Spain in 1830, vol. 2

SPAIN IN 1830.



BY HENRY D. INGLIS, AUTHOR OF “SOLITARY WALKS THROUGH MANY LANDS;” “A JOURNEY THROUGH NORWAY,” &c. &c. IN TWO VOLS. —————— VOL. II. —————— LONDON: WHITTAKER, TREACHER, AND CO., AVE-MARIA LANE. ——— 1831. LONDON: PRINTED BY S. MANNING AND CO., London-house-yard, St. Paul’s.



Different Modes of Travelling to Seville; Journey to Aranjuez; the Gardens of Aranjuez; Ocana; a Spanish Supper; Polinario, the ci-devant Robber; History of his Change of Life; La Mancha, and Journey to Manzanarez; Madridlejos and its Population; Husbandry of La Mancha; Puerto Lapiche, and References to Don Quixotte; Manzanarez; Journey to the foot of the Sierra Morena; Consolacion, and its miserable People; Val de Peñas and its Wine, and Details; Explanation of a Passage in Don Quixotte; the Venta de Cardenas, and the Sierra Morena; Mountain Images; Journey on muleback across the Sierra Morena; the New Settlements, and their Condition; Descent into Andalusia; Novel Prospects; Baylen; a Defence against Mosquitos; Picturesque Views; Anduxar; Journey from Anduxar to Cordova; the Plain of the Guadalquivir; extraordinary Aloes, and Uses of the Aloe; charming Situation of Cordova; its former Splendour and present Wretchedness; Lead Mines; the Mosque; Journey to Seville; Striking Views; Political Sentiments of a Barber of Ecija; Carmona; View of Seville, and Arrival.
The heats of summer had now so far subsided, as to justify a change from the elevated plain of Castile, to the warm shores of Andalusia. Accordingly, being provided by the kindness of my friends in Madrid, with letters for the captains-general of the southern provinces, and for numerous private individuals, all which, together with the letters to his majesty’s consuls, and to mercantile houses, brought with me from England, formed a budget of no contemptible size or value, I prepared for my long and fatiguing journey.
But although, in leaving Madrid to traverse the southern and south-eastern provinces of Spain, the traveller naturally anticipates in this journey of not less than sixteen hundred miles, many privations, and some dangers; there are also a thousand delightful and novel associations to excite his expectation. La Mancha, and the memory of its courteous knight; and the thousand reminiscences with which the genius of Cervantes has hallowed it,—the Sierra Morena, and its wild histories and lawless banditti,—Seville, which, with its orange groves and Guadalquivir, its masks and serenades, holds in the mind a sort of fabled existence,—Granada, its Alhambra, and snowy Sierras, and the host of historic and romantic recollections with which it is peopled,—Murcia, and its groves of date trees, its earthquakes, and ruined villages, and benighted inhabitants. Valencia, and its rich plains and eternal summer, its gorgeous city and majestic antiquities.