31 chapters
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31 chapters
IMPRESSIONS OF SPAIN.
IMPRESSIONS OF SPAIN.
BY ALBERT F. CALVERT, F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF “ The Discovery of Australia ,” “ The Exploration of Australia ,” “ My Fourth Tour in Western Australia ,” “ The Political Value of our Colonies ,” etc. , etc. London : GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LIMITED, 32, Fleet Street . Liverpool : PHILIP, SON & NEPHEW, 45-51, South Castle Street . All rights reserved. 1903. TO SEÑOR DON SEBASTIAN BARRIS. My dear Bárris , As the pleasure and instruction I have derived from my different visits to Spain have b
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
T HERE is a character in current drama who devoted his whole life to the writing of a book. He called it a “pamphlet,” because he had intended it to be a pamphlet when he started on his task, but in its completed state the work filled three mighty folio volumes. Although the present volume has not attained such gargantuan proportions, it is considerably longer than I had thought to make it. It is not put forward as an exhaustive or profound study of Spain and the Spaniards, but as a simple recor
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Introductory Chapter.
Introductory Chapter.
F ROM the wild gorges and noble crags of the Pyrenees, and the treeless and apparently uninhabited sierras of the North—vast, solitary, and impressive—to the snow-capped hills of the mid-interior, “the palms and temples of the South,” and the unrivalled beauty of the country from Seville to Granada— Spain is a land to entrance the traveller. Its great and terribly chequered history is writ large upon the face of the country. Its people have undergone as great, if not greater, vicissitudes than a
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Madrid
Madrid
IN OLD MADRID. A MONG the cities of Spain, I write first of Madrid, because I knew it first, and because I know of no city that has been more systematically and unjustifiably maligned. My first visit to Madrid was undertaken on business grounds; but I have returned there many times since, and always with feelings of the keenest pleasure. There is, to me, what the Americans describe as a “homey” air about the city, that may in a measure be accounted for by the good fortune I have had in finding f
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El Escorial.
El Escorial.
A NOTHER of the Spanish royal residences, of which no other European country can boast so many, is, to give the edifice its correct title: “El Real sitio de San Lorenzo el Real del Escorial,” which is situated some twenty-five miles from Madrid. The ancient glory of El Escorial , its revenues, its monks and its magnificence, are vanished, but the activity and importance of the district have been revived by virtue of the wonderful copper mines which lie almost under the shadow of the mighty walls
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Barcelona.
Barcelona.
D ON QUIXOTE was a true lover of Barcelona, which he addressed as “the home of courtesy, refuge for strangers, country of the valiant.” Its history is replete with records of its valour; its everyday life is illumined with a grave courtesy; the stranger within its gates is welcomed with a cordiality in which suspicion has no part. The Catalan is afraid of nobody on this earth; he has no use, as the Americans put it, for suspicion. He is a distinct race in costume, habits, and language; combining
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On the East Coast.
On the East Coast.
THE AQUEDUCT, TARRAGONA. M ONSERRAT, according to the guide books, may be hurriedly visited from Barcelona by means of a return ticket for the day; but one can imagine few persons who would be content with so hasty an inspection of one of the most remarkable sights in Spain. One returns from the mountain to Barcelona with one’s mind crowded with wonderful sights, and one’s senses stirred with a new idea of the beautiful. Where shall one look, one asks oneself, for its equal? But Spain is full of
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A Peep into Murcia.
A Peep into Murcia.
THE ESPLANADE, ALICANTE. T HERE are some parts of Spain over which I have travelled as the long hand travels round a clock dial—without haste, but without stopping. I have seen Murcia, as it were, from a moving platform, and the impression I derived of “African Spain,” as this quarter of the country has been called, has left me with the desire to return and spend a round of months amid its floral enchantments. This little province was the spot cherished by the Carthagenians, who found consolatio
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Toledo and Cordova.
Toledo and Cordova.
CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DE LA BLANCA, TOLEDO. S PAIN is a country that has never laid aside the sword, or cast off her armour. Her martial spirit is lulled to rest, but its memory is kept alive in the frowning battlements, the gaunt fortresses that crown each peopled eminence, and guard the approaches of its ancient, war-scarred cities. Imperial Toledo, “the crown of Spain, the light of the world, free from the time of the mighty Goths,” as Padilla describes it, is a rock built upon a rock 1,820 f
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The Castiles.
The Castiles.
S OME of the oldest and most truly national cities of Spain are situated in the two Castiles—silent cities peopled by silent men, in the midst of a mountainous, silent country. It is no light thing to bear the stamp of Castile. The men, reserved, well bred, loyal, and proud, carry their Castilian origin in their faces, their habits, and their cast of mind; and the cities are Castilian in their strength and their uncompromising severity. One sees it in the Toledo of New Castile, and finds it in t
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Granada and the Alhambra.
Granada and the Alhambra.
