The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain ... Second edition

Preface

. The author of the following letters is aware that His publication would have possessed greater utility, had the architectural descriptions been more mi nute. He ventures to hope, however, that this im perfection may be in some measure balanced by the more extended sphere opened to whatever information it may contain. The absence of many technical expressions, especially those which enter into a detailed description of almost all Gothic buildings, and the employment of which was forbidden by the occasion, may tend to facilitate the satisfaction of popular curiosity respecting Spanish art : the more so from the cir cumstance that the most intelligent in such subjects are scarcely sufficiently agreed on the application of technical terms, to allow of the compilation of a standard vocabulary. His ambition will be more than satisfied, should his past, and perhaps future

PREFACE.

. IV researches, succeed, in some degree, in pioneering the path for a more scientific pen. Should this work fall into the hands of any reader, whose expectations of entertainment may have been encouraged by the announcement of another Spanish tour, but who may feel but moderate en thusiasm for the artistic and monumental glories of the Peninsula, an explanation is due to him, exonerative of the author from much of the respon sibility attached to the matter-of-fact tone of his descriptions. It is no less his nature than it was his wish to paint what he saw as he saw it. Un fortunately his visits to Spain took place after the accomplishment of the revolution, the hardest blows of which were aimed at her church. The confiscation of the ecclesiastical revenues has necessarily stripped the processions and other ceremonies of their former splendour, and by suppressing what con stituted one of their chief attractions to the native population, transferred the interest of the lover of the picturesque from the bright colours of animated grouping, to the dead back-ground of stone and marble they have left. In studying, however, to preserve this strict accu-

PREFACE.

. V racy in all that related to the principal subject of his correspondence, his aim was to enliven it by the introduction of any incidents worthy of notice which came under his observation. In this object he hopes he may have succeeded. One more remark is necessary. The letters from Seville, which form the second of the two parts into which the volume is divided, although placed last in order of succession, date in reality from an earlier period than the rest ; and even from a different tour, as will appear from the descrip tion of the route. They were addressed to vari ous individuals, whereas those forming the first part were all written to the same person. They are thus placed with a view to geographical order and clearness ; and to a sort of unity, which ap peared advisable in the subject of a volume.

The two excursions having been separated by an interval of three years, should alterations have taken place during that period in the places described, the above circumstance not being borne in mind might lead to an appearance of chronological inaccuracy in the descriptions, although there is not much probability of the existence of such changes. CONTENTS.

Letter XXII

Inquisition. College of San Telmo. Cigar Manufactory. Bull Circus. Exchange. Ayuntamiento. . . . . ENGRAVED PLATES. PACK Chapel of San Isidro, Madrid . . . To face Title. Transept of Cathedral, Burgos . . • • .38 Interior of the Church of Miraflores .... 72 View of Toledo ....•■• 106 Interior of Cathedral, Toledo . 140 Fa§ade of San Gregorio, Valladolid . . . .248 Fa§ade of the Alcazar, Seville .... 325 Great Court of do. . . . • .328 Hall of Ambassadors, do. . . • • .315 Interior of the Cathedral, Seville .... 353 WOOD ENGRAVINGS. Arco de Santa Maria. Burgos. . . . . 30 Interior of the Choir, Cathedral of Burgos . . .33 Sculpture in the Apse, do. do. ... 40 Head of St. Francis . . . . . .48 Fountain of Santa Maria, Burgos . . . .69 Italian Gallery at the Museo, Madrid . . . .94 Florinda's Bath, Toledo . . . . .112 Apse of the Cathedral, Toledo ..... 129 Costume of a Military Nun, Santa fe, Toledo . .. 165 Church of San Juan de los Reyes, do. . . . .179 Cloister of San Juan de los Reyes, do. . . .182 Interior of Santa Maria la Blanca, do. . . , .196 Interior of Christo de la Luz, do. 201 Castle of Guadamur.

