

MADEID TO SAEAGOSSA. 

THE BOAD TO SABAOOSSA — ANCIENT CITIES — ALCALA DE 
HENABES—aUADALAJABA — THE HENABES CANAL — 
SIGIJENZA COYEBED WITH SNOW — THE MOOBS — 
CALATATUD— ABBIVAL AT SABAGOSSA— AN OLD AC- 
QUAINTANCE. 

Fonda de las Guatro Naciones, Saragossa ; 

Ma/rch 26, 1872. 

I HOPE you received my last letter from 
Madrid detailing my visit to the Escorial, and 
wherein I told you I would write again on 
Tuesday. I reached here safely, but some- 
what tired, last night, after fourteen hours' 
railway travelling. 

It is a dreary tract of road you have to 
traverse, and in the present instance it was a 
cold ride. On leaving Madrid the line rises 
considerably, and on either side you behold 
the same treeless space, with sand or limestone 



102 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

hills and flat tops, which have nothing to 
render them pleasant to the eye. 

The traveller's interest is first awakened by 
the appearance of the old city of Alcala de 
Henares, formerly boasting a university and 
still looking imposing, with its high, square 
buildings and church spires. 

Two stations further on he will observe 
Guadalajara, which, placed upon the river 
Henares, is not wanting in picturesqueness, 
although the absence of trees and the abund- 
ance of stones make the picture a desolate 
one. 

A few miles in advance the line crosses the 
Henares Canal, the work of an EngUsh 
company (the " Iberian Irrigation "), which 
has an air of solidity and finish about it, un- 
usual in modem works in this part of the 
world. 

As the road runs on, the aspect of the 
country becomes more and more desolate. 
Rocks, with occasional enormous olive trees, 
were followed by comparatively level ground, 
which produced nothing but stones. Not a 
scrap of green was observable for miles to- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 103 

gether ; and to make the aspect still drearier, 
I perceived — as I expected from the recent 
rains at Madrid — that the soil was covered 
with patches of snow. At length a region of 
snowy crags was reached, without any evi- 
dence whatsoever of vegetation or habitable 
dwellings. 

The roofs of the ancient city of Sigiienza 
were white with snow. Climbing up the hill, 
in the form of an amphitheatre, the old town 
had an air of rude grandeur, with the Alcazar^ 
half fortress, half palace, on the summit. A 
fine aqueduct crosses a glen on the left of the 
city as viewed fi:'om the railway, and lends 
additional picturesqueness to a really fine 
landscape. 

As the train approached the border-land of 
Castillo and Aragon, ruins of old castles were 
occasionally visible. This was the great 
battle-ground of the Moor and the Spaniard, 
,till the former was worsted, and retired to his 
last stronghold — Granada. 

On entering the ancient kingdom of Aragon 
at Ariza there was a change for the better. 
I had got out of the snow region, and although 



104 THROUQH SPAIN BT BAIL 

the savage features of the landscape — ^the torn 
rock, the beetling crag, and the rushing, turbid 
torrent — were still there, they were inter- 
spersed with little, smiling valleys, where the 
corn was green and where flourished hundreds 
of pear trees, looking wonderfully refreshing 
with their multitudinous blossoms. Vegeta- 
tion, however, throughout every part of Spain 
I have yet visited, is less advanced than it 
was at Biarritz a fortnight ago. And yet I 
am as far south as Rome. 

Calatayud cannot fail to attract the travel- 
ler's attention, not only because the train 
stops there for the purposes of refreshment, 
but because he finds time to look about him 
and admire the old Moorish city propped up, 
as it were, with rocks, and furnished with 
what appeal's to be a grand castle. 

From this point I noted a succession of 
vines, trimmed down to the black knotted 
stumps, and interspersed with olive trees and 
crags. The temperature became milder. The 
snow had disappeared, and in the neighbour- 
hood of some of the little towns, such as 
Mores and Morata, there were green vege- 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 105 

tables to refresh the eye after the universal 
duns, greys and browns of the landscape. 

Saragossa, or to adopt the Spanish spelling 
Zaragoza, was reached a little before nine. 
What a scene of confusion ! What a babble 
of words, issuing from the throats of touters 
for the Fondas and Gasas de HuespedeSj and 
from the travellers themselves in furious con- 
tention with porters and mendicants ! Fortu- 
nately I discovered the omnibus of the 
" Cuatro Naciones," the hotel I had selected, 
and in which I took refuge, as a man would do 
from a swarm of hornets, and left the con- 
ductor to battle out the question of my 
luggage. 

I have been fortunate in the selection of 
my hostelry. I have a simple, but comfortable 
and airy room overlooking the " Calle de Don 
Jaime 1°," one of the principal streets ; and 
this morning I had the greater reason to 
congratulate myself on my choice, as, when 
seated at breakfast, there came into the room 
a tall, white-mustachioed gentleman, whose 
acquaintance I had casually made at Biarritz. 
Colonel P — , who had served in the Spanish 



106 THROUGH SPAIN BY EAIL 

army as well as in that of his own country, 
France, immediately recognised me, and came 
to take his seat by my side. 

Being well acquainted with the city he 
volunteered to act as my cicerone, an offer 
with which I gladly closed, for it is very 
different to have as a companion an educated 
and inteUigent gentleman to marching along 
with a valet de place, or wandering about 
alone, which has been my fate hitherto. 

I must reserve for another letter the result 
of my observations as the dinner bell is ring- 
ing, and my sheet is already full. Adids. 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 107 



LETTER XVII. 

SAEAGOSSA. 

ASPECT OP THE STBBBTS — ^ANCIENT HOUSES — EL COSO — 
THE CASINO — THE ALJAFEBIA — TWO CATHEDEALS — 
THE EBBO — SPANISH MABKETS. 

Fonda de las Cuatro Naciones, Saragossa ; 

March 26, 1872. 

It is now 11 p.m., but as I leave to-morrow 
for Pamplona I write you a few more lines to 
be posted in the morning. 

In company of Colonel P — , I have devoted 
some hours to walking about the city; I 
could not very well have ridden, for there 
are no vehicles plying for hire in the town, 
and the majority of the streets are fitted 
neither in dimensions nor paving for coach 
exercise. 

The peculiarity of Saragossa lies in the 
remains of its former greatness, and its half 
Moorish, half mediaeval Christian character. 



108 THKOUGH SPAIN BY RAH. 

The older houses and streets are purely 
Moorish, the former being squat and solid, 
the latter as narrow as the narrowest of old 
Genoa and just as tortuous. But the palaces 
of the former grands seigneurs are now 
reduced to the vilest uses. I was much 
struck with one, known as the " Casa de la 
Infanta," in the Calle de* San Pedro, at pre- 
sent used as a remise. The ^afoo or open court 
has some beautifdlly fluted and carved pillars 
and brackets supporting an upper gallery, 
with a frieze contaming representations of 
the labours of Hercules. The cornices above 
are wonderfiiUy rich and beautiful, and efforts 
have been successfully made to prevent this 
fine specimen of Aragonese architecture from 
going to decay. 

Most of the better class of houses, the 
mansions of the old nobility, are distin- 
guished by projecting roofs with handsome 
soffits and carved jutting rafters ; and, as 
many of these mansions are built of stone, 
they have an air of great solidity, which they 
must in fact possess judging from the date of 
their erection. 



IN THE SPBING OF 1872. 109 

The longest, most regular, and most im- 
portant street of Saragossa is the " Calle 
del Coso," corresponding to the " Corso" of 
Rome and other Italian cities. Striking out 
of it at right angles is a handsome square, 
the " Plaza de la Constitucion,'* planted with 
young trees, and ornamented with stone 
seats, a fountain, a statue, and terra-cotta 
vases. There are a couple of good caf^s 
under an arcade at the side of the square ; 
one of them, the "Iberia,*' being indeed 
handsomely decorated. 

The Colonel took me into the principal 
casino or club, and kindly had my name 
enrolled as a visitor for such time as I might 
remain in the city. It is held in one of the 
old palaces I have referred to, and has some 
good and spacious rooms. The chief salon 
contains some well-executed portraits (Ufe 
size) of the kings of Aragon, and a few 
Spanish celebrities, Goya, the artist, amongst 
others. The reading-room is but poorly 
supphed with papers, but that is not to be 
wondered at in a country hke Spain ; there 
are one or two French journals from which, 



110 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

as the experienced know, but little real 
information is obtainable, and I observed 
that England was represented by the * Illus- 
trated London News.* Pictures, and espe- 
cially such excellent ones as are afforded by 
the periodical in question, are always intelli- 
gible, and from its pages I gleaned certain 
items of news which I sought in vain in the 
foreign prints. The rooms are very simply 
furnished, and the walls of one or two are 
" decorated " with the most ordinary French 
coloured lithographs. Convenience for card- 
playing is observable in many baize-covered 
tables, and as usual the men smoke every- 
where. 

Having spent an hour in endeavouring to 
gather from the papers above alluded to some 
intelligence as to what the outer world was 
doing, we resumed our peregrinations, and 
bent our steps in the direction of the ancient 
citadel of the Aljafena^ situated just without 
the Portillo gate on the banks of the Ebro. 

Originally built by the Moors for the pur- 
pose of a fortress, it is used at the present 
day for the same object, and two regiments 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. Ill 

of infantry are now quartered there. It hap- 
pened that my conductor was an acquaintance 
of the colonel in command, and having been 
directed to his quarters we were very warmly 
received. Colonel A — was obhging enough 
to take us all over the place, and afforded us 
an opportunity of hearing some spirited 
music from a terrace overlooking the patio 
where the band was stationed, a terrace, by- 
the-bye, that must have been trodden by the 
old Moorish governors, and afterwards by 
Ferdinand and Isabella nearly four centuries 
before our time. 

The place is full of interest to the archaeo- 
logist. At every turn you come upon some 
little bit of architecture reminding you of the 
past. A portion of the Moorish mosque, ex- 
ceedingly minute, but very beautiful in its 
decay, greatly interested me. I observed 
more than one door on which a Moorish 
handicraftsman had been employed, and last, 
not least, the sergeant who accompanied us 
with the keys unlocked the door which gave 
entrance to the splendid " Salon de Sa. 
Isabel," in which the Queen of Hungary is 



112 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

said to have been born in 1271, that is to 
say, 600 years ago ! The roof is glorious in 
its wood carving and rich colouring of blue 
and gold. 

On taking leave of our kind host, with 
many professions of esteem. Colonel P — con- 
ducted me to the door of one of the cathedrals, 
for Saragossa has two, and with a promise of 
meeting again at dinner he left me to pursue 
my further sight-seeing alone. I first 
entered " El Pilar,*' so called because it con- 
tains the identical pillar u^on which the Mary, 
worshipped in this city, descended from 
Heaven. The church is under repair, as it 
has been I understand any time these fifty 
years. Exteriorly it is a huge, square, ugly 
building, having various stumpy domes, some 
covered with parti- coloured tiles ; whilst the 
interior, so far as it can be observed, is 
classical and unsatisfactory, looking as 
modern and theatrical as the Madeleine at 
Paris. The other, "La Seo," or cathedral 
church par excellence, is a remarkable edifice, 
with such a profiision of carving and bas- 
rehefs as literally to weary the eye. For- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 113 

tunately the effect is, in part, subdued by the 
darkness which reigns there, for the archi- 
tecture being gothic, the windows are of the 
smallest, and admit only that " dim religious 
light" so dear to some, so cavilled at by 
others. 

The Ebro rushes rapidly past the city, and 
is crossed, just between the two cathedrals, 
by a stone bridge of vast dimensions, having 
seven arches. As you stand upon it and 
contemplate the town lyith its deUcate octa- 
gonal towers, very Moorish in style, the 
place promises more than it performs for it 
is evidently a dull and dreary residence. 

The market seems well supplied with vege- 
tables, and should always be visited by the 
traveller, as he will see more character and 
costume in an hour among the cabbages than 
he wiU behold elsewhere in a day. 

I wiU write you next from Pamplona, for 
which place I must leave by daybreak, there 
being actually but one through train be- 
tween Saragossa and that city in the twenty- 
four hours. 



8 



114 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XVin. 

PAMPLONA. 

DIFFICULTIES OF SPANISH TBAYEL—THB SEAL INTEBEST 
OF SPAIN — PAMPLONA— FINE SITUATION AND PICTUE- 
ESQUENESS-^TUDELA — TAFALLA— OLITB — BEAUTIFUL 
MOOBISH BUIN. 

Fonda de Europa, Pamplona; 

March 28, 1872. 

Behold me now at Pamplona, the capital 
of Navarre, and much nearer to France than 
I have recently been, for this city is quite in 
the north of Spain, and looks on the map but 
a stone's throw from Biarritz. But what a 
throw it would be ! The Pyrenees lie 
between, and they can only be crossed at the 
extreme points, for civihsation has not carved 
out for itself the pleasant and romantic roads 
across this stony barrier which it has done 
over, and now through^ the Alps. The roads 
would not pay even if they were made, for I 
doubt if, amid any of the revolutions of time, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 116 

Spain will be visited as favoured Italy. The 
country is too savage (at least, as regards its 
northern moiety), the cUmate too trying, the 
food and lodging are too poor and make- 
shift, the people too stiff and unamiable for 
hohday-seekers. Added to these serious 
drawbacks, the distances between the towns, 
where a delicately nurtured traveller can put 
up, are so very great, and the railway 
travelling is so slow (rarely faster, indeed, 
than our old stage-coach) that one gets 
fatigued to sickness before the journey's end 
is reached, because there is nothing outside 
to raise the spirits or engage the mind. 

I have now traversed Spain from the French 
frontier at Bayonne to the very centre of the 
Peninsula at Madrid, and up again to the 
north-east to Saragossa and Pamplona, and I 
have found it all the same ; for the most part 
a treeless waste, a dun, sandy soil, or a stony 
desert. I have discovered httle more interest 
in the aspect of its smaller towns, which 
approach so nearly to the colour of the 
ground out of which they barely spring as 
almost to escape notice, a church spire being 



116 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the simple landmark whicli hints at the 
vicinity of human dwellings. 

It is true I have yet to visit the Medi- 
terranean coast line and to run through 
Andalucia, where I am promised rich vege* 
tation and a world of fresh pictures. I hope 
it may be so, for if I were to return to 
England at this moment, having traversed 
the two Castnies, Aragon and Navarre, I 
should bring away with me the dreariest 
memories of Spanish landscape. 

The real interest of Spain, I take it, Hes 
in the fact of its being unlike anything else 
in Europe ; the mingling of much that is 
African with that which belongs to a past age 
in the rest of our continent. The lower 
classes certainly approximate more to the 
Saracen than to the European. The style of 
dress of both men and women shows this to 
be the case. The cloak in which the men 
muffle themselves is nothing but the humous^ 
of different material, and the sandals on their 
feet are borrowed from the former inhabitants 
of the Peninsula. The delight, too, which 
both sexes take in bright colours hints at an 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 117 

Oriental or African taste, and certainly their 
manners are far less polished than those we 
are accustomed to observe as proper to the 
peoples of other parts of Europe. 

During my wanderings I have ^let with 
but three lady travellers (I need scarcely say 
they were English), Two of these were 
strong hearty girls who, with their father, 
were making their way to England up from 
Gibraltar. They were not travelling in 
Spain, but merely crossing it to avoid the 
sea. The other was a lady, with her brother 
and husband. I met her at the table d'h6te 
at Yalladolid, and of course she could eat 
nothing that was put before her, but the 
bread and fruit; for even the fowls are 
nothing but bone and skin, and that skin is 
dark and greasy, and, I think, rubbed with 
garlic. 

At the public meals (and bear in mind that 
you cannot well feed apart) , I have, with 
the exceptions I have mentioned, met only 
men, and they smoke in the middle of break- 
fast or dinner, and clear their throats and 
spit all over the place in a way that is de- 



118 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

struction to a delicate appetite. No wonder 
that so few ladies come to Spain. It is not 
the place for them. Let them visit France 
and Switzerland, Germany and Italy, where 
their wants and requirements are understood 
and attended to, and where, in beautiful 
climates and scenery, rich art and gay shops, 
they can find always something to please 
their fancy and engage their mind. Here, in 
Spain — and remember I include Madrid — 
there is scarce a shop worth looking into. 
The Peninsula seems to produce nothing of 
its own. It exhibits only French and 
English wares, or the meretricious rubbish of 
the Palais Royal bazaars, ou V entree est libra. 
Or what it does show that is pecuhar to itself 
consists of coarse images of every variety of 
Virgin Mary, miserable drawings of special 
saints, or little charms, and trinkets con- 
nected with the Church, and they, I fancy, 
are manufactured at Birmingham or in 
Germany by the hands of heretics, and are 
subsequently blessed in a heap to give them 
the proper virtue and sanctity. 

Pamplona pleases me better than any of 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 119 

the towns of Spain I have yet seen (Madrid 
excepted). It is a clean, prosperous-looking 
place with many seignorial houses, as evi- 
denced by the coats of arms over the door- 
ways. Being placed upon a height, it has 
an imposing appearance, and as the omnibus 
♦drags you up from the station you find you 
are approaching what must have been once a 
strongly fortified town, whose defences are 
now entirely in ruins. The views from the 
deserted battlements are charming. The 
valley 'at your feet with the Arga rushing 
through it, and the mountains beyond with the 
Pyrenees in the distance, present many fine 
pictures, and , I should say a week might be 
profitably spent by the artist in this Uttle 
city. 

" La Taconera " is the pubUc promenade. 
It contains some pleasant, shady walks, where 
there are actually flowers, whose scent, par- 
ticularly that of the violets, was quite a new 
sensation in this part of the world. 

Pamplona has a gothic cathedral which is 
not without interest, though why in the 
name of good taste the powers that were 






120 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

should have furnished it with a heavy Coriu' 
thian fa9ade is more than I can divine. 

You will have gathered from my general 
remarks at the commencement of this letter, 
that the road which conducted me hither did 
not find more favour in my eyes than those 
I had hitherto traversed. 

The station at Saragossa is on the other 
side of the Ebro, and as the train left at six 
I was compelled to be very early astir. 

I obtained a good view of the city with the 
two cathedrals and the delicate spires rising 
above the houses on steaming out of the 
station. But I was soon transported into 
the same sandy and treeless waste I have 
before described, without apparently any 
evidence of attempt to utilise the soil. 

In the neighbourhood of some of the little 
towns there is more appearance of cultiva- 
tion. You occasionally, too, get extensive 
tracts of oUve trees (not a gay plant by any 
means), and you see the stocks of myriads of 
vines, not yet in leaf. 

The Ebro is crossed twice by long iron 
bridges, and one or two of the little towns 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 121 

are picturesque. The most notable are 
Tudela, Tafalla, and Olite, which formed ex- 
ceptions to the general dreariness of the 
prospect. The last-mentioned place pos- 
sesses a beautiful ruin of an extensive 
Moorish castle, with tall, graceful turrets, 
looking quite fairy-like, as they rose into the 
dark blue atmosphere. 

The line, also, within a few miles of Pam- 
plona, runs beneath one of the arches of a 
fine aqueduct, now in use for the conveyance 
of water to the city. 

I start again for Saragossa at three, and 
shall have seven more weary hours before I 
can reach it. To-morrow, however, is Good 
Friday, and I shall be able to get a long rest 
before continuing my journey to Barcelong^, 



122 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 



LETTER XIX. 

SASA60SSA. 

GCK)D PBIDAT STRICTLY OBSEBYED — LEANING TOWEB — 
COSTUME OP COXrHTBY PEOPLE — BEGOABS — FBIGHT- 
PUL CBIPPLES — WAITING FOB THE PBOCESSION. 

Fonda de las Cuatro Naciones, Saragossa ; 
Good Friday, March 29, 1872. 

I WRITE you a few lines to-day to assure 
you of my safe return from Pamplona. I 
got back again last night, and although it 
was near the midnight hour when I reached 
the hotel, I found my fiiend Colonel P — at 
the top of the staircase to welcome me. 
Really, the French gentleman, of the old 
schooly where he takes, is exceptionally kind 
and courteous. 

I fiilly intended to leave for Barcelona to- 
morrow, but as I find that owing to the 
hohdays I shall not be able to see certain 
gentlemen there I am desirous of visiting till 
after Monday, I have made up my mind to 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 123 

spend Easter Sunday here, with the greater 
reason as it will give me an opportunity of 
witnessing a bull-fight, the placards of which 
have been posted on the city walls for some 
days past. 

This semana santa — this " holy week" — is 
very naturally relished by an indolent people. 
It is such a capital excuse for doing nothing, 
to put forward that all work is strictly for- 
bidden. And as far as in them lies the good 
folks will do nothing, and will not allow 
any one else to labour if they can help it. 

They keep this festival of Good Friday 
very strictly. The colonel and I, tired of 
wandering about the streets, where a hot 
wind was raising clouds of dust, an hour ago 
strolled into the casino to have a game at 
chess to while away the time. We learned 
that all the games were rigoureusement 
defendus. The men were lolling about 
smoking and talking in the various rooms, 
but the billiard-tables were covered up, the 
piano was shut, the dominoes were boxed, so 
we have returned to the hotel, to get up our 
arrears of correspondence. 



124 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

During our stroll this xnoming we came 
upon a very beautiful leaning tower of 
octagon shape, built of ornamental brick- 
work. It is situated in the Plaza San Felipe, 
and, notwithstanding its apparent insecurity, 
it has stood more than 360 years. Its base, 
however, has been considerably strengthened 
within a recent period. 

I am writing this by an open window, 
which overlooks the street leading to the 
cathedral, and, as I sit at a short distance 
from the balcony, the buzz of many voices 
and the shuflBling of many feet reach my ear. 
The fact is, everybody is out of doors. All 
they do is to wander about and talk. The 
spectacle, however, is varied and interesting 
from the diversity of costume. Some of the 
peasantry appear in trousers, waistcoat and 
jacket of black velveteen. A silk handker- 
chief tied round the forehead, leaving the 
top of the head bare. The feet protected by 
sandals, but no stockings. Others wear 
breeches, stockings without feet to them^ and 
sandals ; the same style of head-dress, and a 
striped blanket in lieu of cloak cast over one 



ta *HB SPEIKQ OP 1872. 125 

shoulder. The most noticeable article of 
attire is a sash or rather shawl, red or 
magenta in colour, wound many times about 
the waist and covering the stomach. This 
serves as a pocket for knife, purse, tobacco, 
and cigarette papers, in fact, it is a general 
receptacle. 

The beggars literally swarm, and cripples 
of every kind thrust their terrible deformities 
before you, as they used to do in Italy five- 
and- twenty years ago. Inhere is one lad of 
fourteen or fifteen who really turns me sick. 
Nature, instead of hands and feet, has given 
him claws arranged like the nippers of a 
lobster. The hands — if they can be so called 
'— he thrusts into your face, to call your at- 
tention to his feet. Surely it would have 
been no sin to suppress him at his birth as a 
monstrosity. 

The dogs, too, are as plentiful, and in one 
sense are very similar to the beggars. If you 
give a cuarto to the latter, you are pestered 
to death by the whole tribe, for it is noised 
throughout their ranks that a charitable 
stranger is among them. Yesterday, on my 



126 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

way back from Pamplona, I happened to give 
a wretched lean dog a bone, and immediately 
after I had six others about me far leaner and 
more wretched than their predecessor. 

I thought that there was more than usual 
noise and bustle below, and on looking out I 
find the street is lined with people in expec- 
tation of a procession. It will quite take me 
back to my boyish days in Italy to witness it. 
I see all the balconies are filled with spec- 
tators, and I have discovered that the ''maids 
of Saragossa " are not so bad-looking when 
in Sunday attire. 

I shall go down to Colonel P — 's terrace, 
for his room is on the first-floor, and there- 
fore but a few feet above the heads of the 
people, and if the procession be worth record- 
ing, I will give you some account of it in my 
next. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 127 



LETTER XX. 

SABAGOSSA. 

THE EA8TEB PBOCES8ION— LAY FIGXTBES — A COTTNTET 
DBIYE — IMPOSSIBILITY OP BESIDIXG AWAY FBOM THE 
CITY— A DESOLATE ESTATE — ^A PICTXTBESQUE OI7ABD. 

March 80, 1872. 

When closing my letter yesterday I men- 
tioned to you that the people were gathered 
in expectation of the grand procession which 
was to pass our hotel. It did so shortly after 
I despatched that communication, and it was 
an hour amd a half defiling past the balcony. 
I have seen processions galore in Italy, but 
never did I see such an exhibition as this. It 
would be too long to give you an account of 
the order in which it marched past, but I may 
tell you briefly that the chief incidents of the 
Saviour's passion, betrayal, capture, tortures, 
and ultimate death on the cross, were all 



128 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

represented by figures as large as life, placed 
upon stages, and carried by men in the dress 
of the Misericordia Brotherhood. The figures 
were of sculptured wood, painted, and you 
may imagine the size and weight of the 
"Lord's Supper" when I tell you that it 
required thirty-two men to carry it. Looking 
down upon the table, I saw that it was 
furnished with a wooden lamb or kid in a 
dish, two drinking vases, and two lanterns ; 
so that unless a miracle were wrought in their 
behalf, the guests were likely to come poorly 
off in the way of food and drink. 

With these there were Boman soldiers on 
foot and on horseback, the twelve apostles, 
Moses, Aaron, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, and many 
more ; the twelve tribes of Israel, the banners 
indicating them as they passed by; gentle- 
men and ladies in the habit of the Miseri- 
cordia, all bearing huge wax candles, and 
many of the ladies were so blessed with em- 
bonpoint that their shining, black, calico 
dresses fitted them like a glove. There were 
rows of yoimg girls dressed in white, with 
blue sashes and wings, others with red ditto 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 129 

and similar feather appendages. There were 
gentlemen in dress coats and troops of the 
peasantry, all, of course, with hghted candles 
and gamins running by their side catching the 
wax as it guttered and fell. There were 
bands of military music, and at last, the 
church proper, represented by priests and 
acolytes, swinging censers, and all chanting 
through their noses. There were banner 
bearers, with pictures of favorite saints and 
martyrs, and a regiment of infantry to bring 
up the rear. 

There must have been hundreds, if not 
thousands in the procession. It was more 
numerous than the spectators who, be it ob- 
served, exhibited none of that ultra-enthusiasm 
which I should have expected from such an 
exhibition. Hats were only removed by the 
better class when the Saviour, lying in state 
on a bed all silver and cloth of gold (as far 
removed from the reality as it is possible to 
conceive), was carried past. 

Altogether it was a wonderful show, and 
would have been more effective if the proces- 
sion had not been broken into fragments, 

9 



130 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

owing to the necessity of the bearers, who 
carried the images, having to set them down 
for rest every one or two minutes, while those 
ahead of them shuflBled on. This improvised 
arrangement, however, gave me an oppor- 
tunity of seeing portions with greater dis- 
tinctness. The " Lord's Supper," for instance, 
rested immediately beneath our balcony for a 
couple of minutes. 

