Ai Ai 0: 0: 1 \ 4; 2i 3i 9\ 2: 7' \ i *. %'r LETTERS FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. Prbiied by IK Pople,^ Old Boiicell Court, Strand. LETTERS written during A JOURNEY IN SPAIN, AND A SHORT RESIDENCE IN PORTUGAL, BY ROBERT SOUTHEY, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. THIRD EDITION, CORRECTED AND AMENDED, Contion : PRINTED FOR LONGftlAX, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1808. pc> LIBRARY Q^/ / UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Q^Jf SANTA BARBARA PREFACE. In the following letters I have related what I have seen. Of the anecdotes with which they abound, there are none of which I myself doubt the authenticity. There are no disquisi- tions on commerce and politics ; I have given facts, and the Reader may comment for himself The book is written with scrupulous veracity ; I have never in the sliij;litest instance enlivened the narrative by deviating from plain truth. I have represented things as they appeared to me. If any one better informed than I am should find me erroneous, I shall beg him to apply this story : Yl. PREFACE. A friend of mine landed at Falmouth ■with a Russian who had never before been in England. They travelled to- gether to Exeter j on vi ay the Rus- sian saw a directing-post, of which the inscription was effaced. *' I did not think till now (said he) that you erect- ed Crucifixes in England.' His com- panion rectified the error, and seeing close by it the waggon direction, ** take off litre,*' he added — '* had you re- turned home with this mistake, you ■would have said not only that the Eng- lish erected Crosses by the \; ay-side, but that stones were placed telling the passenger where to take off his hat, and where it was permitted him to put it on again." CONTENTS. LETTER I. Pa5& Voyage to Corima. Appearance of the Galician Coast. Custom-house. Accommodalions. Carts at Co- runa, . . .1 LETTER IL Theatre. Dress. Maragatos. Jew lousy of the Government. Walk among the Mountains. Monumen- tal Crosses. Tower of Hercules. . 1 1 CON-TENTS. LETTER XI. Page Queen, of Spain. Museum. Fiesta de NflvWos. Progrtss of French Principles. . . •199 LETTER XIL Departure from Madrid. Naval Carnero. Tulaveyra de la Heyne. Road to Naval Moral. . 213 LETTER XIII. Forest of the Escurial Friars. Royal Travelling. Puente de Jlmarez. IKaraizejo. Truxillo. Tale of a Spanish Mrostator. . .231 LETTERS FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. LETTER I. Vo'jage to Coriina. Appearance of the Ga~ liciaii Coast. Custom house. Accommo- dations. Carts at Coruna. CoRUNA, Sunday, Dec. 13, 1795. When first I went on board the Spa- nish Packet, the mate was employed in cutting across upon the side of his birth, and the sailors were feasting upon a mess of biscuit, onions, liver, and horse beans, boiled into a brown pap, which they were all pawing out of a bucket. The same taste and cleanliness of cookery VOL. I. B 2 were displayed in the only dinner they afforded us on the passage; and the same spirit of devotion made them^when the wind blew hard, turn in to bed and to prayers. Our voyage was rough and unpleasant ; on the fifth morning, how- ever, the wind became favourable, and we arrived in sight of Cape Finisterre. The coast of Galicia presented a wild and desolate prospect ; a long tract of sk)ne mountains, one rising above ano- ther, not a tree or bush upon their bar- ren sides ; and the waves breaking at their base with such prodigious violence as to be visible many leagues distant. The sun shone over the land, and half hiding it by the morning mists, gave a transitory beauty. If the eye cannot be filled by an object of vaster sublimity than the boundless ocean, when beheld from shore, neither can it ever dwell on a more delightful prospect than that of j^nd, dimly discovered from the sea and gradually growing distinct. We passed by a little island, seven leagues from Coruiia, and one of our fellow passengers who knew the country observed, on pointing it out to us, that it was only inhabited by hares and rabbits. A Swede, (who had a httle before obliged me wilh a lecture on the pronunciation of the English language) made a curious blun- der in his reply, confounding the vowels a and o ; ''As for de vinimin," said he, " dey may be very good — but de robers *' i should not like at all." We dropt anchor in the harbour at one o'clock, as hungry as Englishmen may be supposed to be after five days imprisonment in a Spanish Packet, and with that eagerness to be on shore, which no one can imagine who has never been at sea. A'Ve were not, however, permit- ted to land, till we had received a visit from the Custom-house Officers. To receive these men in office, it was neces- sary that Seiior Don Raimundo Aruspini should pulchrify his person ; after this B 2 metamorphosis took place, we were obliged to wait, while these unmerciful •visitors drank the Captain's porter, bottle after bottle, as fast as he could supply them; and though their official business did not occupy five minutes, it was five o'clock in the evning before we were suffered to depart, and even then vve were obliged to leave our baggage be- hind us. Other places attract the eye of a tra- veller, but Coruua takes his attention by the nose. My head, still giddy from the motion of the ship, is confused by the multiplicity of novel objects . . . the dress of the people . . . the projecting roofs and balconies of the houses . . . the filth of the streets, so strange and so disgusting to an Englishman • but, what is most strange, is to hear a language which conveys to me only the melancholy reflection, that I am in a land of stran- gers. We are at the Navio (^he Ship) a Posada, kept by an Italian. Forgive me for using the Spanish name, that I may not commit blasphemy against all English pot-houses. Our dinner was a fowl fried in oil, and served up in an atti- tude not unlike that of a frog, taken suddenly vvitli a fit of the cramp. With this we had dn omelet of eggs and gar- lic, fried in the same execrable oil ; for execrable it is in this land of olives, as the fruit is suffered to grow rancid be- fore the juice is expressed. Our only drink was wine, not the vino generoso with which Sp.iin supplies us in Eng- land, but the meagre beverage which the labourers in the vineyard reserve for themselves. You must perceive that I write at such opportunities as are to he caught, for the room we sit in serves likewise for the bed-chamber. It is now Monday morning. Oh, the misery of the night! I have been sojfead, that a painter would find me an excellent subject for the mar- 6 tyrflom of St. Bartholomew. Jacob's pillow of stone was a down cushion, com- pared to that which bruised my head last night ; and my bed had all possible varieties of hill and vale, in whose re- cesses the fleas lay safe ; for otherwise, it was so hard that I should inevitably have broken their bones by rolling over them. Our apartment is indeed furnish- ed with windows ; and he who takes the trouble to examine, may convince him- self that tliey have once been glazed. The night air is very cold, and I have only one solitary blanket, but it is a very pretty one, with red and yellow stripes. Add to this catalogue of comforts, that the cats were saying soft things in most vile Spanish : and you may judge what refreshment I have received from sleep. At breakfast they brougiit us our tea on a p'ale by way of cannister, and some butter of the country, which did lit- tle credit to the dairies of Galicia. This however was followed by some excelletxt chocolate, and I soon established a plenum in my system. The monuments of Spanish jealousy still remain in the old houses; and the balconies of them are fronted with a lattice more thickly barred than ever was hc:\coop in England. But jealousy is out of fashion at present ; and they tell me, an almost mViversal depravity ot manners has succeeded. The men ap- pear at first like a Jew^-looking race ^ the little boys wear the monkey appen- dage of a tail i and I see infants with more feathers than a fantastic fine lady would wear at a ball. The women soon look old, and then every feature settles into symmetry of ugliness. If ever Opie paints another witch, he ought to visit Coru'ia. All ideas that you can form by the help of blear eyes, mahogany com- plexion, and shrivelled parchment, must fall infinitely short of the life. The custom house officers were very troublesome. They kept one of our companions five hours, unrolled every sljirt. and handed a new coat round the room^ that every body might look at the buttons ! We brought with us a round of salted beef undressed, a cheese, and a pot of butter for our journey ; and they entered these in their books, and made us pay duty for them, as though we were merchants arrived with a cargo of provisions. I had been obliged to call on the Consul in my sea dress. If we had either of us regarded forms, this Svould have been very unpleasant : but I, as you well know, care little for these extraneous things, and Major Jardine is a man who attended more to the na- ture oi" my opinions, than the quality of my coat. The carts here remind me of the anci- ent war-charix)ts, and the men stand in them as they drive. I'hey are drawn by two oxen, and the wheels make a most melancholy and detestable discord. The Governor of this town once ordered 9 that they should be kept well oiled to prevent this ; but the drivers presented a petition against il, stating that the ox- en liked the sound, and would not draw without it; and therefore the order was revoked. These carts are small, and I often see two oxen drawing what might be conveyed in an English wheel-bar- row. A low wall is built all along the water- side, to prevent smuggling, and a number of little forts are erected about the adjoin- ing coast for the same purpose. This town is admirably paved ; but its filth is astonishing, when, with so little trou- ble, it might be kept clean. In order to keep the balconies dry, the water spouts project very lar; there are no vents left in the wall, and the water and the filth lie in the middle of the streets till the sun dries, and the wind sweeps them.. The market place is very good, and its fountain ornamented w ith a squab faced figure of Fame. The Fountains B O 10 are well contrived ; the spouts are plac- ed so high that no person can eitlier dirt or deface them, and they therefore fill their vessels by the medium of a long tube, shaped like a tobacco-pipe. Some of the houses in one of the back streets here have lilile gardens, which I am told is very unusual in Spain. Cabbages, turnips, and brocoli thrive here, but horticulture is almost entirely neglected, and the want of vegetable food is one of the privations which an Englishman has to suffer when tra- velling in this country. I apply to the language; it is very easy, and with a little assistance I can understand their poetry. This, you will say, is beginning at the wrong end: but remember, that I am obliged to attend to prose in conversation, and that " the cat will always after kind." Or if you like a more classical allusion, you know by what lirtifice Achilles was discovered at the court of Lycomedes. Tuesday Evening, Dec. i5. 11 LETTER II. Theatre. Dress. Maragatos. Jealomy of the Govertiment. Walk among the Mountains. Monumental Crosses. Tow- er of Hercules. Tuesday night. 1 AM just returned from the Spanish Comedy. The theatre is painted -with a muddy light bhie, and a dirty yellow, without gilding, or any kind of ornament. The boxes are engaged by the season : and subscribers only, with their friends, admitted to ihem, paying a pesetta * * 4 maravedis make 1 quarto. Si quartos — 1 real. 4 reales — 1 pesettu. 5 pesettas — i dollar, or peso duro, value 4S. 6(1. In small sums they reckon by reales, in large ones, by dollars or doubloons. The doubloon is an ima- ginary coin, value three dollars. 