I have moved out of O’Neill’s house to the one I formerly occupied, which is warmer and smaller, and have just laid in 1500 cwt. of dry olive wood, which I wish I could present you with. O’Neill’s administrador, who is a regular skinflint, has taken to his bed, in consequence of the loss of a tenant who paid 35 reals a day for a Caseron which will never again be relet. Here they say that he is coming to Seville for his Quartel.
Amarillas has been well received at Granada, where the joy at having got rid of that scoundrel Moreno is unbounded; above 500 prisoners have been let out of the dungeons there. In spite of his passport, he ordered Mr. Lewis out of Granada at two hours’ notice, but relented on an application of Don José.
Mark, who is always the conqueror, has got all the original correspondence between Torrijos and Moreno, which I hear beats cockfighting. They say Moreno has fled into Portugal.
Quesada is making rare reforms in the police, and the Andalucians are dancing Fandangos with delight.
I am expecting Mr. Lewis from Granada, and am going to take him into my house. I look forward to his Alhambra drawings, and hope my wife will make some good copies of them. She is, I am very sorry to say, in a most delicate state, and cruelly pulled down. People are all in high spirits and looking forward to changes and improvements which they will never see realised. The Queen very popular, and, if the King exchange a terrestrial for an immortal crown, she will here have a strong party.
Sevilla, Saturday, 15 [December 1832].
As soon as I received your Walter Scott[33] prospectuses I sent one to Arjona, the assistente, another to Quesada, and another to the editor of the Diario. If you send any more, it will be as well to add a postscript, saying who Walter Scott was, whether he was a Frenchman or a German, whether he wrote Verses or dealt in Bacalao [dried cod-fish], as there is no one here who has yet heard of him, and all, like Lord Westmorland when asked to subscribe to the monument of Watt, are asking what’s what. However, if he had written the Song of Solomon, and been as notorious as the Cid, the devil a cuarto would any Spaniard subscribe, and I do not expect one peseta from Andalucia. The Major is occupied in buying a horse; Colonel Buller in buying cloth for new trousers, on which he descants till even tailors cry ohe! jam satis est. I am buying meat and drink for my family. All these matter-of-fact expenses militate against handing over dollars for the decoration of a bleak northern capital.
We are about to lose Quesada, who goes to Madrid; but he is replaced by a better officer and a far higher-bred gentleman, Amarillas; so that, as far as we are concerned, we rather gain. Madame Quesada is one of the most agreeable, graciosas y chistosas [gay] of all Gaditanas, and, if you fall in her way, pray become acquainted with her.
We are all going on here in our usual humdrum manner, my wife certainly much better. I have just bought her a horse, and she is having a splendid Maja riding-habit made, which will make the Andaluças die of envy; black, with innumerable lacing and tagging, and a profusion of silver filigree buttons.
I have Don Luis staying in my house, he has made some beautiful sketches of Granada, and is very busy with Sevilla.