Volume 1

A hand-book for travellers in Spain, and readers at home. Describing the country and cities, the natives and their manners, the antiquities, religion, legends, fine arts, literature, sports, and gastronomy : with notices on Spanish history.

  • John Murray (Firm)
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A hand-book for travellers in Spain, and readers at home. Describing the country and cities, the natives and their manners, the antiquities, religion, legends, fine arts, literature, sports, and gastronomy : with notices on Spanish history. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more is now aimed at than a mere book of roads, or description of the husk of the country. To see the cities, and know the minds of men, has been, since the days of the Odyssey, the object of travel; but how difficult is it, in the words of “ the Duke” (Disp., Dec. 13, 1810), “ to understand the Spaniards exactly !” Made up of contra- dictions, they dwell in the land of the unexpected, le pays de Vimprevu, where exception is the rule, where accident and the impulse of the moment are the moving powers, and where men, especially in their collective capacity, act like women and children. A spark, a trifle, sets the impressionable masses in action, and none can foreseethe commonest event; nor does any Spaniard ever attempt to guess beyond la situacion actual, or to foretell what the morrow will bring; that he leaves to the foreigner, who does not understand him. Paciencia y barajar is his motto; and he waits patiently to see what next will turn up after another shuffle, for his creed and practice are “Resignation,” the Islam of the Oriental. The key to decypher this singular people is scarcely European, since this Berberia Cristiana is at least a neutral ground between the hat and the turban, and many contend that Africa begins even at the Pyrenees. Be that as it may, Spain, first civilised by the Phoe- nicians, and long possessed by the Moors, has indelibly retained the original impressions. Test her, therefore, and her natives by an Oriental standard, how analogous does much appear that is strange and repugnant, if compared with European usages! This land and people of routine and habit are also potted for anti- quarians, for here Pagan, Roman, and Eastern customs, long ob- solete elsewhere, turn up at every step in church and house, in ca- binet and campaign, as we shall carefully point out. Again, here are those seas which reflect the glories of Drake, Rooke, and Nelson, and those plains that are hallowed by the vic- tories of the Black Prince, Stanhope, and Wellington ; and what English pilgrim will fail to visit such sites, or be dead to the religio loci which they inspire ? And where better than on the scenes themselves can be read the great deeds of our soldiers and sailors, their gallantry and good conduct, the genius, mercy, and integrity of their immortal chiefs, which will he here faithfully yet not boastingly recorded ? But the mirror that shall truly reflect Spain and her things, her glories and shame, must disclose a chequered picture in which dark s adows will contrast with bright lights, and the evil clash with the good; sad, indeed, will be many a page; alas! for the works of