Environs of do. . . . . 226 FAgADE of San Pablo. Valladolid . . . 242 Court of San Gregorio. Valladolid .... 249 Court of Dolls, Alcazar, Seville . . . .331 Fountains at the Alcazar .... 339 Portal of San Telmo, Seville .... PICTURESQUE ANTIQUITIES OF SPAIN.

Letter I. To Mrs

C R. Rue de Richelieu. You perceived at a glance the satisfaction you caused me, when, on receiving my temporary adieus, you requested me to send you some account of my travels in Spain. Had it not been so, you had not been in possession, on that day, of your usual pene tration. Indeed, you no doubt foresaw it ; aware that, next to the pleasure of acquiring ocular infor mation respecting the peculiar objects which interest an individual, there is no greater one than that of communicating to a spirit, animated by congenial tastes, the results of his explorations. You must have foreseen, that, with my recollections of the pleasure I had derived from our excursions in one of the most interesting regions of France, during which I was witness to the intelligence and rapidity of percep- B tion you displayed in the appreciation of the monuments of the Middle Ages, the opportunity of commit ting to paper the impressions I should receive in a country so rich in those treasures, with a view to your information, would give an additional interest to my tour, as well as encouragement in surmount ing the obstacles to be met with among a people not yet broken in to the curiosity of tourists.

You professed also, with a modesty always becoming to talent and worth, a complete ignorance respecting Spain : adding, that you would be grateful for every sort of information ; and that you were anxious to be enlightened on the subject not only of the monuments and fine arts, but also of the history of that country, of which you had never had an opportunity of informing yourself; summing up by the enumeration of the three names of the Cid, Charles the Fifth, and Roderic the Goth, the entire amount of your acquaintance with the leading characters of Spanish history. Indeed, the ignorance you profess with some exaggeration, is more or less general in our coun try ; nor is it surprising that such should be the case. Spain has been in modern times in the back ground of European progress. The thousand in conveniences of its routes and inns have deterred the most enterprising from making it a place of resort; and while a hundred less interesting scenes of travel, such as Baden-Baden, Bohemia, sporting adventures in Norway, or winterings in St. Petersburg, have claimed your attention during the reposes of quadrilles, and substantiated the conversation of several of your morning visitors, Spain has been unnoticed and unknown — laid on the shelf with the Arabian Nights— considered a sort of fabulous country, which it would be charming to know, but with which there would never be a chance of forming an acquaintance ; and you have contented yourself with a sort of general information respecting it, derived from a few romances and poems.

You are intimate with Boabdil and the wars of Granada, but to those events is limited your knowledge of its ancient history ; and the reigns of Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second, with the addition of some confused visions, in which autos-da-fe and dungeons contrast in a rather gloomy back-ground with laughing majas, whirling their castagnettes to the soft cadences of guitars, fill up the remaining space allotted to Spain in your recollections. It would be a task full of interest for me—possessed, as I shall probably be, of ample opportunities for its accomplishment — to draw up for your in formation a summary of the leading events of B Spanish history ; connecting them by the chain of reigns of the successive sovereigns ; and thus to press into a limited compass a sort of abstract of the annals of this extraordinary nation : but I am deterred by the certainty that such an attempt, by me, would fail of its intended object.

The events, thus slurred over, would have the effect of whetting the appetite for knowledge, which they would not satisfy ; and the interminable lists of monarchs, of successions, usurpations, alliances and intermarriages, rendered doubly intricate by the continual recurrence of the same names, without sufficient details to particularise each — a chaos of outlines* without the necessary shading to bring out the figures from the canvass — would not only set at defiance the clearest memory, but would be a trial which I would not for worlds impose upon your patience. No history is more attractive than that of Spain ; and those works which exist upon the subject, although all, more or less, sullied with inaccuracies, and most of them infected with prejudice, and immersed in super stitious delusion, are still well worth your perusal ; but it would lead me out of my depth, were I to undertake in my correspondence more than an occasional historical quotation, when required by the interest attached to any monument which it may fall to my lot to describe.

