We that evening dined luxuriously on one of the great continental standing dishes: "Cock and Salad"—notwithstanding that the former article looked, if it did not taste, as if it had departed this life, not by violence, but from some natural disease. Being in Spain, we called for a bottle of Sherry or Xeres, the first glassful of which took us by the throat like a bull-dog and held us there. The next morning, after breakfasting at the cheerful hour of five upon tea which, when analytically considered, seemed to consist chiefly of chopped broomsticks and dead flies, we started by train for the Escorial.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] The Manzanares.
[9] The engineer, Señor Lucio del Valle, was created Marqués del Lozoya.
[10] The Annual of Public Instruction, nevertheless, gives a pompous list of national libraries and their contents. The number of volumes contained in those establishments is 1,166,595, spread over the capital and provinces. The library of Madrid alone contains 390,000; that of the Central University, 300,000; of Barcelona, 136,000; and of Salamanca, 55,000. There are similar institutions not only on the Continent, but in the Balearic and Canary Isles; that of Palma and Majorca contains 35,000 volumes, and that of Mahon nearly 11,000. As to the archives, the entire history of the country, of its customs and political life, may be said to be represented in them. There are 70,278 packets of papers in the old palace of Simancas, 35,000 at Alcala de Henares, 34,000 in the archives of the Crown of Aragon, and 97,000 in the national historical record office. As regards the public instruction of Spain, there are at present 27,000 infant schools; 77 institutions for training teachers, and 5 for the deaf and dumb or blind.
[11] Antioch.
[12] The Virgin in Spain, besides having a wardrobe equal to that of a dozen earthly queens, and a collection of jewels which would take Messrs. Hancock and Emmanuel months to value, always wears a royal crown, and ranks as queen. Her household consists of the noblest and haughtiest dames in the country, and she possesses landed estates, the revenues of which are invested for the maintenance of her worship, processions, &c.