Wanderings in Spain — Themes and Context

FROM PARIS TO BORDEAUX. PAGE Departure from Paris--Subterranean Dwellings--Château Regnault-- Tours--Châtellerault--Angoulême--The _Landes_--Cubzac--Bordeaux-- The Theatre--The Cathedral--St. Michael's Tower--Mummified Corpses--The Museum 1

FROM BORDEAUX TO VERGARA.

The _Landes_--Arrival at Bayonne--Information for Travellers-- Urrugne--Saint Jean de Luz--Human Smuggling--Bridge over the Bidassoa--Irun--Travelling with Mules--Primitive Carts--Beggar Children--Spanish Bridges--Oyarzun--Astigarraga--A Spanish Supper--Puchero--Arrival at Vergara 11

FROM VERGARA TO BURGOS.

Vergara--Vittoria: the Baile Nacional and the French Hercules-- The Passage of Pancorbo--The Asses and the Greyhounds--Burgos-- A Spanish Fonda--Galley Slaves in Cloaks--The Cathedral--The Coffer of the Cid 20

The Cloisters; Paintings and Sculptures--The Cid's House; the Casa del Cordon; the Puerta de Santa Maria--The Theatre and the Actors--La Cartuja de Miraflores--General Thibaut and the Cid's bones 34

FROM BURGOS TO MADRID.

El Correo Real; the Galeras--Valladolid--San Pablo--A Representation of Hernani--Santa Maria--Madrid 47

Bull-fights--The Arena--Calesins--Espadas, Chulos, Banderilleros, and Picadores--Sevilla the Picador--La Estocada a Vuela Pies 59

The Prado--The Mantilla and Fan--The Spanish Type--Water-Merchants; Coffee-houses of Madrid--Newspapers--The Politicians of the Puerta del Sol--Post-Office--The Houses of Madrid--Tertullias; Spanish Society--The Teatro del Principe--The Queen's Palace; the Palace of the Cortes, and the Monument of the Dos de Mayo--The Armeria and El Buen Retiro 73

VISIT TO THE ESCURIAL.

Aridity and Desolation of the Country--First View of the Escurial-- Sombre appearance of the building--The Church--The blind Cicerone-- The Pantheon Pictures--Anecdote of Spanish Robbers 103

Illescas--The Puerta del Sol--Toledo--The Alcazar--The Cathedral-- The Gregorian and Mozarabic Ritual--Our Lady of Toledo--San Juan de los Reyes--The Synagogue--Galiana, Karl, and Bradamant--The Bath of Florinda--The Grotto of Hercules--The Cardinal's Hospital--Toledo Blades 113

Procession of the Corpus Christi at Madrid--Aranjuez--A Patio Ocaña and its Environs--Tembleque and its Garters--A Night at Manzanares-- Santa Cruz Knives--The Puerto de los Perros--Colony of Carolina--Baylen--Jaen, its Cathedral and its Majos--Granada--The Alameda--The Alhambra--The Generalife--The Albaycin--Life at Granada--The Gitanos--The Carthusian Convent--Santo Domingo-- Ascent of the Mulhacen 144

FROM GRANADA TO MALAGA.

The Robbers and Cosarios of Andalusia--Alhama--Malaga--Travelling Students--A Bull-Fight--Montes--The Theatre 208

FROM MALAGA TO SEVILLE.

Four-wheeled galera--Caratraca--The "Mayoral"--Ecija--The "Calle de los Caballeros"--La Carlotta--Cordova--The Archangel Raphael-- The Mosque--Caliph Abderama--The Guadalquiver--Road to Seville 236

Seville--The Cristina--The Torre del Oro--Italica--The Cathedral-- The Giralda--The Alcazar--The Caridad and Don Juan de Marana 258

FROM CADIZ TO BARCELONA AND HOME.

Cadiz--Visit to the brig "Le Voltigeur"--The Rateros--Jeres-- Bull-fights--The Steamer--Gibraltar--Carthagena--Valencia--The Lonja de Seda--The Convent de la Merced--The Valencians-- Barcelona--The Return to France 274

THE GATE OF VIVARAMBLA _Frontispiece._

THE BRIDGE OF IRUN _Vignette in Title._

CLOISTERS, BURGOS CATHEDRAL 30

PUERTA DE SANTA MARIA 41

SEVILLA THE PICADOR 66

LADIES ON THE PRADO 75

FOUNTAIN AT MADRID 80

WELL DE LAS ALGIVES, ALHAMBRA 180

EXTERIOR OF THE ALHAMBRA 182

PAVILION OF THE COURT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA 185

FOUNTAIN, COURT OF LIONS, ALHAMBRA 187

MALAGA FROM THE ALAMEDA 219

CHAPEL IN MOSQUE, CORDOVA 253

MOORISH MILLS, CORDOVA 255

HALL OF DON PEDRO, THE ALCAZAR, SEVILLE 270

CITY GATE, VALENCIA 297

FROM PARIS TO BORDEAUX.

Departure from Paris--Subterranean Dwellings--Château-Regnault--Tours--Châtellerault--Angoulême--The _Landes_--Cubzac--Bordeaux--The Theatre--The Cathedral--St. Michael's Tower--Mummified Corpses--the Museum.

A few weeks ago (April, 1840), I happened, in an off-hand manner, to give utterance to the following phrase:--"I should like to go to Spain." Five or six days afterwards, my friends had suppressed the prudent "I should like," with which I had qualified my wish, and had told every one who chose to listen that I was about to undertake a trip to Spain. This positive formula was soon followed by the interrogation, "When do you set out?" while I, without thinking of the obligation under which I was placing myself, replied, "In a week." At the end of the week people began to manifest some astonishment at seeing me still in Paris. "I thought you were at Madrid," said one. "What! come back?" asked another. I saw at once that I owed my friends an absence of several months, and that I must pay the debt with the least possible delay, unless I wished to be mercilessly pursued, without a moment's respite, by my obliging creditors. The lobbies of the theatres, the various asphaltic and bituminous pavements of the Boulevards, were to me forbidden luxuries for the time being. All I could obtain was the grace of three or four days, and on the 5th of May I commenced relieving my native land of my importunate presence, by scrambling into the Bordeaux diligence.