LETTERS
FROM
SPAIN.
BY
DON LEUCADIO DOBLADO.
SECOND EDITION.
REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1825.
J. GREEN, PRINTER, LEICESTER-STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.
PREFACE
TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
That a work like the present should appear in a Second Edition, implies such a reception from the Public as demands the most sincere gratitude on my part. I am anxious, therefore, to make the only return I have in my power, by adding, as I conceive, some value to the work itself; not, indeed, from any material corrections, but by stamping the facts and descriptions which it contains, with the character of complete authenticity. The readers of Doblado’s Letters may be sure that in them they have the real Memoirs of the person whose name is subscribed to this address. Even the disguise of that name was so contrived, as to be a mark of identity. Leucadio being derived from a Greek root which means white, the word Doblado was added, in allusion to the repetition of my family name, translated into Spanish, which my countrymen have forced upon us, to avoid the difficulty of an orthography and sound, perfectly at variance with their language. In short, Doblado and his inseparable friend, the Spanish clergyman, are but one and the same person; whose origin, education, feelings, and early turn of thinking, have been made an introduction to the personal observations on his country, which, with a deep sense of their kindness, he again lays before the British Public.
JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE.
Chelsea, June 1st, 1825.
PREFACE
TO THE
FIRST EDITION.
Some of the following Letters have been printed in the New Monthly Magazine.
The Author would, indeed, be inclined to commit the whole collection to the candour of his readers without a prefatory address, were it not that the plan of his Work absolutely requires some explanation.
The slight mixture of fiction which these Letters contain, might raise a doubt whether the sketches of Spanish manners, customs, and opinions, by means of which the Author has endeavoured to pourtray the moral state of his country at a period immediately preceding, and in part coincident with the French invasion, may not be exaggerated by fancy, and coloured with a view to mere effect.
It is chiefly on this account that the Author deems it necessary to assure the Public of the reality of every circumstance mentioned in his book, except the name of Leucadio Doblado. These Letters are in effect the faithful memoirs of a real Spanish clergyman, as far as his character and the events of his life can illustrate the state of the country which gave him birth.
Doblado’s Letters are dated from Spain, and, to preserve consistency, the Author is supposed to have returned thither after a residence of some years in England. This is another fictitious circumstance. Since the moment when the person disguised under the above name left that beloved country, whose religious intolerance has embittered his life—that country which, boasting, at this moment, of a free constitution, still continues to deprive her children of the right to worship God according to their own conscience—he has not for a day quitted England, the land of his ancestors, and now the country of his choice and adoption.
It is not, however, from pique or resentment that the Author has dwelt so long and so warmly upon the painful and disgusting picture of Spanish bigotry. Spain, “with all her faults,” is still and shall ever be the object of his love. But since no man, within the limits of her territory, can venture to lay open the canker which, fostered by religion, feeds on the root of her political improvements; be it allowed a self-banished Spaniard to describe the sources of such a strange anomaly in the New Constitution of Spain, and thus to explain to such as may not be unacquainted with his name as a Spanish writer, the true cause of an absence which might otherwise be construed into a dereliction of duty, and a desertion of that post which both nature and affection marked so decidedly for the exertion of his humble talents.
Chelsea, June 1822.
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
Mistakes of Travellers.—Townsend’s Accuracy.—View of Cadiz from the Sea.—Religion blended with Public and Domestic Life in Spain.—Customs relating to the Host or Eucharist.—Manners and Society at Cadiz.—Passage by Sea to Port Saint Mary’s.—St. Lucar.—Passage up the Guadalquivir to Seville.—Construction and internal Economy of the Houses in that Town.—Knocking, and greeting at the Door.—Devotion of the People of Seville to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
LETTER II.