This morning Colonel A — , to whom, as I 
mentioned, I was introduced at the citadel of 
the Aljaferia drove up by appointment to our 
hotel in a Uttle barouche, to which were 
harnessed two pretty Pamplona ponies, not 
much bigger than Shetlands, but most' deli- 
cately made. He came to convey Colonel 
P — and myself to a country house and estate, 
known as the *' Torre de T — " (every detached 
farm-house is a Torre (tower) in this ancient 
kingdom of Aragon), belonging to a friend of 
the latter, situated about eight miles from 
Saragossa. This friend had begged Colonel 
P — to pay the property a visit on the first 
opportunity, and report upon its condition, as 
it had been let to a tenant who had decamped 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 131 

without going througli the ceremony of pay- 
ing the rent. 

The fields were, many of them, green with 
corn, and as long as we kept to the high 
road it was bordered with trees all breaking 
into leaf. But we soon left the highway for 
a less fi:'equented track and then the wretched 
poverty of this part of Spain became visible. 

It does not seem possible here to live away 
from the towns, and, even in them, life, as we 
understand it further north, is miserable 
enough ; but in the country, it is as dreary as 
if you were in the wilds of Africa or Aus- 
tralia. There are no gentlemen's "seats" 
whatsoever; nor is this surprising when we 
reflect that there are no practicable roads. 

After some serious " lunges" into the ruts 
which distinguished the one we were travers- 
ing we were compelled to abandon our little 
carriage before it became a total wreck, and 
perform the rest of our journey on foot, and 
that was rather a gymnastical^performance. 

The " Torre" became visible after we had 
passed through a wretched hamlet, where 
scowling men, slatternly women, and imp- 



132 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

like children were lying about the place amid 
the pigs and poultry. The house stood alone 
in its own private grounds, surrounded by a 
mud waU, within which appeared two or 
three tall cypresses and a splendid stone pine. 
They were the only green things visible, and 
as we knocked in vain for entrance at the 
rude gate I saw that the whole place, the 
land included, was a complete ruin, the dis- 
honest tenant having abandoned the place 
after cutting down all the wood he could lay 
hands on. 

We walked round the desolate enclosure, 
and at length managed to break through a 
species of hedge into a garden. But what a 
garden ! Some fig trees were there and one 
or two stumps of vines, with others partly 
trellised against the wall, but all in utter 
decay, without the vestige of a flower or 
shrub, and the ground as hard and white as 
the road. 

On emerging jfrom the broken hedge we 
saw a figure approaching us, who turned out 
to be the man (a rural guard) in whose care 
the premises were left, with his long-barrelled 



IN THE SPBING OP 1872. 133 

gun slung over his shoulder. What a picture 
he would have made ! His every pose was 
grace; and whether in his talk, he threw 
his gun into the hollow of his arm, or re- 
slung it across his shoulder, or pointed with 
it to any distant object, a native, noble 
manliness, marked every action. 

He wore the usual dark serge breeches 
with grey stockings, sandals on his feet, a 
magenta scarf or shawl round his waist, a 
sheepskin jacket (which at a httle distance 
appeared embroidered, owing to the wearing 
away of portions of the wool), over which 
was slung his shooting-belt, and a round, 
rather high, goat-skin cap. His complexion 
was mahogany- coloured, and his eyes black 
and piercing. 

Having the key, he volunteered to show us 
over the house. And what a house ! What 
rooms ! Doors of the roughest wood, on 
which a paint-brush had never been laid; 
shutters to the Tpndows, but no glass ; floors 
of rude cement as up and down as a ground 
swell in the Mediterranean, and huge holes 
in the woodwork where the rats had eaten 



134 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

their way through in search of what it must 
have been difficult to find — ^food. A house of 
the ninths I should have guessed, rather than 
the nineteenth century, and yet people of blue 
blood had lodged there. I could pick out 
hundreds of labourers' cottages in Kent that 
would be palaces of comfort in comparison. 

The estate was on a par with the mansion. 
All had been abandoned and the ground left 
to run wild. That would mean m England 
being overgrown with rank vegetation, 
tangled weeds a foot or two high, and green 
grass everywhere. In Spain it means the 
desert. Not a blade of grass — not a bramble 
— nothing but grey thistles and colourless 
stubble, out of which every drop of moisture 
had been drawn by the scorching sun. In 
fact, a picture of hopeless desolation. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 135 



LETTER XXL 



SAEAGOSSA. 



A BULL FIGHT. 



Saragossa ; 
Easter Swnday, March 31, 1872. 

I HAVE just returned from witnessing a 
bull-fight and send you a hurried account 
while the impression is still vivid upon my 
mind. 

As these corridas are not of fi:*equent occur- 
rence, they make considerable stir in the cities 
where they are held, and there is consequently 
a great rush for tickets. Having procured 
one in the most favourable place, that is to 
say, duly in the shade, I found myself, at a 
quarter to three, one of about eight thousand 
spectators, among whom were a sprinkling of 
ladies, a good many women and some 
children in arms. 



136 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

The programme informed us there were 
eight bulls to be killed, a chief espada or 
matador and an assistant, three picadores and 
seven banderilleros. 

The performance commenced by the whole 
of the actors, including two teams of three 
mules, marching from the opposite side of 
the arena to the front of the palco or box just 
above me occupied by the Alcalde^ or Mayor, 
and his party. 

After a little speechifying, a key, ostensibly 
the key which opened the stall where the 
bulls were confined, was delivered to the 
chief spokesman ; the party then retired, the 
ground was cleared of all supernumeraries 
and helpers, and the mounted picadoixs, who 
are cased in leather and otherwise well 
padded, took their place at the side, one of 
them close by the gate at which the bull 
was to make his entrance. This done, the 
gate was thrown open, and the first bull was 
let out. 

He was a splendid roan-coloured beast, and 
as he dashed into the arena, saluted by shouts 
from thousands of lungs, he turned about and 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 137 

lashed his tail, seeking for some object on 
which to wreak his rage. A banner or silk 
cloak was flaunted within a few feet of him, 
and on he dashed at it ; the chulo who held it 
made for the barrier which he leaped with the 
utmost agility, the bull driving his horns 
into the timber only a few inches below the 
flying foot. 

He then espied one of the picadores 
mounted on a grey horse (which, Uke the 
others was blindfolded). The man received 
the charge by driving his spear or garrocha, 
which has a point about an inch and a half 
long, into the bull's neck, and wheeled his 
horse in the opposite direction. The bull, 
however, not turned, but maddened by the 
stroke, caught the right flank of the horse 
with one of his horns and ripped it open as 
with a knife, so that the whole of the poor 
animal's leg was dyed with blood. He was 
about to renew the attack when a cJmlo inter- 
posed with his cloak and induced him to turn 
in another direction. 

The object of the chulo or banderillero seems 
to be to constantly call ofi* the bull's attention 



138 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

from any particular attack, and thus tire him 
out. The picadtyr must never attack the 
bull, but await the beast's assault, and it 
happens not unfrequently, as I saw it, that 
the bull, being already famihar with the spear 
he wields, does not care to renew the ac- 
quaintance, but at other times, maddened 
with the pain caused by his wounds and by 
his tormentors in the ring, with their blue, 
pink and orange cloaks, and the hurricane of 
cries from the spectators, he rushes at the 
picador y and overthrows horse and man. 
One of these assaults was truly terrific. The 
bull dashed at the unfortunate horse, drove 
his horns into the centre of the stomach, 
Uffced horse and man HteraUy off the ground, 
and then rolled them completely over. I 
thought there was an end of the picador ; 
but the bull being enticed by an interposing 
scarf to rush off after another adversary, the 
' picador was rescued from his uncomfortable 
position by the attendants and led off to the 
the side. Not so the poor wretched horse ; 
he was disembowelled, and, notwithstanding 
the efforts of the helpers to get him up again, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 139 

seconded by the kicks of their heavy boots 
and the application of clubs used with no 
sparing hand, the poor beast simply stag- 
gered to his legs and then fell dead. 

This same first bull caught also one of the 
chulos when he was waving his scarf, and 
threw him into the air, so that he fell upon the 
bull's neck, reeking with his own gore and 
that of the slain horse, and then slipped to 
the ground without further damage than the 
smearing of his silk stockings and orange 
breeches. 

A second and a third horse shared the fate 
of the first. One was pierced right through 
the breast, so that the blood poured out as 
from a fountain, the hole being plugged for 
the time by a quantity of tow; and the 
third was caught in the abdomen, from 
whence his bowels protruded, and in that 
state he trotted across the arena, amid 
the shouts and clappings of hands of the 
spectators. 

When the bull will no longer attack the 
picadoreSf his first fury having subsided and 
his strength somewhat waning, they retire 



140 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

from the scene, and the ground is left to the 
chuloSy who wave the scarf, and certain 
practised landerilleros^ with banderillas or 
darts adorned with coloured paper in their 
hands, who dance about the head of the bull 
and just as he is about to rush at them stick 
one of these arrows into each side of his 
neck, skipping aside with wonderful activity 
to avoid his attack. Stung with the pain 
and foaming at the mouth, the animal rushes 
at every object, and is again received by 
another pair of the cursed barbs ; and when 
three or four have been thus placed, the bull 
being nearly exhausted, the matador , or as he 
is called the espada^ with one or two chulos 
only, appears upon the scene, holding in one 
hand a scarlet cloth, and in the other a 
Toledo sword. The bull makes several dashes 
at the hated colour, but at length stupefied, 
he stares at it wildly. The matador seizes 
his moment and plunges the bright blade 
right into his neck behind the horns ; and on 
two occasions which I witnessed, so true was 
the blow that it was driven up to the hilt 
and pierced the beast to the heart. He 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 141 

vomited a stream of blood, turned round and 
roimd and fell, when, to make assurance 
doubly sure, an assistant came forward and 
drove a poignard into the spine. 

Shouts, screams of applause, followed; 
cigars were showered at the matador, who 
bowed his acknowledgments, whilst in their 
enthusiasm many cast their hats into the 
arena. 

Then the music struck up. The team — 
three mules abreast, splendid creatures, 
covered with greUts and trappings — came in 
to drag off the slain. A rope being fastened 
round the neck of the slaughtered animals, 
they were one by one dragged round the 
arena, till having reached the opposite side at 
which they were to make their exit, they 
were lashed into a furious gallop, and, amid 
a hurricane of voices in every pitch of excite- 
ment and loud cries of Anda ! anda I they 
disappeared like hghtning. This was repeated 
with each slain animal in succession, and in 
the case of the first bull there were three 
horses killed. 

Considerable excitement was caused by the 



142 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

second — ^a compactly- made beast, black as 
night — by his leaping the barrier after the 
first chulo who tormented him. There were 
about a dozen persons aficionados^ or keen 
lovers of the sport, helpers, and others in the 
narrow passage at the time, but they cleared 
out in a twinkling, except one, who, being 
very fat, was not possessed of that ever-ready 
agility which should be the portion of the 
man who takes up such a position. He ran 
for his life, the bull after him, the people 
clapping their hands and rising up from their 
seats to see the result, when, the infuriated 
toro bowing his head to clear him from his 
path, the intended victim made a supreme 
effort and tumbled over all of a heap into 
the arena, the bull meanwhile being let 
through into it by a convenient gate at the 
end. 

The exhibition of slaughter I have above 
described I saw repeated four times, but 
finding there was no variation in the sangui- 
nary entertainment except the chance, which 
nearly occurred, of seeing a man or two killed, 
I left in a state of tremor and sickness. The 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 143 

main cause of my disgust arose from a poor 
horse, when disabled, being attacked again 
and again by a furious bull, the wretched 
animal uttering plaintive cries as he received 
fresh woxmds before he lay down to die, and 
doing his poor best with teeth and legs to 
defend himself against his infuriated foe. 
This little episode was saluted with shouts of 
laughter from a thousand throats, while cries 
of bravo i toro I rent the air. I could bear it no 
longer, but getting up hastily from my seat, 
made the best of my way into the open air. 

Apart from the disgusting nature of the 
spectacle, which was like the horrors of a 
slaughter-house or knacker's yard many 
times multiphed dished up for the amuse- 
ment of a multitude, sanctioned by the chief 
authorities of the town, and made gay with 
music, banners, and bright colours ; the ex- 
citement of the spectators, and their more 
than indifference to animal suffering, were 
the noticeable features of this most popular of 
Spain's /tfc7ici(me6\ The assembled thousands 
alternately cheered the bull or abused him ; 
praised the jpicadores or espada^ or loaded them 



144 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

with vituperation ; and all tliis time girls, chiU 
dren, and ladies were looking on and applaud- 
ing ; and one pretty girl of eighteen, dupeuple, 
it is true, was sucking oranges and eating buns 
during the horrid butchery to which I have 
alluded. 

But enough of the oft-told tale. No English- 
man will ever be persuaded to look upon it as 
fair sport, where the horse, poor wretched 
hack as he may be, is led blindfold to the 
slaughter, and is brought into the arena for 
no other purpose than to be mangled and 
torn ; and no Spaniard probably will ever be 
convinced but that the game is a most noble 
one, which his countrymen and their descen- 
dants only are capable of conducting, and 
which, indeed, none but " gentes de jpelo en 
pecho,^^ as they vauntingly describe themselves, 
could carry to a successful issue. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 145 



LETTER XXII. 

SABAGOSSA TO BAEGELONA. 

COMPANIONSHIP BT THE WAT — LIEIDA — MANBBSA-^ 
HONTSBBBAT— GRAND APPBABANOB — A SPLBJIDID 
PROSPECT — ARRIVAL AT BARCELONA — BEAUTIFUL 
SITUATION— BUSY ASPECT OP ITS STREETS AND SHOPS 
-^CATHEDRAL — VIEW OP THE OITT PROM MONTJUIS. 

Fonda de las Guatro Naciones, Barcelona ; 

4pra 2, 1872. 

I AEBiVED here about ten last night, having 
had fourteen hours* travelling, and a delay of 
nearly an hour and a half at the station on 
arrival, waiting for luggage^ a not unusual 
cosa de Espana. 

I had met at the table d^hote at Saragossa a 
Captain and Mrs. B — . The gentleman ac- 
companied me to the bullfight, and as we 
were travelling the same road, we joined 
company and occupied the same compartment 
in the railway. 

The first part of the journey exhibited the 

10 



146 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

like dreary characteristics to whicli I have so 
often alluded — the wild, uncultivated tracts 
of land, followed by grubbed-up fields and 
black vine stumps, interspersed with rock, 
mountain, and torrent. Portions of the land 
seemed to have been torn to pieces by heavy 
floods, and I should think the embankment 
of the railway must at times run serious risks 
during the storms to which in certain seasons 
the country is Kable. 

We dined at Lerida, a largish place, and 
discovered we had entered Catalonia by the 
change in the peasants' head-covering. In 
lieu of the handkerchief round the forehead 
we observed the Masaniello cap, which is not 
allowed, however, to hang on the shoulder, 
but the tail is caught up and tacked under- 
neath the crown. 

The interest of the road improved just 
before reaching Manresa, an important town, 
strongly situated on a precipitous height. It 
boasts some large cloth factories, and near it, 
I was informed by a Spanish fellow-traveUer, 
were some coal mines. I saw for myself that 
both steam- and water-power were being used, 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 147 

and that there was more evidence of activity 
about the place than I had yet beheld. 

It was on approaching Manresa that we 
came in sight of that most celebrated and 
extraordinary mountain, Montserrat. It rose 
into the clear evening sky, bare, grey, and 
jagged like a saw — hence its name — in the 
grandest manner, and as the rail turns and 
winds very much when in its vicinity, you 
have a constantly different view every quarter 
of an hour. From one point it was truly 
magnificent. At our feet was a torn ravine, 
through which a torrent was rushing, and 
whose jagged banks were covered with pines, 
while the eye was carried on from rock to 
mountain in almost endless succession till it 
reached the Uttle village, above which the 
mountain rose, in infinite majesty and splen- 
dour. Decidedly the grandest view I have 
yet seen in Spain. 

From this point, and before we reached it, 
we passed through several tunnels and deep 
cuttings, which must have made the con- 
struction of the line both difficult and costly, 
and then it fell dark. There was nothing 



148 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

now left to do, but shut our eyes and 
wait patiently for Barcelona, where, pui 
arrival, as I have mentioned, the great virtue, 
patience, of which a traveller in Spain should 
be provided with a large stock, had to be 
still further exercised, tiU the lady grew faint 
and sick, and no wonder, for we had dined 
poorly on the road at twelve, and it was then 
nearly ten at night. However, everything 
comes to an end, and so did our tribulation, 
and this really comfortable hotel received ua 
at last. 

Barcelona reminds me a good deal of Bor- 
deaux. There are the same fine square 
houses, some of them with marble staircases 
and entrance halls, the same appearance of 
bustle and business, a rare thing in Spain, 
and, therefore, the more remarkable when 
made manifest. But it has one signal ad- 
vantage, to my mind, over Bordeaux, that is, 
of being placed upon the sea — the crisp, blue 
Mediterranean — which looks charming this 
morning as it glitters under the bright sun. 

Vegetation is much more advanced here. 
The sycamores which adorn the Barribla or 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 149 

public walk running from the sea to the 
country and dividing the town in two, on 
which our hotel is situated, are out in leaf, 
and already begin to yield a welcome shade. 
The Barcelona shops are much finer and 
better supplied than those of Madrid, and I 
certainly should prefer it as a residence if 1 
were compelled — as I hope I never shall be 
—to Uve in Spain. 

There is a charming walk on the seaboard 
or rampart which, like that of Genoa, over- 
looks the port. As it stands at a right angle 
to the Bambla it mak^s, with the latter, a 
continuous promenade, and the evening being 
mild both have been filled with people 
enjoying the air. This muralla del mar must 
be a great boon in the hot summer nights, as 
there is always a pleasant freshness coming 
from the sea, and they only who have been 
compelled to breathe the stifling atmosphere 
of the streets in these southern, and not too 
well-drained, towns, in the hot season, can 
thoroughly appreciate the luxury of such a 
pdseo. 

Barcelona boasts some very ancient 



150 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

churches. The Seo or Cathedral was com- 
menced at the end of the thirteenth century 
upon the site of a pagan temple, and is dedi- 
cated to Sta. Eulalia, whose body is supposed 
to lie in a chapel below the high altar. The 
building is gothic, has two charming toT^ers, 
and is full of curious sculptures both in wood 
and stone. The stalls of the choir are parti- 
cularly beautiful, each of them being adorned 
with a gothic spire of most elaborate 
carving. 

Santa Maria del Mar is another most in- 
teresting church, and the Galle de la Plateria, 
or Silversmiths' Street, leading to it, has 
much to attract and repay attention. 

Barcelona seems well supplied with pro- 
visions of all kinds, and I saw more flowers 
exposed for sale than have hitherto met my 
eye. 

Having thoroughly explored the town I 
strolled out into the country in the direction 
of the Montjuis, which rises majestically to 
the right of the city, looking seawards, and is 
crowned with some imposing fortifications. 
Climbing nearly to the summit, along a zig- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. .151 

zag road, edged with occasional aloes and 
prickly pears, I enjoyed a magnificent view, 
the town lying at my feet, and the coast Hne 
clearly defined, and the dark blue sea, flecked 
with patches of white sails, stretching out 
for many a league. Altogether the picture 
was a very fine one. 

Rumours of political disturbances, conse- 
quent on the elections are flying about from 
mouth to mouth, and a gentleman at the 
table d'hote seriously advised me not to think 
of visiting Tarragona as it was in a most 
uneasy state. Finding, however, upon close 
enquiry, that he could furnish me with no 
other ground for his warning than mere 
hearsay, I shall not allow it to stand in the 
way of prosecuting ray journey. 



162 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXm. 

BARCELONA TO TARRAGONA. 

ENYIBONS OP BARCELONA — FINE MOUNTAIN SCENERY— 
LOFTT SITUATION Of TARRAOONA — PICTURESQUE 
HOUSES ^^ CATHEDRAL -^ CLOISTERS -^ ROMAN AQUE- 
DUCT—PARTY SPIRIT. 

Fonda de Paiis, Tarragona; 
AprU 4, 1872. 

In company of Captain and Mrs. B— I 
left Barcelona in the afternoon of yesterday 
and arrived here at night. 

It is not a change for the better. Barce- 
lona is the most comfortable of all the 
Spanish towns I have yet visited. The hotel 
was excellent — clean, and well-managed. It 
was kept, as is the present one, by Italians, 
and I am informed that all the best hotels in 
the Peninsula are under similar manage- 
ment. 

Tarragona is in strong contrast to the city 



IN THE SPBING OF 1872. 153 

I have left. In place of a flourishing, well- 
built town, I find myself amid ruins, and in 
lieu of rows of bright shops filled with a 
variety of wares and little crowds collected 
round them, I wander through dark, crooked 
lanes, almost denuded of inhabitants. 

But I have not spoken of the journey 
hither, yet it is worth recording, for I have 
so often had occasion to depict barrenness 
and desolation, that it is a pleasing duty to 
change the colours of my palette. 

Let me, then, hasten to tell you that the 
environs of Barcelona as seen from the rail 
are charming. The valley you pass through 
before striking among the mountains offers 
the aspect of a garden in which everything 
seems to grow. There are many fine villas 
with grounds fiill of orange trees covered 
with fruit from whose balconies and terraces 
the most beautiful views can be enjoyed. 
The banks bristle with aloes as along the 
rivieray and altogether the aspect of the land- 
scape is smihng and finiitful. 

On approaching Martorell, the soil was of 
the richest red, like parts of Devonshire; 



154 THEOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

vines were growing abundantly and coming 
into leaf, and figs and olive-trees sprang up 
from every available spot of ground. 

Lovers of mountain scenery would have 
found much to admire, for chain appeared 
above chain, distinguishable from each other 
by some splendid effects of light and shadow, 
and in the misty distance once again rose the 
hoary Montserrat which was so distin- 
guishable a feature on our way fit)m Lerida. 
On nearing Tarragona the line ran close to 
the sea-shore, whereon the waves were 
lazily beating, whilst on the other side ap- 
peared some thick underwood, which clothed 
a rising ground, and offered admirable cover 
for smugglers and other marauders who, 
from time immemorial, have infested these 
thinly populated and almost inaccessible 
fastnesses. 

The railway station abuts upon a busy and 
dirty little port, where an English traveller 
will notice with some amusement the an- 
noimcement of Calle Smith at a street comer, 
and it seems quite another journey (when you 
undertake it for the first time) to reach the 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 155 

town of Tarragona proper. It is built upon 
a lofty rock, some eight hundred feet above 
the sea-level, was once surrounded by ex- 
tensive and massive fortifications, but suc- 
cessive sieges have so battered them down 
that they present nothing at the present day 
but a picture of hopeless ruin, — grey, ugly 
and menacing. 

The street in which my hotel is situated is 
straight and level, containing some decent 
houses, but on emerging from it in your 
ascent to the cathedral (for the sacred build- 
ing is placed at the apex of the mount), you 
must clamber up unpaved lanes and alleys so 
crooked and narrow that no wheeled carriage 
could by possibility ascend them. This, 
however, is but of little moment in a 
country where every burthen is conveyed on 
the patient and convenient back of an ass or 
mule. 

The houses are of great antiquity, but seem 
dirty and uncared for. As places of residence 
they are by no means desirable, but they are 
so strangely composed of bits and fragments 
of other buildings that almost every separate 



156 THROUGH SPAIN BY UAlL 

habitation is a study. Stones with Roman 
and Moorish inscriptions are let into walls ; 
an open gateway discloses a broken pillar, 
once the support of a Pagan temple, into 
which a ring has been set to attach a mule 
to. The whole place is, in fact, crammed full 
of pictures. An artist would delight in it. 
You turn a corner and come upon some non- 
descript building, in which the Eoman, the 
Goth, the Moor and the Christian have each 
had a part. It is surmounted, perhaps, by a 
broken terrace, over which at once wave the 
palm, the aloe, the prickly pear and the 
orange, showing how far south I have 
wandered ; and then, the peeps of the blue 
Mediterranean, through some Gothic or 
Roman arch are simply dehcious. Owing, 
naturally, to the elevated position of the city, 
many portions of it offer magnificent views, 
both of the sea and surrounding country, and 
there is plenty of food for reflection in the 
noble prospects thus opened before you, and 
the foreground of ruins and jumbling of 
ancient and modem materials that I have 
just alluded to. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 157 

I paid an early visit to the cathedral, 
which, as I before observed, is at the very 
summit of the rocky mount on which Tarra- 
gona is placed. After clambering up to the 
top of a crooked street, you reach the 
Market Place, whence a broad flight of steps 
conducts you to the sacred edifice. 

The fajade is in the shape of a triangle, 
with a splendid rose window, and there is a 
most interesting portal, in whose deeply 
recessed sides are gothic niches, containing 
effigies of the apostles. These works date 
back to the end of the thirteenth and the 
middle of the fourteenth centuries. The 
doorway is most singular, being divided by a 
figure of the Virgin and Child, with the 
Saviour, Popes, and Emperors praying in 
various attitudes above. 

The interior is very striking, with a grand 
simplicity about it that is wonderfully attrac- 
tive. The transept has some magnificently- 
painted windows, and there are some most 
curious bas-reliefs, representing the marvel- 
lous history of a Santa Tecla, who, Uke 8ta. 
Eulalia of Barcelona and the Madonna del 



158 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Pilar of Zaragoza, worked more miracles 
than the sacred writings attribute to the 
Saviour himself. 

Some of the chapels are richly ornamented, 
and there are many fine old tombs and an- 
tique carvings that will well repay careful 
examination. The cloisters in their com- 
parative minuteness reminded me of the 
Campo Santo of Pisa. Like the latter there 
is a garden in the centre, whilst the walls 
and enclosure form a perfect museum of anti- 
quity. The numerous invaders of the Penin- 
sula have played sad havoc with the orna- 
mental pointed windows, and a little world of 
memories is summoned to the mind on ob- 
serving in unmistakable English characters 
the words " 6th Company " painted on the 
wall. 

On my descent from the cathedral I met 
Captain B — and his wife in the little om- 
nibus belonging to the hotel about to visit an 
interesting Roman aqueduct at a few miles 
distance on the road to Lerida, and at their 
invitation I joined company. 

Having cleared all the ruts and huge stones 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 159 

which lay in our path during the descent to 
the high road without serious accident, al- 
though not without considerable discomfort, 
we pursued the rest of our journey in toler- 
able ease, and after nearly an hour's drive, 
we came upon the object of our search. 

Spanning a valley from hill to hill, and 
with a height in the centre of nearly a hun- 
dred feet, this aqueduct, known as the Puente 
de FerreraSj and built of a dusky red stone, 
looks both graceful and imposing. The 
arches stand in two tiers, there being eleven 
below and twenty-six above, and the entire 
length is stated at 700 feet. I walked along 
the top of it to about the middle to enjoy 
the view which, although not very extensive, 
has a singular charm from the contrasts of 
colour and the deep solitude of the valley. 