T O the majority of travellers who visit Spain the Alhambra is Granada. They visit the city in order to see the wonders of the old Moorish palace, and unless they can spend many months in the neighbourhood they have no time to see anything else. A celebrated French artist declared that a man might worthily devote a life-time to the study of the Alhambra. Washington Irving, who lived for six years in Spain, and nearly the whole of it in Granada, complained, in 1829, that the Alhambra had been so
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Seville.
Seville.
T HERE is an old German saying: “ Wein Gott lieb hat, dem giebt er ein Haus in Sevilla ,” which may be translated, “He whom God loves has a house in Seville.” Truly, there are few fairer, gayer, and more wholly desirable places of abode in Europe. It is at once a seaport town, situated on the banks of the Guadalquiver (“the great river”), fifty-four miles from the sea, and the centre of an exuberantly fertile district which produces olives, grapes, oranges, cork, and grain in perfection. The Sev
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In Southern Andalusía.
In Southern Andalusía.
I DLE as a “painted ship upon a painted ocean,” fair Cadiz sleeps beneath her white mantle and dreams of the succeeding storms that she has endured since Hercules brought her into being eleven hundred years before the advent of the Messiah. For century after century Cadiz played her important part in the world—the world that ended at her glistening shores. Yet it might, from external evidence, have been built yesterday, and whitewashed this morning. But beneath that white covering lies the rust
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The Basque Provinces.
The Basque Provinces.
T HE Basques are a people apart and peculiar in the most acceptable application of the term. They are distinct from the Spaniards of the rest of Spain in type, language, law and custom. They are conservative, shrewd, industrious and intelligent in a high degree. The men possess the hardy and robust appearance common to mountaineers and the symmetry of form which is almost universal in Spain. The women are decidedly handsome, but of a type which is at variance with the characteristic of Spanish b
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In Northern Spain.
In Northern Spain.
A GALICIAN. T HE great bulk of the Spanish people know as little of Galicia and the neighbouring Principality of the Asturias as the average Englishman knows of the Hebrides. Nor can they judge of the inhabitants of these provinces from the few individual Galicians who emigrate to Madrid any more than we in England can form an idea of Italians from the specimens who perambulate the London streets with a piano organ and a monkey. The Madrileño comes across a few Galicians in the capital engaged i
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Bull-fighting.
Bull-fighting.
A BULL-FIGHT is underlined for an early visit in the note-book of every visitor to Spain. He goes prepared to be disgusted, and he comes away to denounce it as a revolting and demoralising exhibition. He even plumes himself upon his moral and human superiority over the Spaniard, because the spectacle proves too strong for his untutored stomach. The inference is as gratuitous as it is illogical. In point of fact, the effect of the spectacle upon the spectator is not so much a matter of sensibilit
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The Picture Gallery, Madrid.
The Picture Gallery, Madrid.
I N returning to the subject of the Museo of Madrid, and its priceless treasures, my object is not to pen a dissertation on Spanish art, but to add a few lines by way of an accompaniment to the excellent photographs of some of the principal pictures which I am privileged to reproduce. In a collection which contains numerous canvasses by Rubens, Vandyke, and Rembrandt, no less than forty of Titian’s best productions, ten pictures by Raffaele, including the Spasimo , considered by many to be his g
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Viva el Rey.
Viva el Rey.
O N the 17th of May, 1902, Queen Maria Christina relinquished the Regency she had sustained so faithfully and unfalteringly for upwards of sixteen years, and Alfonso XIII., or to give his name in full, Alfonso Leon Fernando Maria Santiago Pidro Pascual Marcian Antonio, appeared before his subjects for the first time in the character of ruler as well as King. The eyes of all Europe were directed to Madrid on that day of sunshine and rejoicing, and perhaps in England more than in any country in th
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The Copper Mines of Escurial.
The Copper Mines of Escurial.
Some of the most prominent and promising of the newly-acquired copper properties in Spain are those of the Escurial district, of which mention has been made. Here, at a spot situated within thirty miles of Madrid, at the end of an hour-and-a-quarter’s train journey, is a district which promises to take rank among the leading copper-producing areas. Yet until some two years ago the properties were practically being ruined by the starvation policy of the Spanish owners, who obtained excellent resu
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The Huercal Copper Cobalt Mines.
The Huercal Copper Cobalt Mines.
A railway journey of 20 hours’ duration, over three railroad systems, transports the visitor from Madrid to the little mining town of Huercal (pronounced Whercal) Overa. We leave the capital by the express train for Alicante, and travel via Alcázar and Albacete to Chinchilla, which is reached at some unearthly hour in the middle of the night. From Chinchilla the line runs through the beautiful province of Murcia to Lorca, where we change onto a small English railroad which takes us to Huercal. W
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The Rio Rimal Copper Mines.
The Rio Rimal Copper Mines.
The Rio Rimal Mines, in the province of Gerona, are situated close to the quaint old-world village of San Lorenzo, which stands, surrounded by its mediæval fortifications, at the foot of a high mountain. Far above it an ancient watch-tower still looks out over the wide expanse of plain and valley. It is broken and weather-beaten, but is otherwise as it was left by the old Moorish warriors who built it. Within a mile or two, on the east and west, are the comparatively modern fortified places of F
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The Coruna Copper Mines.
