CHAPTER IV

SEVILLE AND GRANADA

(JANUARY-SEPTEMBER, 1833)

SEVILLE--GRANADA--TETUAN--FESTIVITIES AT MADRID--RETURN TO ENGLAND

SEVILLA, _Saturday, January 12 [1833]_.

I did not answer your letter last post, as I was then in the Sierra Morena, near Alcolea, on a shooting excursion.

You will find a large engraving of the tomb of the Catholic kings in the folio work published at Madrid in 1804 by Don Pablo Lorano, and called _Antiquedades arabes in España_.

Lewis, who is here, says, if you are not satisfied with that print, that he will make a drawing of the chapel and tomb at Granada when he returns. There are portraits of Fernando and Isabella in the Generalife; but they are bad, and certainly not so old as the period those personages lived in. At the Cartuja convent, near Burgos, is a genuine and beautiful small portrait of Isabella, which struck me very much when I was there, and is certainly of the time, and in the manner, of Holbein.

If you are acquainted with a brother of General Sⁿ. Martin, who has just been named Bishop of Barcelona, he will probably be able to put you in the way of getting a copy made of this portrait by some artist at Burgos. The newly-elected Bishop was treasurer of the cathedral at Burgos, and is a most worthy and good man.

Don José O’Lawlor could get you copies made of the portraits at the Generalife and of the tomb of Granada, and that musical artist _Muriel_ will do the job in a manner that no one will recognise them.

So much for your Excellency’s commissions.

We are all agog here with the arrival of Amarillas from Granada, who will make an excellent Captain-General, quite as honest and firm as Quesada, and much better and higher bred. If you see Madᵉ Quesada, who is a most agreeable, charming, fat old lady, pray lay me most devotedly at her feet.

My wife has been far from well lately--a bad cough, pain in her chest, and palpitations of the heart. I am not quite comfortable about her, and have some thoughts of going to Madeira. The Colonel is here as usual, and has lately set up a waistcoat, which he has eulogised to all Seville.

My wife wishes to know if you would like to have a _very, very fine_ Pajes guitar. There was a talk of one being to be sold, and it was mentioned to her.

I have this instant seen the _Gazetta_, and that Don José is appointed Captain-General of Mallorca. I suspected something was in the wind when so prudent a gentleman undertook the journey to Madrid. I am sorry for it, as I had eyes on the Alhambra for next summer.

SEVILLA, _March 6 [1833]_.

I have been resisting during these last six weeks an _empeño_ [favour] of my wife’s, but have at length yielded, as most men, whether single or married, must to the constant battery of female determination. She has bought a small silver filigree box, about half a foot long and six inches high, which she is very anxious to send to England, and to get it in without being broken up. She wants to know whether you can or will help her in this matter. It is a favour to be bestowed on her, and for which she will ever remain your handmaid or handwoman. I have told her that _I_ do not ask you, because you would say _no_ slap, and there would be an end of it. As the box is so small, will it be possible to get Lady S. Canning to take it back with her? I hardly like writing to Lord Althorp about it, as the Whigs, of course, will never do a job. So the matter stands. If you can do it, it will be a great favour to her, as the nicknack is a very pretty one. If you cannot, then she must bear it patiently--_no tiene remedio_. You will have heard of us and of our masquerading from a tall major, who was as high as a hill; he passed through with a stammering gentleman, who, I hope, was not the talebearer, or it is not told yet.

We are expecting a flock of Consuls from Europe and Africa--the Brackenburys and the Drummond Hays, who are going to spend the Holy Week, and a rare unholy one will they make it; as, where two or three English are gathered together, there is envy, hatred, and uncharitableness amongst them, and still more with that great class of people His B.M. Consuls. The Hays, I hear, are the greatest men alive. I am thinking of being off to escape the Consular deluge, and to retire to the polished cities of Tangier and Tetuan. Mr. Hay has made me offers for my house, and probably I shall make hay while the sun shines.

We have applied for the Alhambra, and, as soon as I can get an answer, we shall prepare to set forth for Granada, having no fear _now_ of José Maria, who came to Seville and paid me a visit of which the whole town is talking. I received him as a man of his merits deserves, and gave him a present of a pistol, with which probably, if he meets me on the high road, he will shoot me. Lewis, who is with me still, made a drawing of him--a fine handsome fellow, and fit to be absolute king of Andalucia.