Tarragona had a fine, not to say imposing, 
look as we approached it on our return. The 
mountainous scenery on the left, the dark 
sea on the right, and the city standing upon 
its rugged mount crowned by the old cathe- 
dral in the centre, formed a splendid 
prospect, made the more grand by menacing 



160 THROUGH SPAIN BT SAIL 

clouds which covered half the sbf, and left 
mere patches of blue and white as if to render 
more impressive the huge billows of vapour 
that rolled slowly along. 

My chance friends and I part company to-- 
morrow morning. We are all going to 
Valencia^ but they travel there direct whilst 
I start a day later in order that I may visit 
Reus. We shall doubtless meet again, for 
they will not quit Spain without seeing 
Andalusia. 

I have looked in vain during my stay here 
for any signs of the disturbances with which 
I was threatened when at Barcelona, but, en 
revanche, I am warmly counselled not to go 
to Valencia for an identical reason. That 
party spirit runs high just now in Spain there 
can be little doubt, for not even the neutral 
ground of the table d^hdte has been sacred 
from the clamour of the politician. At 
Burgos and at Yalladolid the discussions 
were noisy and prolonged, and so warm did 
the disputants wax at Pamplona that I should 
scarce have been surprised if they had come 
to blows. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 161 

In the general demeanour of the people 
out of doors, however, I perceive little of that 
excitement which is supposed to be so pre- 
valent, and I shall refuse to believe in the 
existence of danger to the inoflFensive tra- 
veller till I have substantial reason to alter 
my opinion. 



11 



162 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXIY. 

REUS. 

UNEASY PAVEMENT — GENERAL DXJLNESS — ^APPEARANCE 

OF THE COUNTRY. 

Fonda de Paris, Tarragona ; 
AprU 5, 1872. 

Eeus is a second and very inferior edition 
of Tarragona. At least, the latter is on a 
hill and affords magnificent views ; and it is 
also on the sea, which always has a charm. 
But Eeus is inland, Hes in a plain, and pos- 
sesses, comme surcroU de malheuVy all Tarra- 
gona's worst features. The streets are either 
totally unpaved or have but a few stones 
left here and there, which jut out like the 
teeth from the poor dismantled jaws of the 
very old. You may imagine what travelling 
over them is in a vehicle, and more espe- 
cially in such a vehicle as a Eeus omnibus. 
I thought I should have either every bone in 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 163 

my body dislocated as I went from the sta- 
tion in the omnibus, or that I should fracture 
my skull, for I was flying between the seat 
and the roof every few seconds like a skylark 
just caged. 

I breakfasted there at the best fonda in 
the place, which was the old parador of the 
diligences. Having performed that office to 
the best of my ability, for the fare was of the 
toughest and rankest, and quietly Hstened to 
the excited talk of a group of citizens at the 
other end of the table, who seemed full of the 
elections that had resulted, as far as Reus 
was concerned, greatly in favour of the re- 
publican candidate, I had three hours within 
which to visit the town. 

I soon discovered that, short as that time 
was, it was more than sufficient to famiharise 
me unpleasantly with a place where the 
streets are only crooked and doubtful lanes, 
and there is but one building, the cathedral, 
to look aty certainly not to admire. 

To make matters worse it came on to rain 
and hail very heavily, and I was forced to 
take refuge under the arches of the only 



164 THBOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

square which, like every other I have yet 
seen in Spain, has been recently baptized 
Plaza de la Constitucion. There I smoked 
my cigar till the rain held up, pestered by 
beggars (who had taken refuge there like 
myself), or stared at by the loimging lazza- 
roni-looking population. 

At last the rain-clouds blew over, the sun 
broke through, and, tired of the town, I 
strolled a mile or two into the country. It is 
wonderfully fertile, being under capital irri- 
gation, and the amount of olive trees and 
vines is very great. I passed a villa or two 
also boasting groves of palms and orchards 
of orange trees, the fine ripe fruit with which 
the latter were covered shining pleasantly ia 
the now clear blue atmosphere. 

I returned here in time for dinner, and 
having finished that important ceremony 
(quite alone to-day), I have come up to my 
room to finish these hasty lines. 

To-morrow morning I leave for Valencia 
(twelve more hours), from which city I will 
write again. 

I cannot say much in favour of the beauty 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 165 

of the Catalonian women. At Zaragoza I did 
see some nice faces and fine figures, but I 
have looked for them in vain since I left that 
town. 



166 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXV. 

TAEEAGONA TO VALENCIA. 

BICHNESS OF VEGETATION — TEDIOUS TRAVELLING — 
OBANGE PLANTATIONS — THEIB WEALTH — CATHEDBAL 
— ABSENCE OF MONKS AND FBIABS. 

Fonda Yilla de Madrid, 

Valencia ; April 7, 1872. 

Quitting the picturesque but dilapidated 
old town of Tarragona at ten in the morning 
by the train coming from Barcelona, I arrived 
here late last night, half stupefied with head- 
ache, but with my brain fall of the images of 
beauty that had been impressed upon it all 
through the journey. 

Parts of the road, indeed, were very fine, 
and nothing can surpass the fertihty of this 
favoured tract, where everything vegetable 
seems to flourish, and where a soil and sun 
exist which produce alike the fruits of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa. 

The line runs along the sea-coast, some- 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 167 

times close on to the shore, and for many- 
miles you are hemmed in between the sea and 
the mountains. When drawing near any 
town, such as Tortosa, where in a delta you 
cross the mouths of the Ebro, or Castellon 
de la Plana, the gardens of the houses are 
filled with orange trees (fortunately not all 
gathered), figs, vines, pomegranates, and 
palms. Sometimes they are all inextricably 
mingled, and very charming did an occasional 
lonely building look — some remnant of the 
Moor — with a tall palm rising by its side 
majestically into the golden atmosphere of 
this southern region. 

But you have to put up with a large amount 
of fatigue in order to get at such pictures, 
and I am sure that you, ever ready as you are 
to appreciate all that is lovely in art and 
nature, would not have the physical strength 
to bear up against it. 

You must remember that you cannot break 
your journeys, and ten and twelve hours must 
often be calculated upon, with poor food and 
not very good accommodation when you are 
at the journey's end. 



168 THROUGH SPAIN BY KAIL 

In the midst of plenty the people seem to 
live miserably, and having no idea of comfort 
and very little of cleanliness, they cannot 
comprehend or they despise the fastidious- 
ness of foreigners. Smoking is so universal 
that no man ever thinks of inquiring whether 
his cigar or cigarette is unpleasant to his 
neighbour, male or female. But very few 
women travel, and to one woman at a table 
you will find twenty men. And they smoke 
between the courses; they smoke in the 
railway carriage; they smoke in all oflBces, 
pubUc and private; they smoke right into 
the very doorways of their churches and 
theatres, and in aU the rooms of all the 
houses. The omnibus which takes you to or 
from any station is filled with smokers, and 
driver and porters alike have cigarettes in- 
cessantly lolling from the comers of their 
mouths. 

A landed proprietor and his wife got into 
the compartment of our carriage a few sta- 
tions before arriving at Valencia. The lady 
had a basket of magnificent oranges, which 
she liberally presented all round, and she 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 169 

held in her hand the bough of an orange tree, 
upon which there were twenty^ each as big as 
the fist. The gentleman pointed out to me 
his own plantation as the line passed it. 
There must have been a hundred trees in the 
portion I saw, and which, like an apple 
orchard in Kent, were laden with fruit, so 
that many of the boughs had to be propped 
up with stakes. Two crops are got off these 
trees during the year, and my informant told 
me that several of the trees would produce 
upwards of a thousand^ and would be worth a 
pound sterling a tree per year ! 

I have been wandering great part of the 
day through the narrow and tortuous streets 
of the city. The town has no special attrac- 
tion, but it contains some fine and even 
palatial buildings, more especially in the Galle 
de Cai>allero8y which, as its name implies, is 
an aristocratic quarter. There is, I learn, a 
good deal of an infierior kind of alabaster in 
the neighbourhood, of which several of the 
door-jambs and caryatides supporting the 
terraces, richly sculptured, are composed; 
and there are many houses decorated in the 



170 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Moresque style, with the beautiful horse- 
shoe arch. The most noticeable of the 
Valencian palaces is the one alongside of my 
hotel, belonging to the family of the " Dos 
Aguas.^^ I say the most noticeable^ but it is 
rather from its elaborate alabaster ornaments, 
which crowd the facade from "pediment 
to basement," than from its architectural 
beauty. 

The cathedral is a strange jumble of styles, 
Gothic, Corinthian, and nondescript. It 
boasts some fine paintings by Juanes, Eibalta, 
and others, but, as usual, there reigns through- 
out the building such a semi-darkness that 
there is no chance of ascertaining whether 
the works be true or false, masterpieces of 
art or simply efiective daubs. 

Many of the men in this part of the Penin- 
sula are dark as Africans, but I have been 
surprised to see the quantity of women having 
fair, that is to say, light brown hair, some 
even red. There has been evidently a great 
admixture of race, and I should not be at all 
surprised if many of the present generation 
owe their origin to French or English parent- 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 171 

age, as the soldiers of both nations were for 
some time resident here during the frightful 
wars which have so torn and devastated the 
country. I still look in vain for beauty ^ and 
if I do not find it in Andalusia I shall leave 
Spain with many preconceived opinions 
altered, and quite "corrected" on that and 
indeed on many other points regarding this 
country. 

The beggars are as numerous, as importu- 
nate, and as hideous as they were in Tuscany 
a quarter of a century ago. They literally 
swarm, and you cannot enter a church or gaze 
at a building without being at once surrounded, 
and having your sensibiUty shocked by the 
frightful deformities with which humanity is 
occasionally visited. 

One thing has specially struck me by its 
absence. I have not seen a single monk or 
friar in Spain. True, many of the monasteries 
have been suppressed, but I expected at least 
to find as many of these gentry in the Penin- 
sula as one meets with in Italy. 

I leave here to-morrow at 3 p.m., and shall 
have to travel all night till nearly nine the 



172 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

foUowing morning before I can reach Madrid. 
Therej however, I hope to be indemnified by 
getting letters from all the dear fiiends I have 
left behind me. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 173 



LETTER XXVI. 

VALENCIA. 

EFFECTS OF IRRIGATION — TRAIN STOPPED BY BRIGANDS 
— THE ALAMEDA — SPLENDID " PLAZA DE TOROS." 

Valencia ; 

AprU 7, 1872. 

I WROTE to you from Barcelona, and have 
since travelled down the east coast of the 
Mediterranean to this city, once so dear to 
the Moors, stopping a couple of days at 
Tarragona by the way. 

Nothing can exceed the fertility of the 
country along this coast line. With few ex* 
ceptions, it is a continuous garden, where 
everything seems to grow. The system of 
irrigation created by the Moors is still kept 
up, and as the soil is wonderfully fecund you 
see at the same time all kinds of vegetable 
produce, orange trees heavy with golden 
fruit, vines bursting into leaf, forests of 
carob trees and gigantic olives, barley already 
in ear, rice and other cereals, and on the 



174 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

heights in sheltered spots the palm em- 
bracing the cypress. 

The ranges of mountains are not less 
beautiful, and I counted no fewer than sixy 
one behind the other, exhibiting every gra- 
dation of blue, according to their distance 
from the eye. As spurs of these mountains 
descend, in many instances, right down into 
the sea, and for miles are at no great distance 
from it, they were admirably adapted in the 
old times, ironically styled " the good," for 
the retreat of robbers by land and sea, and, 
indeed, it is not so many years agone since 
the very road I traversed was such that 
men carried their lives within their hands. 

The noble profession of brigandage is far 
from being extinct, even now. You have 
read, doubtless, in the English papers, that 
no further back than last week the train 
from Cordova to Madrid was run off the line 
through the " precaution " of a band of armed 
men tearing up some of the metals, which 
brought the whole convoy to a stand. It is 
perfectly true. The train was rifled of what 
treasure it was conveying, and although 



IN THE SPBINQ OP 1872. 175 

none of the passengers were robbed, a 
young comedian by tlie name of Ibafiez, 
througli not obeying quickly enougli the 
order to he down/ace a terre^ was so ill-treated 
that he has since died. 

Report attributes this atrocious act to a 
Carlist band, and the non-robbery of the 
passengers gives some colour to the rumour. 
But you may conceive jfrom the fact of such 
an outrage that travelling in Spain, even at 
this present writing, is not unmixed with 
that dash of danger and adventure which 
removes it from the ordinary smoothness of 
railway voyaging elsewhere. 

For my own part I have little doubt but 
that the roads will be safer now for some 
weeks to come. At least I hope so, for as I 
am going to traverse a portion of the road 
referred to to-morrow night, and have not 
the slightest wish to have my head damaged 
by a Spanish ladron or political exalte^ I 
would rather reach my destination at the 
proper time and with a whole skin. 

The city of Valencia retains much of its 
old Moorish character, as visible in the deco- 



176 • THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

ration of many of the houses and the narrow 
tortuous streets. The environs are extra- 
ordinarily finitful ; and a public garden, the 
Alameda, I have just visited on the other side 
of the Turia torrent (which, by-the-bye, is 
crossed by two fine bridges) has tens of 
thousands of roses all blooming at once, 
orange trees laden with finiit and flowers, 
stocks and ranunculuses in the richest variety 
of colom*, hyacinths, guelder roses, oleanders, 
and a host of other plants, all blossoming 
together. 

The Plaza de Toros, close to the railway 
station, is the finest I have yet seen, and is, I 
am informed, the grandest in Spain. It is built 
of brick in the style of a Roman amphitheatre, 
that is to say, with tier above tier of arches to- 
wards the street instead of the usual plain, 
blank, plaster building, looking like the 
shambles, which the plaza really becomes. 

The weather is exceedingly pleasant just 
now, and some occasional showers of rain 
only add to the beauty, for the sun afterwards 
bursts through with a splendour natural to 
this favoured clime. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 177 



LETTER XXVII. 

VALENCIA TO MADEID. 

PESTIVAIi OP SAN VICENTE, THE PATRON OP VALENCIA — 
VIEW PBOM SUMMIT OP SAN MIGUEL — ORANGE PLAN- 
TATIONS — WONDERPUL PERTILITT— ALCINA — PEAST 
OP ROSES — LA ENCINA — ARANJUEZ — PINE VIEW OP 
MADRID. 

Madrid; 

Apra 9, 1872. 

If you get a confused letter to-day, pray 
attribute it to the right cause — my having 
been travelling for nineteen consecutive 
hours. The night was fortunately mild and 
beautiful, succeeding a day as like a lovely 
one in June in England as possible. 

When I quitted Valencia it was in high 
festival — the baptismal day of San Vicente, 
the patron of the city, and as he had dis- 
tinguished himself in his lifetime by burning 

12 



178 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

no end of heretics as a Grand Inquisitor, 
and kicking the devil out of his cell when 
His Satanic Majesty presented himself in the 
guise of a beautiful woman, he is thus pro- 
perly honoured, for his Christian piety and 
rare continence, after his death. It is a 
strange thing to see the business of a whole 
busy town stopped, and aU manner of junket- 
ings going on, because a sanguinary fanatic 
" played such pranks " as must " have made 
the angels weep," between 400 and 500 years 
ago. 

Little theatres were erected in most of the 
street comers and plazasy where his " mira- 
cles " were being enacted in the open air by 
young boys " dressed in the costume of the 
period," before a gaping multitude varying in 
niunbers from some scores to some hundreds 
according .to the attraction of the funcion. I 
must say that the audiences or spectators 
were not particularly reverent, but smoked 
and chatted and spat and laughed as they 
would have done if it had been a " Punch 
and Judy show," to which, indeed, it bore no 
very remote resemblance as Master Vicente, 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 179 

like Master Punch, was very ready with the 
" lethal weapon." 

I also mounted to the top of the campanile 
of the cathedral, San Miguel, whence I en- 
joyed a most magnificent view. Tte city, 
almost circular, lay like a map at my feet. 
The open courts of the houses were exposed 
to my inspection as if I had been another 
Asmodeus, and very curious did the town 
appear with its thronged and crooked streets, 
its waving banners and groups coUected 
round the little theatres to which I have 
alluded. The vega or plain beyond the city 
walls presented to the eye the greatest varie- 
ties of green, and I would recommend every 
traveller who wishes to form an idea of the 
teeming fertility of the Valencian district to 
clamber up this ancient tower. 

The road from Valencia due southwards to 
La Bncina, where I dined and it fell dark, 
runs through a paradise of verdure, where 
the ftnits of every climate seem to flourish. 
The orange, the palm, the olive, the vine, the 
carob were equally rich and productive ; the 
barley was in ear, the com nearly three feet 



180 THBOUOH SPAIN BI RAIL 

high. Eice and the mulberry for the silk- 
worm succeeded plots of vegetable produce ; 
the earth was sparkhng with every tinge of 
green, and overhead was a canopy of lapis- 
lazuli blue. Never have I seen such vegeta- 
tion before^ and perhaps no spot on earth 
can exceed it in fertility. 

But the orange plantations I say rather 
the orange thickets — orange forests — ^for as 
far as the eye could reach the trees stood in 
their rich sheeny green rows, and where the 
finiit had been plucked the portion turned 
towards the south was white with blossom, 
from which the scent, as the gentle wind 
blew over it, was " full to overflowing." So 
lovely was the sight that, alone in the com- 
partment of the carriage, I found myself in- 
voluntarily clasping my hands with wonder, 
tears filled my eyes, and my heart leaped 
with joy and veneration towards the Creator 
of such overpowering beauty. 

Many points of the road before reaching 
the junction at La Encina are worthy of 
special remark. At Alcina many really 
pretty girls came on to the platform, and it 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 181 

being a fiesta were very smartly dressed. 
Bach had a bouquet of roses in her hand, 
and, indeed, a rose was in everybody's hand 
— evidently a " feast of roses." Jativa with 
its castle, and houses grouped at the foot of 
bold crags, was singularly picturesque; in 
fact, one saw pictures everywhere; roses 
were growing as in June with us; the 
hedges of some of the gardens were com- 
posed of them, and on approaching La 
Encina the train runs through a magnificent 
vaUey with finely contoured mountains on 
both sides. 

As soon as daylight enabled me to see out 
of the carriage window, I remarked that all 
the rare beauty of landscape on which I had 
closed my eyes was gone. Again I found 
myself amongst treeless, unproductive land, 
bare hills with flat tops, yielding nothing but 
stones. The one green spot in the desert 
was Aranjuez, which is most richly wooded. 
I soon perceived the cause in delicious, clear- 
running rivulets, which carried fertiKty 
wherever they flowed. 

The view of Madrid caught at a distance 



182 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

of some three or four miles was very striking, 
extending, as it does, in a line on the ridge of 
many tawny hills, and grandly backed by the 
rocky Guadarrama, at that time covered with 
snow. 




IN THE SPRING OP 1872, 183 



LETTER XXVIIL 

MADRID. 

GENERAL REMARKS ON TRAVELLING THROUGH SPAIN — 
COUNTRY SINGULARLY UNINTERESTING — CAUSES OF 
STERILITY. 

Madrid ; 

April, 10, 1872. 

A PAUSE in my rambles enables me to write 
you a few lines by way of assuring you that 
you dwell warmly in my remembrance, if such 
assurance be necessary, and of giving you 
some hasty impressions of the various scenes 
through which I have been carried. Indeed, 
this traversing a country by rail is not dis- 
similar to the unwinding of the canvas of the 
old panoramas, with the additional advantage 
of atmosphere and the bustling and novel 
spectacle presented by every petty station at 
which the train stops. And those same sta- 
tions are very nearly endless. They occur at 



184 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

intervals of two or three leagues, and as the 
trains, postal or not, pull up at every one of 
them, the result is an average speed of ten 
miles an hour. The iron horse does not, 
therefore, in this part of the world hurry you 
along at a rate which prevents the eye dwell- 
ing upon any particular object. The lines 
not unfrequently follow the old road, for the 
simple reason that a country so mountainous 
as this has left but little choice for either but 
to follow the valley or natural pass; and 
when those same mountains had to be crossed, 
the engineers of the lines were able to select 
no better track than that originally chosen 
by the ordinary roadmakers. 

Down to this present writing I have 
traversed the kingdoms of New and Old 
Castille, Leon, Aragon, Navarre, Catalonia, 
and Valencia. I am on the eve of startiiig 
southwards for my final journey before quitting 
Spain for England, and shall cross Don 
Quixote's country and the far-famed Anda- 
lusia fi:*om end to end. I have visited the 
cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Madrid, Sara- 
gOBsa, Pamplona, Barcelona, Tarragona, and 



IN THE SPEINO OF 1872. 185 

Valencia, from which last town I came back 
yesterday, having travelled the greater part 
of a day and one night. 

A man who comes into Spain and makes 
his way simply to Madrid, although it stands 
in the very centre of the Peninsula would 
have but the faintest and the most erroneous 
notion of what the kingdom really contains. 
In fact, nothing can be more dreary than the 
whole journey after passing the Pyrenees to 
the capital. The passage of the mountain 
barrier at Inm and Hendaya has nothing in 
common with the grandeur of the Alpine 
passes from Switzerland or Savoy into Italy. 
If interested in engineering works he will, of 
course, admire the fine viaducts and tunnels 
over and through which the road is carried ; 
but those passed, he will, after traversing 
some pastoral scenes in the north-east comer 
of Spain, come upon a desolate, howling 
wilderness, without a tree, scarcely a shrub ; 
a vast table-land, up which (for the road rises 
constantly to Madrid till it reaches at the 
capital a height of 2400 above the sea level) 
the train labours ; and the only change the 



186 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

traveller sees from the endless duns and 
browns of the landscape is a territory of rocks 
and stones, varying in size from a big house 
to a pebble, and of every shape that nature 
has been tempted to mould. 

The improvident and ignorant people have 
felled every tree, owing to the fancy of its 
interfering with the growth and ripening of 
the crops. As a natural consequence, there 
being no shade and no powerful roots beneath 
the soil to help to bind it together, the intense 
suns of the Spanish summers have dried the 
ground through and through, and the rains 
of winter have made torrents overflow, and 
have washed the loosened earth into the lower 
lands, or swept it away in solution to the sea ; 
so that vast tracts, which in former times 
might have been productive, are sterile for 
evermore, because the rising grounds have 
been reduced to a skeleton. The people try 
to make up by artificial irrigation for their 
own idiocy in interfering with a beneficent 
Nature ; but bleed the torrents as they will, 
and as they do, until the river beds get oc- 
casionally as dry as the high road, the source 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 187 

of supply is far too scanty for their wants, 
and droughts will not unfrequently occur 
which kill the cattle by thousands and reduce 
the unfortunate agriculturists to the last ex- 
tremities of suffering. 

This hasty sketch will explain the want of 
interest that is to be derived from the aspect 
of the landscape in nearly one half of Spain. 
A journey, then, into Valencia — where the 
perfection of irrigation was introduced by the 
Moors (which is still kept up), and where one 
of the most delicious cUmates under Heaven 
IS to be enjoyed — is like a ghmpse of Paradise. 
The vegetable products of Europe and Africa 
here meet on a ground which is equally favor- 
able to both ; the earth is full of the richest 
verdure, and for background you have a range 
3f noble mountains, chain beyond chain, till 
the last melts into the colour of the sky. 

The interest to be found in the other parts 
)f Spain to which I have aUuded, where the 
30untry presents the aspect of utter desola- 
tion, lies, of course, in its ancient cities, where 
traces are in some to be discovered of the 
Roman and the Goth, in others of the Moor ; 



188 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

but where, unfortunately, still more inefface- 
able marks remain of the destructive Christian 
in former and more recent wars. The 
cathedrals of Burgos, VaUadolid, and Sara- 
gossa — those of Barcelona and Tarragona are 
charming — many of the old palaces, have an 
attraction in their decay which you will 
thoroughly understand ; the costumes of the 
people, more especially of the lower class, are 
curious and worthy of study ; but you have 
to put up, for all this sight-seeing, with poor 
lodging, dirt, discomfort, wretched food, filthy 
and importunate beggars, and a host of 
" petites misferes " too numerous to mention, 
but easy to conceive. 




IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 189 



LETTER XXIX. 

MADRID. 

• 

A CHABMING PICTTOB — A VILLA IN THE PBADO — DIS- 
LIKE OF THE 8PANIABDS TO THE COUNTBY — AN 
ENGLISH' DINNEB — BUDBNESS OP THE MADBILElJOS 
TOWABD8 THE KING — INNEB LIFE OP THE SPANIABDS. 

Madrid; 

April 11, 1872. 

I AM on the eve of my departure for Anda- 
lusia, so that you may expect my next to be 
dated from Cordova, where I am due to- 
morrow at one, having to travel all night and 
half the day. 

After my last letter was posted I called 
upon my friend Mr. B — , who had hitherto 
been absent from Madrid, and accepted an 
invitation to dine with him yesterday. As 
he lives at the extremity of the Prado in a 
new detached villa (a few of which have 



190 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

sprung up in that locality, by far the most 
agreeable in the capital), we strolled towards 
it in the afternoon through the public walk, 
which, as usual, was crowded with pleasure 
seekers on foot and in carriages. 

On one of the seats placed like those in 
Hyde Park along the main walk, we foimd a 
fine specunen of an Englishman, Captain 
W — , of the British Navy, to whom I was 
introduced by Mr. B — . Having whiled 
away half an hour in observing the moving 
throng. Captain W — , learning that I was 
fond of pictures, induced me to visit hia 
house hard by, that I might inspect one of 
which he was evidently proud. 

And well he might be, for rarely have I 
seen a painting of such mingled originality, 
quaintness and beauty. It represented a 
Magdalene, life-size, and more than half 
draped, lying on a bank, her head supported 
by one hand, the crucifix in the other, while 
groups of Cupids were hovering about her, 
covering her with roses. In the left hand 
comer appeared the following verse, ap- 
parently from Solomon's Song : 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 191 

'* Fulciteme floribuB, stipateme msBlis, quia amore 
langneo," &c; 

the English version running : 

** Stay me with flowers, comfort me with apples, for I 
am sick of love." 

Of the painter nothing was known. Its 
owner inclined to the belief that the work 
was Italian. That it was original there could 
be but little doubt, for not only was the 
execution of a very superior order, but the 
mode of treatment was too remarkable, for 
none of the many men who had seen it, 
travellers and artists, to remember a Mag- 
dalene with such an entourage^ if its like had 
existed before. I gave it as my opinion that 
it was by a Spanish artist, or, if Italian, that 
it must have been painted in Spain at a time 
when the influence of the Inquisition was 
all-powerful. Nothing but the strict and 
sternly-enforced rules of the ultra-moral 
bigots of the period, in all things connected 
with outward show, would have induced an 
Italian artist, who delighted in represen- 
tations of Nature " unadorned," to supply his 
Magdalene with such abundant clothing, and 



192 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

even to fiirnisli his Cupids with other 
covering than their wings. Those Cupids 
were otherwise most deliciously painted, and 
might have been own brothers to some of 
the charming little "putti** of Albano. 
Captain W — had one or two other treasures 
in his Uttle collection, but the " Magdalene," 
with her placid, soothing beauty, had a fas- 
cination which allowed you Uttle attention for 
other objects. 

