In spite of its formidable defences, Wellington besieged Pamplona in 1813, after his victory at Vittoria, and took it after a brief resistance.
PAMPLONA TO SAN SEBASTIAN
Leaving by the gateway called the Puerta Nueva, one crosses the River Arga, and goes north-westward on a level dusty road. The city, with its double tier of ramparts and its church towers, soon becomes a distant object in the narrow plain set about with blue mountain peaks. On getting closer to the rocky heights the crumpled and distorted stratification becomes visible, as well as the intrusive masses of pale grey rock.
All the level ground is under cultivation, and the Basque method of digging with the laya can be frequently seen, for the Navarrais of the northern half of the province of Navarre scarcely differ at all from the Basques, and have the same language and physique. In the southern half of the province the people speak Spanish, and have the same characteristics and the same failings as the Spaniards.
A few rather dilapidated villages are passed, and then a road to the right is taken. It leads at once straight up to a narrow cleft in a great glacis of forbidding grey rock. It almost takes one’s breath away to approach such a natural fortress in a car, but the road is encouraging, and one drives through the yawning portal into a narrow ravine, where a noisy stream of very green water rushes among boulders just below the road. Every few minutes it seems as though there can be no way out of the gorge, and that the road will either run into a quarry or a tunnel, but a fresh bend always shows a good stretch of road in front. Holly and beech grow on the precipitous slopes, and teasels and Christmas roses are passed. A rabbit is never seen, but sometimes a few sheep appear among the rocks.
A notice-board warns the driver of a big descent with a rough surface and hairpin corners and views of distant mountains, after which the road continues in a ravine for several miles, descending always. There are a few more villages, but little chance of a good déjeuner before reaching Tolosa. The valley gradually opens out a little, the scenery becomes tamed with agriculture, and soon after the road has turned towards the north one enters
TOLOSA
It is a small town with two narrow, shadowy streets running parallel and quite close together, with a collection of new houses with bright red roofs, and some cloth and paper mills scattered promiscuously outside the old nucleus. The Church of Santa Maria, passed on the right, has an elaborately ornamental classic front, and the interior decorated with local marble.
At the village of Andoain there is a fork where the turning to the left is taken, and a beautiful road follows a river to Lascarte, where one goes to the right for San Sebastian, passing a number of factories, and then coming out to a delicious view of great green waves foaming on to the rocks of the bay of
SAN SEBASTIAN