THE ALHAMBRA
(MAY-NOVEMBER 1831)
THE ALHAMBRA--ADDINGTON’S VISIT--TOUR TO ALICANTE, VALENCIA,
BARCELONA, ZARAGOZA, MADRID--RETURN TO THE ALHAMBRA
When Ford wrote to Addington in April 1831, he was hesitating between a
furnished house at Granada or rooms in the ruined palace of the
Alhambra. Poetry conquered prose; comfort gave way to romance. His
letter of June 7th, 1831, announces that he had installed himself in the
palace.
Granada and the Alhambra are places which seem to rise above the prosaic
level of the working world and catch the last gleams of mediæval
romance. The very mention of their names conjures up pageants of
chivalry and splendid visions of departed glory. Soil and climate
increase the fascination and deepen the spell which is cast upon the
imagination. The verdure of a northern climate spreads itself beneath
the cloudless azure of the south. Olive-yards, orange-groves, and
vineyards clothe the hills, gardens embroider the valleys, billows of
corn wave in the plains, of that enchanted region over which hung the
celestial Paradise of Mahomet. Here, hemmed in between the mountains and
the sea, and narrowed within the space of ten years, till its events
assume the distinctness and unity of an epic, was concentrated the final
struggle which closed the drama of Moorish domination in Spain. Every
spot recalls some scene in the conflict, and the “last sigh of the Moor”
still whispers on the heights above Granada. In that Holy War historical
truth outrivalled romantic fiction; the manners, customs, creeds of the
East and the West contended for supremacy; the splendour of steel-clad
chivalry met the roar and crash of artillery; the Middle Ages were
locked in the death-grapple with modern civilisation.
The journey from Seville to Granada followed the high road to Madrid as
far as Andujar. Leaving the _diligence_ at that place, the Fords drove
from Andujar to Granada by way of Jaen in a _coche de colleras_. Their
carriage was a huge machine belonging to the seventeenth century,
carved, gilded, and richly painted, set on wheels which were as
extravagantly high behind as they were low in front. It was drawn by
four mules, driven by the voice, whip, and stones of the driver
(_majoral_) and his helper (_zagal_). But the picturesque novelty of the
expedition was the guard of six _Miquelites_ who accompanied the
carriage. These men, drawn from a regular body which was organised
throughout Spain for the protection of travellers, are said to derive
their name from Miquel de Prats, a bravo in the train of Cæsar Borgia.
Well armed with short guns, swords, and pistols, dressed in a sort of
uniform of blue jackets trimmed with red, they were all young men picked
for their strength and activity. Many of them had previously been
smugglers or bandits, and were held in wholesome dread by their former
colleagues.
Thus escorted, the journey was performed without risk, and Ford, with
his wife and family, safely lodged in the Alhambra. The palace,
whitewashed by the monks and purified from Moslem abominations, or
wrecked by Charles V. to supply materials for new palaces, had fallen
into neglect and decay. It had been an asylum for debtors, a hospital
for invalid soldiers, a prison for galley-slaves. From 1798 onwards it
was the official residence of Spanish governors, who made good use of
their opportunity for plunder. The dados were broken up to make firewood
for cooks and bakers; the tiles were torn up and worked into shop
fronts; the leaden pipes which supplied the fountains were sold. A
donkey was stabled in the chapel, sheep were folded in the courtyards,
poultry penned in the halls. The French invaders converted it into a
barrack, a powder magazine, a store for plundered goods, and, when they
evacuated it, blew up eight of the Moorish towers. The work of gutting
the place was continued by the Spaniards, who tore down doors, wrenched
off locks, and carried off panes of glass. When Ford was there
galley-slaves were at work converting, to the chink of their chains, a
part of the building into a storehouse for salt fish. The first real
attempt to restore the Alhambra was made by a peasant woman, Francisca
de Molina, the “Tia Antonia” of Washington Irving.
[Illustration: BILL PAYABLE TO THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AGAINST MONEY
RECEIVED BY RICHARD FORD FROM THE DUKE’S SPANISH ESTATES.
