Southern Spain, Painted by Trevor Haddon, Described by A. F. Calvert
FEW travellers have leisure enough to traverse the wide realm of tawny Spain in its every part. Those who must confine their attention to a single province naturally select Andalusia, where all the Northerner's preconceptions of the South find realization. The wild scenery of Southern Spain, the gay open-air life of the people, the monuments attesting the splendour of the extinct civilization of the Moor, the spell of romance which still holds its cities, makes this land one of the most interesting and fascinating in Europe to the artist, the archæologist, and the dreamer.
The present volume, mainly the embodiment of personal impressions and observations, is intended partly to supply the place of a guide-book to this part of the Peninsula, and with that object I have brought together as much of history, art, and topography as the traveller is likely to assimilate. Into the descriptive matter I have introduced a little gossip, which will, I hope, be not found altogether irrelevant, and may serve to beguile the tedium of a bare recital of facts.
While I have endeavoured to make the book as useful to travellers as within the prescribed limits was possible, I have essayed to give it, by means of the illustrations, a more permanent value. It is on the brush rather than on the pen that I have relied to convey an idea of the gorgeous panorama of Southern Spain, and to recall to the returned traveller his impressions of the land.
As a vade-mecum , then, for the tourist, and as an album and souvenir of the fairest portion of the realm of the Catholic King, I hope that the present volume will be of use to the public, despite the shortcomings it doubtless contains. For rendering these as few as possible, I have to thank several friends who have looked through the proofs. To one in particular, Mr. E. B. d'Auvergne, I am indebted for various scraps of original and entertaining information.
A. F. CALVERT.
The Illustrations in this Volume have been engraved and printed in England by THE MENPES PRESS, London and Watford