SECTION I.

MADRID AND THE CASTILES

(OLD AND NEW).

INTRODUCTION.

THE PROVINCES OF THE CASTILES: CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY AND NATIVES.

THESE, the two empire provinces, join each other, and constitute a large portion of the central plateau of Spain, forming, in fact, one-third of the entire country, of which they are truly "the heart and citadel: " composed chiefly of tertiary formation, they rise at an average about 2000 feet above the sea, and this table-land is itself encompassed with mountains and intersected by diverging ranges: thus the Montes de Toledo divide the basins of the Guadiana and Tagus, while the Sierra de Guadarrama separates those of Tagus and Duero: to the east rise the Sierras de Cuenca, some of the highest mountains of these provinces. These provinces, now divided into Old and New, Castilla la Vieja y Nueva, formed under the ancients the districts of the Celtiberi, Oretani, and Carpetani. The N.W. portion was called Bardulia under the Goths: but this name was changed into that of Castilla so early as 801, and the distinction Vetula, Vieja, was afterwards added, to mark the difference between it and the new and more southern portions which were subsequently wrested from the Moor. The "canting' name Castilla was taken from the number of fortresses erected on the frontier of Leon and Asturias, whence the Moors called the province Ardo-l-kalád, the "Land of the Castles," and also Kashtellah.* The primitive Castilian castles were no unsubstantial Châteaux en Espagne, but formed real defences, held by brave men, and were built in imitation of Roman citadels, the solid masonry being quite unlike the Oriental tapia of the Moorish Alcazares of the south. The Castiles bear for arms, "Gules, a castle or;" these arms are carried as the emblem of the whole nation.

Castilla la Vieja, like Leon, being close to the north-west mountains, from whence the Gotho-Spaniard burst forth against the Moors, was soon recovered from the infidel: it became a petty sovereignty, a Condado, or " county," often, however, in some measure subject to the kings of Leon, until declared independent about 762, under the Conde Rodrigo Fruelaz. He was father of the renowned judge Nuño Rasura, whose descendant, Doña Nuña Rasura, twelfth countess, married in 1028 Sancho, King of Navarre; their son Ferdinand was the first who assumed the title of King of Castile, and of Leon also, on his marriage with Sancha, daughter and heiress of Bermudo III. These two king

*Of the number of walled forts in Spain in earlier times, Livy (xxii. 19), Appian (B. H. 467), and Hirtius (B. H. 8), make mention.

[Spain, 1882.]

B

doms, separated again for a short period, became finally united in the thirteenth century under St. Ferdinand. They were inherited by Isabel, who, being Reina Propietaria, or queen of them in her own right, was married in 1479 to Ferdinand, afterwards King of Aragon, and thus at their deaths the consolidated kingdoms were handed down to their grandson Charles V. *

