Through Spain by Rail in 1872

Preface

. Spain has had the advantage of being o o 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 different and humbler character, and is sus- 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 faithful tran script of the places they describe. A. E. Brighton ; March, 1873. PAGE 1 5 9 12 17 JJ CONTENTS.

Letter 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 — Public Promenade ..... CONTENTS. PAGE 38 46 53 57 65 72 81 bS

Letter X

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

LETTER XL

Madrid. — The Museum of Pictures — The Spanish School — Velasquez — Murillo — Ribera — Juanes — Coello — Zurbaran — Specimens ofthe Italian School

Letter XXII

Saragossa to Barcelona.— Companionship by the Way — Lerida — Manresa — Montserrat — Grand Appearance — A Splendid Prospect — Arrival at X CONTENTS. PAGK Barcelona — Beautiful Situation — Busy Aspect of its Streets and Shops — Cathedral — View of the City from Montjuis ..... 145

Letter XXIII

Barcelona to Tarragona. — Environs of Barcelona — Fine Mountain Scenery — Lofty Situation of Tarragona — Picturesque Houses — Cathedral — Cloisters — Roman Aqueduct — -Party Spirit . . . 152 LETTER XXTV. Reus. — Uneasy Pavement — General Dulness — Appearance of the Country .... 162

Letter XXV

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

Letter XXVI

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

Letter XXVII

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 XXVIII

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

Letter XXIX

Madrid. — A Charming Picture — A Villa in the Prado — Dislike of the Spaniards to the Country — An English Dinner — Rudeness of the Madrilenos towards the King — Inner Life of the Spaniards . CONTENTS. XI PAGE 197 207 220 230 237 249 256

Letter XXX

Madrid to Cordova. — Don Quixote's Country— Wildness of the Road — Rich Colours of the Flowers — Linares — Menjibar— Cordova — Its Narrow Streets and Moorish Buildings — Charming Patios — Court of Oranges — The Mesquita — Andalusian Women .

Letter XXXVII

Malaga. — Rough Passage — The Carabineers — Marbilla — Difficulties of Landing — Aspects of the CONTENTS. PAOK 263 273 285 296 306 317 329 337 Town — Narrowness of the Streets — "Want of Drainage — Democratic Behaviour — Cathedral — Fine View ......

Letter Xxxviii

Malaga to Granada. — Slowness of Travelling — The Diligence Journey — Picturesque Group — Beauty of Country outside Malaga — Alora — -Arrival at Loja — A Mishap— First Impression ofthe Alhambra .......

Letter XXXIX

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

Letter XL

The Alhambra. — Charming situation of the Alhambra — A Visit by Moonlight — Peris at the Gate of Paradise — Beautiful Effects of Light — Fascination of the Alhambra — The Gypsies

LETTER XLL

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

Letter XLII

From Granada to Toledo. — Political Rumours — Another Diligence Journey — Solitude of Spanish Landscape — Jaen — Menjibar — Alcazar — Castillejo — First Appearance of Toledo — Ancient Houses — Decay and picturesqueness . . . . LETTER XLHI. Madrid. — Political Troubles — Uneasy Feeling in the Capital —Petty Conduct of the Grandees — The Male Population — In the Country and at Madrid

Letter XLIV

Madrid to Paris. — Quiet Journey Northward — An Old Acquaintance — His views of the State of Spain — Advancing Spring — Closing Remarks . IN THE SPRING OF 1872.

Letter I. Brighton To Paris

via DIEPPE. NEWHAVEN — DIEPPE — ROUEN — PARIS. Hotel du Louvre, Paris ; March 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 coffeeand 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 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 believe, the majority of my fellow-passengers, 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. 1872. 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 full 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. RY RAIL But it will 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. 1872. 5

Letter II. Paris To Bordeaux

PARIS — THE MI-CAREME — THE VALLEY OP THE LOIRE — BLOIS — POITIERS — BORDEAUX. Hotel de la Paix, 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 flane'ed about the streets and discovered from the masks in various states of " bedraggledness " that it was the mi-careme, or mid-lent. The groups I saw were chiefly composed of students and ouvriers, 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 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 fight and agreeable, that I thought I was about at once to revel in sun 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. 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 darkness, 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. Tfie 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 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. Up to this point the travelling has been as expeditious 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 will 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. 1872. 9

Letter III. At Bordeaux

BORDEAUX — A FAIR— THE THEATRE FRAN^AIS. Bordeaux ; March 9, 1872. In spite of the rain I have been wandering about the streets of this fine old city, wfiicfi fias a somewhat modern 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 Garonne. Here I found a huge fair was being held, a true " Greenwich " and " Old Charlton " concern, with its circus, its Richardson's Theatre (a French Richardson, of course), its Wombwell's Menagerie, swings, roundabouts, fat women (plenty of the latter), et hoc genus omne 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 gais, where I sat one piece, " Papillonne," through, and the first act of another, " Un Troupier qui suit les Bonnes.'5 Both these pieces derive the little 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 tfiat 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 1872. 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 public eye scenes which are a disgrace to civilized society.

Letter IV. Bordeaux To Biarritz

THE LANDES — PINE FORESTS — BAYONNE — BIARRITZ — ' 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 1872. 13 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 sliced 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 under 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 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 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 Ufracombe, 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 delicious, for there are little 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 substantial enough they look rough and unpolished.

There was a magnificent sea on, and I stood in a sheltered nook out of the rain to 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 full 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 almost 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. 1872. 17

Letter V. At Biarritz

GENERAL ASPECT OF BIARRITZ — VILLA EUGENIE — BARENESS OF TREES. Biarritz ; March 11, 1872. I did not intend that you should have another letter from Biarritz, but when I rose this 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 co do it good, and so I have remained, making a closer acquaintance with Biarritz, inhaling the now fight breeze from the Bay of Biscay, baking myself in the sun, and cogitating over my proximate Spanish cam paign. I think as regards this little town I know it thoroughly, for, although its aspect would of course be much changed by a brilliant com pany, the features of the place must be the same.

It is certainly pretty, but of course, just at present, rather dull, for there are very few of its not numerous shops open, and the announcement we have often joked about, a louer, figures upon two tfiirds 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 boxes, in which a family of three or four would literally have to be packed, and, judging from the little attention 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, like those in the en virons of Torquay, are built here, there, and everywhere, but Torquay, to my mind, is 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 frightfully 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-laid-out gardens, with perfect comfort and propriety within 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 Villa 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 grounds and might contain perhaps fifty people.

Every entrance to the place is now placarded with the words, " Propriete Nationale," 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 corner, 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 Hotel 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 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 willows are in leaf. But, I repeat, there is very little vegetation to be seen. The storms to which this coast must be liable, 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 willing to admit its quiet and secluded situation, and that full advantage appears to have been taken of its capabilities.

Letter VI. Biarritz To Burgos

ENTRANCE INTO SPAIN — FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY — SPADE HUSBANDRY — TROUBLESOME EX- AMINATION OF LUGGAGE — MIRANDA — ARRIVAL AT BURGOS — A SPANISH FONDA — 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. 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 grazing on the scanty pasture were small but snowy 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 we passed were very like some 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 1872. 25 horror of everything 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 corn, hemp, flax, rice. Here in Northern Spain, the monotony as ter 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 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 furrow, 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 tfie 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 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 destination. This he did very courteously and I managed to get all through before the train started.