12 each. In the pit are the men, each seated as in a great armed chair ; the lower class stand behind these seats : above are the women, for the sexes are separated, and so strictly, that an officer was broke at IMadrid tor intruding into the female places. The boxes, of course, hold family parties. The centre box, over the entrance of the pit, is appointed for the magistrates, covered in the front with red stuff, and ornamented with the royal arms. The motto is a curious one ; " Siiencio y no fumarT " Silence and no smoaking." The comedy, of course, was very dull to one who could not un- derstand it. I was told that it contained some wit, and more obscenity; but the only comprehensible joke to me was, " Ah !" said in a loud voice by one man, and "Oh !" replied equally loud by ano- ther, to tlie great amusement of the au- dience. To this succeeded a comic opera. The characters were represented by the most ill-looking man and woman 13 I ever saw. My Swedish friend's island of hares and rabbits could not have a fitter king and queen. The man's, dress was a thread- bare brown coat lined with silk • wliich had once been white,, and dirty corduroy waistcoat and breeclies ; bis beard was black, and his neckcloth- and shoes dirty. . . but his face ! Jack- ketch might sell the reversion of his fee for him, and be in no danger of defraud- ing the purchaser. A soldier was the; other character, in old black velvereir breeches, with a pair of gaiters reaching' above the knee, that appeared to have been made out of some blacksmith's old leathern apron. A farce followed, and the hemp-stretch man again made his appearance, having blacked one of his eyes to look blind. M. observed that he looked better with one eye than with two, and we agreed, that the loss of his head would be an addition to his beauty; The prompter stands in the middle of the stage, about half way above it, before a 14 little tin skreen, not unlike a man in a cheese-toaster. He- read the whole play with the actors, in a tone of voice equally loud ; and when one ol" the performers added a little of his own wit, he was so provoked as to abuse him aloud, and shake the book at him. Another prompter made his appearance to the opera, un- shaved, and dirty beyond description : they both used as nuuh action as the actors. The scene that falls between the acts would disgrace a pu})pet-shovv at an English fair; on one side is a hill, in size and shape like a sugar-loaf, with a temple on the summit, exactly like a watch-box ; on the other Parnassus, with Pegasus striking the top in his fiiii,ht, and so giving a source to tlie waters of HeHcon ; but such is the proportion of the horse to the mountain, that you would imagine him to be only taking a flying leap over a large anc.hill, and think he would destroy the wliole a.'co- nomy of the state by kicking it to pieces. 15 Between the hills lay a city ; and in the air sits a duck-legged Minerva, sur- rounded by flabby Cupids. I could see the hair-dressing behind the scenes ; a child was suffered to play on the stage, and amuse himself by silting on the scene, and swinging backward and forward, so as to endanger setting it on fire. Five chandeliers were lighted by only twenty candles. To represent night, they turned up two rough planks, about eight inches broad, before the stage lamps ; and the musicians, whenever they retired, blew out their tallow candles. But the most singular thing, is their mode of drawing up the curtain. A man climbs up to the roof, catches hold of a rope, and then jumps down; the weight of his body raising the curtain, and that of the cur- tain breaking his fall. 1 did not see one actor with a clean pair of shoes. The women wore in their hair a tortoise-shell comb to part it, the back of which is concave, and so large as to resemble the 16 front of a small bonnet*. This would Hot have been inelegant, if their hair had been clean and without powder, or even appeared decent with it. I must now to supper. VVlien a man must diet on what is disagreeable, it issome conso« lation to reflect that it is wholesome; and this is the case with the wine; but the bread here is half gravel, owing to the soft nature of their grind-stones. Instead of tea, a man ought to drink Adamis's solvent with his breakfast. Wednesday. I met one of the actors this morning, equij)ped as liiough he had just made his descent in lull dress from the gibbet. The common apparel of the women is a. black stuff' cloak, that covers the head, and reaches about half way down the back: some wear it of white muslin; but black is the most common colour, and to me a very disagreeable one, as * We have since seen this faihion in our own tountry. 17 connecting the idea of diit. The men dress in different ways ; and where there is this varief}', no person is remarked as singular. I walked about in my sea- suit without being taken notice of. There is, however, a very extraordinary race of men, distinguished by a leathern jacket, in its form not unlike the ancient cuirass, the Maragatos, or carriers. These people never intermarry with the other Spaniards, but form a separate race: they cut their hair close to the head, and sometimes leave it in tufts like flowers. Their countenances express honesty, and their character corresponds to their physiognomy ; for a Maragato was never known to defraud, or even to lose any tiling committed to his care. The churches here exhibit some curi- ous specimens of Moorish architecture : but as this is a fortified town, it is not safe to be seen with a pencil. A poor emigrant priest last year, walking just without the town gates, turned round to 18 look at the prospect. He was observed, taken up on suspicion of a design to take plans of the fortifications, and actually sent away ! I bad a delightful walk this morning with the Consul, among the rude scenery of Galicia : — little green lanes, between stony banks, and wild and rocky n^oun- tains ; and although I saw neither mea- dows, or hedges, or trees, I was too much occupied with the new and ihe sub- lime, to regret the benutifnl There were four stone crosses in one of the lanes. I had heard of these monuments of murder, and therefore suspected what they were. Yet I felt a sudden gloom, at reading upon one of them, " Here died Lorenzo of Betanzos." About a mile from the town, I ob- served a stone building on an eminence, of a singular construction. " Do you not know what it is?" said Major J. I hesitated. " If I were not in Spain, I should have thought it a windmill^ on 19 the plan of that at Battersea." " You are right/' replied he " this is the only one that has yet been attempted on the pe- ninsula, and it does not succeed. Eri- jakli, who owns it, is an ingeniou;?, en- terprising man ; but, instead oi' improving h}" his failure, his countrymen will be deterred by it from attempting to succeed. Marco, another inhabitant of this town, has ventured on a bolder undertaking, and hiiherto with better fortune ; he has established a linen manufactory, unpa- tronized and unassisted," Our walk extended to the highest point of the hills, about a league from Coriiiia. The view from hence commands the town, now seen situated on a penin- sula ; the harbour, the water winding into the country, and the opposite shore of Ferrol, with the hiiis tOv\ar(ls Cape Ortegal ; to the right, tl^e same barren and rocky ridge of hills continues ; to the left, the Bay of Biscay, and the light- house, or Tower of Hercules. The in- scription near this building is roofed, to preserve it from the weather ; but they take the opportunity of sheltering cattle under the same roof, and their filth ren- ders the inscription illegible. The tra- dition* is, that Hercules built the tower, * The whole tale is in the Troy Boke, Bock II. Chap. 22, entitled '* How Hercules founded the city of Co- rogne upon the tomb of Gerion." " When it was day, Hercules issued out of his galley, and beholding the Port, it seemed to him that a city would stand well there ; and then he said, that forthwith he would malce one there, and concluded to begin it. He sent to all places, were he knew any people were thereabouts, and gave to each man know- ledge that he was minded to make a City there, and the first person that would come to put hand thereto, should have the government thereof. This thing was known in Ga'.icia.. Many c"ime thither, but a womaa named Corogne was the firrt that came ; and therefore Hercules gave unto her the ruling thereof, and named it Corogne, in remembrance of the victory that he had there. Upon the body of Gerion he founded a tower, and by his art composed a lamp, burning continually day and night, without putting of any thing thereto, which burned afterwards the s|iace of three hundred years. Moreover, upon the pinnacle or top of the tower, he a 1 iind placed in it a minor, so constructed by his art magic, that all vessels in that made an image of copper, looking into the sea, and gave him in his hand a looking-glass having such virtue, that if it happened that any man of war on the sea came to harm the city suddenly, their army and their coming should appear in the said looking-glass ; and that dured unto the time of Nebuchadonozar, who being adver- tised of the property of the glass, filled his galleys with white things and green boaghs and leaves, that in the looking-glass they appeared no other but a wood; where- by the Corognians, not knowing of any other thing than their glass shewed to them, did not furnish them with men of arms, as they had been a customed to when their enemies came, and thus Nebuchadonozar took the city in a morning, destroyed the looking glass and the lamp. When the tower was made, Hercules caused to come thither all the Maids of the country, ami willed them to make a solemn feast in the remem- brance of the death of Gerion." This is orignally an oriental fiction, as a similar tale is told of the Pharos at Alexandria. Le Geographe Persien au climat 3e. parlant tTJlexan- drie ou ce l limat commence, dit que dans cette ville qu'' Alexandre Jit batir sur le hard de la m.er Mediterrane e , ce grand Prince jit cortftruire un Phare qui passe pour etre ■une des merveilles du monde ; dent la hauteur e'toit de 180 coude'es, au plus haut duquel il Jit placer un miroir Jait 22 sea, at whatever distance, might be be- held in it*. par r or£ talismanique, par k tnoycn duquel la Vilk d'Alexandrie devoit toujoun conserver sa grandeur et sa puissance, tant que cet ouvrage merveilltux snbslsteroit. Quclques-uns ont ecrit que ks vaisseaux qui an-ivoie7it dans ce port, se voyoient de fort loin dans ce miroir. Quoi qu'il en soil, il est fort celebre parmi les Orientaiix. Les Persons appellent ce Phare, Le Miroir d'Alexandrie. lis discnt que la fortune de la Fille y f'toit attache'e, parceque c^e'toit un Talisman. D' Herbelot. They who are not versed in the black letter classics, will be surprised to find Hercules metamorphosed into a Necromancer. I subjoin one more specimen of his ait magic. " After this Hercules went to the city Salaman- que, and forasmuch as it was well inhabited, he would make there a solemn study, and did make in the earth a great round hole in manner of a study, and he set there- in the seven liberal sciences, with many other books. Then he made them of the country to come thither to study : but they were so rude and dull, that their wits could not comprise any cunning of science. Then for- asmuch as Hercules would depart on his voyage, and would that his study were maintained, he made an image of gold unto his likeness, which he did set up on high in the midst of his study, upon a pillar: and made so by his art, that all they that came before this image, to have declaration of any science, to all pur- 23 This lighthouse has probably given name