If you have time to write, pray tell us what is _really known_ about the cholera. Is it at Lisbon? What are you about at Madrid, making the exchange to rise so? I am ruined by it.

My wife begs to be remembered to you, and that her _empeño_ may be remembered by you.

Poor Don José! What a mess he made of his trip to Madrid, where his Dionysia nearly miscarried, and he has completely. As far as we are concerned, I am delighted to see him again at Granada.

SEVILLA, _April 3 [1833]_.

My wife begs me to thank you a thousand times for offering to send her box. The size is 5 inches wide, 6 inches high, 8 inches long.

If you think fit, I will send it to you, and you shall dispose of the matter as you like. It contains a few odd Spanish trinkets, about £50 worth, in which _materiam superavit opus_, and which she wishes not to lose on account of the recollections attached to them, being memorials of her travels. I am really quite vexed at giving you all this trouble, thinking on the subject exactly the same as you do, and wishing all ladies and their _empeños_ at the devil.

We are full of _Misereres_, _Custodias_, _Pagos_, and processions, all the night and day work of the Holy Week, all unction, the fruits of which will duly make their appearance, this day nine months, in a plentiful crop of bastards for the _Casa de los Expositos_. Lots of English from the Rock, of the regiment called The Tiger; Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consuls-General, as thick as blackberries, and quite as insipid. I am dying to be lodged again in the Alhambra, and hear the ovation of the Tia’s chickens. Will the troubled times permit your Excellency to come and see us again this summer, when we will ride to Alhama and on to the Consul Mark, _el siempre Vencidor, El Galib?_

We are all at a nonplus at what is going on in the _Corte_. His Majesty’s letter to the Captain-Generals is a poser, and means in English, “I want nobody but my little Cea Bermudez.”[34] However, I am delighted to see that his Majesty is so well, as these decrees speak more clearly than any bulletins, that he has no thoughts of dying, and cares no more for Isabel than George the Fourth did for Charlotte. I wonder you can have any doubts whatever as to what will happen next. You will see the next word of command will be “As you were.”

It would be a pity that the march of intellect should get into the Peninsula, or that Africa should cease to begin at the Pyrenees.

SEVILLA, _Wednesday, 17 [April 1833]_.

I enclose you the receipt of the _diligence_ for the small box I sent you, in consequence of your kind offer to send it home for my wife. Mind, I should never have ventured to bother you on such a subject. The _diligence_ will arrive on Monday morning. If you will send your whiskered _Chasseur_ with the enclosed paper, no custom-house officer will dare to open it.

I suppose Brackenbury will send you the news of the two packets, up and down, which have met at Cadiz. The one from Malta brings the news that the Russians have 7 sail of the line at Constantinople, and 40 transports full of troops in the Bosphorus, and that Mehemet Ali’s fleet, 5 sail, have hoisted the flag of independence.[35]

The _Hermes_ from England, sent off at an hour’s notice by the Admiralty, touched at Oporto, Vigo, Lisbon, with orders to all the English ships of war to proceed directly to Constantinople, without anchoring at Gibraltar. The _Malabar_, Captain Percy (with Sir William Eden on board), is at Cadiz, and, ere this, in the Mediterranean. Other English ships are in sight. Private intelligence to “_the Proconsul_” says that the cholera is at Lisbon.

Will you be so kind, if you have time, to let me know when the box arrives, and, if it goes to England, how and when? It contains £50 or £60 of trinkets, the honey collected by my Queen Bee.

Shirreff is uncertain as to his motions. He is agog at the thoughts of a war and a three-decker. It is probable that he will turn off at Ossuna and proceed directly to Gibraltar by Ronda.

I hope to arrive at Granada next Wednesday, where, in case of seizure or squalls, you have a house at your _disposicion_ to retire to.

TETUAN, _Saturday, May 25 [1833]_.

