Page images
PDF
EPUB

A

HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS

IN

SPAIN.

BY RICHARD FORD, F.S.A.

PART I

ANDALUCIA, RONDA AND GRANADA, MURCIA, VALENCIA, AND
CATALONIA; THE PORTIONS BEST SUITED FOR THE
INVALID-A WINTER TOUR.

QUIEN DICE ESPAÑA-DICE TODO.

THIRD EDITION,

ENTIRELY REVISED, WITH GREAT ADDITIONS.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

PARIS: GALIGNANI AND CO.; AND STASSIN AND XAVIER.
GIBRALTAR: GEORGE ROWSWELL.-MALTA: MUIR.

1855.

THE ENGLISH EDITIONS OF MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS MAY BE OBTAINED OF THE FOLLOWING AGENTS:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

ΤΟ

SIR WILLIAM EDEN, BART.,

THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED, IN REMEMBRANCE OF PLEASANT YEARS SPENT IN WELL-BELOVED SPAIN,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

(4)

NOTICE.

THE Publisher of the Handbook for Travellers in Spain' requests, that travellers who may, in the use of the Work, detect any faults or omissions which they can correct from personal knowledge, will have the kindness to mark them down on the spot, and forward such notes, favouring him at the same time with their names-addressed to Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street. They may be reminded that by such communications they are not merely furnishing the means of improving the Handbook, but are contributing to the benefit, information, and comfort of future travellers in regard to a country, which is in a state of considerable change and progress.

*** No attention can be paid to letters from innkeepers in praise of their own houses; and the postage of them is so onerous that they cannot be received.

CAUTION TO TRAVELLERS.-By a recent Act of Parliament the introduction into England of foreign pirated Editions of the works of British authors, in which the copyright subsists, is totally prohibited. Travellers will therefore bear in mind that even a single copy is contraband, and is liable to seizure at the English Custom-house.

CAUTION TO INNKEEPERS AND OTHERS.-The Publisher of the Handbooks has learned from various quarters that a person or persons have of late been extorting money from innkeepers, tradespeople, artists, and others on the Continent, under pretext of procuring recommendations and favourable notices of them and their establishments in the Handbooks for Travellers. The Publisher, therefore, thinks proper to warn all whom it may concern, that recommendations in the Handbooks are not to be obtained by purchase, and that the persons alluded to are not only unauthorised by him, but are totally unknown to him. All those, therefore, who put confidence in such promises may rest assured that they will be defrauded of their money without attaining their object.-1855.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

THE rapid exhaustion of two large editions of this Handbook for Spain,' a country hitherto little known and less visited, proves that the Pyrenees have ceased to bar out travellers from England, to whose especial use this work is destined.

Of the many misrepresentations regarding the Peninsula, few had been previously more systematically circulated, than the dangers and difficulties. It was our office to show, that this, the most romantic and peculiar country in Europe, might in reality be visited throughout its length and breadth, with ease and safety,-that travelling there was no worse than it was in most parts of the continent in 1814, before English example forced improvements. The greatest desideratum was a practical Handbook, since the national Guias are scanty and unsatisfactory, as few Spaniards travel in their own country, and fewer travel out of it; thus, with limited means of comparison, they cannot appreciate differences, or know what are the wants and wishes of a foreigner. Accordingly, in their Guides, usages, ceremonies, &c. which are familiar to themselves from childhood, are often passed over without notice, although, from their novelty to the stranger, they are exactly what he most desires to have pointed out and explained. Nay, the natives frequently despise, or feel ashamed, from a sensitiveness of being thought "picturesque barbarians," of those very things which the most interest and charm the foreigner, for whose observation they select the new rather than the old, and point out their poor pale copies of Europe, in preference to their own rich and racy originals. Again, the oral information to be obtained on the spot is generally meagre; as these incurious semiorientals look with jealousy on the foreigner who observes or questions, they either fence with him in their answers, raise difficulties, or, being creatures of self-esteem and imagination, magnify or diminish everything as best suits their own objects and suspicions. The national expressions" Quien sabe? no se sabe," "who knows? I do not know," will often be the prelude to "No se puede,”—“ it can't be done."

This Handbook endeavours to show what might be known and what may be done in Spain, with the least difficulty and the greatest satisfaction. With this view, the different modes of travelling by land or water, and the precautions necessary to be taken to insure comfort an

« PreviousContinue »