to the town. Bullet derives it poses and a.l sciences the image answered, instructed and taught the scholars with studen Is, as if it had been Hercules in his proper person. The renown of this study was great in all the country, and this study dured afterthe time that St. James converted Spain unto the Christian faith." It may be doubted whether there has ever been so good a head of a College at Salamanca, since it became a " seminary for the promulgation of sound and ortho- dox learning." * Don Joseph Cornide, a member of the Royal Academy of History, has published his investigations concerning the watch tower. He gives the inscription thus: MARTI AVG. SACn. C. SEVIVS. LVPVS All * »»TECTVS AF***»*» SIS LVSITANVS EX V". He fills up the second blank by Aflaviensis, and infer- ring from thence that the tower could not have been built before Vespasian, because no towns were called 24 from the Keltic Coryn, a tongue of land, which is pionounced Corun ; . . in which after the Flavian name, before the Flavian family ob- tained the empire, conjectures it to have been the work of Trajan. In after ages it was used as a fortress ; and thus the winding ascent on the outside, which was wide enough for a carriage, was destroyed. In this ruinous state it remained till towards the close of the last century, when the English and Dutch Consuls, resi- dent in Coruna, presented a memorial to the Duque de Uceda, then Captain General of the kingdom, stating the benefit that would result to the port if this tower was converted into a light-house, and proposing to raise a fund for repaying the expences, by a duty on all their ships entering the harbour. In consequence of this a wooden stair-case was erected within the building, and two turrets for the fires added to the summit. Cor- nide supposes the following inscription, which is in his possession, to have been placed on this occasion. LVPVS CONSTRVXIT EMV LANS MlRAeVLA MEMPHIS GRADiBVS STllAVlT YLAM LVSTIiANS CACVMINE NAVES A more complete repair was begun in the reign of Carlos III. Under the present King it has been com- pleted, and these inscriptions placecj one over eacb en- trance. 25 of the Keltic dialects it has this significa- tion is not stated. The Welsh coryn is CAROLI III. p. AVG. p. p. PROVIDENTIA COLLEGIVM MERCATORVM GALLAECIAE NAVIGANTIVM INCOLVMITATI REPAUATION EM VETVSTISSIMAE ADBRIGANTIAM PHARI D. S. INCHOAVIT CAROLI III OPT. MAX. ANNO H. ABSOLVIT. The other is in Spanish. REINANDO CARLOS IV. EL CONSULADO MARITIMO DE G A Lie I A PARA SEGURIDAD DE LOS NAVEGANTES CONCLUYO A SUS EXPENSAS EN EL ANO DE 1791. LA REPARACION DEL MUY ANTIGUO FARO DE LA CORUNA COMENZADA EN EL REINADO Y DE ORDEN DE CARLOS III. VdL. I. C 26 evidently from the Latin corona^ and means the crown of the head, . . the sum- mit of any thing, . . the corona or tonsure of the clergy. But Coruiia was the Brigaiitium of the Romans, audits pre- sent name being later, cannot be of Keltic derivation. It is first called Vila da Cfuna by Fernando II. about the close of the 12th century, and according to Florez, Cruna in the Galician and Coruna in the Castillian dialects, are the same as ad Colamnani in Latin. VVe waited on the General of Galicia, to produce our passports, and obtain permission to travel with arms ; for, without permission, no man is in this country allowed to carry the means of self-defence. I expected dignity and hauteur in a Spanish Grandee, but fonnd neither the one nor the other. His pa- lace is a paltry place; and the portraits of the King and Queen in his state room, would be thought indifferent sign-posts in Englanc^. 27 I have been introduced to a poet and pliilosopher. The face of Akenside was not distinguished by more genius^ or the dress of Diogenes by more thrt, than characterised my new acquaintance. We met at the Consul's this evening, and conversed a httle in Latin ; not without difficuhy, so very different was our pro- nunciation. We talked of the literature of France and England, and their con- sequent intellectual progress. We too should have done sometliing in literature, said he; but, crossing his hands, we are so fettered " ista terribili inquisitione !" by that terrible inquisition. This man had been a friar; but little liking a mo- nastic life, he went on foot to Rome ; and, l)y means of money, procured a dis- pensation from the Pope. He spends his time now in piiilosophizing, and writing verses. I found bira a physiog- nomist, and our agreement in more important points was as exact as ii) these. c 2 28 One peculiarity of this country is, that in good houses no person inhabits the ground floor. A warehouse, a shop, or more generally a stable, is under every private dwelling-house When you ring the bell, the door is opened by a long string from above ; like the ** Open Se- same," in the Arabian Tales. We sat round a brazier, filled with wood embers, and occasionally revived the fire by a fan, made of thin chips, while one of the company played on the guitar ; an in- strument less disagreeable than most others to one who is no lover of music, because it is not loud enough to force his attention, when he is not disposed to give it The clocks here strike a single stroke at the half hour. There are German shops here, where almost any thing may be procured. I could not, however, buy a silver spoon without a silver fork. There is a curi- osity in the yard of cur Posada, which, I am tuld^ is unique in Spain, the ruins 29 of a temple of Cloacina ; a goddess, whose offerings are thrown into the street by this barbarous people, to the ereat scan- dal of ail who are accustomed to tlie sacred secrecy of her mysteries. Lope de Vega must have had strange ideas of fertility and beauty to speak as he has done in his Hennosura de Angeli- ca of Coruiia. He c;\lls it puerto alegre, y playa Que al hijo peregrino de Laerte, Pudiera detener mejor quel Loihos En otios campos teitiles y sotos. Canto X. si. J 7. A pleasant harbour, where the wandering son Of old Laertes had from wandering ceas'd. More firmly in these fertile fields detain'd Than by the Lotos-spell. My own opinion is, that if Ulysses had put up at the Navio he would have been glad to get out of the town as soon as possible. 30 LETTER III. Departure from Coruno. Moad to Betan" zos. Travelling accommodations. Seen- erif of Galicia. Griteru. Bamoitde. Thursday night. About two o'clock this afttrnoon, we left Coruiia in a coach and six, which is to convey us to Madrid lor a hundred and twenty-five dollars. As we sit in the carriage, our eyes are above the win- dows; which must, of course, be admira- bly adapted for seeing the country. Our six mules are harnessed only with rojoes : the leaders and the middle pair are with- out reins, and the nearest reined only v/ith ropes. The two muleteers, or more properly, the Mayoral and Zagal, either ride on a low kind of box, or walk. The mules know their names, and obey the Toice of their driver with astonishing do- ciiitv. Tbeir beads are most gaily bedi- zened with tnfts and hanging strings of blue, vellow, and purple worsted ; each mule has sixteen bells ; so that we travel more musically, and -dmost a> fast, as a fiying wago;on. There are four reasons why these bells are worn: they may be necessary in a dark night; and, where the ro ids are narrow, they give timely warning to other tiaveile.s : these reasons hold good in ail countries ; the two re- maining ones may perhaps be peculiar to this. The Spaniards say that the mules like the music: and that, as all ihebellsare marked with a cross*, the Devil cannot ♦ This has been a common superjti'ion. *' The pas- sng bell was ancientlr nin; for two purposes ; one to bespeak the prajers of all good Christians !or a soul j .st departing, the other to drive away the evil spirits who nood at tae bed's foot and aboot the house, ready to seize their ptey, or at least to molest and terr-.fy the soul in its passage; bat by the ringing of that bell ,for Durandos informs us ctiI spirits are much a^iaid of bells " they were kept aloof, and the soul, like a hunted bare, gained the start, or had what is by spjrisrae:! called law. Hence, perhaps, exclosire of the additional labour, was occa- come within hearing of the consecrated peal. The road is excellent. It is one of those works in which despotism applies sioned the high price demanded for tolling the greatest bell of the church ; for that being loader, the evil spirits must go further ofiF to be clear of the sound. Encyclopedia Britannica I have seen the following lines upon this idea. In ancient days when Superstition's sway- Bound blinded Europe in her powerful spell. The wizard Priest enjoin'd the parting knell Whose hallow'd sound should drive the fiend away. Then if a poor man died who could not pay. Still slept the Priest and silent hung the bell, And if a yeoman died his children paid Our church to save his parting soul from hell; And if a bishop death's dread call obeyM Thro' all the diocese was heard the toll. For much the pious brethren were afraid, Lest Satan should receive the E;ood man's soul. But when Death's levelling hand lays low the King,. For by the law of Nature Kings may die. Then every church its needful aid must bring, And every bell must toll both loud and long, For Satan holds that Monarchs may do wrong. Bellsj says old Thomas Fuller, are no effectual charm against lightning. The frequent firing of Abbey churchc* its giant force to purposes of public uti- lity. The villages we passed through were by lightning confuleth the proud motto commonly writ- ten on the bells in their steeples, wherein each bell eiiti- tuled to itself a sixfold el?icacy. Funera plango, fulgura fulmina frango, sabbata papgo Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. Mens deaths I tell By doleful knell. Lightning and thunder I break asunder. On sabbath all To church I call. The sleepy head I raise from bed- The winds so fierce I doe disperse. Men's cruel rage I doe assuage. Whereas it plainly appears that these Abbey steeples though quilted with bells almost cap-a-pee, were not of proof against the sword of God's lii,htning. Yea, gene- rally, when the heavens in tempests did strike fire, the steeples of Abbeys proved of'en their tynder, whose fre quent burniiigs portended their final destruction. Fuller's Church Histary of Britain- Formerly " before bells were hung they were washed, c 5 34 mean and dirty, and the houses are iu that stylo of building, with which the pencil of Caspar Poussin had taught mc to associate more ideas of comfort than I found realized. I was delighted with the wild and novel prospect: hills beyond liills, far as the eye could extend, part involved in shadow, and the more distant crossed, blessed, and named by the bishop. Whatever occasion some Catholics may have given for the re- proach, that they attiibute to bells the power of driving away demons and dispelling storms, and so on, it is cer- tain the ancient canons of the church only ascribe this power very remotely to bells. Their meaning seems to be this. Satan fears and flees from the bells, because he knows bells summoned good people to church to pray, and he dreads their pr.iyers. It was then to prayer occa- sioned by the ringing of bells, and not to the bells that su^h good elTects were at first ascribed." Histort) of Baptusm, It were ungrateful to quote from this author and not mention him with respect and applause. Few men have possessed such learning, and still fewer such liberality. I have seldom derived more pleasure from any biogra- phical work than from George Dyer's Life of Robert Ro- binsoju illumined by the westering sun; but no object ever struck me as more picturesque, than where a few branchless pines on the distant eminences, crested the light with their dark-foliaged heads. The water winds into the country, forming innu- merable