Do not be alarmed at a letter from this land of lions, tigers, deserts, and cannibals, for I assure you it is a paradise compared to the garrison and gunfire of Gibraltar, almost as beautiful as Granada, quite as civilised as Spain, and abounding with comforts and accommodations, seeing that the houses of the Jews are more handsomely and abundantly furnished than those of the grandees of Seville.

It is quite a mistake to suppose that there is any difficulty or danger in travelling in Barbary, or that the condition of the Jews or Christians here is so deplorable as gentlemen on their travels have printed and published for the benefit of Mr. Colburn and edification of the British public. Both are treated with great kindness, and the proof of the substantial prosperity of the sons of Israel is in the silks and jewels, domestic comforts and luxuries, which are to be met with even among the poorest of them.

I must go back a little in my letter. We left Seville in April, and reached Granada in due time, in spite of the wind and the rain. We thence proceeded to the town called by the English Gib, by the way of Alhama _ay de mi_![36] Loja, Antequera, and Ronda, a fine mountain ride, full of Moorish castles and fastnesses, the scene of many a desperate conflict, all of which are written in the book of Washington Irving. From Gibraltar we were conveyed by Shirreff to Tangiers, a pretty little town situated in a sheltered bay. I need not tell you how great is the change on landing, greater than that between Dover and Calais. I will not say that, on coming from Spain, it is coming from civilisation to barbarism, it being well known that Africa begins at the Pyrenees; but still the change of turbans for hats, _haiks_ for _capas_, camels for mules, wild Arabs in their peaked _jellibeas_ for monks, is sufficiently striking. The interior of the town is like a Spanish one--all dirt, ruin, and bad pavement, the houses, low and windowless, looking like whitened sepulchres; and the women, in their _haiks_ and muffled-up faces, look like the ghost in _Semiramis_--a very appropriate population for so sepulchral a city. From under the shroud, however, peep out certain black, soft eyes, so full of life that a gentleman would have no objection to be haunted in the night-time by one of these spectres.

The Jewesses do not hide their faces, and it would be a sin to do so, as they are truly beautiful. Their costume is most fanciful and oriental--a mass of brocade, golden sashes, handkerchiefs, and jewelry, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, by no means the trappings of a people said to be stripped to the skin by the Moors. If they have any “_old cloes_,” they buy and sell them and do not wear them. They are highly pleased at being visited, and show their finery with great complacency. My wife has been admitted into the interior of divers houses of the Moors, but does not give so favourable an account of them as of the Jewesses. The newly-married women paint their faces very much as we remember, in the days of our youth, that facetious gentleman Grimaldi did.

There is a very decent inn, much cleaner and better provided than those in Spain. We were lodged at His B. Majesty’s Consulate-General, and so changed houses with the Hays. From Tangiers we rode to Tetuan, a pleasant ride through a rich country, well cultivated, of about eleven hours. Here we have put up in the oriental dwelling of a respectable Jew, who has two daughters, who make me think every day better of Moses as a legislator--fair complexions, dark black hair, and soft, mild, large, almond-shaped eyes, rendered more oriental by a dark powder, with which the lids are slightly blacked, which gives an indescribable soft expression to them. We have been received by the Pasha in oriental state, turbaned guards, Ethiopian slaves, cushions and couches, and much green tea, almond cakes and sweetmeats. My wife was presented to his lady, and presented by her with a scarf value ten shillings, for which she gave her a musical snuff-box.

The situation of the town delightful, on the slope of a hill commanded by an embattled castle, and overlooking a valley of gardens bounded to the north-east by the blue sea, and to the south by a magnificent chain of mountains. It is a second Granada, and the original founders who fled from Granada brought with them all their love for agriculture and gardens, which are here the delight of the Moors. The hills supply them with an abundance of water, which under African sun and a fertile soil covers the earth with the most luxuriant vegetation and every kind of fruit given to man to eat. The town is like that of Tangiers, impressive when seen from the distance, but ruined in the interior. The bazaars, and especially the corn and vegetable markets, very African. Lines of camels laden with dates from Tafilet, silks from Fez, Ethiopians, wild Arabs, and muffled women, naked legs and covered faces, all talking a guttural idiom which beats German to nothing. The wares they deal with are as singular as the people: painted _couskousu_ dishes from Fez, odd brown zebra-looking carpets from Rabat, tricolour clothes for the Ethiopians, velvet embroidered cushions, slippers and sashes from Algiers. Then the jewelry of the women. My wife represents the Moorish women as one mass of pearls and precious stones. I have seen the collection of a Jewish woman which filled a decent-size box, about four times as big as the one my wife troubled you with, and which I hope started safely for England. Huge uncut emeralds seem to be the favourites. The houses are full of small _patios_, arches, arabesque work, and tesselated pavement, like the Alhambra, and the palace of the Governor, which is in high order, gives one an idea of what the Alhambra must have been once upon a time. We hope to set out to-morrow for Gibraltar, and thence to Granada _viâ_ Malaga, and, having embraced His B. M. Consul in that city, to get back to the Alhambra by the 6th of June, _el dia de Corpus_, which is celebrated with great pomp in Granada. _Adios_ ever, here and everywhere.