Shortly after I reached Mr. B — 's villa, what 
was my astonishment on looking out of the 
drawing-room window, which opened on to 
the paseo^ to find the drive and walks cleared 
as if by an enchanter's wand. On entering 
the gates leading into the garden, the car- 
riages were four deep ; the footpaths were 
thronged, and in a quarter of an hour there 
was not a living soul visible. 

" That is the habit of the Spaniards," ob- 
served Mrs. B — ,"they come together and 
they return together, like a flock of sheep or 
birds. They think us stark, staring mad for 
living out here. * How can you exist,' they 
say, * without caf^s, without theatres, or a 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 193 

soul to talk to.' No Spaniard will, aloncy dare 
to visit us after dark, although the whole 
promenade is Kghted with gas from end to 
end. They say that there would be risk of 
assassination." 

I could not help smiling and making the 
inquiry, who was leffc to assassinate since 
nobody would ever venture thither ? 

" Precisely so," she answered, " and more 
than that, it is my firm belief that the would- 
be assassin, if any such exist out of the 
imagination of a Spaniard, would be just as 
frightened to come along here after sundown 
as his intended victim." 

We then went to dinner, which was an un- 
usual treat, being thoroughly English in style ; 
and an excellent leg of lamb was in evidence to 
prove what the country might produce if only 
the necessary intelligence were used in the 
breeding. I need not say that the joint in 
question was taken from an animal bred 
under Mr. B — 's directions. 

Those only, who, like myself, had been fed 
for the last few weeks on stringy and tasteless 
meats, all disguised in the same doubtful 

13 



194 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

sauce and on vegetables mixed with grease 
and garlic, could thoroughly appreciate the 
simple, well-cooked and nourishing meat, and 
the fine asparagus with white sauce which 
were put before me. And my enjoyment was 
made complete in the substitution of a 
bottle of excellent Bordeaux for the heavy, 
dark and flat-flavoured beverage, which I 
had hitherto imbibed under the name of 
Valdepefias. 

I took leave of my kind and courteous 
hosts at ten, smoking a cigar and looking at 
the stars, which, in this country, are inex- 
pressibly large and beautiful, and I did not 
meet a single soul till within a few yards of 
the entrance to the Calle de Alcala. On the 
seats there, at the verge of the walk, but in 
sight of the bustle of the streets were a few 
couples who had ventured thus far into the 
dreaded groves for the purpose of a little 
private converse and flirtation. 

I omitted to mention that the King and 
Queen were in the drive in the afternoon in 
an open carriage, perfectly unattended ; and 
with the ingrained loyalty proper to the 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 195 

English character, we drew up to the rail as 
they passed and took off our hats, for which 
^e were honoured by a most distinct recog- 
aition. The want of courtesy of the Spaniards 
towards Amadeo, simply because he is a 
foreigner, is as indecent as it is ill-bred. The 
footmen, seated behind their masters' car- 
riages, keep their arms folded and stare at 
the young monarch as they drive past. 
Captain W — was very strong on the subject 
and hinted at a desire to horsewhip such 
oflfenders and their masters into the bargain 
to teach them better manners. 

I learnt some curious particulars respecting 
these same carriage-folks from my two com- 
panions who had been some years resident 
in Madrid and knew the people well. Two 
thirds of all that grand outward show, they 
issured me, were a sham. The occupants 
rf many of these handsome vehicles were 
miserably poor, and who, therefore, act in face 
of the world a continual masquerade. They 
live in wretchedness and dirt, and go all but 
in rags within doors that they may make a 
figure and put on a silk dress and a black 



196 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

coat a la promenade. Such things as dinner 
parties or parties of any kind among the 
Madrilefios are unknown, for the simple 
reason that they are not only destitute of 
money but even of the decent paraphemaKa 
of a dinner table, and it is only on rare oc- 
casions that one can get a sight of a Spanish 
interior. They will accept any treat the 
foreigner will offer them without a mo- 
ment's hesitation, but never is it returned, 
so that the inhabitants of Madrid, the showy 
capital which seems so abounding in wealth, 
are, perhaps, more imsociable and inhospitable 
than the people of any other capital in 
Europe. They see their fiiends in the streets, 
or at church, but the interiors of their houses 
are mysteries to all but themselves. 

How diflFerent a mode of life to that which 
is practised with us, where the inner comfort 
and the cleanliness and completeness of every 
part of the household are looked upon as 
essentials, in which an EngUshman, and more 
especially an 'Englishwoman^ whose province 
it is, takes the greatest pride. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 197 



LETTER XXX. 

MADEID TO CORDOVA. 

DON QUIXOTE'S COUNTRY-^WILDNESS OF THE ROAD— 
BICH OOLOTJBS OP THE FLOWERS — LINARES — MEN- 
JIBAR — CORDOVA — ITS NARROW STREETS AND 
MOORISH BUILDINGS — CHARMING PJTI0S—COVB.T OF 
ORANGES — THE MESQTJITA— AND ALUS IAN WOMEN. 

Cordova ; 

AprU 12, 1872. 

Although I feel somewhat fagged this 
evening on account of having travelled all 
last night in a compartment so full as to be 
unable to stretch my legs, I cannot refrain 
from writing to you, for as I intend to leave 
for Seville to-morrow afternoon I may not 
have another early opportunity of doing so. 

I left Madrid at nine last night, and was so 
miserably cramped in my corner and had such 
a hard seat, that with the first glimpse of day- 
light (about half past four), I directed my 



198 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

attention to the moving panorama visible 
from the window as the train crept slowly 
on. 

There was nothing specially noticeable" in 
the road, till a view was obtained of the Sierra 
Morena capped with snow. From that point 
the landscape improved, and there were a few 
very picturesque bits as we passed through 
the territory that Don Quixote has made 
famous, and observed the mills at which that 
gallant knight tilted. Dore has admirably hit 
off the characteristics of the country and 
people, and I shall be pleased on my re- 
turn to again look over his excellent illustra- 
tions to Cervantes' inimitable story. 

We passed the spot between Manzanares 
and Valdepefias where a Carlist band only 
a few dayg previously made a train " stand 
and deliver." As I anticipated, the event 
had superinduced extra precautions. Not 
only had we a double allowance of civic 
guards in the train, but many were stationed 
along the line, and every petty station had its 
two or three. 

The road was singularly wild and solitary 



IN THifl SPRING OP 1872. 199 

— just the place one would have selected for 
an exploit of the nature referred to — and as I 
looked round on my sleeping fellow-travellers 
and turned over in my mind the little chance 
there was of any of them oflTering any assis- 
tance in case of an attack, I noted our 
gradual drawing away from the inhospitable 
locality with unfeigned satisfaction. 

Just before reaching Baeza there were some 
bits that the artist just referred to must 
surely have sketched and reproduced in his 
illustrations. A torrent tore its way through 
pointed crags, — grey, yellow and red — deli- 
ciously intermingled with trees, and the eflFect 
was rendered the more striking from the 
sun's rays darting through the mist generated 
at night in the vega and which was grandly 
rolling up the mountain side. 

I must not omit to mention the wonderful 
vividness of the wayside flowers ; the convol- 
vulus, the poppy and the blue-bell displayed 
colours that were literally dazzling to the 
eye. The reappearance of the aloe, the 
prickly pear, and an occasional palm showed 
that we had got again into the region of the 



200 THROUGH SPAIN BT KAIL 

south, and out of that sterile zone in which 
Madrid is situated. 

We passed Linares the station before 
Baeza, where the pigs of lead in the railway 
trucks hinted at the presence of the mines in 
the neighbourhood : later on, we arrived at 
Menjibar, where we breakfasted, and enjoyed 
quite a lively scene owing to the numerous 
arrivals by diligence from Granada and the 
Alhambra, who swelled our own numbers by 
the train. 

At length, shortly after midday, Cordova 
itself came in sight. In 1845 Ford wrote of 
it : — " Cordova seen from the distance amid 
its olives and palm trees, and backed by the 
convent- crowned sierra has a truly oriental 
look; inside all is decay." If by decay he 
meant the want of life in the streets, it is 
precisely the same in 1872 as it was in 1845 j 
but where in the name of wonder could any 
life appear in these narrow passages and lanes 
which run for a few yards, and then twist 
round a comer to end, nowhere in parti- 
cular, except against a blank wall ! 

If you turn to a map of Cairo you will have 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 201 

a notion — a little exaggerated, perhaps, but 
still a notion — of the disposition of the Cor- 
dovan streets. There is not one of them 
straight, and only two or three can boast of 
being wider than Pope's Head Alley or Finch 
Lane ; and they are so thinly peopled that I 
traversed many without meeting a soul, 
although I became conscious that black eyes 
were watching me from the enclosed bal- 
conies above, which hke a hareem window, 
are barred with iron and closely cur- 
tained. 

There are but few of these same balconies 
towards the street; the one-story houses 
present, for the most part, the appearance 
of a dead wall, as there are no lower win- 
dows whatever; and altogether, the place 
had so deserted an air that I was incHned to 
fancy some mischievous elf had transported 
me to Pompeii, had twisted the straight 
streets of that town into distorted Unes, 
had whitewashed the houses, and galvanized 
a few of its inhabitants into life, so strongly 
did this old Cordova remind me of the resus- 
citated Roman city. 



202 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Similar also to Pompeii the real front of the 
house is, to use a Hibemianism, at the hack 
or rather in the middle ; and as, instead of a 
street door, constantly closed, there is just 
within the doorway a wrought-iron gate, 
often of delicious workmanship, you are en- 
abled to discern a pretty patio or court, open 
to the sky, surrounded by pillars which sup- 
port the upper rooms, whilst the court itself 
is filled with flowers, (at this season, roses in 
every variety of species,) and orange trees 
whose blossom is as delicious to the scent as 
the fruit is to the eye. A fountain plays in 
the centre ; the court is paved either with 
marble or encaustic tiles, the azulejos imitated 
from the Moors, and when the sun is too 
powerful, a striped awning is drawn over the 
open space above, and thus forms a tempo- 
rary roofing. 

The luxury of these open-air patios in a 
warm climate must be very great. The 
court being square and the breadth between 
the pillars and the wall sufficient, one side is 
always in shade, and at night the piano is 
wheeled out, or the guitar is produced, and 



IN THE 8PBIN0 OP 1872. 203 

nimble fingers soon set equally nimble feet 
a-capering. 

The grand attraction, however, of Cordova 
is the cathedral, still called the mezquita 
from its having been the mosque of the 
Christian's predecessors. This monstrous 
building is indeed a wonder, the eflfect of 
which, on entering, takes your breath away. 
You are prepared for something pecuUar and 
mysterious by the aspect of the Court of 
Oranges which you will first traverse. This 
court large as some London " squares," is 
surrounded by pillars with Moorish arches, 
its Christian addition being a marble pulpit at 
one extremity, whence San Vicente, (our old 
Valencian friend) urged upon his not unwill- 
ing hearers the advisabihty of burning some 
few thousand heretics, in order to ensure the 
safety of their own souls. The orange trees 
in this court are of vast size, many of the 
trunks being thicker than a man's body, and 
when I saw them they were studded as 
thickly with fruit as apple trees in a Kentish 
orchard. 

Having taken in these natural beauties 



204 THBOUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

and dwelt in memory on the horrors perpe- 
trated here by man, enter the rather low- 
roofed building beneath the horse-shoe arch, 
and find yourself transported to the East, 
standing at the edge of a forest of marble ! 
I say a forest^ for that is exactly the effect of 
these thousand pillars, (the exact number is 
I believe 900), which spring from the marble 
pavement and support the roof. 

I cannot describe to you the effect of per- 
spective of these beautiful columns, scarcely 
two of them alike, but all of marble or 
granite. The moving figures seen in the 
half light at the extremity of one or other of 
these wonderful groves (nineteen in all) have 
a weird and striking appearance ; and where 
some bit of stained glass admits a ray of sun, 
it irradiates that favoured space, and makes 
the contiguous vista the gloomier and more 
mysterious in consequence. 

The comparatively modem Catholic coro^ 
with its usual stall for the church dignitaries, 
and the chapels erected about the building, 
strike you as such wonderfiil anomalies, that 
like the proverbial fly in amber, when you 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 205 

come suddenly upon them, you wonder how 
the d — 1 they got there. 

I cannot say much as yet of the Andalu- 

sian women. Those I have seen hitherto, 
had no pretensions to beauty or grace, 
though the eyes were fine. But they display 
a bit of coquetry which I have not observed 
elsewhere. Every girl, no matter her con- 
dition, directly her hair is dressed, sticks a 
natural flower in it, at this season a rose, a 
red one, whiich contrasts the best with her 
ebon hair. It seems strange to remark these 
common lasses, engaged in the coarsest occu- 
pations, with their heads adorned as if for 
the theatre, and perhaps without a stocking 
to their feet. I am informed that I shall 
find the custom universal throughout Anda- 
lusia. It is certainly pretty, and where 
there is a face to match, it must be very 
attractive. 

A walk round the remains of the old wall 
of the City would furnish an artist with many 
capital little pictures. The squat, square 
tower shaded by an occasional palm tree, 
surroimded by that deUciously clear atmo- 



206 THROUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

sphere, and more particularly as the sun is 
setting, when the whole heavens are aglow 
with Vermillion, are as purely Oriental as 
anything he would find in the East. 

And if that same artist's legs and lungs 
are in good order, let him mount, as I did, to 
the summit of the belfirey-tower, whence he 
will enjoy a rarely beautiful view. His com- 
manding height will enable him to get a peep 
at the open patios of the houses and mark 
how numerous they are ; he will derive 
amusement in tracing the tortuous streets, 
which seem to have been planned on the 
principle of a gigantic labyrinth; he will 
note the lazy course of the Guadalquiver 
towards Seville and the sea, made evident, 
where not actually visible, by the rows of 
trees,; and he will be struck generally by the 
contrast of the whitewashed city with the 
green- pasture land which forms around it so 
pretty and appropriate a setting. 



IX THE SPRING OF 1872. 207 



LETTER XXXI. 

SEVLLLE. 

BOAD FBOM COBDOVA TO SEVILLE— OB ANGES AND ALOES — 
MOSQUITOES— ANDALTJSIAN AND GIPSET DANCES— 
CATHEDBAIi — THE GIBALDA — POMPEIAN ABBANGE- 
MENTS. 

Seville ; 

April 14, 1872. 

Anothee stage upon my journey performed 
in comfort and safety, and by the time this 
letter reaches your hands, I trust to have 
arrived at my ultimate desination and to be, 
in fact, wending my way homewards. 

It was a very pleasant trip from Cordova 
to this city, where I arrived about six o'clock 
after four hours run. The country here in 
the south, at least at this season of the year, 
is in wonderful contrast to the north and 
centre of Spain. The line runs through 
beautiful pasture ground, and as a conse- 



208 THROUGH SPAIN BT BAIL 

quence we have butter, and very good butter, 

once again. The vegetation is almost as 

rich as in Valencia though the land is not so 

highly cultivated. The oranges are very 

abundant, and at one little station, Falma 

del Rio, they lay in tens of thousands on the 

platform waiting for transport. The aloes 

are something marvellous ; they seem to grow 

and most probably do grow spontaneously, 

and are used as hedgerows to divide the little 

fields from each other, and to mark the 

boundary of the line. A few of them were 

in flower, the stems rising to a height of some 

ten or fifteen feet, tapered at the top like a 

pine, and looking rarely beautiful with their 

multitudinous blossoms. It is no wonder if 

the process of flowering should kill the plant 

as the flower is out of all proportion to the 

parent stock. As the blossoms wither, the 

plant as if in sympathy, curls up and fades 

away till the huge stem stands bare and 

melancholy, the withered blossoms rustling 

in the breeze. 

The httle villages and towns visible from 
the carriage windows were unmistakably 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 209 

Moorish; the houses of one story, white- 
washed and with flat roofs for the enjoy- 
ment of the evening air. At every station 
the hedges of the httle gardens were com- 
posed of dehcious roses, red, white, and 
yellow, and which, like all the flowers in this 
part of the world, were of the most lively 
colours. The most beautiful were the blush- 
roses that looked in their dehcate tints, exactly 
like those porcelain ones we have often 
admired in the windows of Paris, so perfect 
were they in shape, and so solid seemed their 
leaves and petals. Every girl who took her 
place in the train, and all her female com- 
panions who came to see her off*, wore them 
in their hair, and some had huge bunches of 
these delicious flowers in their hands. 

The line runs almost all the way by the 
side of the Guadalquiver, which in places is 
finely wooded, and at Carmona the river is 
crossed by an iron bridge. Like most of the 
continental streams which derive their origin 
firom the mountain and flow uniformly 
towards the sea, the water is creamy yellow 
and turbid, carrying along in solution an 

14 



210 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

immense quantity of the sandy 6oil through 
which it runs. 

Lovely, however, as this Country undoubt- 
edly is, it has the serious drawback of being 
infested with mosquitoes, which commence 
their active operations in mid-spring and go 
on industriously all through the summer, 
dying oflf in the autumn or, as I should say, 
judging from past painfiil experience, migrat- 
ing to Naples* The consequence of this 
visitation was, that I got a bad night, for 
although a good sleeper, I cannot rest where 
these pests abound. The warning blast of 
the well-known horn effectually banishes 
sleep from my eyelids, and I roused up a 
dozen times in the night to wage war with 
these tiny but not insignificant foes. I 
managed to slaughter one or two on each of 
these occasions, and when daylight began to 
revisit the earth, succeeded in getting an 
hour or two's slumber. 

I came on here with a Mr. and Mrs. P — 
and a relative. Miss T — , besides two other 
ladies who had met them on the road. Con- 
geniality of tastes made us at once sociable, 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 211 

and as we were all travelling in the same 
direction we resolved, as long as it was agree- 
able to each other, to keep together. 

Hearing that an entertainment had been 
got up, for the benefit of such gentlemen in 
the hotel as chose to go, which should en- 
able them to see some of the Andalusian and 
gipsey dances, Mr. P — and I gladly availed 
ourselves of the chance, and set off accom- 
panied by the courier of that gentleman and 
the interpreter of the hotel who, to judge 
from his strong recommendation of the affair, 
had some interest in the result. 

After traversing several streets, somewhat 
broader and less crooked, it is true, than 
those of Cordova, but still none of the widest 
and straightest, we reached a rough kind of 
assembly room, which we found to be occu- 
pied by about thirty gentlemen from the 
various hotels, and a sprinkling of the towns- 
people. 

The performers were four girls (two of 
them decidedly pretty,) dressed in Andalusian 

« 

costume with wonderfully rich satin skirts 
reaching to the knee, bare necks and arms. 



212 THROUGH SPAIN BY EAIL 

silk hose and white satin shoes. It was for 
all the world like being present at a prova of 
an opera, we, the spectators, being accom- 
modated with chairs upon the stage. Some 
of their dances were very engaging, the cas- 
tanets, with which they were all provided, 
keeping time, and making a natural accom. 
panient to a mandolin and fiddle. The most 
characteristic performance was that executed 
by one of the girls, in walking costume with 
mantilla and fan, who was accosted, in dumb 
show, by a young fellow wrapped in the 
inevitable cloak. The various gradations of 
flirtation from the first glance through the 
different stages of acquaintanceship, in which 
the fan played a most conspicuous part — 
being now flirted, now closed with a sharp 
snap, now used as a shield, through the bars 
of which bright eyes glanced at the more and 
more ardent lover — were charmingly done; 
and his pursuit seemed to be crowned with 
success when, uncovering his cloak in the 
manner of Sir Walter Raleigh, he spread it 
on the ground and she stepped hghtly over it. 
From that moment he was an accepted lover 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 213 

and they danced together to celebrate the 
event. 

It was now the turn of the gipsies, of 
whom a dozen or so, men, women, and boys 
were present. Two women, with bare arms, 
their jetty hair nattily dressed and adorned 
with red roses, but with garments reaching 
to the ground, stood up in the centre of the 
room and, to the twanging of a guitar played 
by a burly fellow about forty, and the accom- 
paniment of the voices of all their swarthy 
companions, in a lugubrious and discordant 
'Chant, began a strange series of posturing, 
moving in short circles back to back about 
each other, throwing out the hips and bring- 
ing their well-shod feet heavily to the ground 
after the manner of the niggers. In lieu of 
castanets they occasionally clapped their 
hands, an action that was imitated by all the 
gipsies together, who urged on the per- 
formers with loud " whoops " like those of a 
wild Indian, while the musician continued in 
a louder and louder key, his monotonous and 
unintelhgible song. I was told that the words 
employed were not of the most decent cha- 



214 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

racter and if I could draw any meaning from 
the singular actions and postures of the 
dancers, I should incline to believe that 
my informant spoke truly. I call them 
dancers but, really, they but little deserved 
that name according to our notions of the 
steps that a dancer should execute. The 
performance struck me much more in the 
light of an antique rehgious ceremony, and 
there could be little doubt that it was 
derived from their Egyptian forefathers and 
was a remnant of some of the peculiar rites 
of that singular people. They continued 
till they were exhausted, when they were 
succeeded by another couple. There was, 
however, no change in the performance. 
Those who followed went through precisely 
the same antics and were more loudly 
applauded as their postures assumed a more 
indecent character. The whole thing was 
worth seeing, on account of its nationality 
and its diversity to any entertainment I had 
ever beheld before, and the dances of the Anda- 
lusians were really graceful and pleasing. 
From the glimpse I obtained of Seville 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 215 

last night I observed that it had many of the 
characteristics of Cordova, the houses having 
the same dehcious patios or open-air courts, 
(filled with flowers and fountains in the 
centre) for the enjoyment of .the bright or 
star-Ut sky without going beyond the limits 
of the dwelling ; and from my subsequent 
explorations by dayhght I find it to be a 
large and handsome city, possessing some 
moderately broad and well-paved streets, 
with fewer of those tortuous lanes, strewn 
with " petrified potatoes," which do duty as 
a pavement in the ancient city alluded to. 
In the calle de las Sierpes there are some 
handsome shops and two of the finest cafSs I 
have seen in Spain, paved with marble and 
richly decorated. 

The city is filled with magnificent monu- 
ments, and many days might be profitably 
and delightfully spent in their examination. 
The cathedral, properly described as "the 
largest and finest in the Peninsula " is truly 
grand, and fills the mind with astonishment, 
both at the structure itself and the rich 
treasures of art which it contains. Sculp- 



216 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

ture and painting are represented by some 
wonderfully rich specimens ; and the painted 
windows, of which the number is consider- 
able, impart fine effects to this noble temple, 
although there is no doubt that they are 
destructive to oil paintings, and I have 
always held the opinion, which this visit to 
Seville cathedral has tended still further to 
confirm, that paintings in oil should be ex- 
cluded from edifices where the hght is 
admitted through stained glass. 

The centre is as usual blocked up with the 
coro, but the two side aisles are clear and 
enable you to take in the stupendous dimen- 
sions of the building. Its proportions alto- 
gether are most harmonious and I attribute 
to this fact the strange delight one feels in 
wandering about it, pacing up one aisle and 
down another, without fixing the attention 
on any of the special details. And yet they 
are well worth careful study. Some of the 
tombs are remarkably fine; the high altar 
and its Gothic retablo are exquisite; the 
wood carving is, as usual perfect, and there 
is some very fine plate-work. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 217 

The pictures, some of them said to be by 
MuriUo, were in too bad a light to enable me 
to see them properly, and others were tinged 
all the colours of the rambow from the 
sun's rays either falling directly upon them 
through the stained glass, or from the 
colours being reflected from the marble 
pavement. 

In such a fane, however, you seem to care 
little for accessories per se. Each in its 
place helps to swell the general effect, and 
that effect is, as I have before observed, 
simply superb. 

On emerging from the cathedral I pro- 
ceeded to the " Griralda," which like so many 
of the Itahan " Campanili," is separate from 
the temple to which it belongs. It derives 
its name from the bronze figure at the 
supamit used as a vane, which is so admir- 
ably posed that though of enormous size and 
weight it veers (gi/ra) with the slightest 
breath of wind. Although now serving as 
the belfrey to the cathedral, great part of 
the tower, as its exquisite workmanship 
shows, owes its origin to the Moors, and 



218 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

dates back to the twelftli century ; the upper 
portion being added as long after as the six- 
teenth. Unlike additions generally, the new 
portion is so admirably harmonised with the 
older structure that it would puzzle a far 
more critical eye than mine to detect the 
difference between the two. As it stands, 
this beautiful monument is in height about 
the same as that of St. Mark's at Venice, and 
you ascend it in the same way ; that is, by 
inclined planes in the thickness of the wall in 
lieu of stairs. 

You would be amused at my room at the 
hotel where I am now writing. It is a crib, 
like a Pompeian chamber, opening on to a 
marble-paved inner court, with arches sup- 
ported by marble pillars, the centre having 
a fountain surrounded by green, — oranges, 
myrtles and other plants. My door (for 
there is no window) is propped wide open, to 
let in the air, the sun too is streaming in, and 
people are passing to and fro lending to the 
whole scene a striking and stage-like effect. 
All sorts of dialects and languages fall upon 
my ear, Castilian, Andalusian, Italian, French 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 219 

and English. Of the latter there is more 
here than I have met elsewhere in Spain. 
Seville has lately attracted hither its thou- 
sands from every part of the Peninsula and 
the Continent generally, for the holy week is 
only just over and the celebrated feria or fair 
is coming on — the 18th, being the first day— 
when rooms are said to ' fetch twenty francs 
per diem. As I do not care for junketings 
and like to see a city for the first time in its 
normal state, I shall most probably leave it 
to-morrow night, and I reserve for another 
letter some further description of its other 
remarkable features. 



220 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXXIL 

SBVILLE. 

THE ALCAZAR — BEAUTIFUL AZULBJOS— THE GABDENS— 
EXHIBITION OP MODEBN PAtNTINGS — THE CITY 
WALLS — HOUSE OP PILATUS — THE MUSEO — THE 
WOMEN OF SEVILLE — ALAMEDA. 

Seville ; 

AprU 15, 1872. 

Having again spent a delightful hour or 
two in the cathedral, and walked all round it, 
which no traveller should omit to do, as por- 
tions of the exterior are singularly interest- 
ing, having also smoked a cigar and rumi- 
nated in the Court of Oranges, like that of 
Cordova, contiguous to the great temple and 
entered by a most picturesque horse-shoe 
arch, I bent my steps to the Alcazar, or 
palace of the Moorish kings, hard by and — 
found myself in fairy land ! 