islets of sand, and, as we ad- vanced, of mud, sometimes covered with such vegetation as the tide would suffer. We saw ng-trees and chesnuts, and passed one little coppice of oaks, scanty trees, and evidently struggling with an un- grateful soil. By the way-side were many crucifixes for adoration, and I counted six monumental crosses. About half a mile before we reached Betanzos, our abode for the night, the road lies by the side of the river Mandeo. It is a terrace with frequent low arches, through which many small currents pass, wind under the hills, and intersect the pasture into little Jslands. On the other side, the river s^preads into a fine expunge of water; we beheld the ^cene dimly by twilight, but 36 perha|)s this obscurity heightened ihe beauty of the landscape^ by throwing a veil over its nakedness. Betanzos has been supposed to be the Flavium Brigantium of Ptolemy : it is however shown by Florez to be the Fla- via Lambris, and the river Lambre in the neighbourhood is good proof of this. We are in a room with two beds, cf which I have the choice, for both my companions carry iheir own. It was a custom among the ancicnis to commit themselves to the protection of some ap- propriate deity, when about to undertake any difficult enterprize, or undergo any danger. Were I but a Pagan now, I vvould implore the aid of' ZET2 MTIOKOPOr, or Jupiter Muscarius, and sleep without fear of muskitoes. But as this is the eigh- teenth century, there are but two spiritual beings, whose peculiar patronage could be of service : Beelzebub, or the Lord of riies, is one; whom I must renounce, with all his worlcs, even that of fl^'-flap- 57 ping: the other power I cannot escape, and must resign myself to scratch tor the night. A man came up into the room to beg alms for the souls in Purgatory. — I am going to be in Purgatory myself, and have no compassion to spare. The walls exhibit saints in profusion, a sculptured crucifix, and a piint perhaps worth describing. The Virgin Mary forms the mast of one ship, and Christ of ano- ther, standing upon the Chapel of Lo- retto, which probably serves for the ca- bin. The Holy Ghost, in the shape of a dove, flies behind the filling sails, while a gentleman in a bag- wig climbs up the side of one of the vessels^ We are going to sup on our English beef. They have brought us a vinegar vessel, about the size of a porter pot ; ex- cellently contrived for these two rea- sons... on account of the narrowness of its neck, it is impossible ever to clean it; and being of lead, it makes the vinegar sweety and of course poisonous. 38 On entering the room, we desired the boj to remove a vessel which did not scent it agreeably. So little idea had he that it was offensive, that he removed it from under the bed, only to place it in the closet. The monastery of S. Salvador de Cinis, which stands a league from Betanzos, by the river Mero, was the scene of a mira- cle which Yepes received from such un- exceptionable authority that he would not pass it over in silence. A Prior of this convent was accustomed always to J'ise at midnight to matins, and an old liaonk who was especially devoted to our Lady used to bear him company in this act of devotion. The monk died, and when the Prior rose as usual the follow- ing midnight, passing through the cloister on his way to the choir, there he saw him sitting in the moonlight. The Prior said nothing, but returned in fear and trem- bling to his cell. The next night, there he saw hiin again in the same place and •S9 posture ; upon which he informed the monks what he had seen^ besought them to pray for the dead, and sent off to the neighbouring priories, requesting their prayers also. Masses accordingly were celebrated for him, and on the third night the prior passed through the cloister without seeing him ; but when he en- tered the chapel he saw the monk come out of his grave, and proceed slowly on the way to heaven till he disappeared. Friday evening. At midnight we heard the arrival of a post from Madrid, who awoke the people of the house by cracking his whip. 1 cannot say he awoke me, for I, like Po- lonius, was at supper, not where I eat, but where I was eaten. The ingenious gentleman who communicated his disco- very to the public, in the Encyclopoedia, that ninety millions of mites eggs amount exactly to the size of one pigeon's €gg, may, if he please, calculate tvhat quantity 40 of blood was extracted from my body in the course of seven hours; the bed being six feet two and a half, by four feet five, and as populous as possible in that given space. I have always associated very unplea- sant ideas with that of breakfasting by candle light. AVe were up before five this morning. The two beds were to be packed up, and all our baggage to be re- placed in the coach. Our allowance was a small and single cup of chocolate, swal- lowed standing and in haste. This meal is perhaps in England the most social of the day; and I coiild not help remember- ing the time, when 1 was sure to meet a cheerful lace, a good fire, and the Courier at breakfast. Our expences here were a dollar and half. At day-break 1 quitted the coach. The country was more wild and more beautiful than what we had passed yesterday. In the dingle below us on the right, at the foot of a dark and barren hill, a church stood, on the banks 41 of a winding rivulet. The furze, even at this season, is in blossom. Before us, a little to the left, was a bold and abrupt mountain; in parts, naked precipices of rock ; in parts, richly varied with pines, leafless chesnut trees> and oaks that still retained their withered foliage. A stream, foaming along its rocky channel, wound at the base, intercepted from our view where the hill extended its gradual de- scent, and visible again beyond : a tuft of fir-trees, green even from their roots, grew on the bank. On the summit of the mountain stands a church, through whose tower the light was visible. Santa Aya de Espelunca it is called. Aya is the Galician corruption of Eulalia. There was once a priory there, but only the church remains, which is visible from the coast. Around us were mountains, their sides covered with dark heath, and their fantastic tops richly varied with light and shade. The country is rude and rocky ; the houses all without chiumies: and the appearance of 4£ the smoke issuing tlirough their roofs, very singular and very beautitul, as it rose slowly, tinged by the rising sun. In about three hours we began the winding ascent of" Monte Salgueiro, whose sum- mit bad closed the morning prospect. By ascending directly 1 reached the top long before the mules. There I rested, and looked back on the watch-tower of Coruna, six leagues distant, and the Bay of Biscay. I was not, however, idle while I rested : as a proof, take these lines. Fatigu'd and faint, with many a step and slow. This lofty mountain's pathless side I cli.r.b. Whose head, high towering o'er the waste sublime. Bounded my distant vision. Far below Yon docile beasts plod patient on their way. Circling the long ascent. 1 pause and now Here on the rock my languid limbs 1 lay, And taste the grateful breeze, and from my brow Wipe the big dews of toil. Oh — v hat a sweep Of landscape lies beneath me ! liills on hills. And rock-p'Td plains, and vail ies bosom'd deep,. And Oceait's dim immensiiy, that tiUs 43 The ample gaze. Yonder the giddy height Crested with that old convent j and below Lies the fair glen, whose broken waters flow. Making such pleasant muimurs as delight The lingering traveller's ear. Thus on my road How sweet it is to rest me, and survey The goodly prospect of the journey'd way, And think of all the pleasures it bestowed ; Not sorrowing that the pleasant scenes are past. But looking joyful on to that abode Where Peace and Lo\ e await me. Thus at last. Beloved ! when the wintry hour is near May we look back on many a well-spent year. Not g'ieving at the irrevocable doom Of man, nor dreading the expectant tomb; But with a faith which overcometh fear. In hoiy hupe of our eternal home. We proceeded two leagues further to Giiteiu, over a country of rocks, mountains, and swamps. The Venta* there exceeded all my conceptions of * I know not the exact difference between the Posa- das and the Ventas, unless it be that at the former you always find beds. We sometimes slept at a Venta, but in general they had only accommodations for the day. 44 possible wretchedness. The kitchen had no light but what came through the aper- tures of the roof or the adjoining stable. A wood fire was in the middle, and the smoke found its way out how it could ; of course the raiters and walls were covered with soot. The furniture con- sisted of two benches and a bed, I forbear to say how clean. The inhabitants of the stable were a mule and a cow ; of the kitchen, a miserable meagre cat, a woman, and two pigs, who were as fami- liar as a young lady's lap dog. I never saw a human being disfigured by such filth and squalidness as the woman ; but she was anxious to accomodate us, and we were pleased by her attempt to please us. We had brought an undrest rump of beef from Coruna, and fried some steaks ourselves; and as you may sup- pose, after having travelled twenty miles, at the rate of three miles an hour, almost break fastless, we found the dinner ex- cellent. I even begin to like the wine^ 45 so soon does habit reconcile us to any thing. A dollar discharged our reckon- ing here. Florida Blanca has erected a very good house at this place, de- signed for a posada, but nobody will tenant it. The people liere live in the same stye with their swine, and seem to have learnt their obstinacy as well as their filth. After dinner we went to look at an arch which had caught our notice as we entered the village. The lane that leads to it, seems to have been paved with stones from the ruins. We were told that the place belonged to the Conde Amiranti, and that the arch had led into the court yard in the time of the Moors. Evidently, however, it was not Moor- ish. The few fences they have are very unjdeasant to the eye ; they are made with slate stones about three feet high, placed upright. The distance from Griteru to Bamonde is two leagues. Half the distance we 46- went by a wretchedly rugged way, for the new road is not completed. It is a great undertaking; a raised terrace with innumerable bridges. We saw many birch trees, and a few hedges of broom. The rocky summit of a distant ridge of iiaountains which rose before us to the left, was strongly illuminated by the sun, and made more distinct by a mass of dark clouds which had settled behind. I was reminded of the old personification of CEconomy, by seeing two boys walk by the carriage baiefooted, and carry their shoes. Near Bamonde is some of the most beautifid scenery I ever beheld. There is an old bridge, of four arches, almost covered with ivy, over a broad but shallow stream, that within a few yards makes a little fall, and circles a number of islets covered with heath and broom. Mear it was a small coppice of birch, and a fine single birch tree hung over the bridge, waving its light branches. The hill on the opprosiie shore rises 47 abruptly, a mass of rock and heath. About two hundred yards behind, on a gentler ascent, stands a church. The churches are simple and striking; they have no tower, but in its place a single wall, ending in a point vviih a crucifix; in this two bells are hung, each in a little arch, and through these openings the light is seen far off. The sheep on the hills were, as they generally are in this country, black, and therefore did not enliven the landscape, as in £nglan(^; but this was well supplied by a herd of goats. It Wcis evening when we reached the posada. I should think Griteru the worst place in Europe, if we were not now at Ba- monde. Judge how bad that place must be, where 1 do not vs?ish you were with me ! At n0 PELAEZ CAVNEDO LVC. POXTIFICE SAC. CIIUIS. DELIB: D. JOSEl'UO SILVA OSSOUIO PRO CA- 60 is remarkable. The two towers in the front seem to have been intended to be carried higher ; but they are now roofed with slates in an execrable taste which seems to be com^llon here, and which I iiave seen exhibited upon old pigeon-houses in England. The Cha- pel of the Virgin displayed much ele- gance. Some of the pillars are Saxons. The front has been modernized in a bad and inappropriate taste. Tliis Church enjoys a remarkable pri- vilege, and in the opinion ofCathoHcks a liighly important one. The wafer is always exposed, that is, the doors of the Sagrario in which it is kept, are glazed, so that the Pix is seen. Many reasons have been assigned for this ; among others that it was granted because the doctrine of the Real Presence was esta- blished in a Council which was held here, KONIC. COLLEG, TEMPLI iEDlT. CVRAN- ■i£ IN EIVS CVLMINE SVSPEN. ANNO D. MDCCXCVI. 