[146] The women of mediæval Spain had few amusements besides riding. Another—though owing to the temperate climate it must have been on few occasions—was skating, since this inventory mentions “two pairs of skates, for a man, for travelling over ice. Two pairs of skates, for the same purpose, for a woman.” This entry almost matches in its quaintness with the “irons for mustaches,” or the “triggers for extracting teeth,” set forth in Spanish documents such as the Tassa General of 1627.
[147] This prohibition was not inopportune. Swinburne wrote towards the end of the eighteenth century; “Having occasion one day for a coach to carry us about, the stable-boy of our inn offered his services, and in a quarter of an hour brought to the door a coach and four fine mules, with two postillions and a lacquey, all in flaming liveries; we found they belonged to a countess, who, like the rest of the nobility, allows her coachman to let out her equipage when she has no occasion for it; it cost us about nine shillings, which no doubt was the perquisite of the servants.”
[148] Towns still exist in Spain where vehicles are not allowed to proceed at more than a walking-pace through any of the streets. One of such towns is Argamasilla de Alba (of Don Quixote fame), where I remember to have read a notice to this effect, painted, by order of the mayor, on a house-wall of the principal thoroughfare.
[149] A royal degree of 1619 disposed that “every one who sows and tills twenty-five fanegas of land each year, may use a coach.”
[150] The estufa (literally stove) was a form of family-coach. The furlon is described in an old dictionary as “a coach with four seats and hung with leather curtains.”
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The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and formatting have been maintained.