They tell me it is on a grander scale than 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 221 

the Alhambra at Granada,— of this I shall be 
able myself to judge-^once in it, you care 
for no comparisons, you seek to make none, 
for the mind is filled with present, actual 
beauty and has no room for calculation. 

On entering the first patio, which is of 
large size, whilst the eyes are lost in wonder 
at the charming lace*work decorations, the 
ears are assailed by the drowsy hum of bees 
which having gathered their honey from the 
flowers of the neighbouring gardens, store it 
in the hives thus made for them by the 
cunning hands of men who passed to their 
account centuries ago. 

It were vain to attempt a description of 
this wondrous building, now suflBciently 
restored to enable one to comprehend its 
magic beauty. The impression remains upon 
me of a realisation of Aladdin's palace, where 
all the exquisite taste and ingenuity of one of 
the most tasty and ingenious p'eople in the 
world could devise has been employed with 
no sparing hand. The Hall of the Ambassa- 
dors with its delicious dome is beyond all 
conception, and to give you an idea of the 



222 THfiOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

elaboration of some of the minor details, I 
may mention that in the adornment of the 
walls there are stars not bigger than half-a- 
crown, which are composed of thirty-two 
pieces of coloured porcelain, of such delicate 
workmanship that they might, like the Flo- 
rentine mosaics, be set as a brooch. The wood- 
work too is perfectly marvellous. Imagine 
doors and inlaid shutters that have with- 
stood twelve hundred years of summer's heat 
and winter's cold, and that have been spared 
too the ravages of the worm and more des- 
tructive barbarian man ! Some of the ceil- 
ings too are perfect studies of inlaid wood- 
work, and one ceases to wonder, with 
such models before them of the skiU dis- 
played by the Spaniards in dealing with this 
material. 

From the palace I passed into the gardens 
where fresh wonders awaited me. They are 
unlike anything I had before beheld, and 
are, in fact, as unique as the building to 
which they are attached. All the vegetation 
of that sunny clime is there met together, 
glowing under the blue sky and warm sun 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 223 

with that vividness of colour to which I 
have before alluded, but which it is far 
beyond my powers to record. I speak not of 
oranges — they have now become a common 
plant, every garden growing them as we 
grow apples in England, and even the pub- 
Uc squares are planted with them — but the 
palms, the oleanders, the roses, the cacti, all 
in flower and each exhaling its own odorous 
breath fill you with wonder, so numerous 
are they, and so very, very beautiful. 

I left this garden of Eden, like another 
Adam, turning many a parting glance at its 
varied beauties as my steps bore me unwil- 
lingly away. As I was quitting the building 
my eye was attracted by a notice that an exhi- 
bition of modem paintings and works by 
living artists was to be seen for the small 
charge of half a peseta^ and with some mis- 
giving though with awakened curiosity I 
walked in. 

A cursory survey of the pictures on the 
walls confirmed my prepossessions. The 
only original works were isolated groups and 
figures illustrative of Spain's great passion — 



224 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the bull fight. There were espadas and 
picador es^ chutos and bcmdarilleros in all the 
bravery of their gala costume. Some of these 
were not wanting in spirit, but they had 
nothing of special merit to recommend them. 
The rest were but copies of old Spanish 
masters, with theu^ peculiar characteristics 
exaggerated or caricatured. But it is not 
given to every imitator to catch the sweet- 
ness of a Murillo or the soldier-Kke dash of a 
Velasquez, and the result of the most servfle 
copying must often prove, as it did here, a 
lamentable failure. 

On leaving the Alcazar I took a drive 
round the old walls, the sight of which takes 
you back some centuries. They appear to 
have been of great strength, and no doubt at 
the date of their completion were effective 
enough for defence. The squat square towers 
appearing at short intervals are purely 
Moorish, and the city viewed from a distance 
with the tall spire of the Giralda and other 
buildings appearing above the ancient walls 
with here a palm and there a cypress, make a 
very Eastern picture. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 225 

Having refreshed myself with my drive 
(though with some risk to my bones, owing to 
the wretched state of the road), and pre- 
pared my mind for the reception of fresh 
objects of beauty, I again plunged into the 
city, taking " Fairfield " on the way. 

Innumerable booths, many belonging to 
private families for the reception of country 
friends, were being run up in all directions. 
Skeletons of swings, roundabouts, and dancing 
saloons of a similar character to those with 
which we are so familiar at home were every- 
where visible ; and altogether the scene was 
so like Epsom downs a day or two before the 
Derby, or Charlton or Greenwich fairs in 
their palmy days, that I am inclined to 
believe, what I was assured on more than one 
hand, that the reputation of Seville fair, at 
least for originality, was infinitely greater 
than it actually merited. As far as the mere 
accessories are concerned, my informants 
were doubtless perfectly right, but the great 
charm to the stranger, with an eye to the 
picturesque, must, I take it, lie in the diversity 
of costume, for the feria is a perfect camp, 

16 



226 THBOUGH SPAIX VY EAIL 

and draws its contingent from every village 
and town for miles aronnd, some to make 
purchases, others to seek gaiety, and aH^ more 
or less, to get the one " outing '* of the year- 
looked forward to an d eagerly counted upon 
for months before its advent. 

My driver, who for stupidity and lack of 
knowledge of his own town beat every coach- 
man it was ever my fete to ride behind, after 
driving me up three cuh de sae^ in his attempt 
to seek a thorough&re, landed me at last at 
the house known as that of Pilatus. 

Built in imitation of the Moor it possesses 
much to call forth admiration and study. A 
beautiful patio^ and a magnificent staircase 
are sure to attract as they deserve admiration, 
and there are hundreds of azulejos or those 
celebrated tiles, which owe their origin to the 
Moors and were produced in high perfection 
in the time of Charles the Fifth. 

The Museo will well repay almost any time 
that is spent upon it. There Murillo may 
be studied in his various stages, and with a 
better chance of gratification than can be 
derived from an attempt to examine the 



m THE SPBING OF 1872. 227 

works of this grand painter in the cathedral 
or elsewhere, as the light is of course more 
favorable. Still, as many of these paintings 
were originally altarpieces and destined for 
certain positions, to be viewed only from parti- 
cular points or at predetermined heights, 
they lose in one respect what they gain in 
another, and this will account in a great 
measure for what appears to be at times de- 
fective drawing. The colouring is, as usual 
with Murillo, superbly harmonious, but the 
close examination I was able to make of his 
fair Saints and sweet Madonnas only con- 
firmed the opinion I expressed when speak- 
ing of this artist from Madrid ; namely, that 
he could portray exquisite women, but lacked 
the inspiration to produce that divine beauty 
which was so remarkable among some of the 
great Italian painters. 

I have now also had a fair opportunity of 
seeing the celebrated Andalusian women in 
the flesh, and — I am very disappointed. It 
is true that their peculiar characteristics are 
gone, and we all know how much those have 
to do with imparting a special charm. Their 



228 THEOUGH SPAIN BY fiAIL 

short national dresses have yielded to the 
levelling fashions of France. Their feet, 
which used to be encased, in pretty shoes, have 
been unable to resist the attractions of the 
Parisian bottine with a so-called military heel, 
and as a natural consequence, instead of the 
famous walk — ^that peculiar gait which in- 
duced the belief that only an Andalusian 
knew how to tread the earth — ^the women 
now hobble along, and twist their hips with 
the exertion of preventing themselves top- 
pling on to their noses in a manner which is 
anything but graceful. They are, in fact, 
now far worse off, and in my mind have an 
infinitely less degagee and stately gait than the 
women of England, for the simple reason 
that the latter have a proper pavement to 
walk upon, whilst the poor Sevillanas are 
compelled to toddle and totter over flints 
with the sharpest edge stuck uppermost, 
which are trying under most favorable cir- 
cumstances, and prove a fidghtfiil ordeal 
when the toes are cramped in a narrow boot 
with a peg in the middle three inches high. 
Many of them have fine figures and most 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 229 

beautiful eyea, but the rest of the features 
are coarse. The eyebrows are often thick 
and heavy as those of a man. Their teeth 
are for the most part small, but they have, 
in common with the generality of the 
Spanish women I have seen, that unhappy 
configuration of jaw which, in laughing, dis- 
plays the whole of the upper gum, and when 
the teeth are irregular and decayed, which is 
frequently the case, the effect is disastrous to 
beauty, they get very stout at an early age, 
say about thirty, and the obesity of some 
of them is truly extraordinary. 

The Alameda beside the Guadalquiver is of 
course the great place for the display of 
fashion and finery, and when the heat of the 
day is over, the seats and walks are crowded. 
Many prolong their stay to an advanced 
hour, and on bsjmy nights such as one fi:e- 
quently enjoys in this beautiful climate, some 
pf the fair ones cannot persuade themselves 
to go home at all. These belong doubtless 
to the cl^ss whom Tom Moore describes as 
" maids who love the moon." 



230 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXXIII. 

XBREZ (sKEEEY). 

FBLLOW-TftAVELLBES — ABBIYAL AT XEBEZ — PBCXILI* 
ASITY OF XEBEZ HOUSES — LOVE-MAKING — WINE ST0BH8. 

Xerez de la Prontera; 
AprU 16, 1872. 

The three hours' journey from Seville to 
this town offers nothing very striking in the 
way of scenery. The country is for the 
most part flat, and with the exception of the 
aloes and prickly pears, the latter covered 
with fruit, there was little in the aspect of 
the landscape to remind me that I was so 
far south ; I noticed a good many olive plan- 
tations, by the way, and an occasional group 
of stone pines relieved the monotony. 

I had in the compartment with me a 
gentleman and two ladies, English, evidently 
residents of the wine city who had been up 
to Seville to make purchases. As my 
^pearance is rather a foreign one, they, 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 231 

perhaps, failed to recognise in me a country- 
man, or perchance they were indifferent to 
my opinion even if they guessed me to be so ; 
any way they carried on their conversation in 
English in the most unrestrained manner, 
and made remarks about persons and things 
which it would have been far better taste to 
keep to themselves. 

A proof of the injudiciousness and mauvais 
gout of these indiscriminate criticisms was 
soon afforded by their talking of people with 
whom I was actually acquainted, and I 
fancy that neither party would have felt 
particularly pleased if I had communicated 
to those whom it concerned what I thus 
heard blurted aloud in a pubhc conveyance 
and at the same time made known who 
were my informants. 

It was dark when I reached Xerez, and at 
the very station I found that I had made a 
poor exchange for Seville. Of course my 
portmanteau had to be opened and ex- 
amined; this seems to be the rule at every 
fresh town you enter, and after my things 
had been pulled over by a pair of very dirty 



232 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

hands, in presence of a little crowd of ragged 
men and boys, who surely had no right 
within the precincts of the station, not a 
coach or omnibus was to be had to convey 
my luggage and myself to the hotel. A 
couple of these aforesaid ragamuffins were 
therefore of necessity hired to carry the 
former whilst I traipsed on close behind, 
keeping a sharp look out to see that my 
goods and chattels were not bolted with in the 
darkness, an event which, judging from the 
aspect of my porters, struck me as far from 
improbable. No such catastrophe, however, 
occurred. They trudged on steadily before 
me for nearly a mile before we reached the 
town, and even then we had to traverse some 
long and tortuous streets ere the goal, the 
H6tel de Xerez, was arrived at. Once there, 
however, I was comfortable enough. The 
fonda was kept by an Italian, and the use 
of that language to my landlord and the 
waiters, who were also from Italy, procured 
me prompt and even kindly attention. 
Xerez has proved a singularly nninterest- 
pboe after Seville, although a man com- 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 233 

ing here with good introductions might pass 
a different verdict, for I observe that the 
town contains many substantial and com- 
fortable-looking houses, the residents of 
merchants and others engaged in the wine 
trade. These houses are built in the same 
style as those of Seville and Cordova, 
having the open patio lined with flowers ; 
their architecture like that of the town I 
have mentioned, is spoiled by the Andalusian 
custom of whitewashing them exteriorly 
from top to toe ; in a sanitary point of view, 
the usage has doubtless much to recommend 
it, but it is destructive to picturesqueness. 

There is one peculiarity, however, about 
these Xerez houses which I have not 
observed elsewhere, and as being in such 
contrast to Cordova,, I cannot fail to notice 
it. In speaking of the low Moorish tene- 
ments of the latter city, I mentioned that 
there were scarcely any windows upon the 
street, and that the few which did exist were 
upon the upper floor, and were jealously 
latticed in, or otherwise closely screened. In 
Xerez, on the contrary, each house has, ac-* 



234 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

cording to its size, two or three windows, 
whose sills are on the very pavement, and 
although they are well guarded by an iron 
grating, the sayings and doings of the occu- 
pants of the rooms thus situated are at the 
mercy of 6very passer-by, unless the inmates 
talk very low, and screen themselves with 
heavy drapery. 

A curious result of this "convenient" 
arrangement became palpable to me, when, 
with my after-dinner cigar, I strolled 
through a few of the narrow and tortuous 
streets. At almost every third window, 
there stood a man, whose arms or as much 
of his face as the iron grating would admit 
were thrust within the chamber. What they 
were doing there I could not at first divine, 
but as in passing I perceived the flutter of 
female drapery on the other side, a light 
suddenly broke upon me, and I came to the 
conclusion that although I had got as far as 
Xerez, I had not got beyond the region 
where the old story was still fresh and new. 

A ramble about the town by dayhght has 
confirmed my impressions of last evening. 



m THE SPEING OP 1872. 235 

The houses are substantially built and have a 
look of thorough " respectability," as if they 
belonged to substantial well-to-do people 
who were conscious of the honour of paying 
rent and taxes. I observed several casinos 
or club-houses, that were, as far as I could 
judge, well frequented; nor is this wonder- 
ful in a place which must contain many 
merchants and wealthy citizens, with a mar- 
vellous lack of amusement to engage their 
leisure time, for Xerez strikes me as " mor- 
tally dull." 

I noticed more than one half -ruinous and 
disestablished convent. As at Rouen, these 
huge structures seem to be employed as 
warehouses for goods. One, in the out- 
skirts, presented nothing but the bare walls, 
on which I could still decipher portions of 
scripture history and episodes in the lives of 
favourite saints depicted in fresco. 

There are of coiffse many entrepots for the 
storing of wine. The precious article is not 
kept below the earth in cellars as is cus- 
tolmary with us and by which means of 
course, in a climate Hke ours, an even tem- 



236 THBOCGH SPAIX BY BAIL 

perature is more easily attained, but is stored 
in huge sheds, raised a few feet from the 
ground, the walls and even the roofs of 
which are whitewashed^ while the sun is 
carefully excluded by means of shutters or 
pergianes, similar to those in use in Italy. 
By this means the interior is kept delight- 
fully cool, and as Xerez is no doubt exempt 
from any lengthened or severe winters, the 
wine is not exposed to any great alternations 
of heat or cold. 

I expected to find upon my table at dinner 
some of that same sherry, though of inferior 
quality, which is produced from grapes 
grown in the neighbourhood. Not a drop, 
however, of that or any other white wine 
was there. The same deep-red liquor, of 
which I have so frequently spoken, was the 
only wine visible, and whether it bore the 
name of Valdepefias or of any other locality, 
the flavour was still the same. 



/ 



IK THE SPRING OF 1872. 237 



LETTER XXXIV. 

CADIZ 

VINEYARDS — SALT-PANS— FIRST APPEARANCE OP CADIZ — 
STREET SIGHTS — MULES —GLAZED BALCONIES — CUS- 
TOM-HOTTSE ARRANGEMENTS — CHARMING ALAMEDA. 

Gran H6tel de Paris, Cadiz ; 
ApHl 17, 1872. 

A RUN of an hour and forty minutes con- 
veys the traveller from Xerez to Cadiz, and, 
as regards the distance covered, the journey 
might easily be performed in the odd minutes; 
but there are many stoppages by the way 
and at the junction of the Trocadero, where 
the line branches ofE to Port Royal, there 
was more activity than is usually seen on 
Spanish railways. 

A good many vines are visible on quitting 
Xerez. Some of the vineyards are separated 
from each other by the ordinary cane, which 



238 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

makes an effective line of demarcation with- 
out encumbering the valuable soil ; in other 
cases the plots are divided by the aloe, which 
also bristles along good part of the line. 

On quitting this cultivated tract, the 
country becomes perfectly flat and sterile, 
until the traveller reaches an enormous 
naked plain, which looks like a morass 
extending to the sea, for the green line of 
the Atlantic is visible at its edge, and the 
masts of vessels indicate the position of Port 
Koyal. 

This uncomfortable-looking region, fur- 
rowed with ditches and scored into square 
shallow trenches, communicating one with 
another, constitutes the great salt-district, 
whence Spain draws her principal supplies of 
that necessary article. These trenches are 
the salt-pans, las salinas^ into which the sea 
water runs, and where it is soon evaporated 
by the heat of the sun, leaving the crystals 
adhering to the sides and bottom of the pans. 
This rough salt is then swept up and 
shovelled into pyramidal heaps, which are 
numerous as tents on a miUtary field, and 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 239 

look strangely monumental in the half light 
or under the rays of the moon. 

The town of Cadiz is visible for some time 
before you reach it, as the line makes a bend 
similar to that of the South- Western of 
England on approaching Portsmouth, and 
for a few miles it has the high road in view, 
which appears bordered with a low arched 
wall in Ueu of the customary posts. 

I found the porters, coachmen, and 
hangers-on at the station at Cadiz, rougher 
— I may say more brutal — and more extor- 
tionate than any specimens of the genu^ 
porter and Jehu that I had ever met with. 
Almost as much was attempted to be wrung 
from me for the conveyance of my solitary 
portmanteau to the hotel as my first-class 
ticket had cost me from Xerez, and I would 
strongly urge upon all travellers who do not 
happen to use or find the omnibus of the 
hotel to convey them from the station, to 
make a clear bargain beforehand, inasmuch 
as there appears to be no tariff — as there is 
certainly no conscience — existing among the 
unsavoury /ajmns and cabdrivers. 



240 THROUGH SPAIK BY BAIL 

Cadiz is well built, and like the other towns 
of Andalusia is a whitewashed city. The 
streets are narrow as usual, but thejr are for 
the most part straight. Many of them are 
not wanting in fine buildings, with a good 
deal of marble employed in their construc- 
tion in the shape of pillars, terraces, and 
staircases. The caf^s are paved with this 
material, and my hotel, which is situated in 
one of the best streets, the Calle San 
Francisco f has made a considerable use of it. 

Many of the balconies are glazed and cur- 
tained in the manner I have so frequently 
described. My own chamber is so furnished, 
and I find it makes a dehghtful observatory, 
whence, screened one's-self, one may see all 
that is going on. 

And many curious sights are presented to 
the eye of the stranger so perched. The 
narrowness of the streets prevents the use of 
wheeled carriages to any extent. It is only 
occasionally that an omnibus attached to one 
of the hotels or a hired coach rolls up the 
ill-paved causeway, making the foot passen- 
gers rush into doorways or dive into shops 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 241 

to avoid being crushed between the vehicle 
and the wall. All the work is performed by 
asses or mules, whose packs are arranged 
for the transport of every mortal thing- 
oil, wine, water, paving-stones, and brush- 
wood. The last-mentioned article when 
being so conveyed is more formidable than a 
waggon would be, for it often, literally, 
reaches from one side of the road to the 
other, and sweeps a clean passage for itself . 
These same mules and donkeys— the latter 
being very nearly as large as the mules them- 
selves — seem most hardy and patient brutes, 
without, as far as my observation goes, ex- 
hibiting the slightest symptoms of obstinacy 
or viciousness. They do their work like 
good citizens, and are often, to my mind, 
more lovable than their masters, whom they 
carry single, double, nay, even treble, when 
they have no other load. It is a common 
occurrence to see two men seated on a mule 
— often a man and woman — and in the 
country districts, as the train runs on, you 
will observe that the mule or ass constitutes 
the only means of travel to the mass of the 

16 



242 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

people, which of course is not surprising in a 
place where tracks, only fitted for such 
animals, connect even large villages to- 
gether. 

The port of Cadiz being conveniently situ- 
ated for trade is visited by vessels of all 
nations; hence, the most various costumes 
are visible in the streets, for their wearers, 
the foreigners, considerably swell the num- 
bers of natives who flock in from the sur- 
rounding districts. From my elevated " box" 
I behold Algerines, male and female, the 
latter wearing a* kind of high cap of gold 
filigree, and both sexes arrayed in gorgeous 
colours. I see Greek sailors with red fezzes 
and green baggy trowsers, their black 
mustachios stiffly curled over their bronzed 
faces, and looking as much like pirates as 
any painter or costumier could make them. 
Turks follow Americans, whose heels again 
are trodden on by sandalled peasants from 
the interior, who, though boasting never a 
stocking, have shawls or wraps over their 
shoulders that I have heard more than one 
dainty English lady covet. 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 243 

But where are the famous Cadiz beauties 
whom I have been taught in fancy to admire 
ever since I was old enough to read my 
Byron ? Alas and aLiok ! that tastes should 
differ, or that the reality should fall so far 
short of the expectation ! Persistently have 
I cast my eyes about me to discover one, but 
one solitary one, face or figure that I could 
pronounce beautiful — charming — pretty — 
even passable — in vain. I have been more 
unfortunate in Cadiz than elsewhere, arising, 
perhaps, from the pure perversity of things, 
and have utterly failed in my quest for 
beauty. As to their walk, I have already 
spoken of that in referring to the ladies of 
Seville, and I do not find their gait improved 
at Cadiz. 

My curtained retreat reveals to me host^ 
of idlers who, as far as I can judge, spend 
almost all the hours of daylight in the streets. 
First, there are the vagrants proper, the irre- 
pressible beggars who are as^ picturesque, as 
filthy, as persistent, and as numerous as I 
have noticed them elsewhere. They seem 
like spiders to have holes into which to re- 



244 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

treat, and out of which they pop, as if by 
magic, when a fly or. in other terms, a stranger 
comes in sight. Whatever tone of voice, 
nature may have originaUy bestowed upon 
these wretches, they all adopt in plying their 
trade a certain professional whine, which one 
recognises a dozen yards off as proper to 
one of the confraternity. If a sensitive 
man imagines that the blessings or curses of 
these romantic-looking vagabonds count for 
anything, he may strike a pretty even balance 
in favour of his soul by feeing one half of the 
tribe, and turning a deaf ear to the solicita- 
tions of the other moiety ; for my own part 
I confess myself to be perfectly callous so far 
as beggars are concerned ; I never give a 
cuarto to one of them and take my curses 
(of course I never get any blessings) with 
proper equanimity. 

But the mendicants, numerous as they 
are, form but a small proportion of the 
idlers referred to. There are the loungers 
about the hotel door, occasionally swelled by 
the presence of some of the waiters. All 
sorts of characters seem to congregate there. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 245 

valets de plcLce^ boatmen, coacluneii, couriers, 
and assistants from the shops on either side 
of the way. The amount of cigarettes they 
make and get through is something astonish- 
ing, but there is little waste. I have seen 
more than one half-finished cigarette stuck 
into the hat, or thrust into the sash that is 
worn about the body, to be finished at a 
more convenient opportunity. 

The women in this part of the world seem 
to get through far more work, and, indeed, 
have very much more imposed upon them 
than the men. It is not that they are less 
fond of a gossip than their lords ; but they 
manage to make their hands keep time to the 
accompaniment of their voices and thus com- 
bine business with pleasure in an equal degree. 
The men, on the contrary, like to make their 
pleasures double, and must have their smoke 
with which to season their endless chatter. 

My Seville friends arrived last night, and 
we have been visiting the town together. 
The cathedral is a comparatively modem one 
and is of the Corinthian order of architecture. 
Ford who delights in antiquity, and who 



246 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

describes in such glowing language his love 
of the Gothic is, I think, too severe in his 
criticism of this temple, which is certainly 
not wanting in grandeur. Some of the pil- 
lars are particularly fine, and the general 
effect of the interior is imposing. The win- 
dows, however, are only fitted for a work- 
shop, being plastered over with green wash, 
whether to imitate coloured glass or not, I 
cannot say ; if that be the idea, the attempt 
at deception is about as successful as that of 
the man who dyes his whiskers, or wears a 
wig, under the impression that the cheat can- 
not be detected. 

A busy scene was disclosed to view by our 
mounting on to the rampart which, as at 
Barcelona, overlooks the port. Many vessels 
were there moored, boats were passing to and 
fro, steamers were arriving and departing, 
and immediately beneath us we perceived 
some passengers who had just been landed 
from the Gibraltar boat. 

The confusion and contention were posi- 
tively disgraceful. There was no order and 
no police. The vagabond boatmen were 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 247 

extorting by wild looks, gestures and lan- 
guage as mucli coin out of the bewildered and 
tired passengers as the fears or purses of 
the latter would allow, whilst the luggage 
was being overhauled by grimy custom-house 
officials who performed their duty with 
virtuous severity or did not perform it at all 
according to circumstances; such circum- 
stances being represented by a peseta or so, 
sUpped into the expectant palm. 

As the whole of our party intended leaving 
for Gibraltar next morning, the scene enact- 
ing below was not without its interest to us, 
although the active courier in Mr. P — 's 
service would relieve him and his friends 
from all personal contact with the extor- 
tionate and lawless vagabonds. 

A stroll we took on the extensive Alameda 
will dwell long in my remembrance in con- 
nexion with Cadiz. Situated high above the 
sea, of which it commands extensive views, 
planted with trees, and richly furnished with 
flowers, it is a delightful promenade, and must 
"be an immense boon to the people in the sum- 
mer nights, when, after sun-down, the gentle 



248 THBOUGH SPAIN BY EAIL 

breeze comes stealing across the water to 
cool the baked, and cracking soil. Only 
those who have spent a summer in these 
southern climes can appreciate to the fiill, 
the value of such a walk as this. But at 
Cadiz, there are few weeks in the year, when 
such a promenade ceases, on account of 
weather, to be most enjoyable. 



IN THE SPElNG OV 187^. 249 



LETTER XXXV. 

GIBRALTAR. 

JAT OF CADIZ — THE VOYAGE — TBAFALGAB — TABIFA — 
ALGESIBAS— CONFUSION AT LANDING — TEANSFOBMA- 
TION SCENE. 

Club-House Hotel, Gibraltar ; 
AprU ]8, 1872. 

