security, are first pointed out in the Introduction. The Provinces are then described one after another. The principal lines of high roads, cross-communications, names of inns, and quality of accommodation, are detailed, and the best seasons of the year for exploring each route suggested. Plans of tours are drawn up, and the best lines laid down for specific and specified objects. The peculiarities of districts and towns are noticed, and a short account given of the local antiquities, religion, art, scenery, and manners. This work, the fruit of many years' wandering in the Peninsula, is an humble attempt to furnish in the smallest compass, the greatest quantity of useful and entertaining information. Those things which every one, when on the spot, can see with his own eyes, are seldom described minutely; stress is laid upon what to observe, leaving it to the spectator to draw his own conclusions; nor is everything that can be seen set down, but only what is really worth seeing,—nec omnia dicentur (as Pliny says, Nat. Hist.,' xiv. 2), sed maxime insignia; and how often does the wearied traveller rejoice when no more is to be "done;" and how does he thank the faithful pioneer, who, by having himself toiled to see some "local lion," has saved others the tiresome task, by his assurance that it is not worth the time or trouble. The philosophy of Spain and Spaniards, and things to be known, not seen, have never been neglected; therefore dates, names, facts, and matters are mentioned by which local interest may be enhanced. Curiosity is awakened, rather than exhausted; for to do that would require many more such volumes as this. But as next to knowing a thing oneself, is the knowing where to find it, sources of fuller information are cited, from whence this skeleton framework may be filled up, whilst such a reference to the best authorities on nice occasions, offers a better guarantee than any mere unsupported statement; and the author whose object is truth, and whose wish is to have his views disseminated, must feel much flattered to find the good use his pages have been of to many authors, gentlemen and ladies too. In Spain, a few larger cities excepted, libraries, newspapers, cicerones, and those resources which so much assist the traveller in other countries of Europe, are among the things that are not: therefore the provident traveller should carry in his saddle-bags food both for mind and body, some supply of what he can read and eat, in this hungry land of the uninformed. A little more is now aimed at than a mere book of roads, or description of the husk of the country. To see the cities, and know the minds of men, has been, since the days of the Odyssey, the object of travel but how "difficult is it," in the words of the Great Duke (Disp., Dec. 13, 1810), "to understand the Spaniards exactly!" Made up of contradictions, they dwell in the land of the unexpected, le pays de l'imprévu, where exception is the rule; where accident and the impulse of the moment are the moving powers; a land where men, especially in their collective capacity, act like women and children; where a spark, a trifle, sets the impressionable masses in action, and where no one can foresee the commonest events, which baffle the most rational and wellfounded speculations. An explosion may occur at any moment; nor does any Spaniard ever attempt to guess beyond la situacion actual, or to foretell what the morrow will bring: that he leaves to the foreigner, who does not understand him-accordingly, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Paciencia y barajar is his motto, and he waits patiently to see what next will turn up after another sunrise and shuffle. His creed and practice are Resignation," the Islam of the Oriental; for this singular people is scarcely yet European; this Berberia Cristiana is at least a neutral ground between the hat and the turban, and many still contend that Africa begins at the Pyrenees. Be that as it may, Spain, first civilized by the Phoenicians, and long possessed by the Moors, has indelibly retained many of the original impressions. Test her, therefore, and her natives by an Oriental standard, decypher her by that key,-how analogous will much appear, that seems strange and repugnant, when compared with European usages! This land and people of routine and habit are potted for antiquarians, for here Pagan, Roman, and Eastern customs, long obsolete elsewhere, turn up at every step in church and house, in cabinet and campaign. In this age of practical investigation, the physical features of Spain, her mighty mountain ranges and rivers, her wealth above and below ground, her vegetation and mines, offer a wide and almost new field to our naturalists and men of science. Again, to those of a less utilitarian turn, here are those seas which reflect the glories of Drake, Blake, and Nelson, and those plains that are hallowed by the victories of the Black Prince, Stanhope, and Wellington; and what English pilgrim will fail to visit such sites, or be dead to the religio loci which they inspire? And where better than on the sites themselves, can be read the great deeds of our soldiers and sailors, their gallantry and good conduct, the genius, mercy, and integrity of their immortal chiefs, which will be here faithfully yet not boastingly recorded ? While every lie and libel is circulated on each side of the Pyrenees, is, forsooth, the truth to be altogether withheld in pages destined especially for their countrymen? Is their history to be treated as an old almanack, in order in false or cowardly delicacy, to curry favour with unprincipled vanity writhing under defeat, or with impotent pride resenting benefits which imply inferiority? The mirror that shall truly reflect Spain and her things, her glories and shame, must disclose a chequered picture in which black spots will contrast with bright lights, and the evil clash with the good; sad indeed will be many a page; alas! for the works of ages of piety, science, and fine art, trampled down by the Vandal heel of destroyers, foreign and domestic, who have left a deep footprint, and set" the mark of the beast," which will pain the scholar, the artist, and the philanthropist. If, however, such crimes and culprits come like dark shadows (for not one tithe of the full substance of crime will be set down), it must never be forgotten that these verdicts of guilty refer to particular individuals and periods, and not to any nation in general or to all times. And far more pleasant has been the duty of dwelling on deeds of skill and valour performed on the peninsular arena by native or foreigner, by friend or foe, and of pointing out the excellences of this favoured land oF SPAIN, and of enlarging on the generous, manly, independent, and picturesque PEOPLE, whose best energies in peace and war have been too often depressed by misgovernment in Church and State. However it may be the bounden duty of an honest guide to put English travellers in possession of the truth as regards many things, facts and persons, and thus to guard them against misrepresentations, our readers need by no means, on crossing the Channel, blurt out all they know of these truths, often the worst of libels. These doubleedged weapons may be kept undrawn until necessary for self-defence. Gratuitously to wound a sensitive kindly people, is neither polite or friendly in the stranger, who is their guest-who will pass more quietly through the land by making things pleasant to the natives, and if speech be silver, silence is often gold. "Hæc studia adolescentiam agunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solatium præbent; delectant domi, non impediunt foris; pernoctant nobiscum, perigrinantur, rusticantur."Cicero, pro Arch. 7. 539 566 SECTION XII.-THE BASQUE PROVINCES. The Fueros, Character of Country and Natives, Manners, Language, 872 |