The Coruna Copper Mines.
The Coruna Copper Company’s property, which covers an area of 2,540 acres—a tract of country more than six times as large as Hyde Park—is situated in the mining district of Santiago, and is connected with the railway, which is about eight miles distant, by a first-class road. The country in which the concession is situated, consists of a series of low rolling hills, and the character of the ore, so far as it has yet been explored by the prospecting operations, is very similar to that produced by
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Tin.—The Mines of Beariz.
Tin.—The Mines of Beariz.
Fortunately for the present proprietary of the Beariz Mines, the late owners possessed considerable technical knowledge; and if the property was not worked extensively by them, the work was prosecuted on right lines. They overhauled the Roman shafts and put in new galleries; and at a time when the standard price of metallic tin was £153 a ton the mine returned the owners a handsome profit. Some years ago, when the mines were reopened and actively exploited, a large number of hands were engaged;
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The Spanish Tin Corporation’s Mines.
The Spanish Tin Corporation’s Mines.
The Spanish Tin Corporation, which was formed towards the end of 1901, became the purchasers of 1,361 acres of tin-bearing land in the Arnoya district of the province of Orense. The Government’s annual publication of Spanish mining statistics for the year 1900 gives the production of tin ore for the entire province at 240 tons, and adds, “So far, only one mine has been producing tin in the province, the ‘Roberto,’ which in nine month produced 240 tons.” The extent of the concessions, the richnes
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The Pontevedra Tin Mines.
The Pontevedra Tin Mines.
The revival of the mining industry has spread even to the province of Salamanca, where, according to the Government report, not a single mine had been worked during the year 1900. A reference is made, however, to visits of mining experts to the districts of Valsalabroso, but nothing is reported as to the result of their inspections. One result, however, was the acquisition of three properties known as San Antonio, Adela and San Pablo, having a total area of 437 acres of tin-bearing ground, on be
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The Paramo Gold Mines.
The Paramo Gold Mines.
I visited at Paramo, in the province of Léon, an alluvial gold-mining property, which appeared to possess all the natural advantages for economical and highly profitable working. This concession consists of an immense bank of alluvial, over 300 feet in height, and a great plateau, which has been proved to carry gold wherever tested. The richness of this plain was evidently fully appreciated in ancient times, and the remains of gigantic operations can be clearly traced. Water had been brought in
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The Kingston Gold Mines.
The Kingston Gold Mines.
The Kingston Gold Mines have acquired four important concessions in the municipality of Puente de Domingo, Florez, in the province of Léon. These properties are well situated on the banks of the river Sil and its tributaries, and are very accessible, being close to the railway station of Ponferada. The alluvial deposits cover almost the whole of the area of the concession. The average of the assays made of the alluvial deposits give five dwts. of gold per cubic yard; but the engineers state that
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The Moraleja Gold-bearing Alluvial Concession.
The Moraleja Gold-bearing Alluvial Concession.
This is another company that has been formed for the purpose of working alluvial gold mines in Spain, and there are good indications that their enterprise will be crowned with success. The two properties known as Barbantes and Acha, comprising 208 acres in the province of Orense, have already been tested, with the most satisfactory results. The engineers have based their calculations on the uniform depths of the deposits of fifteen feet, but in most places they are far deeper, and it is reported
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The Lugo Goldfields.
The Lugo Goldfields.
The Lugo Goldfields, Limited, has acquired three groups of properties in the province of Lugo (Galicia). These concessions, which are situated on the main road to Madrid, and twenty-six miles from Lugo, consist of 525 acres of quartz country and alluvial property seventy-five acres in extent, which contain strong evidences that the Romans, during their occupation of the Peninsula, washed from it large quantities of alluvial gold. On the first group, broad gold-bearing quartz reefs, which increas
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Silver-Lead. The Santa Maria Mining Company, Limited, Silver-Lead Mines (Badajoz, Spain).
Silver-Lead. The Santa Maria Mining Company, Limited, Silver-Lead Mines (Badajoz, Spain).
LAS PALMAS BRIDGE, BADAJOZ. Among the most important of the silver-lead properties in Spain, mention has been made to the group in the province of Badajoz that has been floated in London under the title of the Santa Maria Mining Company, Limited. This property, which originally consisted of four leases, having an area of 138 acres, has been since increased to 166 acres, by the acquisition of the Santa Florentina lease at Mestanza, Puertollano, in the neighbouring province of Ciudad-Real. So far
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Coal.
Coal.
It has been already stated that the production of coal in Spain is quite insignificant in comparison with the extent of the coal-bearing beds (which are estimated to cover an area of about 3,500 square miles, of which nearly a third belongs to Oviedo); but the new find of coal (lignite) and cement stone in the province of Lerida should, and undoubtedly will, draw attention to this profitable industry. The Almatret Mines, which have an area of 820 acres, are situated on the river Elbro, near Fayo
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