YoTJ would have found it somewhat of a 
rial this morning, to turn out of bed at half 
►ast four, under a chilly gray sky and drop- 
ping rain^ in order to be first jolted down to 
he port, there to embark in a smaU boat, for 
k row of three quarters of a mile to a Jow- 
Ifdled) not over attractive looking Spanish 
iMiMr, the *' Adriano '* which lay rolling in 
llpy ttuamtar^ whilst the men were feeding 

6MgO. 

tf magnanimously determined not 

* TO every one made him ,or her- 

4}le on deck as circumstances 



250 THBOTJOH SPAIN BY BAIL 

would allow. The vessel was announced to 
start at half past six and did really get off at 
sovon, but she proved so slow, that instead 
of eight hours, the advertised time, we were 
rather more than eleven completing the voj- 
agi'. She rolled heavily and made greater 
part of the passengers sick. I was myself 
iiuahnish and ill at ease, but sufficiently alert 
til watch every interesting bit of land we 
pasi<iHl ; and as these little steamers always 
hujjlhi' shore, wo could make out even the 
I'attlo {grazing in the pastures. 

The bay of Cadiz looks imposing from the 
soa. and the city which clusters down to the 
wntor's I'dj^e, and climbs up the adjacent 
tuMji:hls has a fine appearance, promising 
iiulood, nioro than it performs. Its white 
luniso!» \Yoro on that jxirticular occasion more 
ihim HsuuUy conspicuous owing to a dark 
and lowering skj xrhich threw them into 
ittrvMtg nQtef Mid made some of the square 
\Xv:k» in thft diraotkoi of the Alameda look 
^o»J«r(\dW sharp atid welUlffim 

wen,' ahrt'ast of that 
pit iLikes the most pBoifio 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 251 

Eiiglisliman's heart beat quicker, "Tra- 
falgar !" Even the ladies of our party, to 
some of whom the mere action of lifting the 
head, was a pain and trouble, yet rose up to 
gaze upon the spot, made memorable for all 
time ; and anecdotes of Nelson, which had 
lain half forgotten in the mind, were raked 
to light and made subjects for pleasant 
converse. 

From that point the mountainous shore is 
very fine and bold, and it was interesting to 
watch the changes produced in their shape 
as point after point of land was successively 
reached, and rounded. 

We discharged a passenger or two and 
some luggage into a boat off Tarifa, a pic- 
turesque looking Moorish town at the en- 
trance of the straits, with an ancient Alcazar, 
looking solid and stern, as those buildings 
invariably do, and a few palm trees rising ex- 
actly in the places where an artist would 
have stuck them. 

A little later on, through the rather heavy 
atmosphere, we observed the stupendous 
heights of the African shore, and on the left 



252 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the great rock^ to which our eyes were con- 
stantly directed as we steered towards it. 

Having put out the greater part of our 
fellow-travellers and goods at Algesiras, an 
operation which occupied a foil hour, we 
directed our course across the bay, and 
dropping anchor at a convenient distance, 
were at onte surrounded by a score of boats, 
from whose occupants a perfect babel of 
tongues suddenly issued, the English being 
of that peculiar kind known as " pigeon," a 
species of lingua franca that is more expres- 
sive than elegant. Mr. P — 's courier having 
for the conveyance of our party, made a pro- 
per bargain (a very necessary arrangement, 
by the bye, for the Gibraltar boatmen are not 
a whit more honest or moderate in their 
demands than their confreres at Cadiz), we 
were soon stowed with our luggage on board 
a couple of boats and in due course reached 
the landing place. 

The same scene of confusion and uproar 
ensued there as I had noticed at the last- 
mentioned port, and what with the vocifera- 
tions and crowding of touters and porters, 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 263 

it was with some diflSculty that we effected a 
landing. 

Having passed the gate and gaily respond- 
ed "Of course *' to the inquiry whether we 
were British subjects, we entered the street 
leading into the town, and found ourselves, 
as if by enchantment transported into another 
i:egion, something in the aspect of its houses 
Uke the " old country," with mongrel addi- 
tions of all kinds producing an effect at once 
strange and interesting, but in such extra- 
ordinary contrast to the land we had left only 
a few hours before that we felt perfectly 
bewildered and stared about us as in a 
dream. 

In order to appreciate this singular effect 
to the full, you must have been wandering, 
as we have done for some weeks, among the 
old cities of the Peninsula, with their mediaeval 
houses, antique ecclesiastical buildings and 
Moorish palaces, and amid a population re- 
taining much that belongs to the remote past. 
A short sea voyage has sufficed to change 
the whole aspect of the scene ; we behold 
brick houses, with the sash windows and 



254 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

" short 'curtains " of the Old Kent Boad, 
or Islington ; Smith, tailor, or Brown, boot- 
maker stands next to .an edifice marvellously 
like a " little Bethel," while the familiar red- 
coats pace the narrow footway, and pretty 
girls in tightly fitting habits, their fair ring- 
lets waving down their backs, trot past 
on their way to the Alameda. The con- 
fdsion of ideas thus engendered cannot pass 
so easily away. We had obtained rooms at 
the Club House Hotel, the best in the place, 
which it may well be, and yet offer nothing 
remarkable in the way of luxury. Some of 
our party think there is one advantage about 
it, and that is a very negative one, viz. that 
it is more Enghsh than foreign; but the 
coming here, and in the very midst of your 
Spanish experiences, the finding yourself in 
Commercial Square^ surrounded by shops, 
exhibiting the well-known window tickets of 
the old country, seems an anomaly, and as I 
said before, produces such a muddle in your 
brain, that you require some Httle time to 
martial your ideas in order. 

This at least will excuse the jerky nature 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 255 

of the above remarks. When I write my 
next, I may perhaps have recovered some- 
what from my state of confusion. At present 
I must confess to a feeling of grand uncer- 
tainty as to whether I am in the old world or 
the new. 



256 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 



LETTER XXXVI. 



GIBEALTAE. 



\ 



VISIT TO THE EOCK— FINE VIEWS—THE SIGNAL BATTBEY— 
THE APES — WEALTH OF VEGETATION — COCKNEY HOUSES.' 

Club-House Hotel, Gibraltar ; 
ApHl 19, 1872. 

I HAVE been over and througli " the Rook " 
this morning and have been so delighted 
with the excursion, that I am about to try 
to make you a participator in my pleasure. 

Mr. P — , having a letter for some high mili- 
tary authority, obtained an order for us to 
visit the wonderful excavations which per- 
forate the solid rock and convert it into an 
impregnable fortress, the guns pointing 
through the holes in the outer crust on to the 
waters below, and threatening with destruc- 
tion any object within range. 

The ascent being a severe one, Mrs. P — 
and Miss T — were mounted on donkeys, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 257 

whicli were furnished with a sort of arm- 
chair, on which the ladies sat, not askew, 
but at right angles to the animal. Mr. P — , 
myself, and the courier, Francesco, accom- 
panied by an orderly, our guide, went on 
foot. 

Passage after passage was unlocked, we 
constantly ascending until they were all 
passed through. The most remarkable of 
these excavations is " St. George's Hall," 
a huge cavern, where we were told Nelson 
was entertained at a banquet. The dates 
1783 and 1785 frequently occur, showing the 
periods of the execution of the works. The 
Rock came into our possession, if I remember 
rightly, in 1704, when it was taken by Sir 
George Rooke. 

Most extensive views are obtained from 
every embrasure, now of the Alantic, now 
of the Mediterranean, and the town of 
Algesiras, on the opposite side of the bay, 
gleamed whitely in the sunshine. 

On emerging from these mysterious gal- 
leries which were carefully locked behind us, 
we began scaling the precipitous and rough 

17 



258 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

path whicli leads to the summit of the rock, 
stopping now and then to admire and gather 
the brilliant wild flowers, the palmettoes, the 
thyme and lavender, and innumerable plants, 
to us unknown, with which the rock abounds 
(they say there are 400 varieties) ; and after 
these rests and digressions, we at length 
reached the central apex on which there is a 
battery, called " the Signal," a house, in- 
habited by a non-commissoned officer, whose 
wife, a comely and placid-looking English- 
woman, supplies the wants of adventurous 
visitors with " bread, biscuits, cheese, but- 
ter, and beer;" whilst her boys, white-headed 
rogues of six or eight years growth, gambol 
with the goats or learn to be soldiers. 

I cannot convey to you in words the 
grandeur of the view from this elevated posi- 
tion which occupies the centre of the three emi- 
nences by which the rock is distinguished. 
As you look down the frightful depth you 
observe the rock stand like an island, the 
waters of the Atlantic washing it on one side, 
and that ocean and the Mediterranean to- 
gether on two others. It is only connected 



IN THE SPfiING OP 1872. 259 

with Spain by means of a perfectly flat, sandy 
isthmus which they call the " neutral ground," 
and which can, I believe, be put under water 
if needful, so as to cut off all communication 
with the main-land. This is the exercising 
ground of the soldiers, the riding place of 
equestrians, and those who have the time 
prolong their canter right round the bay to 
Algesiras on the opposite side. 

The tremendous range of mountains on the 
African coast looked grand from this eleva- 
tion J and I should think the prospect, of its 
kind, must be quite as striking, and perhaps 
far bolder than that other famous view of the 
European and Asiatic shores, praised so 
highly by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and 
referred to by Byron. 

An exclamation from one of our party, 
" There is a monkey !" made us all rush to 
the parapet wall, for it has actually been 
denied by many that these animals still 
exist upon the rock. There was no doubt 
about it, however, in our minds, for there he 
was. About a hundred feet below us, a good- 
sized, tailless ape was seen busily engaged in 



260 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

picking something out of a hole and eating 
it, occasionally varying his occupation by 
scratching his head, perhaps in a fit of per- 
plexity. To him shortly after appeared one, 
two, three, four, indeed in all, we saw six, 
mostly yoimg, or at least smaller than the 
industrious individual first e&pied. 

We spent an hour on this height, and then 
commenced our descent by another path 
which took us to an enormous stalactite 
cavern, known as St. Michael's. Unfor- 
tunately we could not get in, the lock of the 
gate being hampered; but Mr. P — and I, 
conducted by a corporal, clambered up to 
another entrance where we were gratified by 
seeing one of these wonderful productions of 
nature, the stalactites appearing now like the 
pipes of an organ, now like the twisted or 
clustered pillars of a cathedral, and with here 
and there depths so great, that a stone 
pitched into them was heard to reverberate 
as it struck from side to side for some 
seconds before it reached the bottom. 

When we had descended sufl&ciently to 
reach the habitable portion of the rock, we 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 261 

came upon a riclmess of vegetation whicli j&lled 
us all with surprise and admiration. There 
were hedges of the richest geraniums, which 
any might pluck who chose. The palm, the 
palmetto, the fig, the orange, the lemon, the 
vine, all were growing almost without cul- 
ture; and the roses, of every variety and 
colour, vied with the orange blossom and the 
flowering acacia in scenting the air. Con- 
ceive the beauty of a mass of prickly pear, 
covering yards of ground, intertwined with 
scarlet and pink geranium and shaded with 
enormous blush roses. 

The enthusiastic admiration felt and ex- 
pressd by most of us at sight of this prodigal 
wealth of nature was, however, considerably 
checked on beholding the houses which had 
been planted in its midst. The ** eternal fit- 
ness of things " required that dainty or quaint 
abodes should spring from out this paradise 
of flowers and glowing colours, such habita- 
tions as French and Chinese taste would 
have erected there. But what did we see in 
lieu of these? One-storied brick houses 
with red tiled roofs, and with no more orna- 



262 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

ment ov feeling about them than if they were 
placed upon a bare common ; in fact, own 
brothers or sisters^ if houses are feminine, to 
scores and scores of eight-roomed tenements 
standing in grim rows in Bermondsey or 
Peckham. 

I never felt so ashamed of my countrymen 
before. 



IN THE SP^IHG OF 1872. 263 



LETTER XXXVII. 

MALAGA 

BOUGH PASSAGE — THE CABABJNEEBS— MABBILLA — DIFFI- 
CULTIES OF LANDING — ASPECTS OP THE TOWN — 
NABBOWNESS OP THE STBEETS — WANT OF DRAINAGE — 
DEMOCBATIC BEHAVIOUB— CATHEDBAL— FINE VIEW. 

Malaga; 

April 21, 1872. 

If my last two letters from Gibraltar 
reached you in safety, you may have been 
struck at the familiar appearance of Her 
Majesty's postage-stamps on the envelopes, 
and perhaps thought that I had reached the 
old country again when in fact I was furthest 
removed from it. I have travelled a good 
many miles nearer to you since then, and 
when I left the old rock I was commencing 
my journey homewards. 

We had a very stiff voyage yesterday, the 
seas being tremendously heavy and the old 



264 THEOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

steamer (the same in which we had made the 
voyage from Cadiz) rolled and staggered 
under them, although she brought us to our 
destination in safety in about ten hours. It 
blew so hard during the night before, that 
we all went to bed under the persuasion that 
the vessel would not leave in the morning, 
but we were duly aroused at four o'clock, 
and informed that the sea had a little calmed 
and that the voyage would be made. 

From a little town about midway, a large 
boat put off, having on board some fourteen 
carabineers with their captain and lieutenant. 
These we shipped for conveyance to Malaga, 
they being on their way back from an expe- 
dition against some bandits, or as some pre- 
tend, Carlists, who had been committing 
depredations in the neighbourhood, and had 
taken refuge in the mountains. One of the 
party had been left behind killed, and an- 
other of the troop was wounded, but I could 
not learn whether the predatory band had 
been broken up. I fancy from the reticence 
displayed, that it had simply been dispersed 
to reform in another district. The guards 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 265 

had captured one of these fellows' j&relocks, 
and brought it off as a trophy. It was put 
together in the very roughest way, the stock 
not being even rounded or smoothed, and 
the wonder to me was that it could ever 
have been fired without blowing up its 
discharger. 

The mountain scenery, as we proceeded, was 
simply magnificent. In the direction of 
Granada we beheld the Sierra Nevada range, 
the well-known mount itself being thickly 
capped with snow. 

Some of our passengers were bound for a 
little place called Marbilla, but the sea was 
running so high that no boat could venture 
out to fetch them, and the travellers, much 
against their will, were carried on to Malaga 
to try their luck again on the steamer's return 
voyage. If this weather last they run a 
chance of being conveyed back to Gibraltar, 
and thus put in practice the game of the Irish 
friends, who "insisted upon seeing each other 
home all night." 

The worst part of these sea-trips in the 
Mediterranean is the embarking and landing 



266 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

in small boats. Not only are the boatmen 
most exorbitant in their charges (a precious 
set of rascals, the whole of them), but when 
the sea is high there is positive danger in the 
process. It was with great difl&culty that 
the ladies could be got into the boat at all 
from the steamer, so agitated was the water, 
and when they were in, there was a longish 
track of harbour to be traversed, into which 
the wind, being eastward, was directly blow- 
ing, and where we danced finely — anything 
but an agreeable operation after ten hours' 
severe tossing on board. "All's well," however, 
"that ends well" — we got ashore in safety, and 
thanks to a telegram forwarded by Mr. P — 's 
courier to the hotel-keeper, a carriage was 
waiting at the landing-place into which the 
ladies and ourselves were quickly stowed, 
thus escaping the inextricable confiision of 
the quay, the touters, porters, custom-house 
officials, and the rabble generally, with which 
the doughty Francesco was left to battle. It 
was with quite a sigh of rehef that we were 
whisked away from the babel of foul tongues. 
The town is situated upon the sea-shore, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 267 

and is surrounded on all sides but the one 
which looks upon the Mediterranean by lofty 
mountains. 

The craggy mount most contiguous to the 
city is crowned with an ancient Moorish 
castle, whose walls straggle down the height 
in zig-zag fashion. The gateway, visible soon 
after the ascent is commenced, is a fine horse- 
shoe arch, supposed to be ornamented with 
Roman columns obtained from some other 
locality, and adorned with coarse Roman 
Catholic images. 

Other traces of the Moors are visible in the 
town. The most beautiful is another arch of 
white marble, giving entrance in former times 
to the arsenal, of which nothing now is left. 
One of the churches, that of Santiago^ was 
originally a mosque, whereof a brick tower 
and some azulejos still remain. A river, 
the Guadalmedina, runs through the city. 
Judging fi:*om the width of its bed, it must 
occasionally be a fierce stream, though I 
crossed it without wetting my feet,* and found 
tents erected and a cattle-market in full 
swing on the dry stones. 



268 THROUGH SPAIN Bl EAIL 

So narrow are the streets that, as usual, 
very few are fitted for wheeled carriages, and 
those that traverse them can only do so in 
one direction, as it would be impossible for 
two to pass each other. Those calles which 
are broad enough to allow of such a limited 
thoroughfare, have an announcement at the 
entrance publishing the fact, with the repre- 
sentation of an arrow showing the direction 
in which the wheeled vehicles are permitted 
to go. It is fortunate, indeed, that this 
privilege is so limited, or some of them, with 
the unlucky beasts between the shafts, would 
inevitably come to grief, not only on account 
of the wretched pavement, but also because 
of the inefficient state of the sewer traps. 
These are nothing but huge, circular stones, 
not flat to the level of the roadway, but 
sticking up in the centre like a shield or boss, 
and I observed many of them to be broken 
so that a foot could easily sHp through ; nay, 
some were actually tilted on one side, thus 
permitting aU the effluvium to escape into the 
narrow street. Conceive the abomination of 
not only having such a contrivance immedi- 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 269 

ately beneath one's nose all day long, which 
is the case with the shopkeepers in the 
vicinity, but sleeping, as they must inevitably 
do, in such an atmosphere. After this I 
need scarcely say that the interior of the 
town* is excessively unsavory, and renders 
a stroll about its streets anything but 
pleasant. 

Of what service is a delicious climate with 
pure skies and a soil teeming with luxurious 
vegetation, if so little pains be taken to ob- 
serve the simplest rules of salubrity ? 

Malaga appears a small town compared 
with Cadiz, although there is little difference 
in the population of the two. It has its 
small Alameda, bordered with stimted trees, 
having a marble fountain at each end, some 
marble seats, statues, and busts. Here the 
best houses are situated, and among others, 
the hotel from which I am writing, a really 
fine house, with hBudsome patio and staircase, 
the gallery above being glazed in. 

An amusing scene occurred there half an 
hour ago, which was so purely Spanish that 
I cannot refrain from mentioning it. 



272 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the place, and judging from the appearance of 
the country beyond the city gates, as visible 
in the way I have first mentioned, the soil 
must teem with fertility. A proof of the 
warmth of the climate is given by the suc- 
cessful cultivation of the sugar-cane in the 
neighbourhood, and bits of this same cane 
are sold on the stalls as a sweetmeat. 

We leave to-morrow afternoon for Grranada, 
from which place I will write again. Do 
not alarm yourself unnecessarily about the 
accounts you may read of the unsaf ety of 
the roads. The country is no doubt just now 
in a disturbed state, but I have traversed and 
retraversed the most dangerous districts 
without molestation and I much question 
whether foreigners who do not intermeddle 
with their " confounded politics " would be 
interfered with ; any way, you who know me 
so well, will, I am sure, give me credit for 
prudence not to thrust myself unnecessarily 
into danger, and a heart stout enough to 
meet it, should it appear in an unavoidable 
way. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 273 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

MALAGA TO GRANADA. 

SLOWNESS OP TEA YELLING — THE DILIGENCE JOURNEY — 
PICTUBESQUE GROUP — BEAUTY OP COUNTRY OUTSIDE 
MALAGA— ALORA— ARRIVAL AT LOJA— A MISHAP — 
PIRST IMPRESSION OP THE ALHAMBRA. 

Washington Irving Hotel ; 
April 23, 1872. 

My first care on reacliing this place was 
to procure my letters, one of which I felt 
confident would be from you ; and in truth, 
on applying at the banker's as soon as I 
could conveniently do so, I found your wel- 
come lines on the sixteenth, that is, precisely 
a week ago. You had then only just received 
my letter from Madrid, but ere this reaches 
you, I hope many others will have come to 
hand, and enable you to trace my wander- 
ings thus far. 

You seem to infer that I concealed from 
you the length of time I intended to be ab- 

18 



274 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

sent, but, indeed, in this you do me but scant 
justice. I was utterly ignorant of the time 
required to perform this journey. I had 
heard from others of the unconscionable 
delays attending locomotion in Spain, • but 
I fondly hoped that as railway communica- 
tion was established, many of the complaints 
of former travellers would prove to be out of 
date. I could not foresee, although I might 
have conceived, that with a people so inert 
as the Spaniards, a railway service might 
be introduced and yet be conducted on a 
system entirely different to anything else in 
Europe, that the rate of speed would be 
ten miles an hour (that of the old mail coach 
in England) , and the stoppages at each petty 
station dependent, apparently, upon no other 
rule than that of the oflBcials' caprice, and 
thus ranging from five minutes to an hour 
and a quarter. We were nearly thirteen 
hours, for instance, performing the journey 
from Malaga hither, having left at three in 
the afternoon of yesterday and arriving at 
Granada at four this morning, which was five 
up here at the hotel, and yet the distance is 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 275 

barely ninety miles, making just seven miles 
an hour. 

It must, however, be admitted that three 
hours and a half were given to the diligence, 
by roads which I hope, for the Bake of my 
bones, I may never have to traverse again. 
The stones over which we had to rattle were, 
many of them, as big as my head, they having 
been thrust unbroken into the holes and 
ruts of the road. There were three dili- 
gences. Ours, the largest, was the second in 
point of order and was drawn by ten mules 
which dragged us over those awful stones at 
a pace that would often have put the railway 
to shame, round impossible corners, with a 
torrent beneath the raised causeway, occa- 
sionally through water which was up to the 
beasts' middle, and all this in a pouring rain, 
the moon obscured by clouds but giving suf- 
ficient light to show a savage and dangerous 
country. 

Mr. P — , myself, and the courier, Francesco, 
were in what the Spaniards call the coupe 
and the French the imperiale or banquette^ so 
had a famous view of the whole scene. I am 



276 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

not a particularly nervous person, but I 
assure you what nerves I have were put to a 
sharp test as we dashed through and over 
the obstacles of flood and field, for road it 
frequently was not, and as armed men occa- 
sionally emerged fi'om the darkness as if to 
bar our passage, but really, as they were 
civil guards, to assure us that all was well. 

One group we came upon, as we slackened 
our pace on ascending a hill, was worthy of 
Salvator Rosa's pencil. A fire was burning 
beneath the shelter of a huge rock, which 
assumed the grimmest aspect from the ruddy 
glare. Arms were piled and becloaked figures, 
whose swarthy features and sparkling eyes 
were intensified by the fire-light, were stand- 
ing or lolling about the flame. Above them 
were rolling vast masses of threatening 
clouds, edged with silver, as the moon 
struggled to break through ; and beyond, the 
mountains lay in inky shadow. We stopped 
for a few minutes parley, and learning that 
all was safe ahead, our postillions, if such a 
name can be applied to the tatterdemalions 
who accompanied us on the road, belaboured 



IN THE SPRING OF IS 72. 277 

each mule in turn, and with many cries, 
objurgations, and not a Uttle blasphemy, we 
were again in motion. 

No contrast could have been greater than 
that offered to this romantic, but somewhat 
perilous, diligence journey, by the portion of 
country we traversed on the rail. While 
daylight lasted, my eyes were feasted with 
the most beautiful scenery I have yet beheld, 
Valencia not excepted. Some miles out of 
Malaga the richness of the vegetation sur- 
passes belief, and the falling rain, by impart- 
ing freshness to the varied green, made it the 
more lovely. 

No doubt this spring season is most 
favorable for the lover of nature, in the 
south. Everything is in flower, or giving 
promise of the coming harvest. The vivid 
red of the pomegranate blossom contrasts 
deliciously with the star-like, waxy flowers 
of the orange ; the rose, in every variety of 
hue, vies with the abundant blossoms of the 
acacia; the figs are already large ; the corn 
is high, £he rye and barley are in ear; the 
vines are showing rich promise, and the wild 



278 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

flowers are in myriads. The orange trees 
are even larger than those of Valencia, and, 
if possible, more abundant. At one station, 
Alora, the favorite haunt of the Malaguefios, 
and where there are many villas, the perfume 
was ahnost overpowering; whilst far as the 
eye could stretch, it embraced a valley of the 
richest abundance, producing " all the kindly 
fruits of the earth," and only stopped at a 
grand range of parti-coloured mountains. 

A few weeks at a tasteful villa in this 
neighbourhood should offer a retreat fit for a 
Sybarite, and I cease to wonder at the Moor 
weeping when driven out of this Garden of 
Eden which his own exquisite taste had so 
marvellously adorned. 

We were delayed an unconscionable time 
at Bobadilla, where a Kne branches off to 
Salinas, whilst the main runs on to Cordova. 
There was another detention at Salinas itself, 
but this was no longer than was needed to 
shift our luggage and ourselves to the dili- 
gences in order to undertake the journey 
referred to at the commencement of this 
letter, and as I incidentally mentioned three 



IN THE SPEING OP 1872. 279 

hours and a half were expended on the road, 
at the end of which time the spare lights of 
the ancient city of Loja came in view. 

Most romantically situated it is, with 
fantastic mountains rising up all round it, 
and I should doubtless retain a pleasing 
memory of the place, as being the end of our 
diligence journey, were it not that the rain 
poured down so viciously as to make it, if 
not impossible, at least excessively unplea- 
sant to protrude one's head beyond the 
friendly shelter of the leathern roof. 

We were very nearly making a closer 
acquaintance with it owing to the excessive 
narrowness of its streets which brought the 
first dihgence to grief, and for half an hour 
kept us in a considerable state of suspense 
and discomfort. 

I have mentioned the recklessness with 
which the drivers tm*ned rapid corners and 
wondered more than once at the success 
which carried them through. We had de- 
scended into the town at a rapid pace and 
roUed and jolted over the uneven and broken 
pavement in a way that threatened absolute 



280 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

dislocation, when suddenly I observed tlie 
mules of the diligence ahead of us turned 
sharply round, into what, in the dark- 
ness, appeared a fissure — a mere crack 
— between two houses, and drag the un- 
wieldy vehicle after them. Scarcely, how- 
ever, had the diUgence got fairly into what 
I then naturally conjectured must be a 
street, than we heard a tremendous crash, 
followed by a volley of imprecations, whoop- 
ings and hallooings which were echoed back 
from the gloomy walls, and in the course of 
a minute or two brought scared and night- 
capped visages to the dingy panes of many a 
window to learn the cause of the uproar. 

Francesco leaped down from our high 
perch, for both our diligence and the one 
behind us were brought to a sudden stand, 
and soon came back with the intelligence 
that the pole of the leading vehicle had come 
into contact with the wall, owing to the 
absurd narrowness of the street, and smashed 
it most completely. 

A misfortune of this nature, occurring 
where it did, was equally disastrous to all 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 281 

three vehicles. The calle or rather callejo 
where it occurred was the only outlet from 
the town, and as the railway station for which 
we were bound lay three quarters of a mile 
further on, and it was raining harder than 
ever, so that the street was converted into a 
mimic cataract, there was nothing for it but 
to quietly bide the reparation of the disaster. 