Were I not to transmit to you a conscientious and faithful account of all that I shall see, I should be guilty of cruelty ; and that the more base, from the certain impunity that must attend it. I say this, from the impossibility of your ever undertaking the same journey, and consequently of your ever being able to compare my portraits with their originals. In fact, the incompatibility of your nature, and that of the Spanish climate, must ever be present to me, who, during the vivifying heats of the late very bear able canicule, in your French chateau — so constructed as to perform the functions of an atmospheric sieve, by separating the wind, which rushed through its doors and windows, judiciously placed in parallels for the purpose, from the warmer sunshine without — was witness, nevertheless, to your unaffected distress, when you protested against any lofty, oak-panelled room being sat or reclined in by more than one human being at a time, lest it should be over-heated ; placing thus an obstacle in the way of conversation, in which to shine is your especial province, by ren dering it necessary to converse through various open doors ; while, were an additional testimony necessary to prove the sincerity of your sufferings, your favour ite of favourites, Caliph, repulsed and uncaressed, hung his silken ears, as he solemnly retreated to coil himself on a distant rug, and voted the dog-days a misnomer.

Nor were you contented with your atmosphere, until, the season of insects and al-fresco suppers being long left behind, and the autumnal equinox having peremptorily closed the doors and windows, fitted, alas ! by a carpenter who flourished in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, so plentiful a supply of air was afforded by the handy-works of the said car penter, that the Chinese screen had some difficulty in maintaining its post, and the flames of the well furnished elm-fire ascended with a roar that would have shamed many a cataract of the rival element. Not but that I would willingly forego the opportunity of sending you erroneous in formation, in exchange for your presence in that country ; and for your assistance in comprehending the nature of a people apparently composed of such contradictory ingredients.

You might probably succeed in fathoming the hidden springs of character, which give birth to a crowd of anomalies difficult to explain. You would discover by what mystery of organization a people, subject to the influence of violent passions, combine an abject subjection to the forms of etiquette, carried to its extreme in every-day life, with occasional outbreaks of adventure and romance worthy of the days of Orlando and Rodomonte ; and account for a nation exchanging a costume which combines utility with grace, for one in ferior in both respects. Inventors of whatever is most fascinating in dances and music — you would discover the motive which induces them to abandon both, but principally the first, which they replace by the French rigodon, or dancing-made-easy, and adapted to youth, manhood, and all stages of para lysis ; and, possessing the cathedrals of Leon, Burgos, and Seville, to denounce Gothic architecture as bar barous, and to brand it with the contemptuous deno mination of "crested masonry."

Should my mono- ( — monument-) mania run riot, and over-describe, over-taxing even your passion for that branch of art, be assured — and to this promise you may always look back for consolation and en couragement — that I will not write you a history of the recent, or any previous Spanish revolution, apropos of the first sentry-box I meet with, even though its form be that of a Lilliputian brick castle. Nor shall my first glimpse of a matador occasion you a list of bull-fights, voluminous enough to line the circumference of the barrera. No Diligence shall be waylaid, nor in my presence shall any ladies' fingers be amputated, the quicker to secure her rings, if I can possibly avoid it ; and, as far as depends on me, I shall arrive in a whole skin at each journey's end, and without poisoning you or myself with garlick, unless the new Cortes pass a law for denying to the stranger all other sorts of aliment.

I have resolved, by a process of reasoning which I need not at present impart to you, and in virtue of a permission which I have little doubt of your grant ing, to publish my part of our correspondence. I think that neither of us will be a loser by this plan, however conceited I may appear to you for saying so. Yourself, in the first place, must be a gainer by the perusal of descriptions, on which, from their being prepared for the ordeal of a less indulgent eye, greater care will necessarily be expended : the pub lic may benefit in obtaining information, which shall be at all events accurate, relative to subjects as yet inadequately appreciated by those they are the most likely to interest : while the chief gainer, in the event of these two ends being attained, will of course be your devoted and humble correspondent.