61 in opposition to a heresy then prevalent in Galicia. Tiie same privilege exists in the Royal Convent of St. Isidro at Le- on, but no traces of its origin are to be found among the archives of either church*. VVliile we were in the cathedral, I ob-^ served a woman at confession. Much of the depravity of this people may be attributed to the nature of their religion ; * Risco therefore concludes by quoting what Molina has said upon the subject con graji acierto, in his Des- cripcion del Reyno de Galiciu ; Ell esia Ciudad tairvpoeo no callo Estar descubiei-to en la Igleaia mayor El Sacramento, sin mas eohtrtor ; Que en otras Iglesias tal cosa no hallo. La causa y secreto queriendo alcamallo, De estar asi puesto tan gran Sacramento, Algunas se dicen, mas lo que yo siento Es lo mejor contino aiorallo. The meaning of which is, that he enquired the cause and heard several assigned ; but his own opinion was, that it was best to continue adoring it. 62 they confess their crimes, wipe off the old score by absolution, and set off with light hearts and clear consciences, to begin a new one. A Catholic bad rob- bed his confessor. " Father/' said he at confession, " I have stolen some money ; will you have it?" *• Certainly not," replied the priest: "you must return It to the owner." " But," said he, " I have offered it to the owner. Father, and he will not receive it." *' In that case," said the priest, " the money is law- fully yours;" and he gave him absolu- tion. An Irishman confessed he had stol- en some chocolate. " And what did you do with it?" asked the confessor. " Father," said he, " I made tea of it." It is urged, in favour of this prac- tice, that weak, minds may be saved by it from that despair of salvation, which makes them abandon themselves to the prospect of an eternity of wretchedness. Yet, surely, it is a bad way to remedy one superstitious opinion by establishing another ; and if reason cannot eradicate this behef, neither can superstition ; for weak minds always most easily believe what they fear. The evil introduced, too, is worse than that which it is in- tended to supplant. This belief of repro- bation must necessarily be confined to those of gloomy tenets ; and among those, to the few who are pre disposed to it by an habitual gloom of character. But, the opinion of this forgiving power vest- ed in the church, will, among the mob of mankind, destroy the motives to vir- tue, by eradicating all dread of the con- sequences of vice. . It subjects every in- dividual to that worst slavery of the mind, and establishes an inquisitorial power in the ecclesiastics : who, in proportion as they are esteemed for the supposed sane- tit}' of their profession, will be found less anxious to obtain esteem by deserving it. Beyond all doubt, the frequency of assassination in all Catholic countries is greatly to be attributed to this belief in the absolving power of the church. (j4 But absolution is always granted con- ditionally, on the performance of certain duties of atonement. And what are these duties of atonement ? A Spaniard of whom I. enquired told me, ** mani/ Ave Marias, many Fasts, and many Alms." Remem- ber, that tliose aims usually go to the mendicant friars, or to purchase masses for the souls in purgatory ; and you will see of what service penance is in correcting vicious habits. You will hard- ly believe, that the absolving power of the church was maintained, not four years ago, from the pulpit of St. Mary's*, at Oxford. * I well remember noticing this with wonder ; seme of the leading members in the University noticed it with praise. But a Preacher who had gone so far could not, if he were a man of thorough integrity, stop there ; this was the case, and he is now a convert to the Church of Rome. Gibbon became so frnm the same College before him. I hope that like Gibbon he will be reasoned out of a degrading system of mythology, and that unlike him, he will find a safe resting place in pure and undefiled Christianity. 65 LETTER V. St. Juan de Corho. Manilas. Fuente del Corzul. Lugares. Familiarity of the Spanish poor. Castro. Road to Villa Franca. Palace of the Duke of Aha. Melancholi/ history of a zvidow, Monday, Dec. 21. VVhatever may be the state of the human mhid, the human body has cer- tainly degenerated. We should sink under the weight of the armour our ancestors fought in, and out of one of their large and lofty rooms, I have seen a suite of apartments even spacious for their pigmy descendants. The "' sons of little men," have taken possession of 66 the world ! I find no chair that has been made since tlie Kestoration high enough for an evening nap : uhen I sit down to dinner, nine times out of ten 1 hurt my knees ngainst the table ; and 1 am obliged to contract myself, like one of the long victims of Procrustes, in almost every bed 1 sleep in! . . Such were the me- lancholy reflections of a tall man in a short bed. I saw a fellow in the stable sleeping in a thing like u Vvashing-tub. Our ex- pences here were 72 reales; but this in- cludes Malaga wine, a couple of fowls which we have laid in for the road, and bread for the next two days, which they advised us to take with us. The charge for each bed is three reales. The city of Mondonedo, which is a day's journey N. E. oi' Lugo, was nearly destroyed in 1761 by a storm of rain. On the evening of the 9th of September heavy clouds gathered in the north, and collected upon tlie mountains which bend 67 round the city from east to west. In the night the thunder and lightning be- gan, the rain fell in torrents, which car- ried away every thing before it, and rolled the wreck of the mountains down upon the town, — the streets were choaked in many places up to the lust floors of the houses, and some were thrown down. Six lives only were lost. A grant was made them from the royal Treasury, of 145,000 reales (7,250 dollars). The road from Lugo is very bad : in many places it is part of an old Spanish paved road with a stone ridge in the middle. The country is better peopled and better wooded than what we have past, and we frequently saw the Minho winding beautifully below us. We past a miserable hovel with a projecting roof: it was worse than an old barn ; but upon looking in, it proved to be a chapel. At St. Juan de Corbo we stopped to eat. The church-yard wall there is covered witij crosses^ and there are some const- 6S (Jerable ruins adjoining. Here is the only house I have yet seen that reminded nie of an English country seat. It be- longs to Don Juan de Balcasas, an Hi- dalgo. I was sitting very coinfortably at Hiy meal, 'on a sunny bank, when two pigs came up to me, shaking their tails like spaniels, and licked up the crumbs, and getting between my legs, put up their snouts for more ; such familiarity have they learned from education. In about two hours afterwards we reached the mountains, from whence we looked back on Lugo, four leagues distant, and the hills as far again beyond. It was noon, and the sun very hot ; the beetles were flying about as in the evening in Eng- land. The country grew more beautiful as w^e advanced ; I have never seen scenes more lov^ely. Me passed one of those mills, common in this coiuitiy, with a horizontal wheel. I thought its effect finer than that of a perpendicular one, perhaps from not being accustomed 69 to it; perhaps from the simplicity of the building, and its situation. It stood in a glen below the road, a low and little hut,- upon a clear mountain stream; the hill rc^e steep and immediately behind. We reached Marillas to dinner; a wretched venta, where they would light no fire to dress our fowls. The room we were in was at once a hay loft, a carpen- ter's shop, a tailor's shop, and a saw-pit, besides serving to accommodate travel- lers. We had bread from Lugo, so that Avith our English beef and our English cheese, and procuring good water and excellent wine, our fare was very good ^ but, like true Trojans, we were obliged to eat our tables. Immediately after dinner we entered upon the new road which wound upon the side of the mountains. As our day's journey was longer than usual, eight leagres and a half, owing to our halt of yesterday, we went the greater part of this stage by moonlight. A mountainous 70 track is well adapted for moonlight by the boundedness of its scenery. We past the Puente del Corgul, a bridge over a glen connecting two mountains. It was now a scene of tranquil sublimity ; but in the wet season^ or after the snows dissolve, ihe little stream of the glen must swell into a rough and rapid torrent. I do not know the height of the bridge, but it was very great. The road is con- tinually on the edge of a precipitous de- scent, and yet no wall is erected. We were five hours going the three leagues to Lugares. There is a monumental cross by the door of the posada, and the women begged us to take all the things out of the coach, lest they should be stolen. Our room there was of an ancient and buggy appearance, with true alehouse pictures of St. Michael and the Virgin. I like the familiarity of the people at these places. They address us with cheer- I'ulness, and without any of that awkward silent submission which ought never to 71 be paid by one buman being to anotber. How often in England have 1 heard a ta- vern waiter cursed by some fellow who would never have dared to insult him, if his situation had permitted him to resent the insult. 