This was done at last. By dint of a spare 
rope, a thick stake or two, and an end of 
chain, the pole was temporarily spliced, and 
after the delay referred to, we were again set 
in motion. 

No other mishap occurred during our 
transit to the station, which must have been 
owing purely to good luck, for untaught by 
recent experience, we dashed on all the 
quicker for the detention, and went swaying 
along after we cleared the town, in a manner 
that threatened to detach the body of the 
vehicle from the wheels. At length a dim 
light or two in the waste of undistinguishable 
landscape hinted at the presence of the 
station, and shortly afterwards we found our- 
selves drawn up before a rude shed, which 



282 THBOrOH SPAIS Bf EAJl 

did temporary duty for that institatioii* A 
cup of hot coffee, poor as it was, was heartOy 
welcome after the wet night-journey, but 
more welcome still was the warm comer of 
the railway carriage — the train waiting to 
convey us to Granada. It was only by look- 
ing at my wateh, on reaching the end of the 
journey, that I had any notion of the time 
that had been occupied during this last part 
of it, for the sense of comparative comfort, 
after the fatigue I had undergone, kept me in 
a profound sleep until the cry of " Granada !" 
resounded in my ears. 

But the journey was not even yet at an 
end. True, we had reached Granada, but 
our destination was the Alhambra, and a 
coach was waiting, in obedience to Francesco's 
telegram, to convey us thither. Our heavy 
luggage had to be left till daylight, so, armed 
merely with our bags and smaller impedi- 
menta, we rolled oflf, greatly to the envy of 
some of our fellow-passengers who were left 
disputing for places in the two little omni- 
buses that were also in attendance. 

Our horses were fresh, and conveyed us 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 283 

rapidly along a dimly-lighted Alameda, 
through one or two streets hned with 
massive, ancient houses, and slackened their 
pace only as they commenced mounting a 
rather steep hill. We passed beneath an 
archway as if entering private grounds, and 
found ourselves on a well-conditioned road, 
planted with lofty elms, and having raised 
footways similarly bordered on either side, 
reminding me in the semi-darkness of that 
wonderful glade outside the Porta Romana at 
Florence, which leads up to Poggio Imperiale. 
This was equally steep, but proved less long, 
for some ten minutes after we had passed 
through the gateway I have referred to we 
pulled up before the door of the " Washington 
Irving," where warmth, hght, supper, and 
comfortable rooms awaited us. 

It was nearly six before I retired to mine, 
and as the rain had then ceased and dayhght 
was beginning to make objects distinguishable, 
I threw open my window and leaned over the 
balcony, which was on a level with the tops 
of the trees. 

Never shall I forget the scene. There was 



284 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

just suflBcient light to enable me to see the 
marble fountain which stands at the entrance 
of the grove, and note that from that point 
the road up which we had come descends 
rapidly. The trunks of the trees stood like 
silent sentinels guarding the viagic causeway, 
for did it not lead up from Gh^anada to the 
charmed ground of the Alhambra ? The air 
was full of perfume ; the sound of water, 
rushing, splashing, trickling, tinkling — such 
diversity of sound, indeed, as I have never 
hitherto heard yielded by water — seemed to 
rise from every direction ; and each separate 
tree appeared to be inhabited by a nightingale 
who poured forth such a flood of song as 
it had never been my fate to listen to before. 
I was charmed, bewildered, spell-bound by 
the combination of sweet sights and sounds. 
All sense of fatigue was forgotten. It was 
with diflficulty I tore myself away from the 
terrace, and sought my pillow; and as I 
lay my head upon it and dropped off again 
into peaceful slumber I found myself murmur- 
ing — " I am at the gates of the Alhambra." 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 285 



LETTER XXXIX. 

r 

THE ALHAMBRA. 

VISIT TO THE PALACE OP THE ALHAMBBA — IMPRESSIONS— 
PINE VIEWS — THE TOCADOK DE LA BEINA — THE 
— BATHS — P. V. 

Washington Irving Hotel ; 
AprU 24, 1872. 

I SCAECELY need tell you that my first visit 
this morning was paid to the Alhambra. I 
must confess to the being impatient as a 
schoolboy in view of some promised treat till 
I was fairly on the way thither ; but, then, 
the idea of seeing the Alhambra with my 
own eyes has been to me for years a kind of 
daydream, and from this morning on which 
I have visited it, I mark an epoch in my 
life. 

A short five minutes carried me from the 
hotel up an easy ascent, lined with trees, to 



286 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

the double horseshoe arch — the Gate of 
Justice — which marks the entrance to the 
charmed ground. I observed the "open 
hand " and " key " engraved upon the portal, 
symbols that have given rise to so much 
learned, but unsatisfactory conjecture, and 
passing through a second gate and narrow 
passage, calculated from their arrangement 
to be specially uncomfortable to an invading 
enemy, found myself in an open plaza with a 
palace on the one hand, and a massive fortress 
with square towers on the other. 

As yet the Alhambra proper was invisible. 
The palace on the right was the vast building 
commenced by Charles V, and for the erec- 
tion of which so much exquisite Moorish 
work was destroyed. Itself unfinished, it 
presents only the appearance of a magnificent 
arena for the exhibition of the national sport, 
and I had much ado to divest myself of the 
idea that the great circular patio was intended 
for bull-fighting. Anywhere else the large 
proportions of this building would excite 
surprise, and perhaps admiration, but stand- 
ing where it stands, and knowing what it has 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 287 

displaced, I could not help likening it to a 
huge wen. 

It is by a little simple door on the left of 
this colossal mistake that the stranger enters 
the fairy retreat of the Moorish kings, and 
truly, almost as the portal closes behind him, 
he has passed into another region. 

I would fain try to convey to you some 
portion of the dehght and deep interest I 
experienced in wandering through the halls 
and patios of this dehcious palace, now suf- 
ficiently restored to convey some notion of 
what it must have been in the days when it 
was at once the residence and stronghold of 
Boabdil. But mere words, that can only 
produce each separate feature in detail, seem 
so cold and senseless when they are employed 
to present a picture, as a whole^ to another 
intelligence. 

I suppose there is scarce a monument or a 
scene on earth, concerning which we have 
read and heard much and formed our con- 
jectures about, that does not fall short of our 
expectations when we behold it in the reality. 
My making this remark wiU at once suggest 



288 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

to you that I have been disappointed with 
the Alhambra, but really the only disap- 
pointment I experienced in respect of this 
wondrous palace, when thus permitted in the 
flesh to pace its halls, arose from the com- 
parative smallness of its proportions. Part 
of this efiect, I believe, sprang from the 
profuse ornamentation of every part; for 
there is not an inch of space in wall or ceiling 
unadorned, but, doubtless, with the exception 
of the Hall of the Ambassadors and the Court 
of Lions, the apartments, whether of state or 
for more domestic purposes, are minute and 
toy-Kke. But what a gorgeous, tasty, fanciful, 
fairy toy it is! What harmony of design, 
what wealth of colour, where time and more 
destructive man have spared it suflEiciently to 
enable an opinion to be formed ! 

Whilst seated in the Court of Lions and 
taking my fill of the delicious coups (Tceil 
afibrded from that central patioy whence I 
could see into the Hall of the Abencerrages 
on the one hand, and that of the two Sisters 
" las dos hermanas " on the other, I was 
struck, as many must have been before me, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 289 

by the resemblance offered by the beautiful 
ceilings to the stalactite caverns which exist 
in such marvellous beauty in various parts of 
Europe, the very dainty white marble pillars, 
of which there are more than a hundred 
supporting the fretted arches, looking Uke 
those same stalactites where, as they so fre- 
quently do, they extend from the roof to the 
ground. I cannot but think the cunning 
architects of the time took their idea from 
such models, so far improving upon the 
original as to reduce to order and uni- 
formity what in nattire is irregular and 
unstudied. 

I have spoken of the Sala de los Embaja^ 
dores as an exception in point of size to the 
general minuteness of the other parts of the 
building; and truly that hall is not disap- 
pointing in any particular. Not only are its 
proportions large, its shape symmetrical, its 
ornamentation perfect, but it offers from its 
various windows views that can scarcely be 
surpassed for exquisite beauty and extent. 
The tower in which this hall is placed stands 
at the very edge of the precipitous rock which 

19 



290 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

overlooks the valley, and the Darro washes 
the foot of the mount some hundreds of feet 
below. You can watch its course for a con- 
siderable distance ; here, crossed by a bridge 
over which mules are passing, dwindled by 
the depth to mere black specks, there, beaten 
into creamy froth by the action of a water- 
wheel; you can note the opposite bank 
where the gypsies have their domicile, and 
note how they burrow, like coneys, into the 
soil, the face of the hill being Uterally honey- 
combed by these strange people. And your 
eye then wanders on to the ancient city of 
Granada, from whose towers and steeples 
come borne upon a gentle breeze the sound 
of bells, whilst from its busy streets is wafted 
the hum of human voices. And you behold 
all this through a framework of such exquisite 
beauty that you are incHned to think that 
fairy minds alone could have conceived and 
fairy fingers fashioned them. 

At once the most extensive and most 
lovely view is obtained from the " Tocador de 
la Reinay^ the Queen's Toilet or Boudoir, 
which, although retaining none of the pro- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 291 

fuse decoration visible in other parts of the 
building is unsurpassed in position. 

You come upon it at the end of a plain 
brick-paved gallery terminated by a flight of 
three steps and an old door. This, opened, 
admits you to a tiny square apartment 
having a marble slab in one corner per- 
forated with holes, through which the steam 
of smouldering perfumes made its way, 
and over which the sultana is said to have 
stood that her clothes and person might 
more completely receive the subtle odour. 
You step from out this apartment, on whose 
walls are the remains of painting in the 
Roman style, executed by Itahan artists in 
the reign of Carlo Quinto, on to a narrow 
marble terrace with a parapet four feet high 
which runs round three of its sides, short 
pillars of the same stone supporting the 
projecting roof. And it is from this terrace 
you enjoy the glorious prospect to which I 
have alluded. 

In building this fortress-palace on the 
very summit of the precipitous mount, the 
Moorish kings, no doubt, had security in 



292 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

view, but these same Moors, like the monks 
of old, had a rare eye for the picturesque, 
as I have observed their castles throughout 
Spain, to be erected like the monasteries of 
the middle ages, in the most romantic and 
commanding sites. The walls of the 
Alhambra follow every inequaUty of the 
ground, and where a fine prospect was to be 
obtained there stood a tower or a platform 
whence it could be enjoyed. The Tocador 
occupies an angle and stands at the very 
edge of the precipice, so that, as you gaze 
below, your eye alights upoji broken rock and 
parasitic plants, then the tops of the trees, 
looking like sohd masses in their profusion of 
leaf ; then more rocks and more trees till 
you find yourself, like another Gulliver, 
trying to discover what human occupation is 
going on below, where those Lilliputian 
figures are so busy — for your height above 
them is so great that it requires a keen sight 
to aid you in your investigations. Not only 
do you enjoy from that favoured boudoir, in 
one comprehensive glance, the detailed pic- 
tures you have admired fi:*om the Hall of the 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 293 

Ambassadors, but standing, as it were, on a 
spur of the mount you are enabled to gaze 
right up the vega, to mark the white walls 
and hanging garden of the Generalife, tower- 
ing even higher than you are yourself 
perched, and to take in the magnificent 
range of the Sierra Nevada covered, as its 
name impHes, with perpetual snow. It is, in 
truth, an enchanting spot, and dull, indeed, 
must be that sense which is not moved at 
the presence of so lovely a prospect, viewed 
as it is from a building crowded with ro- 
mantic and interesting historical memories. 

Having taken our fill of this glorious view, 
and only tearing ourselves from it because 
there were other wonders yet to visit, we 
descended below and passing through 
another dark gallery entered the Moorish 
baths. The Sala de Descano or " Hall of 
Repose " has been restored to the date of its 
completion and shines out in all the 
splendour of blue, red, and gold. It is 
almost too gorgeous, and induces the belief 
that the middle period of this palace's exist- 
ence — when the gilding was somewhat 



294 THRODGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

dimmed and the colours were subdued, but 
before man's destructive finger had fallen 
upon the diapered walls — must have been the 
age of its perfect beauty. A raised gallery 
hints at the occasional presence of musicians, 
and one may conceive the luxury of reposing 
in so exquisite a chamber in this southern 
cHmate, after the ordeal of an oriental bath, 
lulled into soft slumber by the subdued 
notes of music and the voices of skilled 
songsters. 

The baths, both of the sultan and sultana, 
or as they are also described, del rey and del 
principe^ are in good preservation. We 
stopped frequently to examine the beautiful 
tiles, the azulejo dadosj which are profuse in 
this part of the building, and thought at first 
that they dated from the period of the Moor. 
The letters P. V. however, upon each one 
of them convinced us of our error, and we 
applied to our guide for information. We 
might have guessed his reply, as it was 
stereotyped — everything not Moorish be- 
longed to the time of Charles V. But what 
is the meaning of P. V. ? He did not know. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 295 

Nor, indeed, for the moment, could we 
satisfy ourselves, as we did not reflect that 
the Spanish name of Felipe was often con- 
verted into the Latin Philippus, and that to 
Philip's time these azulejos undoubtedly be- 
longed. Mr. P — , in our dilemma, came to the 
rescue. "Have you not observed," he 
inquired, " that it is only down here among 
the baths that the tiles are so inscribed ?" 
We admitted that we had observed it no- 
where else. "Well, then," he said, "the 
explanation is clear, P. V. can have no other 
meaning than Private Vashhouse.^^ The 
answer made us very merry, and in this 
mood we passed out of the vaulted chambers 
into the dazzling daylight where the sun 
shone upon the golden oranges in the garden 
of Lindaraja. 



296 THROUGH SPADT BT RAIL 



LETTER XL. 

THE ALHAMBRA. 

CHABMIN6 SITUATIOir OF THB ALHAMBRA — A VISIT BY 
MOONLIGHT — PEBI8 AT THE GATE OF PABADI8E— 
BEAUTIFUL EFFECTS OF LIGHT — FASCINATION OF THE 
ALHAMBBA— THE GYPSIES. 

Wasliingtoii Irving Hotel; 
ApHl 25, 1872. 

Now that I have seen this place with my 
own eyes I cease to wonder at the extra- 
ordinary interest which it has ever excited, 
and continues to excite, among Englishmen. 
Arid Spain is, in this lovely region, arid no 
longer. Instead of treeless wastes you are 
here surrounded with a richness of vegeta- 
tion and a vividness of green hitherto only 
associated in my mind with the shady groves 
and verdure of my own dear country. Built 
upon a lofty mount, which it crowns, the 
Alhambra enjoys a delicious temperature, 
and its approaches are glorious avenues of 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 297 

elms through which the sun peeps, creating 
flickering patches of brightness, while the 
boughs of the trees give shelter to numerous 
nightingales, who, like their sisters " by 
Bendemeer's stream," pour forth floods of 
harmony the whole day through. The most 
magnificent prospects are visible from this 
elevation, and as one gazes from the " Torre 
de la Vela^^^ within the precincts of the fort- 
ress, either towards the city or the opposite 
side of the mount in the direction of the 
Sierra Nevada, the heart swells with a sense 
of fulness at the majesty and beauty of the 
landscape. 

At a mile or two of distance there rises 
from the heart of the valley a flat-topped hill 
on which has been bestowed the name of 
El ultimo suspiro del Moro^ " the last sigh of 
the Moor." It was there, we are told — and 
I am full of faith in such matters — that 
Boahdil el Ghico^ after the conquest of his 
stronghold, paused to look back on the 
towers of his fairy palace, on the gardens he 
loved so well, on the city which had called 
him master from his earliest recollections. 



298 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

and heaved a sigh for the Eden he was 
quitting for ever. But the whole vega is full 
of memories which find an echo in one's 
brain as the names of various localities fall 
upon the ear. Would that they were all 
as tender and touching as Boabdil's wordless 
sorrow. 

Last night, the moon being at the full, we 
were enabled to visit the Alhambra in the 
light by which it is most lovely. A special 
permission had to be obtained, which 
specified the number to be admitted, but 
when it was known that a party from the 
hotel was going, several ladies, not included 
in the order, determined to seek an entrance. 

The moon shone with that brilliancy which 
only they who have seen her in the south can 
appreciate, but her face was frequently shut 
out by huge masses of flying cloud that 
contributed in the end not a little to the 
grandeur of the spectacle. 

I shall not readily forget the picture that 
disclosed itself to my eyes as we stood in 
a little crowd waiting the good pleasure of 
the old military custodian, who, with spec- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 299 

tacles on nose, was reading the permit, made 
visible to him by the light of a lantern held 
aloft by a soldier. I have already men- 
tioned that the entrance to the palace is in 
an obscure corner, which was just then per- 
fectly in shadow, owing to a cloud that 
eclipsed the moon. The only light was that 
which emanated from the lantern just re- 
ferred to, and as its rays darted hither and 
thither, they fell occasionally upon the group 
of ladies who, aware that they could only be 
admitted upon sufferance, held themselves 
somewhat timidly apart. Their dark dresses, 
for all were in black silk, their mantillas 
which shaded their faces drawn tightly 
round the neck and bosom, allowing only 
a pale cheek or flashing eye to be visible, 
so struck upon my imagination, that I had 
no difficulty in believing that they were the 
spirits of Moorish princesses permitted for 
a time to revisit earth, and who were thus 
like so many Peris, seeking an entrance to 
their whilom Paradise. 

They did get in too, but I fear that the 
old Peter with the keys was not immaculate, 



300 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

and allowed any scruples of conscience he 
might have felt at not being able to re- 
concile the number of those who entered 
with the figure stated on the order, to be 
removed in the usual way. 

The scene within was worth any amount 
of small coin expended in the shape of bribery. 
The lace-work decoration, the stalactite 
pendants, the horseshoe arches and slender 
pillars were still more exquisitely beautiful 
beneath the silver moonbeams and in the 
deep night shadow than in the more honest 
but remorseless light of day. As I sat upon 
one of the steps leading into the Hall of 
the Ambassadors, and looked out upon the 
Court of Myrtles, where, in the fish-pond 
which runs down the centre, the stars 
twinkled as in another heaven — as I cast 
my eyes upwards to the splendid ceiling of the 
sala^ made dimly visible by the tapers held 
aloft by our guides, and then caught glimpses 
of the far-off* mountains as seen through the 
windows, or rather the embrasures, of that 
grand old hall, a feeling as of a dream came 
over me, and I strove, as I have sometimes 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872, 301 

striven in my sleep, to keep from waking, lest 
the fairy picture should fade too quickly away. 

The Court of Lions, with its hundred 
slender columns, half of which were in the 
shadow, whilst the others twinkled in the 
moonhght, made a charming spectacle, and 
the silver beams which shone on patches of 
the diapered walls within the Hall of the 
Two Sisters seemed to do so lovingly, and 
to bring out in the strongest relief the per- 
fection of mural decoration there displayed. 

One may faintly conceive how enchanting 
these halls and courts must have appeared 
when prepared for some grand pageant, with 
lamps so cunningly arranged as to bring out 
all the perfection of the architecture, and to 
display the rich oriental costume of the 
guests glittering with gems, with fountains 
plashing, music breathing its softest notes, 
the air impregnated with the delicate per- 
fume of roses, orange-blossom and myrtle 
thickly planted round the court, the fairy 
picture reflected in the mirror-like water of 
the pond, or broken into a thousand frag- 
ments in the mimic waves of the fountains. 



302 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

and a moon, such as shone out of the azure 
heavens last night, spectatress of the festival, 
which she rendered the more lovely by her 
queenly presence. 

Even then I can fancy some few stealing 
away from the gorgeous scene to balcony or 
terrace, as I did to the Tocador, to enjoy 
in solemn solitude the far greater spectacle 
presented by the city of Granada, and the 
extensive vega^ stretching for many a league 
into mysterious distance. 

The moon was obscured by a vast mass 
of cloud as I leaned over the parapet and 
sought to distinguish in the semi-darkness the 
various objects that had attracted my atten- 
tion during the day. Suddenly there was a 
break in the volume of vapour, and as the 
brilliant rays biu'st through the opening, the 
city became visible as by enchantment, each 
prominent building having sprung into ex- 
istence as it were by a magician's wand, 
whilst river, wood, and mountain grew dis- 
tinct and real. 

What a scene it was, and how admirably 
did a score of little accessories fit in to make 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 303 

the picture one of perfect beauty. A hundred 
feet below me the nightingales were swelling 
their throats with liquid song, the plash of 
falling water made a subdued and soothing 
accompaniment ; the hum of voices floated 
upwards from the city, mingled here and 
there with the tinkle of a guitar, the baying 
of a dog, or the bells of a mule passing along 
the road, and then the clouds, urged on- 
ward by a westerly breeze, shut out the 
moon, and reduced the landscape to primeval 
darkness. 

It was with a feeling of infinite regret 
that I tore myself away from the charmed 
ground. Charmed ground, indeed, for dull 
beyond all measure of dulness must be the 
mind that is untouched by some one of the 
features that make up the Alhambra ; where 
history, poetry, chmate, position, all combine 
to constitute an earthly paradise. One meets 
with men who have wandered hither, at- 
tracted by the name, intending to take a 
cursory glance and to depart, who have be- 
come rooted here for years, and who confess 
that the familiarity of daily life and constant 



304 THROUGH SPAIN BY KAIL 

communion have failed to weaken the spell 
whicli tliis bright spot in the Spanish penin- 
sula has cast over them. Bitter, indeed, 
must have been the tears, and deep drawn 
the sighs which escaped the unfortunate Moors 
when they bid a last adieu to the groves and 
towers of the Alhambra. 

On our return we heard, issuing from a 
lower room in the hotel, the sound of a 
guitar played by no common hand, while a 
chorus of discordant voices, and the occa- 
sional nigger-like stamping of the feet upon 
the floor, hinted at the presence of gypsies 
performing their strange " rites," for I can- 
not call their posture-making dancing. 

We joined the score or so of spectators 
who were seated round the room, and as we 
were now at the headquarters of the strange 
race, I hoped to discover something different 
to, and more attractive than the exhibition 
at Seville. This, however, was not the case. 
The same screeching voices, each singer 
endeavouring to drown the noise of her 
neighbour, the same indecent posturing and 
waving of the fingers, as if they held casta- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 305 

nets, joined to occasional clapping of the 
hands, the same stamping of the feet that 
I had previously observed were observable 
on this occasion, and I looked in vain for 
grace or even gaiety in the performance, 
which then, as now, struck me as the most 
lugubrious of entertainments. 

An exception must, however, be made in 
favour of the powerfully built swarthy musi- 
cian, who handled his guitar in a most 
masterly fashion. His own voice, too, was 
not inharmonious when performing a solo, 
but when urging on the dancers to increased 
exertions, it rose to a harsh threatening 
roar. 

Beyond their eyes, which were black and 
lustrous, the girls were about as plain a set 
as could well have been got together. Their 
gowns, which are straight from the neck to 
the heels, are destructive of all shape, and 
the figures as, with hands raised above the 
head, they stand posturing and attitudinising, 
bear a wonderful resemblance in appearance 
and dress to the painted effigies on Egyptian 
or Etruscan vases. 

20 



306 THROUGH SPAIN BY KAIL 



LETTER XLI. 

GRANADA. 

CATHEDRAL — CAPILLA. DE LOS BETES — TOMBS OF FEBDI- 
KAHD AHD ISABELLA — THE CABTUJA — THE ZACATIN— 
OIL BLAB — THB aSKEBALIFB — BBAUTIFXTL SITUATION 
— LA 8ILLA DEL MOBO. 

Washington Irving Hotel ; 
AprU 26, 1872. 

This being our last day in the south, we 
resolved to crowd into it as many memories 
as the sunny hours would allow. And truly 
the sun did shine most gloriously, so as to 
make the shady groves look doubly welcome 
and give increased fervour to the notes of the 
nightingale nestled among the elms. 

Having got rid of the army of pestering 
beggars, principally children, who lie in wait 
at the door and that of the opposite hotel, 
'* lo8 siete suelos,^* for the appearance of a 
stranger, we drove down the splendid avenue 



IN THE SPBINQ OP 1872, 307 

and entering the ancient city of Granada, 
made our way to the cathedral. 

The building is imposing, from its height, 
but it is a strange jumble of architecture and 
is hampered round with miserable tenements, 
which give, as one may readily conceive, no 
additional sanctity to the edifice. The in- 
terior is, as usual, blocked up by the coro^ 
and there are some statues at the angles of 
the trascoro in the costume and periwigs of 
Louis XIV, which are very comic. There is 
a grandeur, however, about the high altar 
which redeems many absurdities, and an 
immense arch opening to the coro is particu- 
larly bold and imposing. 

The travellfer, satiated as he may be with 
ecclesiastical buildings, or as you described 
yourself when in Italy, as suffering from 
" churches on the brain," will yet turn with 
delight to the Gapilla de los Beyes, the Chapel 
of the Kings, for in it are contained the 
effigies and crumbling remains of some of the 
great ones" of the earth. Two sepulchres 
stand side by side. On one are extended the 
marble forms of Ferdinand and Isabella ; on 



308 THEOUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

the other those of Philip of Burgundy and 
Crazy Jane. Most beautiful they are, and 
although one may object to the appropriate- 
ness of some of the ornamentation on the 
tombs, there can be no question about their 
exquisite finish and execution. How Stothard 
would have revelled in them I ^ 

A low door, so low that you have to dip 
your head considerably in passing through it, 
leads down into the vault, where, immediately 
beneath the sepulchres above, appear the 
leaden coffins of the actual personages, with 
another smaller shell containing the remains 
of the young Prince Miguel. That of Ferdi- 
nand is distinguished by the letter F. Ford 
assures us that these coflBns, though rude and 
misshapen are " genuine, and have never been 
rifled by Gaul or Ghoul." He may be right, 
for he very often is, and rarely makes an 
assertion without good grounds, but our guide 
assured us that Ferdinand's shell had been 
opened by Sebastiani, in proof of which he 
pointed to an irregular seam, where it had 
been clumsily reclosed. 

The plainness of this low-browed vault, 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 309 

overarching the unadorned, battered leaden 
cases, placed there side by side, is in strong 
contrast with the art splendour visible in the 
chapel above ; yet somehow, it touched me 
more than the magnificence of the Panteon of 
the Escorial, or the costliness of the Corsini's 
♦resting place at San Giovanni Laterano in 
Rome. 

Before an altar of the chapel are other 
eflBgies of Ferdinand and Isabella, of life-size 
and upon their knees, which are singularly 
interesting as regards portraiture, costimae, 
and execution. Two coloured basso-relievos 
also cannot fail to excite attention and 
interest. They represent, one, the presenta- 
tion of the keys of the Alhambra by Boabdil 
on foot to Ferdinand, Isabella, and the great 
Cardinal Mendoza, who are all mounted ; and 
the other, a wholesale baptism of the Moors 
by monks. The figures display but little 
dignity. The king and queen are chubby 
personages, very unlike the marble effigies 
referred to; and the features of the cardinal's 
thin, ascetic face are exaggerated as in a 
caricature. The costume is doubtless correct, 



310 THJtOUGH 8TASS BT BAIL 

and most probably the sculptured picture is 
an actual representation (if the two events. 
On those grounds alone these bas-reli^ are 
very precious. 