GIBRALTAR, _Thursday, 30 [May, 1833]_.

We have arrived here quite safely from Tetuan, and hope to be back at Granada by the 6th of June for _el dia de Corpus_.

Leaving his wife at Granada, Ford hurried to Madrid to be present at the solemn recognition of Isabella as heiress to the Spanish crown. In spite of the protests of Don Carlos, the oath of allegiance was taken by the Cortes in the Church of Geronimo at Madrid (June 20th, 1833). The capital was given up for days to magnificent festivities, which culminated in a bull-fight, given in the Plaza Mayor on Saturday, June 22nd. The whole square was converted into a superb spectacle, the windows of the houses being used as boxes. Under a gorgeous canopy in the centre window of the Town Hall sat the King and Queen; on either side of them were the royal family and the court. The King arrived in state at 5 o’clock. The arena was cleared by halberdiers, dressed in the costume of the old guard of Philip II. The four knights, who took part in the fight, led a splendid procession round the arena. Each was accompanied by his sponsor, in a state coach and six, attended by running footmen. The sponsors, the Dukes of Frias, Alva, and Infantado, and the Count of Florida Blanca, were followed by troops of gaily dressed bull-fighters and their assistants, leading horses from the King’s stables, saddled with silver trappings, and their manes and tails plaited with ribbons. They were succeeded by four troops, each consisting of forty men, one equipped as ancient Spaniards, the second as Romans, the third as wild Indians, and the fourth as Moors. When all had taken their places the bull-fight began. The bulls were let loose, and each of the four knights in turn advanced on horseback clad in silk, and armed only with a short javelin. Their safety depended on the skill of the matadors who attended them. Care had been taken that the bulls should not be of their usual ferocity; but, even as it was, one of the knights was severely wounded.[37]

MALAGA, _June 2 [1833]_.

If you do not repent you of your hospitable offer of giving me a bed, during the approaching shows and ceremonies, I should be delighted to run up for a few days. As I should come alone, any hole or corner in your house would be perfectly good enough, and I should put you by no means out of your way.

I hope to be at Granada by Thursday, and will consult Don José’s tailor on the subject of a coat, something blue, turned up with red and a few dollars of gold lace; you can pass me, in this decent livery, as an _attaché_ extraordinary from the Pacha of Tetuan, or a proconsul from his B.M. Consul-General at Tangiers. I hope in this disguise to be allowed to stand behind your Excellency’s chair at the different ceremonies, bull-fights, _rows_ (_si Dios quiere_), and hold your dress cocked hat.

My wife is not well, and much knocked up by this last journey, and will do quite well to remain quiet in the Alhambra. Indeed, some repose is absolutely necessary to her, both bodily and mentally.

This is a warm spot; and having dined with the consul, eaten the raisins, drunk the Malaga, and looked at the clay figures, nought remains but to pack up the _Alforjas_ [saddle-bags] and be off to Granada.

I wrote you a letter from Tetuan, which I hope reached you, and was less tedious than one of sixty pages from Mr. Edward Drummond Mortimer Auriol Hay.

I hear there will be no time for an answer to reach me at Granada, as I must set out about the 10th to arrive the 16th. All sorts of conveyances will no doubt be occupied, and I shall have to ride over the interminable plains of Castille, and shall arrive as brown as the Plenipo from Algiers.