[_To face p. 36._
]
She worked with her own hands to repair the ravages of her predecessors,
cleared away rubbish, set the famous lions on their legs in the
courtyard, and reigned, with her two chattering mercenary nieces, the
crabbed Queen and lioniser of the Alhambra. In the rooms which she had
occupied Ford was lodged.
From the Alhambra, more beautiful, probably, in its ruin than in its
restoration, most of the letters contained in this chapter were written.
Here Ford entertained Addington, and to the Alhambra he returned in
November, 1831, from the tour which he describes.
Ten miles from Granada is the Sota de Roma, or Wood of the Pomegranate,
an estate of 4000 acres, conferred by the Cortes on the Duke of
Wellington in gratitude for his victory at Salamanca. Owing to
difficulties of exchange, Ford had arranged that the Duke should receive
his income in England, while he drew an equivalent sum from the Duke’s
Spanish estates. The agent was General O’Lawlor, an Irish gentleman in
the Spanish military service. Don José, as Ford calls him, had married a
wealthy heiress from Malaga, the “Dionysia” of the letters, and had made
profitable investments of her money in the lead mines of Berja. Ford
found the society of the O’Lawlors pleasant, as also were the
green-gages in the garden attached to the old rambling house which was
the agent’s residence.
His letters show little trace of the disturbed condition of the country.
Yet all round him were signs of the reign of terror produced by panic of
rebellion. One execution struck him, in all its circumstances, as
peculiarly brutal. By express orders from Madrid, a young woman of good
birth, Mariana de Pineda,[13] was, in May 1831, garrotted at Granada.
Pardon was offered her if she would reveal the names of her accomplices.
She refused, and died by the hand of the public executioner. Her alleged
crime was the possession of a partially embroidered flag of green silk,
the Constitutionalist colours. Whether she was guilty or not seems to be
doubtful. It was at least alleged that the flag had been placed in her
house by a Government _employé_, Ramon Pedroza, whose suit she had
rejected. A column near the Triunfo now marks the site of her sacrifice
to a longing for liberty.
ALHAMBRA, _June 7 [1831]_.
DEAR ADDINGTON,
I am almost tempted to go down a crumbling staircase, which leads
from my kitchen into the _Sala de los Embajadores_, to indite my
epistle from a _local conveniente a sa Ecc_. I am busy up here with
a troop of painters and carpenters putting the part of the Alhambra
given up to the Alcaide, and by him to me, into order: no small
task, I can assure you, for, what with time, the French, and the
barbarous Spaniards, all this enchanted spot is going the way of
everything in Spain. To attempt any account of it would be
impossible, either by pen or pencil. No previous idea can come up
to the exquisite beauty of the Alhambra. Here we are, with the
most delicious breezes from the snowy mountain above us, perfumed
by a thousand groves and gardens of vine, orange, and pomegranate,
carolled by nightingales, who daily and nightly sing in the dark
grove to the tune of “Ally Croker,”[14] all by the side of gushing
streams and never-failing fountains. Here summer cometh not--_not_
in the way that it appears _not to come_ in Castille; but, while
all below in the town and _Vega_ are roasting, broiling, and
baking, we neither know it nor feel it.
The journey here was very prosperous. _Esposa y sa servidor_
started alone in the _diligence_ to Cordova. The heat without
intense, inside (_six inside_) infernal. Ecija, another hell, and
well deserves to be called _La sartenilla_ [the frying-pan] _de
Andalucia_. We remained at Cordova three days; in the ancient
_mezquita_ a wood of pillars, some eight hundred odd, to say
nothing of the holy chapel of the Moslems, _La Ceca_, which is
finer and better preserved than anything even here, owing to the
_purification of Sn. Fernando’s_ monks, which was simply daubing
over with plaster of Paris all the painted arabesque and delicate
damascene work of the Moor. A few years ago all this
impurification was removed, and the worshippers of Mahomet and the
fine arts made happy. Thence to Andujar per _diligence_. Thence in
a _coche_ with nine _Miquelites_ to Granada, by Jaen. The road to
Jaen through ploughed fields, uninhabited except by the gang of the
_Botiga_, the José Maria of Jaen; but we neither saw nor heard of
him, and duly arrived, well shaken, at the worst inn in Spain. Jaen
very striking and picturesque. I was much bored by the
_commandante_, one Downie, who has forgotten English, but came to
pay me a visit.