The two Castiles are the largest provinces in Spain, and contain some of the oldest and most truly national Spanish cities. The mountains, highly picturesque, abound in curious botany and geology, and, with their Swiss-like valleys watered by trout-streams, present a perfect contrast to the parameras, tierras de campo y secanos, the plains and table-lands, which are lonely tiresome steppes, bounded only by the horizon. Treeless, songless, joyless, and without hedges, enclosures, or landmarks, this tawny hortus siccus looks as if belonging to no one, and not worth possessing; yet the cultivators, who are born and die on these spots, know to whom every inch belongs, although the stranger's eye vainly attempts to measure the expanse. The Castilians seldom plant any trees except those which bear fruit or give shade for their alamedas, for in truth immediate profit is the utilitarian standard, whilst to plant timber is a thing of forethought for others, and is based on confidence in institutions which will guarantee enjoyment at a distant period: all this in a land where people live from day to day, and no one thinks of the mañana, or can count on seeing it, much as he talks about it; it is held to be downright folly in theory and practice. Fuel and timber for domestic purposes are, in consequence, dear at Madrid. Coke is used to a very great extent in fireplaces and kitchens. The soil, again, exposed to a calcining sun, becomes less favourable for cultivation, while the rains and dews are absorbed, and the sources of rivers diminished. Drought is the curse of the earth, as dryness is of the bright clear air; frequently it does not rain for many successive months, and the crops perish, being burnt up. In summer, a salitrose dust irritates the eye, already sickened with the nakedness of the land. As water is scarce, both for irrigation and domestic uses, nature and man are alike adust and tawny; everything is brown-his house, his jacket, his stew, his wife, and his ass. silence of man and nature chills the heart. Neither traveller nor artist knows what to do with these dusty plains: ah che seccatura! They afford, however, some of the finest wheat districts in the world. The Chamorro and the Candeal are the best and usual sorts of grain, of which there are more than twenty varieties. They are also well adapted for the growth of saffron, Azafran (Arabicè Saffrá, yellow), which enters largely into Spanish cookery and complexion. A tolerable red wine is made in some favoured localities, and the Garbanzos are excellent. The Cicer, or Chick Pea, is the vegetable of Spain, where its use, with dried peas, rice, &c., argues a low state of horticultural knowledge. The taste for the Garbanzo was introduced by the Carthaginians; it forms an especial ingredient in the Spanish olla. There are very few isolated farms in these provinces, and the hamlets (scattered few and far between) are mostly built of mere mud, or of adobes, bricks dried in the sun (Arabicè Attob, tobi); while the want of glass in the openings called windows, adds, according to our ideas, to the look of dilapidation: their hovels are not even picturesque. The labour of the cottagers is increased by the distance of their residence from their work: they have to start long before daybreak, and return weary to their cattle after nightfall, in truly antique groups. The peasants wear capas, cloaks, or anguarinas, greatcoats made of paño pardo. The capa at least, with its classical folds, gives dignity to the rags it conceals; but the anguarina confers a beggarly, Irish look. Some travellers, who merely hurry along the high road, and observe the rustics doing apparently

The

*For historical details consult Historia del Condado,' Diego Gutierrez Coronel, 4to., Mad, 1785; La Castilla,' Man. Risco., 4to., Mad., 1792; and the paper by Benito Montejo, 'Memorias Acad. Hist.' iii. 245.

nothing, but loitering in cloaked groups, or resting on their spades to look at them, set all down as idlers, which is not the case; for the hand of toil pauses only for the instant when the stranger passes, and then labours on unceasingly from early dawn to dewy eve; and those who stand still in the market-place are willing to work, but there is none to hire them. Generally speaking, both man, woman, and child are overworked in the fields of Spain, where humau bone and sinew supply the want of the commonest machinery. These sons of labour eat the bread earned by the briny sweat of their brow: yet they are a happy and contented race, as fond of amusement as children, and full of raillery, mother-wit, and practical joking.

The Castilian is a good man and true; well-bred rather than polite, and inclined to receive rather than to make advances, being seldom what the French call prévenant, but then when once attached he is sincere; his manner is serious, and marked by a most practical equality; for all feel equal to the proudest noble through their common birthright of being Castilians. Treat them, however, as they expect to be treated, and the stranger will find that all this ceremony of form and of words, all this nicety of sitting down and getting up, does not extend to deeds. A Castilian, although a creature of routine, and uneducated, is shrewd and intelligent in his limited scope, which does not in truth extend much farther than the smoke of his chimney; self, indeed, is the centre of Castilian gravity. But to see the Castilian in a genuine condition, he must be sought for in the better class of villages, at a distance from Madrid; for the capital has exercised no civilising influence, or caused any care for material comforts, as under its very walls the peasant is a barbarian, while within them resides the worst populacho of the Peninsula. The superior bearing of the manly country labrador over the stunted burgess of Madrid is very remarkable, and in his lowly cottage a truer hospitality will be found than in the tapestried halls of the grandee, where most it is pretended. Among themselves the villagers are social and gregarious, their light-hearted confidence contrasting with the suspicious reserve of the higher classes.