A magnificent reja of wrought iron, with 
partial gilding, is another ornament of this 
beautiful chapel, and the entrance is marked* 
by a Gothic portal, which is itself a study. 

On leaving the chapel, which, though con- 
tiguous to the cathedral, is quite independent 
of it, we drove up to the suppressed Cartuja 
convent, a short distance out of the town. 
It is a mere sheD, but kept in good and 
cleanly order, with extensive grounds that 
are neglected. All the silver work and the 
valuable pictures it once boasted have been 
stolen or removed, and its only valuables are 
some fine specimens of inlaid woodwork, 
tortoiseshell, ebony, and marble. Many 
slabs of the latter display curious veins and 
markings, in which the eye can trace as in a 
coal fire, or as we used to do in the marbled 
covers of our copy-books in the old school 
days, strange faces and figures. These, and 
a cross painted to imitate wood at the ex- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 311 

tremity of the noble sacristia^ were pointed 
out by the old custode as evidently the most 
noteworthy features of the place. 

For my own part I found more interest in 
an examination of a series of pictures, repre- 
senting the persecutions of the Carthusians 
by our Henry YIII in 1536. Here were 
martyrdoms with a vengeance, in comparison 
with which the atrocities of his daughter 
Maty and the illustrations to Foxe's *Book of 
Martyrs,* which were at once the delight and 
the horror of my childhood, appeared posi- 
tively mild. 

There is one street in old Granada which a 
man with an eye to the picturesque and with 
only an hour to spare ought not to omit 
visiting. This is the ZacatiUy the chief place 
of trade, where the silversmiths congregate 
and where the principal shopping is effected. 
Such houses, such balconies, such charming 
ruins, such romantic dirt, and such a wealth 
of colour, it has rarely been my fate to 
behold ; turn your gaze in what direction you 
will, and there is a picture ready to your 
hand. 



312 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

As we drove into the Plaza de Vibarambla^ 
we made our coachman pull up to take our 
fill of its features. It is now a market-place, 
once dedicated to public feasts wherein the 
Jereed and bull-fights have been displayed in 
the past for the various generations of Moors 
and Christians. The great object of interest, 
however, to us was the Archbishop's palace, 
for wa3 it not within those walls that our old 
finend, Gil Bias, found such comfortable 
quarters, till one act of sincerity amid his 
life of deceit procured his ignominious expul- 
sion ? It is the finest satire throughout 
Le Sage's clever book, and we gazed at the 
portals of the old palace as though we 
expected to see Gil Bias' venerable master 
issue forth on his way to the cathedral to 
preach one of those very sermons the simple 
secretary thought fit, in an evil hour, to criti- 
cise. 

At the Italian Consul's, whither we went 
to procure orders for the Generalife, now the 
property of Prince Pallavicini of Genoa, we 
were shown the veritable sword of Boabdil, 
studded with jewels, and some good pictures, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 31»3 

in the sola mixed with not a little curious 
rubbish. On the walls I recognised some 
photographs— counterparts of those in my 
own portfolio — of that charming garden 
attached to the Villa Pallavicini near Genoa, 
the beauty and situation of which are 
scarcely inferior to the Alhambra itself, nay, 
to many, the glorious expanse of the Mediter- 
ranean on one side and the undulating 
ground, so richly interspersed with wood and 
rock on the other, offer attractions that 
not even this favoured region of Granada can 
pretend to. 

There is an indescribable charm, however, 
hanging round the Generalife which gives it 
a special character. Its commanding height 
— for it looks down upon the Alhambra Hill 
and commands the whole city of Granada, with 
miles upon miles of the vega^ stretching on, 
on, till stayed by a barrier of distant moun- 
tains — has much to do with it ; its terraced 
gardens, tier above tier, filled with flowers 
that look resplendently bright and become 
intensely odoriferous under the beams of the 
southern sun, also lend their aid ; the abun- 



314 THBOUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

dance of water, for the Darro, there put in 
requisition for the supply of fountains, and 
rushing swiftly through the courts beneath 
ever-verdant bowers, making music as it 
flows, contributes not a little to the delight ; 
but apart from all these, the memories with 
which the place is crowded, and the many 
romantic tales which, true or not, have been 
told so often that we end by giving them 
credence, make the Gteneralife one of the 
most remarkable spots in the Peninsula. 

One cannot help observing that a story 
or legend recounted in an alien atmosphere 
will often meet with incredulity, when it 
would not be, for a moment, questioned in 
the locahty where the scene is laid. As one 
leans over the brink of an abyss and feels, on 
gazing into the depths, that creeping at the 
soles of the feet and whirling of .the brain, 
which will at times affect the strongest 
nerves, no tale of mysterious horror is too 
extravagant for belief. When standing in the 
hall of the Abencerrages, and surrounded by 
objects which transport you, as it were, to a 
different world, few can withstand the testi- 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 315 

raony of the stained basin of the fountain, to 
the massacre of the devoted troop, or refuse 
to believe that the wailing sounds heard at 
midnight owe their origin to the murmurs of 
their unexercised spirits rather than to the 
sighing of the wind through the arcades or 
the gurgling of water through hidden pipes 
and channels. 

Within the charmed precincts of the 
Generalife no story connected with the 
place seems too wild for credence, no legend 
too romantic for one's faith. One looks 
with a strange curiosity on the venerable 
cypresses — the " trysting place " of the sul- 
tana, whose midnight meetings with the 
Abencerrage led to such a fearful scene of 
carnage, and one turns a deaf ear to the 
cynics who, writing from " beyond the pale,'* 
would teach us that it is all a fable. 

An hour of solitary musing spent at that 
open colonnade, which commands the pros- 
pect I have above alluded to, would make a 
convert of the most sceptical. 

Commanding as this position is, it is not 
the loftiest from which to enjoy the view. 



316 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

Higher yet stands the hill-top crowned with 
rains known as la siUa del Moaro — the Moor's 
chair — ^which, however, was not sufficiently 
lofiy, or placed in a position sufficiently 
beautiful, to save it firom the destructiye 
hand of man. The Spanish CThristian bat- 
tered down the little Moorish temple to raise 
upon its foundation the chapel of St. Elena ; 
and the French in turn, in parting wanton- 
ness, scrambled hither to make a greater 
ruin. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 317 



LETTER XLII. 

FROM GRANADA TO TOLEDO. 

POLITICAL SXJMOURS — ANOTHER DILIGENCE JOURNEY — 
SOLITUDE OP SPANISH LANDSCAPE— JAEN — MENJI- 
BAR — ALCAZAR — CASTILLEJO — FIRST APPEARANCE 
OP TOLEDO — ANCIENT HOUSES— DECAY AND PIC- 
TURESQUENESS. 

Toledo ; 

April 28, 1872. 

Rumours of predatory bands scouring the 
country, and called brigands by some of our 
informants, Carlists by others, and both com- 
bined, by not a few, have formed part of our 
table-talk during the last day or two, so that 
on turning out of bed at four o'clock yester- 
day morning, in order to join the diligence, 
which was to start from the plaza at Granada 
punctually at five, we had in prospect during 
our eleven or twelve hours journey across 
country to Menjibar, on the Cordova and 
Madrid line, just that spice of danger which 



318 TSBoroH 8PAn bt bjol 

remOTed the trip oat of the ordiiiaiy categoiy 
of every daj traTeDuig. 

Toa win judge by the date of this letter 
that I have perfonned the journey in safety, 
and I can now assure you tliat I have escaped 
even a meeting with these modem '^free 
lances/' There is no doubt, however, but 
that travelling, just now, in Spain is not with- 
out its dangers, and although a good many 
wayfarers may, like myself^ traverse the 
Peninsula from end to end without molesta- 
tion, they are only like the proverbial pitcher, 
which goes often to the well in safety, but 
may get '^ a crack '' at last. All the trains 
are running with extra police to guard them, 
the cocked hat turns up in the most un- 
expected places ; every petty station has two, 
three, or four civil or rural guards, who 
make the station-house their headquarters; 
it is not safe to undertake mule journeys, 
and, above all, those by private carriage 
should be eschewed. Even the diligences 
travel in company ; all Spaniards one meets 
in them are armed, and heavily armed police 
are posted in relays all along the roads. 



m THE SPRING OP 1872. 319 

These facts speak volumes as to the state 
of the country, and require no comment. I 
cannot say, therefore, that I view with other 
than satisfaction my speedy return, for 
although I take as little heed of these things 
as most men, I should very much regret 
being knocked on the head in this country, 
where I should get miserable surgical at- 
tendance, if I were not killed outright, and 
but little decent respect for my body if I 
were. 

The road to Menjibar, though exhibiting 
some fine mountain scenery is a particularly 
lonely one, running sometimes through deep 
ravines, and at others across open tracts of 
country, where there is neither land fit for 
cultivation nor the appearance of a human 
dwelling. 

One can scarcely realise, till actual expe- 
rience has taught the lesson, how strangely 
silent and solitary are these Spanish land- 
scapes. Not only are there no inhabitants, 
but as for hundreds of miles the country is 
bare of trees and shrubs, there are neither 
birds nor insects, and the dead silence be- 



320 TH50U6H SPAIN BY BAIL 

comes after a time inexpre^siblj painful. 
In parts of Corsica in the island of Sardinia, 
and in many districts of the Italian Penin- 
sula, one may travel the day through and 
not meet a human being, but at least the 
feathered and insect world are a-wing, and 
their motions and tiny Toices are pleasant 
and soothing to the mind. In the greater 
part of Spain, on the other hand, the still- 
ness is " like unto death " itself, and while 
the ear aches with the intensity with which 
it listens for some welcome sound, the eye is 
pained with the constant aspect of sterile 
rocks or bare uplands, seamed with the rains, 
though never a drop of moisture is left upon ' 
them,, and void of every growth but a dry 
stick or thistle rustling in the wind. 

On this particular journey, for an hour or 
two after we left Granada, we met a few 
stragglers wending their way to the market. 
They were doubtless peaceable subjects, 
though to all appearance they might have 
been veritable " gentlemen of the road," and 
travelled with strings of mules, caravan 
fashion, and I noticed, in more than one 



IN THE SPEING OF 1872. 321 

instance, the gun was placed in readiness 
across the pack-saddle. As we went on 
even these scanty travellers fell off, and but 
for the occasional appearance of the civil 
guards to whom I have before alluded, who 
emerged at times in a somewhat startUng 
manner from behind a heap of stones or 
from a hollow in the road, we saw not a 
living soul ; and yet this was the high road 
leading from Granada to the capital of the 
country. 

About 1 o'clock we reached Jaen, the 
capital of a little kingdom of its own in the 
old days, and still retaining portions of the 
walls and towers which defended it, and 
having an hour at our disposal, were glad 
to stretch our legs and unbend our bodies 
from the cramped position to which they had 
been subjected for so long a time. This old 
city, considering the bareness of the surround- 
ing country, must be a dismal residence in 
the best of seasons, and a supremely un- 
comfortable one in the worst, for the con- 
tiguous heights almost shut out the sun 
during the season when it is most needed. 

21 



322 THROUGH SPAIN KT BAIL 

Our party were, of course, objects of curiosity 
to the populace, and I could readily forgive 
their importunity when I reflected upon the 
small amaimt of amusement that their every- 
day life must naturally afford them. The 
arrival of strangers in the idle, sleepy old 
city must be, indeed, a godsend, and it was no 
wonder, therefore, if the plaza where we 
descended should present quite a "deadly- 
lively '* aspect, awing ta the gathering of all 
the oddities and idlers of the vicinity about 
our lumbering vehicles. 

Some three hours more of jolting through 
a country not a whit improved in appearance 
brought us in sight of the railway embank- 
ment and the station at Menjibar, composed 
of a house and a few sheds, and after driving 
for a few hundred yards up an incline, aver a 
road projected^ but never really made, the dih- 
gence staggering and sinking occasionally al- 
most to the axletrees, and threatening at every 
instant to topple over, we reached the firmer 
ground, quittespour la peur, and with infinite 
satisfaction, descended from our high perch 
in the coupe at about five in the afternoon. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 323 

Glad as we were to reach Menjibar, we 
were heartily tired before we left it, owing to 
the train being an hour and a half late. A 
tolerable meal whiled away a portion of the 
time, and those who smoked found consola- 
tion in the consumption of " the weed," but 
it was weary waiting on that bleak and ex- 
posed platform, over which a chilly breeze 
swept unceasingly, with nothing to please the 
eye in the shape of green tree or shrub, and 
no prospect around but the dun, sun-burnt, 
and wind-dried landscape. With such a 
prospect eternally before their eyes, how can 
the people be otherwise than savage, morose, 
and melancholy ? 

The train hove in sight at last. But as 
Menjibar presents the only huffe (as the 
Spanish time-J)ills have it) upon the road^, 
until long after midnight, its passengers got 
out to dine, and, of course, did not hurry 
over the operation, so that nearly three 
quarters of an hour more were expended 
before the train was again in motion, leisurely 
rolling us along in the direction of the 
capital. 



324 THBOUGH SPAIN BY EAIL 

Considermg how the railway traffic is 
managed in this coontiy, it puzzles me more 
and more to discover why such a system of 
locomotion was ever introduced into Spain, 
where no one is ever in a hurry and where 
no one seems to understand the value of time. 
Surely the diligence was fast enough for 
Iberian travellers (it is, indeed, often quite as 
speedy as their railway trains), or if that 
mode of conveyance did not suit their tastes, 
they might have stuck to their ambling mules 
and donkeys, or dislocated their bones in a 
springless ox-waggon, and would, I should 
fancy, have been just as satisfied with their 
progress. 

It fell dark very shortly after we were in 
full motion, and then the comparative ease 
of the railway carriage, after, the fatigue we 
had undergone, lulled us into slumber, in 
spite of the ugly rumours, now increased in 
their sensational details, of traias stopped 
and upset and passengers robbed and other- 
wise maltreated. 

Without any misadventure we ran on and 
reached Alcazar, a great junction station, 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 325 

between 1 and 2 a.m. Here, in a pouring 
rain, I parted with my friends, they going on 
to Valencia and I speeding due north. 

Bradshaw gives a valuable hint to tra- 
vellers proceeding to Toledo from the south, 
not to break their journey at CastiUejo (the 
proper junction), " where there is neither 
waiting-room nor buffet, but return as far as 
Aranjuez at which all the trains stop, where 
they will find refreshments." Of the plea- 
sant aspect of Aranjuez with its running 
water and shady groves — a very oasis in the 
desert — I have already spoken, when its deli- 
ciously green woods broke upon my eye as 
I travelled from Valencia to Madrid. The 
train was, as usual, a long time coming, but 
it appeared at last, and landed me at about 
10.30 a.m. at the ancient city from which 
I now write. 

The first appearance of Toledo is very im- 
posing. Built upon rocky hills, the houses 
rise one above another in solid blocks, with 
the huge square Alcazar, the fortress -palace 
of the Moors, crowning the vast congeries of 
buildings. It reminded me of one of the old 



326 THEOUGH SPAm BT RAIL 

moxmt-bmlt cities which break so grandly on 
the sight between Rome and Naples, al- 
though the Spanish landscape can never 
boast the delicious Tarieties of colour which 
distinguish the Italian campagna. 

The entrance into Toledo, over the Alcan- 
tara, which crosses the foaming and rush- 
ing Tagus, is no less impressive than its 
distant aspect. As you pass under the 
venerable gate-towers which guard the bridge 
at each end, you feel as though bidding 
adieu to the present age to seek the homes 
and people of the past, nor does this idea 
cease to cling to you as you wander through 
the tortuous streets, and observe the Moorish 
houses, the open-air patios^ the balconies, 
ironed or latticed, filled with flowers, through 
which dark eyes peer at you, and the queer, 
knobbly, broken pavement, whoUy unfit for 
any traffic but that of the donkey or the 
mule. 

Some most extensive views break upon you 
as you climb up the terraced road, and the 
prospect firom some of the overhanging bal- 
conies, which have the Tagus boiling hun- 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 327 

dreds of feet below them must be per- 
fectly enchanting when the moon, which is 
apt to lend so flattering a light, converts 
heaps of black ruins and a sterile rocky soil 
into "things of beauty." 

Moonlight is, in fact, the time to enjoy 
Toledo. Under the garish sun, the in- 
congruous additions made by successive 
Christian architects to the charming crea- 
tions of the Moor, are painful to the man 
of taste, and make him either laugh or feel 
indignant. The broad light of day brings 
out too clearly the poverty, the sloth, the 
dirt, the utter discomfort that lurk in every 
comer of this once imperial city, which, 
from a population of nearly a quarter of a 
milHon, cannot now boast of more than a 
tenth of that number. But when the moon 
has risen suflBciently to enable you to direct 
your steps in safety through the narrow 
crooked streets, when her beams shine upon 
only part of the quaint old buildings and 
leave the rest in mysterious shadow, when 
Christian symbols and Moorish ornaments 
become in the half-light blended into har- 



THBOr^ SPAIBT BT SAIL 

moQ J, then, indeed, joa admit the power and 
tiie chsam of soA a city, and feet aD ibe 
romance nithm your nature, which yon too 
hastily thought had been utterly destroyed, 
come welling up from its hidden depths in 
unsuspected Tigour. 



IN THE SPRING OP 1872. 329 



LETTER XLIII. 

MADRID. 

POLITICAL TEOUBLB8 — UNEASY PEELING IN THE CAPITAL 
— PETTY CONDUCT OP THE GBANDEEB— THE MALE 
POPULATION — IN THE COUNTRY AND AT MADBID. 

Madrid ; 

April 29, 1872. 

On arriving at the capital this morning I 
found the station crowded with troops wait- 
ing for trains to convey them to the very 
district I had just left, in order to quell 
actual or apprehended risings of the Carlists. 
The passengers by our own train were 
eagerly questioned for news, as reports, 
whether true or not, had reached Madrid of 
most of the towns of Andalusia being under 
arms. Unhappy country 1 which, amidst its 
poverty and other numerous impediments to 
progress, has constantly to witness the 
strifes of pohtical parties, whose leaders. 



332 THBOUGH SPAIN BY SAIL 

in a carriage with a pair of horses, they drive 
down with four. K His Majesty should 
sport a jockey in a scarlet jacket, they will 
display one or even two most gorgeously 
attired; on one occasion, when I was pre- 
sent, the postiUions appearing in pink silk 
jackets and gold-tasselled caps, the very per- 
fection of a quack doctor's equipage at a fair. 
The Madrilenos seem to think this sort of 
rivalry displays a fine independent spirit; 
for my own part, it seemed fitted only to 
awaken contempt and disgust. 

To-day again the " Recolletos " has been 
crowded, and to judge from the gay equi- 
pages and merry, chatting groups lining the 
footways, discoursing of anything rather than 
politics, one can with difficulty conceive that 
disaffection is stalking through the land, and 
that these very walks and groves, intended 
as the resorts of pleasure and recreation inay, 
a few hours hence, be stained with blood. 
And yet many things are more unlikely. 
This city of Madrid contains spirits as mer- 
curial as those of Paris, and it is in the re- 
collection of thousands whose memory is of 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872. 333 

the very shortest range that the sound of 
musketry has awakened them from their 
slumbers to the painful fact that a revolution 
had broken out in the capital. 

Nothing, however, on this beautiful April 
afternoon intimated to the stranger that such 
a calamity was near. The dusty walks were 
trodden by myriad feet. The fan, like the 
semaphore of old, was performing all the 
wondrous antics of which it is capable, and 
deUvering, like the instrument to which I 
have compared it, a very volume of messages 
to the initiated. The carriages bearing their 
usual freight of bare-headed or mantilla- 
covered ladies rolled up and down within the 
boundaries defined by fashion. The narrow 
shp placarded awaj cavaliers was filled with 
riders, many of whom it is true were not at 
ease, although it was clear that their dis- 
comfort arose more from physical than poli- 
tical causes ; and, in fact, all appeared to be 
" merry as a marriage bell." 

Having now visited the greater part of 
Spain, I may mention in this place my gene- 
ral impression of its male inhabitants. The 



334 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

peasantry I have seen tliroughout the 
country, and the labouring classes, generally 
have struck me as robust and able-bodied. 
The military, who are drawn in a great mea- 
sure from the former, are many of them of 
large frame, and my friend Colonel P— 
spoke in the highest terms of their powers of 
endurance, of their cheerfulness under priva- 
tion, and of their amenity to discipline. As 
" raw material " he considered them unsur- 
passed upon the Continent. I cannot say so 
much of the inhabitants of the towns, and 
those of Madrid impress me as particularly 
undersized. Their manners, too, are in many 
instances rude to boorishness, and as they 
seem to have the very smallest consideration 
for the feelings of others, they are naturally 
wanting in the first essential of the true gen- 
tleman. For instance, a group of well-dressed 
men will stand in the middle of the pathway 
smoking, spitting and talking, and stare a lady 
out of countenance, whom they compel to 
turn aside into the dirty road and on to the 
painful flints which form the pavement. 
They will enter a railway carriage or an om- 



IN THE SPUING OF 1873. 335 

nibus full of ladies with a lighted cigar in 
their mouths, or light one when there under 
similar circumstances, without a question as 
to whether their own self-indulgence is offen- 
sive. In fact, they seem to retain so much 
of the oriental character as to look upon 
women as inferior beings, created simply for 
their own pleasure and service, and one sees 
none of that chivalrous bearing (not even so 
much as the raising of the hat) towards the 
gentler sex which makes Don Quixote so 
dear to every lover of true manliness. It is 
not improbable, as Spaniaifds have so little 
changed since Cervantes' time, that that 
able writer meant, in giving this gentlemanly 
feehng to his hero, to read his countrymen a 
lesson on their deficiency in this particular. 
If so, the shaft has missed its aim. But 
there is no shield so impregnable, no armour 
so unassailable, as ignorance and self-con- 
ceit. A Frenchman will do a rude thing 
though he begs your pardon while he does it ; 
the Spaniard is often quite as rude, but then 
he does not even apologise for his want of 
manners. 



336 THROUGH SPAIN BY BAIL 

I shall be able very shortly to learn for 
myself the truth of the report concerning the 
Carlist movements and the dangers which 
beset even the peaceable ordinary traveller by 
rail, as I shall quit Madrid to-morrow by the 
mail train for Bordeaux, which leaves at half- 
past six in the evening. One part of my 
journey I find I must abandon, namely, a 
visit to Bilbao, for I observe posted up at the 
railway station a notice to the effect that the 
Une is " interrupted " between Miranda and 
that city. (It is, in/act^ in the hands of the 
insurgents). The direct road to Prance is 
reported open, and I learn that large bodies 
of troops have been sent along the line to 
keep it so. If the soldiery can only be de- 
pended upon, this storm, threatening as it 
now looms fi:*om every quarter, ought to blow 
over ; but, they have an ugly knack of turn- 
ing round upon their officers in times of 
trouble, and upsetting by such a proceeding 
the nicest calculations. 



IN THE SPRING OF 1872, 337 



LETTER XLIV. 

MADRID TO PARIS. 

QUIET JOURNEY NORTHWARD— AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE — 
HIS VIEWS OP THE STATE OF SPAIN — ADVANCING 
SPRING— CLOSING REMARKS. 

Paris ; 

May 3, 1872. 

The postmark of this letter will have 
shown you even before these Unes are ex- 
tracted from their envelope that I am once 
again in the gay, toujours gaie^ capital of 
France, and have got out of Spain in safety. 

Barring the abundant presence of the 
military, who were posted at every station 
along the road, and turned up at unexpected 
places all through the journey, there was 
nothing of a disturbing nature to mar our 
progress from Madrid northward. Still, 
having in our memory a recent event or two 
which had leaked out through the Madrid 
Gorrespondencia^ of trains being fired upon, 

22 



338 THROUGH SPAIN BY RAIL 

of rails torn up, and of stations which, when 
entered, were found to be in possession 
of a hostile band, we obtained but little sleep 
through the night, and observed the first 
appearances of dawn with undoubted satis- 
faction. 

Whilst waiting for a few minutes at San 
Sebastian whom should I behold upon the 
platform but my good friend Colonel P — , 
who had just alighted from a train coming 
from France that was on its way to the 
Spanish capital. 

Hasty greetings were exchanged, and I 
learned that having a week or two back left 
Saragossa for Biarritz he was now attempt- 
ing to return, but found all communication 
stopped with the exception of the direct 
northern line. 

" I shall go on to Madrid," he said," and 
try to work my way round." 

" Ah, well," I observed, " from all I hear 
the struggle is nearly over. The CarUsts are 
making no way, and do not appear in any 
instance to withstand the attacks of the 
troops." 



IN THE SPBINa OP 1872. 339 

" Do not believe it, my dear friend," was 
his answer. " Depend upon it you see only 
the commencement of a struggle the end of 
which no one can foretell. I fear the worst." 

And he shook his head gloomily as we 
pressed each other's hands and parted. 

My two months' absence had wrought a 
great change in the aspect of the country. 
That which was then bare and sterile I found 
on my return rejoicing in a bright garment of 
green, and giving promise of fertility. Nature 
was again awakening after her long sleep, and 
a few hours had sufficed to convey me from a 
hopeless, treeless wilderness of stones, to 
green pastures, running waters, and richly 
wooded mounds. 

In casting a look back at my journey now 
brought to a close, so far as Spain is con- 
cerned, I would recommend every traveller 
who intends visiting it for the first time to 
enter it, as I did, at its northern extremity 
in order that he may have a correct notion of 
the extraordinary contrast presented between 
its northern and southern provinces. If, 
taking steamer to Gibraltar, he content him- 



:e -7] 




a v^rr 5il*r: cr-r-- If. nzL zL^ ctLer rarii, zb 
taice a trio friTn France ii:to 3»Ia*irid. and zq 



'mflzfzh Llzn to ps&.?5 & /rdrment the drr^cr 
irr/f^-^r of tbr former. Ir is onlT br travel- 
K.« thr...,h tb. co^rrv from ™d' .o «.i 
aiid '•Tilting tLe interesting Mediterranean 
s^^'lpoeard into the bargain, that he will be 
able to form anything like a correct opinion 
of Spain as a whole ; and, judging from the 
deep impression left upon my mind, and the 
fresh store of pictures stamped upon my 
memory through this Spanish journey, I 
woulrl strongly recommend those who have 
the requisite means, health and time at 
their disposal, to try a spring trip through 
Spain. 



THE END. 



KKF1>0UAM WlLHOlf, PBINTEB, BOYAL EXCHANGE. 







♦.