On July 1st, 1833, Ford was back at Granada. But he had now determined, for the reasons given in the following letter, to return to England. Addington was also leaving Madrid. Greville (_Memoirs_, ed. 1888, vol. iii. pp. 14-15), notes on July 20th: “George Villiers is to go as Minister to Madrid, instead of Addington, who is so inefficient they are obliged to recall him, and at this moment Madrid is the most important diplomatic mission, with reference to the existing and prospective state of things. The Portuguese contest, the chance of the King of Spain’s death and a disputed succession, the recognition of the South American Colonies, and commercial arrangements with this country, present a mass of interests which demand considerable dexterity and judgment; besides, Addington is a Tory, and does not act in the spirit of this Government, so they will recall him without ceremony.” The unfavourable criticism is discounted by the last sentence. But there can be no question that Addington’s successor George Villiers, afterwards (1838) fourth Earl of Clarendon, was a man of much greater ability. Villiers remained at Madrid till early in 1839.

_July 6 [1833]_, GRANADA.

I arrived here to dinner on Monday last, having left Madrid Saturday morning at 2, passing through the _Prado_, which was full of people eating gingerbread, and dancing to guitars and strumming, a very proper and Catholic mode of keeping the _Visperas_ of Sⁿ. Pedro.

The journey here was severe, but rapid. I found Mrs. Ford much better, very much better than I could have expected--so much so that we have determined on returning to England in September, _si Dios quiere_. I do not like the looks of things here, and, with the Portuguese business and the cholera in the Peninsula, think it high time to return to England. Indeed, it is high time for other reasons. My wife is left alone without female society; my children at this important age are brought up as heathens and Spaniards, a pretty prospect for daughters; and I myself must purge like Falstaff, and live cleanly like a gentleman, and take to that gentlemanlike old vice, avarice, to save a little money for the bad times which hang over England.

We hear here that the expedition in the south of Portugal is advancing prosperously, and that they pay as they go, which is a surer way of making proselytes than all their charters and constitutions.

Don José has added another young lady to his family, Dionysia having been safely brought to bed yesterday. This is her sixth child of the female sex.

The weather here delicious, mornings and evenings cool and fresh, and all green, and trickling streams, shady over-leafy arbours, with sweet singing nightingales; _per contra_ nothing to eat, and no Valdepeñas or dinners.

The wall in the Alhambra is rising most rapidly, and the Frenchman equally expeditious in his painting of the _Patio de los Leones_ for _Vista allegre_; indeed he had better make haste, for the _vista_ of the future is anything but _allegre_.

GRANADA, _August 24, 1833_.

I was astounded in seeing in the _Revista_ that your ambassadorial career in Spain is coming to a conclusion. As you have been long prepared for it, and, indeed, rather surprised at its not having taken place sooner, I need say no more on the matter except that you will retire to enjoy your _otium cum dignitate_. They have been very considerate to let you out of Spain just when the cholera is coming in. We hear that it was at Huelva on the 10th, and will soon be at Cadiz and Seville. This is bad intelligence for us, as we were preparing to return to England that route. If it does not reach Gibraltar by October, we shall go home in that packet.

If you have time, in all the misery of packing up and departure, to write me a line, I shall be very glad to know when you are going and what are your plans. I am sure I am most thankful to the Whigs for their forbearance, as I verily believe, had you not furnished me with the Galignani (to say nothing of much and friendly hospitality on all and many occasions), I could not have survived in this land of darkness. The papers say George Villiers is to be your successor. He is a very clever, high-bred man, _muy rubio_ and an _elegante_; he will please the Madrilenas. I should doubt if he knew a word of Spanish, which he will find a pretty considerable _desideratum_.

We are here enjoying the most beautiful weather, and one would hardly suppose, on looking at the blue sky and bright sun, that there was cholera in the world.

The summer has been unusually warm, and old Picacho has taken off his white nightcap in consequence of the heat. I went up to the Barranco de Sⁿ. Juan with Head,[38] who is a well-informed, agreeable companion, and is filling his portfolio and pericranium with all sorts of Spanish _memoranda_.