Thence to Granada, through the mountains, the most beautiful road
(_quoad_ road) possible, a thing to delight Macadam. The scenery to
delight any son of Adam with or without a Mac, full of torrents,
rivers, rocks, precipices, goats, vines, figs, lights and shades,
etc., but wanting in good accommodation for man or beast. So we
went direct the seventeen leagues, seventeen mortal mountain
leagues, at a pull, twenty-three hours _en coche_; think of that,
Master Brook![15] The _Miquelites_, being well supplied with strong
cigars of the worst Royal fabrication, ran and sang the whole way.
Arrived here at a most excellent inn, the best I have seen in
Spain, and forgot all our woes at
[Illustration: PATIO DE LOS LEONES.
[_To face p. 40._
Harriet Ford, 1832.
]
the first sight of the Albaicin, Generalife, and Alhambra, with the
cold, snowy, sparkling Sierra glistening in the blue cloudless sky.
Then such an _airecillo_: not the one in the _calle Alcalá_ that
goes through your _Capa_ and upper Benjamin in the twinkling of a
bedpost, but a mild, gentle, refreshing, reinvigorating breeze.
Then such a profusion of tree and water. General O’Lawlor, very
civil, has procured me the Governor’s suite of apartments in the
Alhambra, one staircase of which leads into the _Sala de los
Embajadores_ (as aforesaid), where I hope and trust to have the
honour of receiving the present one of his B.M. The other leads to
the _Patio de los Leones_, which beat Pidcock’s lions, and are
lions worth seeing.
All very quiet. They were prepared to rise had the thing succeeded
at Cadiz, but as that did _not_, they think little about it, but
eat their ices as usual.
There has been a horrid execution here, which was calculated to
excite a revolution anywhere. A beautiful widow, connected with
high families, was _garrotted_, solely for a Constitutional flag,
with a half-embroidered motto, having been found in her possession.
She refused to give any account of it herself, or any accomplices.
The matter was sent to Madrid, and down came, to the equal horror
and surprise of every one, an order for her execution! a woman
executed for such an offence _anno_ 1831! They certainly manage
these things differently in Spain.
If you come, you must do so _per diligence_ to Andujar, and thence
ride in two days across the country with three or four of these
stout _Miquelites_. You will find every comfort in the inn, and I
am now constructing a sort of a grate, the sweet vision of Your
Excellency’s excellent, super-excellent, _rost-bif_ ever floating
before my eyes as the hour of 6 approaches. I cannot promise such
fare as it was my lot to consume at Madrid, and which sent me back
to the conjugal embrace _Epicuri de grege porcum_. But you shall
dine in the fabled palace of the Moorish kings: the fountains shall
play, and a band of _Gitanas_ shall dance their half-voluptuous
dance around you; you shall drink the purest, coldest water from
the Moorish cistern, which is opposite my window, and which I am
supplied with _gratis_: (it costing to the public an _ocharo per
cantaro_);[16] you shall eat the delicious ice, the _Queso de
albaricoqui_; and, last of all, a most hearty welcome from
S. S. S. y amigo,
R. F.
P. S.--_Mr. Sᵗᵉ Barbe_, _el ingles afrancesado_, and Mr. de
Custine, _el Frances inglesado_, being duly dressed as _majos_ by
Pindar of Seville, departed for Tariffa, where the Marquis tells me
he is going to write “some poem about the good Guzman.” They are
then coming here. I shall entertain them in the Alhambra, and be
immortalised in a note by this poetical Marquis.
My wife thinks she can manage a room and a sort of a bed for you
and your man. It appears inhospitable in me to talk of the inn, but
the Alhambra is but a ruin; however, you shall choose yourself.
_Utrum horum mavis accipe._
ALHAMBRA, _June 15 [1831]_.