1 have observed nothing of this in Spain. The people show civility, and expect to receive it. It has been said that no man was ever a hero to his valet; but great minds are conspicuous in little actions, and these fall more un- der the inspection of domestics than of tbe world. The Spanish women are certainly great admirers of miishn. They were very earnest here with M. to sell them his neckcloth. Buy, however, they could not, to beg they were ashamed, and so the next morning they stole my uncle's. Josepha took hold of my hair, asked me how I wore it in England, and advised me never to tie it or wear powder. I tell you this for two reasons ; as an example that such whose tastes are not vitiated, dislike /a tfee absurd custom of plastering the head with grease, and then covering it with dust ; and to shew you the famihar man- ners of the people. There is an entrenchment near Lugo, and another by St. Juan de Cor bo. The fences in that part are walls of granite, and the stones so large that immense labour must have been necessary to pile ' them. The granite rocks, in the fields, were frequently surrounded by trees, and ornamental to the landscape. I saw some shrubs growing on one, where the soil must probably have been placed by art, for I know not how it could have accumulated. Manuel Ximenes, our Mayoral, awoke us at three this morning, to know what o'clock it was. We set off as usual soon after five. Not far from Lugares, half way down the mountain, opposite the road, is a natural bridge of rock. The rocks here are of schist. We were three hours ascending from Lugares, and that 7S place lies high. You know I never ride when I can walk. The clouds welted me as ihey passed along. I was fatigued, and when the body is wearied, the mind i» seldom cheerful. Another mountain yet ! I thought this brow Had surely been the summit} but they rise Hill above hill, amid the incumbent skies. And mock my labour. What a giddy height '. The roar of yonder stream that foams below, Meets but at fits mine ear : ah me ! my sight Shrinks from this upward toil, and sore opprest, Sad I bethink me of my home of rest. Such is the lot of man. Up Life's steep road Painful he drags, beguiling the long way With many a vain thought on the future day, With Peace to sojourn in her calm abode. Poor Fool of Hope ! that hour will never com* Till Time and Care have led thee to the tomb. The inhabitants of this peninsula are far advanced towards that period when all created beings shall fraternize. The muleteer sleeps by the side of his mule, the brotherly love of Sancho and Dapple may be seen m every hovel ; and vol., I. E 74 tlie horses, and the cows, and the cats, and the dogs, and the poultry, and the people, and the pigs, all inhabit the same apartment, not to mention three certain tribes of insects, for preserving of whom all travellers in Spain are but little ob- liged to Noah. The houses here are ex- actly like the representations I have seen of the huts in Karaschatka. The thatch reaches to the ground, and there is a hole left in it which serves for the inhabi- tants to go in and the smoke to go out. The thatch is blackened with smoke, and consequently no moss can grow there. We stopt at the village of Castro*, our only halt for the day, and procured dried pork and dried beef, neither of which were good. There is only a venta here, while one of Florida Blanca's new posa- das stands uninhabited the very next door. We were descending from half- past nine to half-past five in the evening. * Probably this place is the Castro de la Ventosa, men- tioned hereafter :— the Bergidum Flavium of Ptolomy. We left a ruined castle to our right, small indeed, but from its situation very striking; and soon after the iron works of Herrerias. The mountains are in parts cultivated, even to their summits j at this season there is plenty of water, and there are trenches cut in the culti- vated lands to preserve it. Oaks, alders, poplars, and chesnut trees, are numerous in the valleys ; and we saw the first vine- yards. A lovely country, a paradise of nature; but the inhabitants are kept in ignorance and poverty, by the double despotism of their Church and State. I saw a woman carrying a heavy burthen of wood on her head, which she had cut herself, and spinning as she walked along; a melancholy picture of industri- ous wretchedness. The churches here have little balconies on the outside, with sculls in them. It is well tliat we should be familiarized to the idea of death ; but instead of being pre- sented to us ghastly and terrible, it should E 2 76 be renidered pleasant; instead of dwelling on the decay oi' the body, we should be taught to contemplate the progression of the spirit. Three people passed us with wens^ and I puzzled myself in vainly attemptmg to account for the connection between wens and mountains. I saw a calf walk into one of the houses, pushing by a woman at the door with a coolness that marked him for one of the family. The bee-hives here are made of part of the trunk of a tree hollowed, about three feet high, and covered with a slate. Sit mihifas audita loqui. An English- man told me that going behind a posada by moonlight he saw one of these hollow pieces of wood with its stone cover, and mistook it for a sort of necessary conve- nience, the want of which is the greatest inconvenience our countrymen feel either in Spain or in Edinburgh. A caricature of the Englishman's mistake upon the occasion, would amuse the Spaniards, for 11 he was in the worst trim possible for making a speed v retreat, when he took off the cover, and out came the bees upon him. We are now at Villafranca*, a name not unfrequent in this peninsula, and often to be found in the title page of pro- hibited books. Tiie history of this place is distinctly known : it is upon the high road to Compostella, once so much fre- quented by pilgrims from France as to * A Genealogical History of the Marqueses de Villa- franca was published at Naples, 1676, by Fr. Geronimo de Sosa. The book has this singular [liece of folly at the end. AyLmAaBrAiDaO sSaEnAtEiLsS iAmNaTcIoSnI cM eObSiAdCaRs AiM nEcNvTlOpDaEo ErLiAgLiTnAaRl. Reading the larger letters first, and then the smaller ones, they make the following sentence, Alahado sea el Santmino Sacramento de el Altar, y Maria Santisima con- ctbida sin cvApa original. 78 he called el Camino Frances, the French Road. In the reign of Alfonso V^I, some Monks of Cluni took up their abode here, to administer the sacraments to a few French settlers, and to travellers of that nation. They built a church which they called Nuestra Seiiora de Cluniaco, now corrupted into CnM'go, and erected into a collegiate chuicii. A little town had grown up in the days of the Queea Proprietress Urraca : it is named in old writings Villa Francorum, and that name was easily naturalized in its present form. It is now what may be called the Capital of this district, is inhabited by some good families, gives title to a Mar- quis, and has three nunneries, a convent of Franciscan F'riars, and formerly had one of Jesuits. When Morales went upon his literary mission through this part of Spain (1572), there were six and twenty Greek manu- scripts in the Franciscan monastery here, being part of the library of Don Pedro de 79 Toledo, the Viceroy of Naples, which he had presented to the convent. Some were parts of the Bible, others parts of Chrysostome's works; what the remain- der were he does not state, except that one of them was written wholly in capitals: he added that it \/ould be easy to get them from the Friars in exchange for printed books, if the consent of the To- ledo family were obtained. It was this Don Pedro who prevailed upon the Pope to erect Santa Maria de Cluniaco into a collegiate church, to be his burial place : and he was the Viceroy to whom this was applied as an epitaph, ' wickedly,' says Camden, ' detorted out of the scripture.' nicest, Qui propter nos et nostra m sahi-^ tern deaendit ad inferos. 1 5 is he, who for us and our salvation descended into hell. Never did I see a town so beautiful as we approached ; but when we entered. . . Oh the elegant cleanliness of Drury Lane ! There is an old palace opposite the po- 80 sada, of the Duke of Alva, old and ruin- ous, and mean and melancholy as a pa- rish workhouse in England. I stood for some time at the balcony, gazing at this place, where the most celebrated and most (ieiestable of its possessors may perhaps have listened to the songs of Lope de Vega, perhaps have meditated massacres in Holland. The mournful degradation of the Dutch, as well as of the Spanish character, forcibly occurred to me, and I looked on with, I trust, the prophetic eye of Hope, to the promised Brotherhood of Mankind, when 0})[)res- sion and Commerce shall no longer ren- der them miserable by making tbem vicious. I have just heard- from one of my fel- low travellers, v\ho has passed the road frequently, a melancholy tale of the daughter of the host here. She married a young man above her own rank; he died, all that he possessed died vvith him, and the widow left destitute v.ith two 81 very young cliildven, is returned again to the miserable poverty and labour of a po- sada. Very soon after her husband's death an Irishman offered to take her into keeping. Her only reply was, " You say you love me, Sir, and yet you can in- sult me by this wicked offer!" Tuesday, before day-light, I have seen this widow. She cannot be more than two-and-lvventy. Her two children were by her; the one an infant, the other about two years old, deaf and dumb ; they are beautiful children, though disfigured by dirt, and in rags. Her dress was black, and bad enough for. her pre- sent situation ; but the manners of one accustomed to better scenes were evident. She had white stockings, and shoes whose make discovered that shaping of the foot and ancle which peculiarly distinguishes the higher class from tliose who work for them. There is a liquid lustre in the full black eye of the Spanish women, of which £5 82 you can have no idea: her face expressed a meek resignation to wretchedness. AVh^t must that man's heart have been made of, who could have insulted this woman ? Tuesday evenings We have advanced only four leagues to-day, for the old coach is laid up again. 1 have been thinking of the poor widow. And does there then, Teresa, live a man Whose tongue unfaltering could to such foul thoughts Yield utterflnce? Tempt thee to the hireling bed ! Buy thee, T^reza, to another's arms! Thee, sufferer ! thee, forlorn and wretched one 1 Ere yet upon thy husband's grave the giass Was green ! Oh I is there one whose monstrous heart Could with insulted modesty's hot blush Make crimson the poor widow's woe pale cheek! Was this thing of my species ? shaped in the mould Of man? and fashioned to the outward show All human? Did he move aloft and .ift On high his lordly face ? and formed of flesh And blood like mine, meandering thro' his veins ? I blush for human nature 1 and would fain Prove kindred with the brutes. She rai^'d to Heaven Her dark eyes with a meek upbraiiling look. And felt more keen her loss, and dropt a teat 83 Of aggravated anguish. I almost Could muimur at my lot assign'd by fate, And covet wealth, that from the bitter ills Of want I might secure thee, and provide some safe asylum for thy little ones, And from the blasting wind of Poverty Shield their young opening reason. I would be Even as a brother to thee, sit by thee. And hear thee talk of days of happiness. How fast they fled, and of the joys of Youth And Hope, now buried in the grave of Love ! Oh I would listen to thy tale, and weep. And pour upon Afiiiction's bleeding wounds The balm of Pity. Sufferer, fare thee well ! God be thy comforter, and from a world Of woe, release thee soon 1 I on my way Journeying remember thee, and think of one In distant England, grateful to that Power Who from the dark and tempest-roaring deep Preserved a life she renders doubly de*i. 84 LETTER VI. Carcahehsi Ponferrada. Planners of the Muleteers. Travelling accidents. Hospitality of the Barber at St. Mi- guel de las Duenas. His library. Christmas Day. Manzanar. The Bierzo. Wednesday, Dec. 23. A YOUNG barber of Oviedo, travelling to Madrid to seek his fortune, has joined our party, and a very valuable acquisition lie is. He waits on us, markets for us, assists us in cooking, shaves, bleeds, draws teeth, understands my Spanish, and has moreover one of the best phy- siognomies in Spain. 