Copy 1, 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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    end ; slowly, it is true, for where leagues and hours are convertible terms, the distance is regulated by the day-light. Bridle-roads, and travelling on horse- back, the former systems of Europe, are very Spanish and Oriental: where people journey on horse and mule back, the road is of minor importance. In the remoter provinces of Spain the population is agricultural and poverty- stricken. Each family provides for its simple habits and few wants : having but little money to buy foreign commodities, they are clad and fed, like the Bedouin, with the productions of their own fields and flocks. There is little circulation of persons ; a neighbouring “feria,” or fair, is the mart where they obtain the annual supply of whatever luxury they can indulge in, or it is brought to their cottages by wandering muleteers, “ arrieros, or by the smug- gler, the “ contrabandist it,” who is the type and channel of the Teally active principle of trade in three-fourths of the Peninsula. It is wonderful how soon a well-mounted traveller becomes attached to travelling on horseback, and how quickly he becomes reconciled to a state of roads which, startling at first to those accustomed to carriage highways, are found to answer perfectly for all the purposes of the place and people where they are found. 5. MODES OF CORRESPONDENCE AND TRAVELLING IN SPAIN. POST-OFFICE. A system of post, both for the dispatch of letters and the conveyance of couriers, was introduced into Spain under Philip and Juana, that is, towards the end of the reign of our Henry VII., whereas it was scarcely organised in England before the government of Cromwell. Spain, which in these matters, as well as in many others, was once so much in advance, is now compelled to borrow her improvements from those nations of which she formerly was the in- structress : among these may be reckoned all travelling in carriages, whether public or private. The ancient system was to travel on horseback ; and, in fact, riding is still the national mode of travelling among the majority of hum- bler Spaniards. Travelling in a carriage with post-horses was brought into vogue by the Bourbons, but never extended much beyond the road leading from Madrid to France, and those of Ararijuez, the Escorial, and other royal “Sitios, or places of the king's summer residence near Madrid. Even this limited accommodation was much interrupted by the unsettled events of the last, forty years. Posting, as it is managed on other parts of the Continent, can scarcely be considered practicable in Spain except on one road—that from Bayonne to Madrid. Occasionally, by making arrangements beforehand with the diflerent postmasters, who horse the Sillas correos and the diligences, a jour- ney may be performed on the other great roads. It is, however, an undertaking of nich trouble and uncertainty that few ever have recourse to it. • i * ^’Vre ‘*e ^oste>” or official post-book for Spain, was published in 1/61 by Campomanes, by the direction of Richard Wall, an Irishman who was prime minister to Charles III., the greatest builder, road-maker, and general admnnstrador of Spanish sovereigns. This book was well got up, and contains much curious information in regard to the earlier arrangements of posting It continued to form the base of all the works of that kind until 1810 when a Livre de Poste” was published by the French authorities; which’, ugh remarkable for their excellent method and classification, was full of ofJ'ames, Tacts, and distances. At last Ferdinand VII., in 1830, jt ' °?, F?ci«co Xavier de Cabanes to prepare a really correct book. Cbrr«, oPlled fTr' °.fficlal documents, and was entitled “ Guta General <U tration,’ni-°* n*’.iy Can.nn?t\. 1118 t0 be procured at the post-office adminis- a le principal towns, and can be strongly recommended to the