Letter II. Route To Spain Through France

Bayonne. The position of Burgos on the principal line of communication by which Madrid is approached from the north of Europe ; the fact of its being the first city met with, after crossing the Pyrenees, in which monuments are found remaining of the former genius and grandeur of the country ; and the name of which calls up the more stirring and eventful epochs of Spanish history, — render it, notwithstanding its actual distance from the frontier, a sort of introduction or gateway to Spain— the Spain of the tourist. The most agreeable and least troublesome way of visiting the best parts of Spain excludes, it is true, this route ; for the provinces of the Peninsula which combine the greater number of requisites for the en joyment of life with the most attractive specimens of the picturesque, whether natural or artificial, are those nearest to the coast, and they are approached more conveniently by sea.

Those, however, who can devote sufficient time, will be repaid, by a tour in the interior of the country, for the increase of trouble it may occasion them ; and this tour should precede the visit to the maritime provinces, as it will render their superior comforts and climate the more accept able from the contrast. The scenery of the Pyrenees, and the passing acquaintance formed with the original and picturesque population of the Basque provinces, secure the traveller against any danger of ennui throughout the land-journey between the fron tier and the city of Burgos. There does not exist the same security throughout the extent of route which it is necessary to travel in order to reach this frontier. The approach to Spain across the south-western provinces of France offers few objects worthy of detaining us on our way to the Peninsula.

It is one of the least interesting of French routes. From Paris you pass through Orleans and Tours. At Chatellerault — between the latter city and Poitiers — the inn-door is besieged by women offering knives for sale. It is everywhere known that cutlery is not one of the departments of French manufactures which have attained the greatest de gree of superiority. A glance at the specimens of fered for our choice while changing horses at Cha tellerault, showed them to be very bad, even for France. This did not, however, prevent a multitude of travellers from purchasing each his knife, nor one of them from laying in a plentiful stock, stating that he destined a knife for each member of his family evidently one of the most numerous in France. I inquired of a native the explanation of this scene, and whether these knives were considered superior to those met with in other towns.

" Oh no," was the reply ; " but it is usual to buy knives here." I ven tured to say I thought them very bad. " That is of no consequence ; because, whenever you have passed through Chatellerault, every one asks you for a knife made on the spot." These victims of custom had paid enormous prices for their acquisitions. Poitiers is a crazy old town, but contains one of the most admirable specimens of the architecture im mediately preceding the pointed, or ogivale, and which the French savans call "the Romane." I allude to the church called " the Notre Dame de Poitiers." The west front is highly ornamented, and unites all the peculiar richness with the quaintness and simplicity of design which characterize that fine old style. I must not omit the forest of Chatellerault, passed through on leaving that town.

It is famous as the scene of the picnic given to the ladies of the neighbouring city by the officers of a Polish regiment quartered there, immediately before the breaking out of the Peninsular war. It is related that Polish gallantry overstepped etiquette to such a degree, and that by premeditation,— as to urge these cavaliers, by force of bayonet, and sentries, to separate all the husbands, and other male relatives, from the fairer por tion of the guests. The consequences of such a termination of the festivities may easily be imagined; Bona parte, a rigid judge with regard to all divorces except his own, on receiving the complaint of the insulted town, condemned the officers en masse to be decimated, and the survivors degraded from their rank. He relented, however, afterwards, on an understanding that they were to regain their sullied laurels in the Peninsula ; where, in fact, in consequence of his orders, such opportunities were afforded them, that scarcely a man in the regiment survived the earliest campaigns.

The inhabitants of Chatellerault are said to take great offence on being asked their age, suspecting the inquirer of a malicious calculation. The new quarter of Bordeaux is handsome, spacious, and airy. In the promenade called " La Quinconce," on the bank of the river, a large insulated edifice, the most monumental in view, is discovered by the inscription on its front to be an establishment for warm baths. At one extremity of the principal facade is seen, in sculptured letters, "Bains des dames ;" at the other, "Bains des hommes." At this latter entrance a handsome staircase leads to the corridor of general communication, on the unsullied white wall of which the code of discipline of the establishment, traced in large sable characters, forces itself on the notice of the visitor. It consists of the following single and rather singular statute : " II est expressement defendu aux garcons de permettre a deux hommes de se servir de la meme baignoire."