I am very sorry that, at this distance from my worthy friend the
_Assistente_, there is no chance of extracting from him the
information you want, which I think I could have managed at Seville
in a _careless_ way. If I were to write to him, he would instantly
be alarmed, and attach great importance to it. I enclose a letter
to Lord Dudley for Mr. de Gersdorf (?) instead of one to Lord
Essex; a letter to Lord Essex would be of no use, for he has now
totally abandoned and shut up Cassiobury, which _was_ very well
worth seeing when he lived there; secondly, he lives entirely in a
set of his own, and I know from long experience hates nothing like
the sight of a foreigner;--as he expresses himself, “damn all
foreigners; none shall put their foot in my house.”
I am comfortably settled here, after much painting and
whitewashing, and, if you can steal away from Madrid, can give you
a tidy bedroom and sitting-room, with a view out of the windows
quite unequalled. The difference in the thermometer here and in the
town below is some 6 or 8 degrees; then we have always such a
delicious breeze, and such a constant trickling and splashing of
fountains. I am sorry to say that the _Lions_ are all adry, and the
flowers in the courtyard past dying; a wall fell down the other
day, which supported the aqueduct, which used to supply these cool
courts. They are fast repairing it, but it is a work of great
extent, and the Spaniards do not do things in an offhand style here
any more than at Madrid. We have had a rare party of English
Tigers, looking at the Lions; they flock out from Gibraltar, now
the communication is again open, and astonish the natives in their
red jackets, redder faces, and the quantity of undiluted wine they
consume. Captain Pascoe, a gentlemanlike man, _aide-de-camp_ to
General Don, has been here.
We are going to be regaled with more executions--two officers who
were found tampering with their troops. (They deserve it; but poor
Mariana! who might have been spared.)
It is impossible to describe, either by pen or pencil, the
extraordinary freshness and beauty of this spot, so take time by
the forelock, and, as Ovid says:
_Nil mihi rescribas, attamen, ipse veni._
ALHAMBRA, _Sunday, 14th June, /31_.
I am delighted to hear that you are really coming here; you will
find at least a clean bed, and a clean dinner, with no oil or
garlic.
You must put up with the unfurnished, whitewashed sort of way we
are living in, which is unlike the gorgeous mansion in Alcala
Street.
Everything is arranged, and you will find a _coche_ at Andujar, and
a sufficient number of _Miquelites_. They have lately taken so many
robbers, executed some, banished others, that the road is quite
safe. I should recommend your buying some cigars at Andujar, which,
being duly distributed to the men, _majorals_, and innkeepers, will
act like magic. I expended a dollar in them on my journey, and am
celebrated in _los cuatro reinos_ as the greatest and most affable
milor ever seen since the ‘grand Lord’ commanded in Spain.
I have written to Downie, to get the inn ready for you, and to
provide, if possible, some partridges, and not have you bothered
with ceremony, guards, or visits,--all which he nevertheless will
doubtless inflict on you, calculating by the Rule of 3 principle.
If he did such and such things for a simple milor, what will he do
for an _embajador_?
I have duly instructed O’Lawlor on your being left quiet, which I
think you will be, at least in the Alhambra, as no Spaniard has
courage to face the hill, or any wish to see anything of their much
superior predecessors, the Moors.
The 20th, or thereabouts, is the time to go up the Sierra Nevada. I
am thinking of taking my wife that trip, so you may imagine it is
not attended with much difficulty. It is a glorious mountain,
though the dog-days have played the devil with the snow. Still
there is enough left to swear by, and to cool one’s wine. By God’s
blessing, a quarter-cask of sherry has made its appearance in
Granada, otherwise you would have got nothing but _Bara_, a sort of
clarety-porty wine, not bad in water, but very disagreeable to
British officers, as they find it too weak to drink in goblets this
hot weather. The weather has been very hot, but getting
cooler,--down to 72 at night.
You will have a terrible bad road to Jaen, and I should set out
very early, before 4, and get into Jaen before the great heat of
the day. Set out again early for Campillo de la Arena, half way to
Granada. I remained there four or five hours in the day, and came
on in the night, getting here very early in the morning. I would,
however, not recommend that to you. You had better sleep at
Campillo, where you will get _partridges_, on asking if there are
any to be bought in the village.
By setting out betimes, you will get here in nine or ten hours, and
I will take care and have a _roast pavito_ [young cock turkey],
which is equivalent to a London fowl, ready for you.
