Northern Spain

DEAR W.,--I can manage your date, but don't quite feel drawn to your country. Norway is all mountains, and I want a little archæology. I had been thinking of Provence.

Far be it from me to disparage Vizcaya or Galicia, but the prize "for the fairest" must be awarded to Asturias. No other province in Spain--few even in Italy--can show such weal...

This preliminary canter had merely admitted us into a great cup, the bed of an ancient lake. We had entered it through the outlet, but must leave it over the lip. Within its mou...

"HE that is minded to go to _Santiago_ may fare thither in many ways both by sea and land";--and to continue in Sir John Mandeville's vein we might add "by the heavens also," fo...

LUGO is the hub of Galicia. It lies at the mouth of the Pass of Piedrafita, on the great main road which enters the province from Leon; and which at this point trifurcates south...

A BUXOM old lady who was occupying the shadow of a large umbrella in the centre of Rivadeo marketp-lace greeted us volubly as we emerged from the _Fonda_ door. "A good day to yo...

The Esla valley runs down broad and level from Leon towards the south; a monotonous umber-coloured valley, very different from the wild glens whence its waters are derived. The...

Spain is far poorer in lakes than in mountains: and the deficiency has compensations, as it discourages the breeding of flies. But it offers a rare opportunity for the disquisit...

There were "Bulls at Salamanca" (so ran the placards) on the day when we were to resume our journey towards the south; and the _Señor Patron_ seemed quite crestfallen at realisi...

There are but three reasons, that I know of, for anyone visiting Madrid. First, that the roads (which are very bad) lead there; second, that the Prado picture gallery (which was...

The Estremadura road launches out boldly from the end of the Segóvia bridge at Madrid, and the fingerpost which points along it laconically observes that that way you will get t...

Few streams are so mercilessly bantered as the hapless Manzanares, and it is rough on an honest little river to rag it because it is poor. It is "navigable at all seasons for a...

Last but not the least among the merits of Segóvia is to be reckoned the fact that it pays some attention to its roads, for these are decidedly the best in all the central provi...

It must give some flavour of unreality to our impressions of the Peninsula that we should not allude to the beggars until the ultimate chapter of all. And our only excuse for ou...