After some reflection I concluded it to be a measure of precaution with regard to cleanliness, carried, no doubt, to an extreme at Bordeaux. This town is well deserving of a few days' halt, should the tra veller's object be amusement, or the pleasures of the table, for which it enjoys a well-merited reputation. It is a large and handsome city, the second in France in beauty, and vies with the capital in the elegance of its shops and principal streets. The theatre is, externally, the finest in France ; and there is, besides the cathedral, and surpassing it in interest and an tiquity, a remarkable Gothic church. Of the sixty leagues which separate this town from Bayonne, forty afford the most perfect example of monotony. One sighs for the Steppes of Russia. These are the well-known Landes, consisting of un cultivated sands and morass ; now covered league after league with the unvarying gloom of the pine and cork forests, — now dreary and bare, — but ever presenting to the wearied eye a wide interminable waste, replete with melancholy and desolation.

It is true, that a day of pouring rain was not calculated to set off to advantage the qualities of such a region, and should in strict justice be admitted in evidence before passing condemnation on the Landes.

Letter III. The Basque Provinces

Burgos. It never causes me surprise when I see the efforts made by persons of limited means to obtain the situation of Consul in a continental town. In spite of one's being, as it were, tied to one's residence, — and that not one's home, — there are ad vantages which counterbalance the evil. The place carries with it a certain degree of consequence. One feels oneself suddenly a man of influence, and a respectable public character. I have heard one, certainly far from being high on the list of these func tionaries, termed by a humbler inhabitant of his "residence," the " Premier Consul." The income, too, is, it is true, limited ; but then one is usually in a cheap place. In fact, I always envied these favoured individuals. No calling, how ever, is without its deboires. It seems as if Pro vidence had decreed that an income cannot be fairly, if agreeably, earned.

Thus, the set-off against the bliss of the consul, is the necessity he is under of holding out his hand for his fee. I make these re marks, to introduce to your notice an ingenious method, put in practice— probably invented— by our consul at Bayonne, for getting over the irksomeness of this duty. I found him in his bureau, pen in hand, and a large sheet of official-shaped paper before him, half written over. On my passport being presented for his visa, his countenance assumed a painful expression, in which regret was blended with a sort of tendency to compassion, and which at first occasioned me a sensation of alarm, conjuring up in my imagination all the consequences of an irregular passport — tedious routes to be retraced, time lost, expense incurred, and suspicion, and even in carceration — infection — death !

Meanwhile he pointed to the letter he was writing, and, drawing forward with the other hand a chair, said that he was at that moment memorializing the Foreign Office on the subject of these visas ; that his pain was extreme at seeing travellers compelled to send or come to his office, and to lose thus much valuable time ; he was likewise concerned at their having to pay three francs each for so useless a ceremony as his visa ; but he wished it to be remarked, that it was at present a ceremony quite indispensable ; since, only four days back, a gentleman had been compelled to return from the Spanish frontier (a distance of seven leagues) in the middle of the night, in consequence of his having neglected this, as yet, necessary observance.* Leaving Bayonne by Diligence, although still at some distance from the frontier, you are already in a Spanish vehicle.

The only difference consists in its being drawn by horses as far as Irun, a few hundred yards in Spain, at which place they are replaced by a team of mules ; but the mayoral is Spanish from the commencement, as also usually the greater num ber of the travellers. From the first view of Spanish ground, the monotony of the landscape ceases, and gives place to picturesque scenery. This effect is as sudden as if produced by the whistle of a scene-shifter. From the brow of a hill the valley of the Bidassoa opens on the view, the bay on the right, two or three towns in the centre, and beyond them, stretching to the left, the chain of the Pyrenees. This opening scene is very satisfactory to the newly arrived traveller, whose expectations have been rising towards fever-heat as he gradually neared the object of his dreams — the "renowned romantic land ; " the more so, as he is well prepared, * The very polite individual alluded to no longer fills the post of Consul at Bayonne.