85 We found English plates every where ill we reached Villafranca. Our cho- colate cups there were brought on a pewter plate, with a pewter cup fixed in the middle, to hold the earthen one. In this country we can get only white wine. The poor wear wooden shoes turned up at the toe like skaites, and with soles raised like the Devonshire clogs. We left the new road at Carcabalos, a league from Villafranca Here, for the first time, I saw the mark of manoriaj boundaries, which would be no unmean- ing emblem in France; it is a gibbet. We now entered upon a sandy, stony plain; a little herbage grew on it, but M. tells me it is bare in summer, and swarm- ing with immense grasshoppers. The plain is about three leagues in diameter, surrounded by high mountains, at the foot of which, over a grove of evergreen oaks, we saw the town of Ponferrada. Had I only seen Villafranca and Pon- ferrada as we approached, without see- 86 ing or smelling either the streets or the inhabitants, I should have thought Spain a Paradise. This town, which is situated al the coa* fluence of the Sil and the Bueza, owes its origin^ like Villafranca, to the great resort of" pilgrims to Couipostella in old times. Osmundo, who was Bishop of Astorgafrora 1082 to 1096, built a bridge over the Sil for their accommodation. The Puente de Quintanilla it was origi- nally called ; how it obtained the name of Ponsferrata, I know not ; but thence that of the town which grew up there. It belonged to the Templars, and they fortified it : after their extinction the Gondes de Lemos possessed it, till in I486 it was purchased by the Crown. Here are three Parish Churches, a Convent of Augustinians, a Convent of JNuns of the Conception, and a Hospital of the Bare- foot Carmelites. N. Sefiora de la En- cina is the patroness of the town, so called because her imasre was found in a 87 hollow oak ; . . it is sumamente milagrosa,. miraculous in the highest degree. ^Ve found the posada pre-occupied by a Marquis and his retinue. A pleasant incident, for the axle-tree was damaged, and to proceed of course impossible. Luckily the Marquis departed, and here we are still detamed. Opposite to our balcony is the house of some HidalgOj, with whom five ladies are just arrived to dine in an open cart, drawn by oxen*. * " I observed in this town (Piacenza) a notable, piece of thriftiness used by the gentlewomen, who make no scruple to be carried to their country-houses near the town, in coaches drawn by two cows yoked together ; these will carry the Signora a pretty round trot unto her villa ; they afford her also a dish of their milk, and after collation bring her home again at night without spending a penny." Jhc f'oyage of Italy by Richard Lasieh, Gent, who tra- velled through Italy Jive times, as tutor to several of the Engiish Nobility and Gentry. Paris, 1670. When Pope visited Walsh at Abbeiley in Worcester- shire, they went to Church in a coach which was drawn over the side of the hill by oxen. 88 They wear their hair combed straight, parted on ihe forehead^ and tied loosely in the middle behind. The simj^licity of their dress and their equipage pleased me, and we looked at each other with mutual curiosity. Opposite our other balcony is a convent, and curiosity has crowded all its windows. Day and night are we annoyed by the incessant noise of the mules ; by night they are under us ; we are only separated from the stable by planks laid across the beams, «• And sounds and stinks come mingled from below." By day the Mayoral is continually calling out to his mules : he gallops over the two first syllable^j of their name, and dwells upon the twolast with a sound as slow and as wearying as the motion of his own carriage. " Aqm/eia, Capharin, Gall- ega, malditas mulas !" Then he consigns them to three hundred devils, the exact number they always swear by ; calls them 89 thieves, pickpockets, and concludes the chmax of vituperation by " alma de muer- da," which is, being interpreted, the Soul of what the Laputan philosopher could never transmute again into bread and cheese. Sometimes he beats them furi- ously, and frequently flings a great stone at their heads. They make the most beautiful coun- terpanes at Ponferrada that I ever saw ; the threads are so disposed that the whole seems covered with fringe, or rather re- sembles the fleece'* of a Spanish sheep*. The people appear very averse to a vvar with England, We had a good deal of conversation with a tradesman here, an •Perhaps they were invented to imitate the skin of the Bicerra, an animal which inhabited the rocks of Astu- rias. Coverlets were formerly made of its skin, which. Morales says, could scarcely be borne in the coldest winter weather. He supposes it to be the Ibex of the Vulgate, the Wild Go.-'t of our Bible : it is more proba- bly the Chamois, from this circumstance. I know not if it is still to be found there. The civet [almhclera) is also an inhabitant of these provinces. 00 mtelligent man, who felt how the in- ternal state of the country injured com- merce. There are many specimens of Moorish architecture on the houses here. Many of the spouts that project below ihe roof to throw off the water, are shaped like cannon. The Castle is a fine object ; it is great and grotesque, and gives me a good idea of the Giants Castles of Romance. A very remarkable pillar stands without the town, . . it is the place of execution. Beef is ten quartos (about three pence) the pound. Bread five quartos. Brown bread, made of Indian corn, three quar- tos. Twelve eggs for twenty' quartos. The price of labour from four to six re ales. Thursday, Dec. 24. We left Ponferrada this morning, and cur newly mended axle-tree lasted us almost three miles. The descent v^as steep, the road bad, and the coach crazy.. 9^ Luckil}' we were all walking when it broke down. The Mayoral invoked the Virgin Mary to help him, and three hundred devils to carry off the coach ; he however soon found it more useful to go for human assistance, while we amused ourselves by walking backward and forward on a cold, bleak, desolate heath, with only one object iti view, and that a monumental cross. In about two hours we advanced a mile to the village of St. Miguel de las Duenas. Here there is no posada, and we are therefore at the house of the Barbero ; to call him a Barber would be to derogate from his dignity ; for though a village barber is always a great man, here he is particu- larly so, being tooth-drawer, bleeder, bonesetter, and surgeon. I have been looking over our host's library ; it contains a little about phy- sic, and a great deal about the Virgin Alary. Of his medical books, I believe the only one ever heard of in England,. 52 is Dioscorides, in an old Spanish trans- lation ! However il our friendly host be not a good surgeon, he is certainly a good Catholic. Over his books is a print called Our Lady of Seven Sorrows ; it represents the Virgin Mary pierced through by seven swords, while Christ is lying dead in her lap. To such a print you will naturally think nothing could be affixed more suitable than the song of her Seven Good Joys. There is however Tinder it a representation of the linen in whicii Joseph of Arimathea wrapped up our Saviour's body, and which retain- ing a miraculous likeness, is highly reve- renced in these countries ; not without cause, for through the merits of this Holy Napkin, or Santo Sudario, every time a certain prayer is repeated, a soul is released from Purgatory, by perniis-^ion of Clement V^IIl. If the Pope should be in the right, you will do good by reading it; if not, you may at least gratify your curiosity. 93 Oracion del Santo Sudario, para levrar una Alma del Purgatorio. Senor, haviendo nos dexado senales de sit dolorosa passion sabre el santo Sudario, en el qual sacralissimo cuerpofue sepultado por Joseph, concede nos por sii miserecor- dia y los merecimientos de su muerte y sepultura, podemos alcansar la gloria de su triuinphante Resurreccion. Pues vivey regna con el Padre en la unidad del Spi~ Tito santo por todos los siglos de los siglos. Amen. The Prayer of the Holy Napkin to deli- ver a Soul from Purgatory. Lord, who hast left us the marks of thy dolorous passion upon the Holy Nap- kin, in which thy most sacred body was buried by Joseph, grant that through thy mercy and the rperits of thy death and burial, we may partake of the glory 94 of thy triumphant Resurrection. ThoM who livest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. Of the nature of our Host's theologi- cal library, you may judge by this chance specimen. A holy man, reading the Song of Solomon, came to the se- venth verse of the fourth chapter. ,. " My beloved is pure and without spot." Musing on these words he fell into a deep sleep, and beheld the Virgin Mary, in a vision, with all her retinue of Che- rubim and Seraphim. They repeated the verse, " My beloved is pure and without spot," and a more divine voice immediately added, " etlam in concep- tio7ie" even in conception. This, says the author, ii an irrefragable proof of the immaculate conception of the Mother of God ! I ought to observe that this has no- thing to do with the Orthodox and 95 Arian tenet of the Immaculate Con- ception. It is only to prove the Fran- ciscan dogma, that the Virgin Mary herself was born without the stain of Original Sin. In England the red petticoat only peeps through a covering of lawn ; but here the Babylonian walks the street in full dress scarlet. In England, where O'Leary is a Popish Priest, and Geddes chuses to call himself a Catholic, I have felt myself inclined to think that the absurdities of Popery may have been exaggerated : but here, '' the serious folly of Superstition stares every man of sense in the face*." At the entrance of this village stands a Ireef, two of whose branches had the mis- fortuneto grow somewhat in the shape of across. The top and the lim hi were there- * Mary Wolstonecraft. ■+ A famous natural crucifix of this kind was found in Chili, 1636. O- alle gives a print of it. It was burnt in 17^9, but another was mace as like it as possible, and the fragment which was left, set in it like arelick. There is a fac-simile of this crucifix at Madrid. 96 fore lopt off, and a face carved on it, similar to what I iiave seen boys cut upon a turnip; this done, it is an object of devotion. Our host has been just catechising my uncle: ..Do you beheve in God? To be sure I do. . . And do you believe ia Jesus Christ? Certainly, repUed my un- cle. . . But ask him, said his son-in-law, in a whisper loud enough to be heard, ask him if he believes in the Virgin Mary ? There is a large Nunnery* near us, • The Infanta D. Sancha, shter of Alfonso VII. founded this Cistercian monastery 1152. In 1530, the Nuns of S. GuiUermo de Villabuena, three leagues off, upon the Cua, being washed out by the floods, were in- corporated with this Convent. Villabuena was also a toyal foundation. It had been a palace of the kings of Leon. Bermudo II. resided and was buried there. Al- fonso IX. gave it to his first wife. Queen S. Teresa, daughter of Sancho I. ol Portugal, and she erected -t into a Cistercian monastery, in which two of her daughters professed. Both endowments being thus incorporated, S. Miguel de las Duenas is a wealthy convent, and in bigh estimatofi. 