One cold winter's night,
Francis had a sad fright,

As he dozed in his old oaken chair;

The lights they burned blue

He'd had flagons twice two

And a gent with a tail came the banquet to share.

Jolly Francis the friar,

In dismay the most dire,

Told his beads as fast as he might;

But the gent with the horns,

He punished his corns,

While his hair stood on end with affright.

Ha ha! Francis, my boy,

I am loath to annoy,

But no more Olla or Sherry for thee;
You've enjoyed your last glass,

And your time must now pass
In the kingdom of sulphur with me.

Rosy Francis declares

He then seized his few hairs, And battered his nose on the floor; The room full of smoke,

He felt fit to choke,

As he shuffled to grope for the door.

At the dawn of the morn,

The Abbot, shaven and shorn, Found Rosy Francis asleep on the floor; But Francis declares

He was saying his prayers

When his holiness opened the door.

But the cellarer grey,
Who tipples all day,

Winks, and says 'tis fustian outright.
Francis fell on his nose

When his sherry-warmed toes

Refused to preserve him upright.

THE

XEREZ DE LA FRONTERA.

The moral we learn

Into rhyme I will turn-
Quantum suff. is as good as a feast;
One flagon of wine

Is enough when you dine

Twice two made poor Francis a beast.

201

HE word Sherry is derived from Xerez-de-la Frontera, in Andalusia, one of the wealthiest towns in Spain. It is about twenty miles from Cadiz, and fourteen inland from Port St. Mary across the bay, reached, when I was last there, by a steamer; but a railway now runs from Cadiz through Xerez and Seville, on to Cordova, to be continued to Madrid. On entering the bay of Cadiz there is a view worth travelling many miles

to see.

Cadiz itself is like a city of white marble palaces; and although the old walls and fortifications are in a dilapidated state, recalling many an interesting historical recollection, they possess a beauty of their own, which is much enhanced by the breaking and rushing of the waves into the breaches made by war and time. Some of the streets have a charming appearance, owing to the balconies being filled with flowers, and painted in the gayest and most brilliant colours. On looking up, each side seems as if it were a hanging flower-garden. This is especially striking in the principal street, the Calle Ancha, narrow as all are in the South, but laid out at such an angle as to afford shelter from the rays of the sun, except when in the meridian.

I could not help being much amused, when asking for sherry, instead of the common red wine that all had before them at table, to be told that they had no white wine—and this in one of the principal hotels in Cadiz!

Crossing in the steamer to Port St. Mary, I took a calesa to Xerez, and arriving in the evening, went to the principal inn, which reminded me forcibly of

Don Quixote and Roderick Random, and some of the scenes described in those works. It must be rather trying to English travellers to observe the indifference with which they are received and treated in Peninsular hotels. No bowing or ready waiter, or Boots, will be found to welcome you, or to carry your portmanteau; and on entering the doorway you will probably see a large room, full of muleteers,

labourers, and proprietors, drinking, smoking, and chatting.

When the landlord or a servant takes the trouble of escorting you to a sleeping-place, it will probably be found to contain a dozen wooden bedsteads, with several of them occupied, even at mid-day, by tired.

muleteers.

If you express a desire to have a room for yourself, instead of with a dozen or two companions, you are considered very fastidious, and are shown to another, where you can be in solitary grandeur, with a wooden bed, two chairs to match, and a looking-glass six inches square, that reflects a countenance of a shape not easily recognised, and far from flattering. It is often said that the beds and linen in Spain and Portugal are dirty and full of vermin, but, as far as my own experience enables me to judge, I should express a very different opinion.

On returning to the room below, I got some of the capital acorn-fed ham, fowl and rice, and eggs, with a few tumblers of the pleasant refreshing wine of the country. What I paid in a wine-shop was, I think, a penny for a glass containing about half a pint.

During both my visits to Xerez, I resided with a friend who thoroughly understood the sherry trade, having been, so to say, born in it, and having worked at it all his life. After breakfast, with the capitaz (manager of the bodega or stores) we began tasting, first the various Soleras lots, from which orders are executed, according to the kind

described and the price to be charged; and, after knowing the groundwork, I stated what I thought would please those for whom I had orders to select sherries. We then took certain proportions from lots, putting them together, to decide which blend we most approved, or we found that which we had made up was not perfect of its kind, and might have the fault remedied by a 'topping' of a couple of gallons to the butt, of a rich luscious wine called the doctor, or else, perhaps, amontillado.

After a couple of hours of this work, the palate being a little wearied, we would ride till three or four o'clock, when we returned to the bodega; and again tried the various samples, making notes of our opinions. At other times, we prepared samples on one day, giving them a night's rest to mix well together which is too often forgotten-and then compared them carefully, the next day.

It is an easy matter when one has only to prepare a certain number of butts of the best quality, at certain prices, of gold, pale, or brown; but it is different when orders arrive to ship 5, 10, or 50 butts, exactly the same as were sent by such a ship two or more years ago. Samples of shipments are always retained, and heads and mouths are kept hard at work to meet the requisition.

After much tasting, perhaps the identical quality seems to have been reached, yet there may be evidently a shade more or less colour, which would cause the rejection of the shipment; and there is no