C by the Landes of France, to enjoy to the utmost the variety of scene afforded by the two days of mountain and valley which separate the frontier from the town of Vitoria. The Diligence comes to a halt every afternoon ; the day's journey having commenced at three in the morning. There are three of these days between Bayonne and Burgos. At Tolosa and Vitoria — the intermediate places of rest— the system is as follows : Arriving at about four in the afternoon, an interval is allowed of about two hours, which in a long journey can always be profitably employed, until the meal, called supper. This is Homerically plentiful, and varied sufficiently to suit the tastes of all such as are accustomed to the vicissitudes of travelling. The repast over, all gradually retire to their sleeping apartments, where they are undis turbed until two o'clock in the morning.

At this hour each passenger is furnished with a candle, and requested to get up ; and at a quarter to three the muchacha (chambermaid) reappears, bearing in her hand a plate, on which, after rubbing his eyes, the traveller may discover, if it be allowed so to speak, an imperceptible cup, a xicara,— since, having the thing, they have a name for it, which is of course untranslateable, — of excellent chocolate, an azucarillo (almost transparent sugar prepared for instantaneous melting), a glass of water, and a piece of bread. After partaking of this agreeable re freshment, you have just time left to pay your bill, fold up your passport, which during the night has remained in the hands of the police, and to take your seat in the Diligence. The towns of the Basque provinces appear not to have been much maltreated during the Carlist war ; not so the villages, most of which present a melancholy aspect of ruin and desolation.

The churches, built so as to appear more like keeps of castles, have mostly withstood the shock. The destruction was oftener the result of burning than of artillery. The lover of the picturesque offers his silent gratitude to the combatants on both sides, for sparing, although unintentionally, some of the most charming objects of all Spain. Among the most striking of these is Hernani. It is composed of one street, of the exact required width for the passage of an ordinary vehicle. This street is a perfect specimen of picturesque originality. The old facades are mostly emblazoned with the bearings of their ancient proprietors, sculptured in high relief. On entering the place, the effect is that of a deep twilight after the broad blaze of the sunny mountains. This is caused by the almost flat roofs, which advance considerably beyond the c fronts of the houses, and nearly meet in the centre of the street: the roof of each house is either higher or lower, or more or less projecting, than its neighbour ; and all are supported by carved wood-work, black from age.

The street terminates on the brow of a hill, and widens at the end, so as to form a small square, one retreating side of which is occupied by the front of a church covered with old sculpture ; and the diligence, preceded by its long team of tinkling mules, disappears through the arched gateway of a Gothic castle. In this part of Spain one does not hear the sounds of the guitar ; these commence further on. On Sundays and holy days, the fair of Tolosa, and of the other Basque towns, flourish their castagnettes to the less romantic winnings of the violin ; but, in traversing the country, the ear is continually met by a sound less musical, although no less national, than that of the guitar— a sort of piercing and loud complaint, comparable to nothing but the screams of those who have " relinquished hope " at Dante's grim gateway.

These unearthly accents assail the ear of the traveller long before he can perceive the object whence they proceed; but, becoming louder and louder, there will issue from a narrow road, or rather ravine, a diminutive cart, shut in between two small round tables for wheels. Their voice proceeds from their junction with the axle, by a contrivance, the nature of which I did not examine closely enough to describe. A French tourist ex presses much disgust at this custom, which he attributes to the barbarous state of his neighbours, and their ignorance of mechanical art ; it is, how ever, much more probable that the explanation given by the native population is the correct one. According to this, the wheels are so constructed for the useful purpose of forewarning all other drivers of the approach of a cart.