The Castilians, from their male and trustworthy character, are still Robur Hispaniæ (Flor. ii. 17,9): they constitute the virility, vitality, and heart of the nation, and the sound stuff of which it has-if ever-to be reconstructed. The Cid was the personification of the genuine character of these ancient chatelains of Christendom, and of the spirit of that age; and however degenerated the pigmy aristocracy, the sinewy, muscular forms of the brave peasants, true children of the Goth, are no unfitting framework of a vigorous and healthy, although uneducated, mind. Here, indeed, the remark of Burns holds good, that "the rank is but the guinea stamp, the man's the gold for all that." "All the force of Europe," said our gallant Peterborough, "would not be sufficient to subdue the Castiles with the people against it;" and like him, the Duke however thwarted by the so-called better classes, never despaired while the · country was with him." The ancient qualities of the Castilian peasant are, self-respect, love of God, and loyalty: he is true to the king, his faith, and to himself; he hates foreign dictation, clings to the ways of his ancestors, thinks Spain the first kingdom in the world, the Castiles its first provinces, and he himself the first of its population. No wonder, therefore, that these peasants, as Addison said of those in the Georgics, toss about even manure with an air of dignity; this is the result also of natural instinct even more than of social conventions, since each, esteeming himself inferior to none but the king, cares little for the accidents of rank and fortune.

66

ROUTE S.

[The names of places are printed in black only in those Routes where the places themselves

are described.]

PAGE ROUTE

103 20 Valladolid to Toro, by Simancas and Tordesillas. Dili

4A Madrid to Aranjuez. Rail 123 5 Madrid to Cuenca, by Taran

con. Diligence and Railway 125 21 Valladolid to Benavente, by

kilos by kilometre. Buffet at Miranda | built by the English in 1140. The del Ebro; supper very fair. interior is fine; it was restored by Its Cloisters are

amongst the largest in France. Visit also the English Cemetery: it contains the graves of the gallant officers and men of the 2nd Life Guards, who lost their lives during the siege by the English forces, under Wellington in

A system of Circular Journeys has Viollet-le-Duc. been established, which start from Paris, Irun, Perpignan, Bordeaux, and Bayonne, at which stations the tickets-first and second class-can be obtained. The traveller is allowed to stop as long as he likes at the intermediate stations. 9 itineraries | 1814. are given; the 1st and shortest is Les Allées Marines, a promenade from Irun to Madrid and Toledo, along the 1. bank of the river Adour, returning by Zaragoza and Pamplona. is pleasant and shady. Here is the Fare, 41. 25 days are allowed for this stat. of a short direct rly. to the waterjourney. The ninth and longest itine-ing-place of Biarritz (see below), 5 m. rary includes, besides the towns on S. of Bayonne: frequent trains in 15 the northern line to Madrid, Toledo, min. A Military Band plays on the Badajoz, Lisbon, Cordoba, Seville, Place d'Armes on Thursday and SunValencia, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and day evenings. Pamplona. Fare 117. 10s. 65 days are granted.

The economy in railway fares gained by the Circular Tickets is considerable; it saves much trouble in taking tickets on the road; it also enables travellers who have little luggage to stop on the spur of the moment, wherever they like. On the right bank of the Adour at St. Esprit is

[Steamers occasionally to Bilbao, Santander, and San Sebastian.

Railway-Passengers should register their luggage to Madrid.

The rly. upon leaving Bayonne crosses the Adour and the Nive by two iron bridges. Obs. to the 1. the ruins of Château Marrac, built in 1707 by Maria of Neuberg, Queen of Charles II. of Spain. It was subsequently the prison of Charles IV., and afterwards a residence of Buonaparte (1808), who here embraced his decoyed guest Ferdiuand VII., and then sent him from his table to a dungeon. To the rt. is the little lake of Brindos.

6 m. Biarritz Stat. Pop. 5507. Inns: H. Gardères; Grand Hôtel; H. de France; H. de Paris; H. d'Angleterre.]

The country is hilly the whole way to the frontier.

33 m. Guethary Stat. Pop. 613. A little sea-bathing village.

44 m. St.-Jean de Luz Stat. (Inns: H. de la Plage; H. d'Angleterre,— both good; Hôtel de France; H. de la Poste.) Pop. 4083. Here in the Ch. of St.-Jean Baptiste (June 9, 1660) Louis XIV. of France was married to Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV. of Spain.

The Nivelle is now crossed; to the 1. is the suburb of Ciboure. Obs. to