97 where we have heard the Nuns sing The chapel grating is by no means close, and when the service was over they came close to it, probably to gratify their own curiosity as well as ours. Some of them were handsome, and I saw none who either by their size or their countenance indi- cated austerit3% This is a beautiful spot. The room I am in commands a tranquil and pleasing view: a little stream, the Bueza, flows viear the house ; the convent lies to the right, and we look over a rich valley to the high mountains near us. Where we are to sleep I know not, for our host's daughter and her husband sleep in the kitchen, and in this, the only other room, the barber, his wife, and child ! The only face for which I have con- ceived any affection in Spain, is a dried pig's, in the kitchen below; and, alas! this is a hopeless passion ! VOL. I. F 08 Christmas Day, six o'clock in the evening. In the cold and comfortless room of a posada, having had no dinner but what we made in the coach, fatigued, and out of spirits, . .a pleasant situation ! I have been walking above three hours up this immense mountain ; very agreeable, no doubt, for the goats who browze in the vallies, and the lizards and wolves who inhabit the rest of it ! We slept last night in the room with the barber, his wife, and child. At midnight they all went lo Cock-mass. At day-break I had the pleasure of wishing my fellow-travellers a merry Christmas. Our prospect of a Christmas dinner made us laugh, for you must know that in the downfall of the coach we sustained a grievous loss. Our travelling soup had come all the way from Bamonde, slung under the carriage in a pitcher ; and at every stage we had a new edition, with additions and im- provements. You may smile at our loss, but when 99 Faint and wearily The way-worn traveller Treads the mazes to the mountain's top, a warm dish of soup in a cold day, was a serious thing to lose. Homer says, ** A good dinner is no bad thing." Our road lay through a fertile valley, till we had passed the town of Benvibre, where we passed by one of the best posadas on the road. We stopped at the village of Torre, a wild and delightful spot, where the w ine was not unlike Burgundy. From thence we ascended the mountain to Manzanar. You can scarcely picture to yourself a scene more wild ; descents sloping to the mountain, glens covered wiih shrubs and furze, little streams crossing the road, and rocks on which the erey lizards were basking in great numbers: sometimes we looked over the hills we had ascended to the fertile vale where St. Miguel de las Duenas stands, and the heights beyond by Ponferrada ; more frequently the windings of the F 2 100 mountains bounded our view ; it was pleasant, just at tlie close of evening, to see the lonely posada of Manzanar ; a herd of goats were ieedi ng on a green spot near the house, and I cannot tell you what comfortable feelings their sounds excited. We heard the report of a gun near the posada, and were told that the master of the house had fired it at a wolf. We have seen none of these animals, but I have observed a piece of wolf's skin laid on the heck of all the oxen in their carts, since we entered Leon. The loneliness of the road, and the recollections the day excited, sug- gested the following lines. You will like them, because they simply express natu- ral feelings. How many a heart is happy at this hour In England I brightly o'er the cheerful hall Flares the heap'd hearth, and friends and kindred meet, And the glad Mother round her festive board Beholds her children, separated long Amid the world's wide way, assembled now. And at the sight Affection lightens up 101 With smiles, the eye that Age has long bedimm'd- I do remember when I was a child, How my young heart, a stranger then to Care, With transport leap'd upon this holy day. As o'er the house, all gay with evergreens, From friend to friend with eager speed I ran. Bidding a merry Christmas to them all. Those years are past : their pleasures and their pains Are now like yonder convent-crested hill. Which bounds the distant prospect, dimly seen, Yet pictur'd upon Memory's mystic glass. In faint fair hues. A weary traveller now I journey o'er the desert mountain track Of Leon : wilds all drear and comfortless. Where the grey lizards, in the noon-tide sun, Sport ontheir rocks, and where the goatherd starts. Roused from his midnight sleep, and shakes to hear The wolf's loud yell, and falters as he calls On Saints to save. Hence of the friends I think. Who now perchance remember me, and pour The glass of votive friendship. At the name Will not thy cheek. Beloved ! wear the hue Of Love? and in mine Edith's eye the tear Tremble ? I v/ill not wish thee not to weep ; ; . There is strange pleasure in Affection's tears... And he who knows not what it is to wake And weep at midnight, is an instrument Of Nature's common work. Yes . . think of me, My Edith '. think . . that travelling far away I do beguile the long and lonely hours 105 ■*\ ith many a day-dream, picturing scenes as fair^ Of peace, and comfort, and domestic joys. As ever to the youthful poet's eye Creative Fancy fashion'd. Think of me, Wy Edith ! absent from thee, in a land Of strangers r and remember, when thy f^eart He:ivcs with the sigh of sorrovp wha deUght Awaits the moment when the eager voice Of welcome shall that sorrow overpay. Being a Brrstol man, and of course not ihe worse for a little smoking, I have ventured into the kitchen to warm my- self among the muleteers and Maragatos, and prepare our supper. By the b\'e, the barber's wife sold us the old cock by ■way of a delicate chicken. We have found that the people will over-reach us if they can, and it is not to be wondered at. He who starves his dog makes a a thief of him. Poverty is the mother of crimes. Yet we have experienced much attention and hospitality. My imcle gave a few reales among the car- penter's children, who was making our new axle-tree ; and when we departed 103 Uhs morning, their mother brought u* a pig's fiice, and a lap full of pears. THE BIERZO. August, 1808. Few things would give me so much delight as to revisit and travel at leisure over this part of the country, the ex- ceeding beauty of which has left upoa my mind impressions never to be effaced. I shall perhaps render some service to future travellers who may have more time and better opportunities at com- mand, if I tell them what there is in this neighbouriiood which we left unseen, because we knew not what we lost by the omission. To the West of Astorga the Asturian mountains send off two great branches, trending from North to South; those in the Eastern rans^e are the Puerto del 104 Habanal, the Cruz de Ferro, and Fonce- badon ; those in the Western, Puerto del Cebrero, Puerto del Courel, and Puerto del Aguiar; on the South they meet with the Sierra de San; bria, the Sierra de Cabrera and the Monies Aquilianos, or Aguianasj as they are now called. The tract which is thus surrounded with mountains is called the Bierzo, a word corrupted from the Bergidum Flavium of Ptoloniy. The city which bore that name was at Castro de la Ventosa ; it is a tradition in the country that there was a city there formerly ; traces of the walls may still be discovered there, and the situation ngrees with the Itinerary of Antoninus. It is precisely the spot which would be chosen to command the Bierzo, and for this reason Fernando II, and after him his son Alfonso IX. would have re-peopled it, but the domain he- longed to the Royal Monastery of Car- racedo, and they ciesisted in consequence of a representation from that quarter. 105 This Bierzo is the Thebais of Spain. " The multitude of .its Stuictuaries, the holiiiess of its Hermitages, the number of its Anchorites, and of its monks who distinguished themselves by their victo- ries over the world, he only can relate who can count the stars of Heaven;"., so Florez expresses himself, betrayed by zeal out of his usual sobriety of language. I would go far to see any place which devotion has sanctiiied, especially if it had been so sanctified because of its na- tural tendency to excite devotional feel- ings. This amphitheatre is from North to South (computing from summit to sum- mit) about sixteen leagues, and about fourteen from &ist to West. All its waters, collected into the river Sil, pass into the Val de Orras in Galicia, through a narrow gorge; if that opening were closed, the whole Bierzo would be formed into a prodigious lake. The centre is a plain of about four scj^uare leagues, comprized t 5 106 between the rivers Sil, Cua, and Burbia, and fertile and lovely valiies wind up into the heights beyond. Wine, corn, pulse, flax, pasture, and fruits, are pro- duced here in abundance, though the inhabitants of this delightful region Hve in a state of contented and idle poverty. The hazel, ihe chcsnut, the pear, the apple, the cherry, the mulberry, and even the olive, grow wild upon the hills. The streams supply plenty of fish ; and gold, silver, lead, and iron, are to be found in the mountains. It is said that these wilds were inha- bited by anchorites in the earliest ages of Christianity ; but Christianity was not so soon polluted by the philosophy and folly of the East. The certain his- tor}' of the Bierzo begins with Fructuoso, a saint of royal extraction, who was born about the year 600. His father is called in some Breviaries, Duke of the Bierzo. S. V^alerio, the contemporary l)iographer of his soHj says that he vvas Dux exercitv^ 107 Hispani(c, and this, as he had extensive pastures in that part of the country, explains the title. Fructuoso in his childhood sometimes accompanied hi«> father here when he came to inspect his flocks and herds; the beauty and the sublimity of these vales and moun- tains deeply impressed him_, and in the silence of his heart he devoted himself to a religious life. This resolution he executed as soon as the tleath of his parents left him master of himself. He then founded the monastery of Com- pludo* as it is now called, by the source * Probably because it is dedicated to the Saints Justus and Pastor, the young martyrs of Comphttum. — Alcala. There exists a charter purporting to be granted by Chindasvindo to this Monastery, which if it be authentic, is the oldest existing deed in that country. It is preserved in the Cathedral at Astorga, to which the Monastery has been united, ar;d Yepes has printed U in the 2d volume of his very valuable work (Appendix. Escrit. 13). But its authenticity has been called in question, and Florez seems to give it up, by saying that certainly it is not wiitten in the Latin of that age. 108 of the Molina, which rises in the Puerto del Rabanal, and falls into the Sil a little above Ponf'errada. His sister's husband applied lo the kinp; to prevent him from thus disposing of his property ; . . Fruc- tuoso upon this stript the altars, covered them with sackcloth, and be4ook himself to prayer and fasting : and the speedy death of his brothei-in-law was im- puted to these means. After this he founded another iMonastery, now called S. Pedro de Monies, near the source of the Oza, which rises in the Montes iVguianas, and falls into the Sil below Ponfenada. His next foundation was S. Felix de Visonia, on the river of that name, which rises in the Montes de Aguiar, and falls into the Sil below Friera; but this was afterwards deserted, and its lands are now a Grange belong- ing to tiie Royal Monastery of Carra- cedo. Meantime his delight was to wander about the mountains, barefooted, and 109 in a dress of goat-skin. A hunter one day saw him prostrate upon a crag*, bent his bow at him, and was on the point of loosing the string, when luckily the saint held up his hands in the act of prayer. The fame of his piety soon spread abroad, and those who were in need of spiritual consolation flocked to him : but he having founded his mo- nasteries, established his monks, and disp> Jcd of his property, retired into the wilds. Here however he could not be concealed. There were tame daws in one of the convents, which he had proba- bly amused himself by feeding, and these birds used to hover about him, and their clamours indicated where he was to be found. A doe fled to him for shelter from the hunters; in reverence to him they called the dogs ofl" and spared her, and from that time she never forsook' • His biographer Valerio gives a reason why such places were preferred for devotion, — juxta duritiatn nequiti^E cordis mei reperi saxeum locum. no her protector, but lay at his feet, and it at any time lie left her, tracked his foot- steps and moaned till she had found him. A wicked boy killed this poor animal, and when Fructuoso heard it he was so affected that he threw himself upon the ground, and sought for comfort in prayer. The offender was seized with a fever, very possibly the effect of fear; and Fruttuoso has the credit, and propably the merit, of having healed him body and souk The system which he established in his monasteries was not thoroughly under- stood, till Yepes, in the course of his researches for his great work, found at S. Pedro de Aiianza, the Institutions, or Rule of the Saint, in a great manuscript entitled, Re