My wife is frightened at the thoughts of our cuisine, but I assure
her that you are an ex-dyspeptic, and not very difficult, rather
more in that you do _not_ eat than in what you do.
My Spanish servant (who calls himself my _major duomo_) wants me to
borrow a service of plate, and have the dinners sent up from the
inn!! Lord deliver us! They are curious people, _muy Etiqueteros_
(I can’t even spell the word), and think we are as great asses as
themselves. What we have here are delicious eggs--laid under your
window, fine fruit, tolerable mutton, good bread and water, and a
jack for roasting, the only one in Granada, to say nothing of cool
breezes, cool fountains (though they don’t play), much shade, many
nightingales (though they don’t sing now), and plenty of snow, and
a view, from the windows and all about, passing all understanding;
but you will see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears, so
no more for the present.
ALHAMBRA, _June 22 [1831]_.
DEAR ADDINGTON,
I am going to give you proper and business-like answers to your six
questions, and I think satisfactory ones to all.
1. The inn is the best in Spain, but very crowded and very _hot_, a
long way from the Alhambra, and all up hill--quite out of the
question, except early and late. You may, to be sure, ride up, and
General O’Lawlor will send you a horse whenever you want; but I
enclose you a plan of my dwelling up here, which is very spacious,
and where I can accommodate you well and without the least
inconvenience. You will then see the Alhambra in your
dressing-gown, cool and comfortable, and never get heated or tired.
You will, too, be within reach of the Generalife, which, if
possible, is more beautiful than the Alhambra. It is about as high
above the Alhambra as the Alhambra is above the town; but a
tolerable shady walk through fig-trees, vines and pomegranates.
2. The getting here will be _easily_ accomplished in a
_coche_--that is, every bone will be broken, but, however, get here
you will. I should take the _diligence_ to Baylen, and thence in
one day to Jaen in the _coche_. The road, I am told, is tolerable.
I came from Andujar, which would be out of your way--the road the
most infernal ever seen. From Jaen to Granada it is magnificent;
Macadam never made a better, and the scenery most beautiful and
picturesque. We came in one day--that is, left Jaen early, 3 a.m.,
arrived at Campillo de Arenas about 1, halted till 5, eating salad
and _Guisado de Perdices_ at the Venta; thence _per_ night to
Granada, where we arrived about 4 a.m. The whole journey from Jaen
takes about twenty hours _en route_. You might do it quicker
without _Miquelites_, as it is a long pull (seventeen leagues) for
men to walk in one day; thermometer at 3000, and up hill. Now if
your plans really do ripen into reality, what you should do is
this: let me know the day you leave Madrid; the third night you
will get to Andujar or Baylen. I will send over the identical
_coche_ which brought us, a roomy one with four mules, and an
excellent _majoral_, who will buy you partridges at the Venta, etc.
The cost will be 29 dollars for the six days there and back. I will
manage with O’Lawlor that a troop of _Miquelites_, eight or nine,
shall be picked men, and sent with the _coche_. I gave them 25
dollars for nine men eight days. They generally get a _pezeta_
apiece, but half a dollar is what they well deserve, as they are
fine fellows.
3. I know the _commandante_ at Jaen, who will choose the best. The
said _commandante_, Downie, the d--st bore in Jaen, Spain, or
anywhere, will call upon you and plague your heart out with bad
English, etc.
My silver watch is excellent, and cost three dollars at Madrid. I
should think you might buy Mr. Pearson’s, who bought one too for
one dollar.[17]
4. I hear there is some shooting here; but August is very hot,
except up in the Sierra Nevada, where I propose going, as the view
is superb--Mediterranean, Atlantic, Africa, etc. The Pico de Valeta
is easily ascended in August.
5. The post comes in very regularly twice a week, and goes out the
day after--from Madrid in three days and a half. The letters do not
appear to be opened.
6. Plenty of hats, white and black straw and chip, in Granada; the
men here are the greatest dandies in Spain, and are not at all ill
dressed.
I should not think you will be much bothered. O’Lawlor is a
sensible man, and does not bore one, but is very civil, and will be
of great use in every way, and a _banker_ besides. As he has to
remit money to the Duke of Wellington, he is glad of good bills on
London.