Difficulty of describing National Characters.—Nobles and Plebeians, in Spain.—Purity of Blood.—Tizon de España.—Grandees.—Hidalgos in Low Life.—Execution of an Hidalgo.—Spanish Pride, visible among the Lower Classes.—Usual Employment of Day at Seville.—Spanish Politeness.—Absence of Jealousy in Modern Times.—Dinner.—Siesta.—Public Walks.—Dress of the Spanish Ladies.—Various Uses of the Fan.—Character of the Spanish Females.
Eagerness of Free-thinking Spaniards to become acquainted, and their quickness in knowing one another. Inclosure of a detached Paper, intituled A few Facts connected with the Formation of the Intellectual and Moral Character of a Spanish Clergyman.
Importance of examining the Tendency of Catholicism.—Account of two highly devout Roman Catholics.—Auricular Confession.—Education of a Spanish Boy.—Evils arising from the Celibacy of the Clergy.—Education under the Jesuits.—Congregation of Saint Philip Neri.—Exercises of Saint Ignatius.—Aristotelic Philosophy taught by the Dominicans.—Feyjoo’s Works.—Spanish Universities and Colleges, called Mayores.—Indirect Influence of the Inquisition on the State of Knowledge in Spain.—Mental Struggles of a young Spaniard on points connected with the established System of Faith.—Impressions produced by the Ceremony of Catholic Ordination.—Unity and Consistency of the Catholic System.—Train of Thought and Feeling leading to the final Rejection of Catholicism.
LETTER IV.
On Bull-fights, and other National Customs connected with those Amusements.
LETTER V.
A Journey to Osuna and Olvera.—A Spanish Country Inn.—The Play El Diablo Predicador.—Souls in Purgatory begged for: Lottery of Purgatory.—Character of Two Nuns at Osuna.—A Country Vicar.—Customs at Olvera.—Tapadas, or veiled Females.—A Dance.—The Riberas’ Lamp.
LETTER VI.
The Yellow Fever at Seville, in 1800.—Spiritual Methods of stopping its progress.—Alcalá de Guadaíra escapes the infection.—Two Spanish Missionaries.—The Virgin of the Eagle.—The Dawn Rosary.—State of Seville after the disappearance of the Disorder.
LETTER VII.
Monks and Friars.—Instances of gross misconduct among them.—Their Influence.—Brother Sebastian and Charles III.—The Carthusians.—Hermits near Cordova.
LETTER VIII.
Nuns.—Motives for taking the Veil.—Circumstances attending that Ceremony.—Account of a young Lady compelled by her Mother to take the Monastic Vows.—Escrúpulos, or Religious Anxiety.—Spiritual Flirtation.—Nun Doctors.
LETTER IX.
Memorandums of some Andalusian Customs and Festivals.—Saint Sebastian’s Day: Carnival, [p. 230].—Ash-Wednesday, [p. 239].—Mid-lent, [p. 243].—Passion, or Holy Week, [p. 245].—Passion Wednesday, [p. 251].—Thursday in the Passion Week, [p. 252].—Good Friday, [p. 258].—Saturday before Easter, [p. 264].—May Cross, [p. 267].—Corpus Christi, [p. 268].—Saint John’s Eve, [p. 274].—Saint Bartholomew, [p. 277].—Detached Prejudices and Practices, [p. 280].—Funerals of Infants and Maids, [p. 282].—Spanish Christian Names, [p. 286].—Christmas, [p. 288].
LETTER X.
A Sketch of the Court of Madrid, in the Reign of Charles the Fourth, and the Intrigues connected with the Influence of the Prince of the Peace.
LETTER XI.
Private Life at Madrid.—Pretendientes.—Literary Characters.
Events connected with the beginning of the French Invasion.—The Escurial at the Time of the Arrest of the Prince of Asturias.—Revolution at Aranjuez and Madrid.—Massacre of the 2d of May, 1808.
LETTER XIII.
State of Spain at the time of the general Rising against the French, as observed in a Journey from Madrid to Seville, through the Province of Estremadura.
APPENDIX.—An Account of the Suppression of the Jesuits in Spain.
NOTES.
LETTERS FROM SPAIN.