SPAIN;
Reading edition
DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,
REPRESENTING MOORISH PALACES, CATHEDRALS, AND OTHER MONUMENTS OF ART,
CONTAINED IN THE CITIES OF
BURGOS, VALLADOLID, TOLEDO, AND SEVILLE.
BY NATHANIEL ARMSTRONG WELLS.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. M.DCCC.XLVI.
LONDON: Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
PREFACE.
The author of the following letters is aware that his publication would have possessed greater utility, had the architectural descriptions been more minute. He ventures to hope, however, that this imperfection may be in some measure balanced by the more extended sphere opened to whatever information it may contain.
The absence of many technical expressions, especially those which enter into a detailed description of almost all Gothic buildings, and the employment of which was forbidden by the occasion, may tend to facilitate the satisfaction of popular curiosity respecting Spanish art: the more so from the circumstance that the most intelligent in such subjects are scarcely sufficiently agreed on the application of technical terms, to allow of the compilation of a standard vocabulary. His ambition will be more than satisfied, should his past, and perhaps future researches, succeed, in some degree, in pioneering the path for a more scientific pen.
Should this work fall into the hands of any reader, whose expectations of entertainment may have been encouraged by the announcement of another Spanish tour, but who may feel but moderate enthusiasm for the artistic and monumental glories of the Peninsula, an explanation is due to him, exonerative of the author from much of the responsibility attached to the matter-of-fact tone of his descriptions. It is no less his nature than it was his wish to paint what he saw as he saw it. Unfortunately his visits to Spain took place after the accomplishment of the revolution, the hardest blows of which were aimed at her church. The confiscation of the ecclesiastical revenues has necessarily stripped the processions and other ceremonies of their former splendour, and by suppressing what constituted one of their chief attractions to the native population, transferred the interest of the lover of the picturesque from the bright colours of animated grouping, to the dead background of stone and marble they have left.
In studying, however, to preserve this strict accuracy in all that related to the principal subject of his correspondence, his aim was to enliven it by the introduction of any incidents worthy of notice which came under his observation. In this object he hopes he may have succeeded.
One more remark is necessary. The letters from Seville, which form the second of the two parts into which the volume is divided, although placed last in order of succession, date in reality from an earlier period than the rest; and even from a different tour, as will appear from the description of the route. They were addressed to various individuals, whereas those forming the first part were all written to the same person. They are thus placed with a view to geographical order and clearness, and to a sort of unity, which appeared advisable in the subject of a volume. The two excursions having been separated by an interval of three years, should alterations have taken place during that period in the places described, the above circumstance not being borne in mind might lead to an appearance of chronological inaccuracy in the descriptions, although there is not much probability of the existence of such changes.
London. December 1845.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
page
LETTER I.
To Mrs. C——r1
LETTER II.
Route To Spain through France9
LETTER III.
The Basque Provinces15
LETTER IV.
Arrival at Burgos. Cathedral.28
LETTER V.
Tomb of the Cid. Citadel.52
LETTER VI.
Cartuja de Miraflores. Convent of Las Huelgas.70
LETTER VII.
Route To Madrid. Museo.78
LETTER VIII.
Picturesque Position of Toledo. Florinda.103
LETTER IX.
Cathedral of Toledo121
LETTER X.
Cafes. Wedding Ceremony. Cathedral Continued. Alcazar Hospital of Santa Cruz. Convent of La Conception. Mysterious Cavern. Convent of Santa Fe, or of Santiago. Sons-in-law of the Cid.143
LETTER XI.
Streets of Toledo. El Ama de Casa. Monastery of San Juan de Los Reyes. Palace of Don Hurtado de Mendoza.172
LETTER XII.
Arab Monuments. Pictures. The Princess Galiana. Environs.195
LETTER XIII.
Castles of Almonacid, Guadamur, Montalban, and Escalona. Torrijos.214
LETTER XIV.
Valladolid. San Pablo. College of San Gregorio. Route By Saragoza.240
PART II.—SEVILLE.
LETTER XV.
Journey To Seville. Character of the Spaniards. Valley of the Rhone.259
LETTER XVI.
Voyage To Gibraltar288
LETTER XVII.
Cadiz. Arrival at Seville.308
LETTER XVIII.
The Arabs in Spain. Alcazar of Seville.315
LETTER XIX.
Cathedral of Seville350
LETTER XX.
Spanish Beggars. Hairdressing. The Giralda. Casa de Pilatos. Monasteries. Italica.369
LETTER XXI.
Private Houses, and Local Customs in Seville399
LETTER XXII.
Inquisition. College of San Telmo. Cigar Manufactory. Bull Circus. Exchange. Ayuntamiento.416
ENGRAVED PLATES.
page
Chapel of San Isidro, MadridTo face Title.
Transept of Cathedral, Burgos38
Interior of the Church of Miraflores72
View of Toledo106
Interior of Cathedral, Toledo140
Façade of San Gregorio, Valladolid248
Hall of Ambassadors, do.315
Façade of the Alcazar, Seville325
Great Court of do.328
Interior of the Cathedral, Seville353
WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
Arco de Santa Maria. Burgos.30
Interior of the Choir, Cathedral of Burgos33
Sculpture in the Apse, do. do.40
Head of St. Francis48
Fountain of Santa Maria, Burgos69
Italian Gallery at the Museo, Madrid94
Florinda's Bath, Toledo112
Apse of the Cathedral, Toledo129
Costume of a Military Nun, Santa Fe, Toledo 165
Church of San Juan de Los Reyes, do.179
Cloister of San Juan de Los Reyes, do.182
Interior of Santa Maria la Blanca, do.196
Interior of Christo de la Luz, do.201
Castle of Guadamur. Environs of do.226
Façade of San Pablo. Valladolid242
Court of San Gregorio. Valladolid249
Court of Dolls, Alcazar, Seville331
Fountains at the Alcazar339
Portal of San Telmo, Seville422
PICTURESQUE ANTIQUITIES
OF