Don José is _in statu quo_, and has had another baby born to him. I occasionally stroll with him in the Alameda, and listen to his old campaigns and how the Duke “flaked” the French on all occasions. I am reading the masterly work of Napier, and O’Lawlor is quite a commentator. _Quæque ipse miserrima vidi et quorum pars magna fui._

You won’t be tempted to run down here in the _diligence_, and go home in the October packet?

Brackenbury was at Seville, gone to see the paintings of Mr. Roberts, which I hear are very fine;[39] but the news at Huelva sent him off per steamer to his post at Cadiz.

I fear the wise Whigs will find their _protégé_ in Portugal in a mess; we hear every day of the country rising against Dom Pedro. O’Lawlor considers his troubles as now beginning. Your troubles and mine are fast drawing to an end.

_Sept. 21, 1833_, MADRID.

We arrived here at last this morning, after a most distressing journey, in consequence of the detentions and discomforts occasioned on the road by the singular precautions taken in the towns against the approach of the cholera. These are so very absurd, and so totally calculated to defeat the object in view, that I think some account of what took place may possibly interest you.

As I had to travel with a sick wife, four small children--one of them only weaned a few days--I made many enquiries of General Abadia and the _administrador_ of the _diligence_ at Granada whether any difficulties would be offered on the road, with a view of making some sort of preparation; but, having been assured that none would, I ventured forth on Wednesday morning. We reached Jaen without interruption, but on our arrival found a guard of soldiers drawn up across the road, with many of the inhabitants behind them. The _diligence_ was stopped, though it could only come from Granada; and though all other carriages coming from Granada were admitted at once, a precaution taken against the _diligence only_, which on the contrary ought to have been the least suspected, both from the forms of its institution and the decency of travellers who proceed by such a conveyance. The _mayoral_ got down, and entered into close communication with the soldiers and people, collected all the passports, and gave them _into the hand_ of a person appointed to receive them. The passengers then alighted, and mingled with the assembled people until the passports were returned.

Next morning we proceeded to Mengibar, a miserable hamlet, where we were detained by some wild-looking peasants and a nondescript soldier in a _gorro_ without stockings, but with a sword in his hand. The passports were received in the same way, and returned duly _viséd_ by the _Junta de Sanidad_. In almost every town some sort of detention took place, generally of about half an hour, but varying in detail according to the plan laid down by each petty Junta.

At Guarroman a carriage, supposed to have a person from Seville in it, was turned out of the town, and the passengers obliged to pass the day in the sun, without food or communication, while some steps were taken to procure them a _cortijo_.

At Manzanares, where we arrived early, we were detained much longer, as none of the peasants could read or write, and the passports had to be taken to the _Escribano_, who was in bed, and had left orders not to be disturbed.

At Ocaña, where we ought to have rested some hours and supped, the _diligence_ was peremptorily ordered out of the town. We were driven out and left to ourselves; the innkeeper, who ought to have provided food, not having done so because there might be some difficulty in his getting paid. However, a party in the carriage fared better: several ladies, attended by two officers of the garrison with servants, came down to the _diligence_ with provisions, remained with it an hour, and then returned to Ocaña with the _very guards_ who were appointed to prevent all communication.

At Aranjuez, the next town, we were admitted without stoppage, enquiry, or notice of any sort.

It is needless to point out to you the absurdity of these proceedings, so vexatious to travellers, and so utterly ill calculated to produce any good effect. Persons suspected of being infected are allowed to remain in full communication with inhabitants of the town, before their actual freedom from disease is ascertained. The commonest measures of sanitary precautions are neglected. There was no bar, no rope across the road, no fixed spot for the travellers to communicate with the guards, no receiving papers or passports with tongs, or with vinegar, or any of the usual disinfecting processes.

Each little town seemed to act according to its own ideas, and all absolute and peremptory; all in equal ignorance of what was passing below and left in equal ignorance by the authorities at Madrid; without orders or instructions, or one general simple plan to be adopted everywhere, each petty village acting for itself as if no other town existed, and without reference to the public good.

Depend upon it, they are adopting the sure means of rapidly communicating the disease, and _any one_ infected traveller will bring it, to a certainty, to Madrid, if no better precautions are taken in the towns nearer the disorder.