Your journey here will take you six days; there is not much, I
believe, in Granada to be seen. I seldom go there, except in the
cool dark night, to eat ices. _This_ is the place; you will _see_
it in a morning; but the more one lives in it, the more delightful
it is. The walks about are charming. If you live in the town, you
will not see much more of the Alhambra than those brutes the
natives, who think it _fabrica antiqua, obra de los arabes_, to
which they seem to have an antipathy.
You must make up your mind to fare but indifferently here when
compared to your own good _ménage_; but we can, at all events,
serve you up a clean dinner, and without any poisonous matters. At
all events you must not think of going to the inn; you may as well
stay where you are, as far as the Alhambra is concerned.
Ever most sincerely,
RICH. FORD.
_July 27 [1831]_, ALHAMBRA.
I am afraid, as you say nothing about your journey to Granada, that
you have had bad news from home; all work and no play. How unlucky
all this business about the free trade of Cadiz, and the voluminous
speculations thereon by my friend the Proconsul; to say nothing of
despatches from Hopner to plague your heart out. Well, well! _no
tiene remedio_. I only mention all this, as it is considered
unlucky here not to ascend the _Pico de Valeta_ about this time, in
some of these three or four “glorious days” of July, glorious Dog
Days; _son en canicula_. However, we managed to keep our
thermometer under 80, which is not more than the heat at Paris, as
I see _per_ Galignani--for which accept my greatest thanks--that
true pabulum of an Englishman. The three received yesterday were
very amusing: the debate on the reform, Macaulay’s essay
oratorical, Porchester’s discourse peninsular and historical,
Wetherell droll and coarsish, some _lucid intervals_, as was said
of that part of his shirt which always appears between his breeches
and waistcoat; Peel sentential and sonorous in the Joseph Surface
school; and bravo! old Sir Francis Burdett, who gave him a sound
drubbing. For all that, I would vote against the bill, professing
myself a _bit by bit_ reformer. The Tories may thank themselves,
for the people could not but see, after that Bassetlaw job,[18]
that they would do nothing for them.
Monʳ de Sᵗᵉ Barbe and A. Custine, Esq., have duly started for
Madrid with his unfinished MSS. By speaking bad English, the one is
forgetting his French--the other, the wholesome vernacular tongue
as expressed in Hampshire. I don’t think they took kindly to the
Alhambra; however, you will see and hear. I have begged the Marquis
de Sᵗᵉ Barbe to give you some account of my _Local_ and poor means
of receiving so great a personage as your Excellency. I can only
say that it will be _con muchisimo agrado_. Mrs. Ford has got a
Pajes,[19] and there is a dark glancing Spaniard washing clothes in
the Alhambra, to whom you may pour forth your amatory _rondeñas_.
I rather think that, about the middle of September, I shall come up
to Madrid with my spouse for a very few days, show her Toledo and
the Escurial, and return by a short cut (to diddle _Castaños_)
through Zaragoça, Barcelona, and Valencia. This little trip will
occupy very well a couple of the autumnal months; and then on to
Malaga; and should any rows take place, and the consular protection
of the apostolic Mark be insufficient, I shall place myself under
the batteries of Gibraltar: so much for plans. If you have time,
you may let me have a line as to yours, whether we have any chance
of your visit. You really should come, for, depend on it, the old
woman of the Alhambra, in whose house we are living, will never let
the Governor turn her out again, and if you do not live in the
Alhambra, you may as well remain in the Calle de Alcalá.
During Addington’s stay at the Alhambra, Ford, his wife, and their guest
ascended the Picacho de la Veleta, “the watch-point,” the second highest
peak (12,459 feet) of the Sierra Nevada. The greater part of the ascent
to the top of the conical peak, about twenty miles, was ridden, the
party sleeping for the night at the Cortijo del Puche.
After Addington had left, the Fords started (September 9th, 1831) on an
expedition to eastern Spain, Mrs. Ford on a donkey, her husband on
horseback, and their servant Pasqual in a one-horse, two-wheeled,
covered cart. They made their way over the mountains by Elche, the “City
of Palms,” to Alicante; thence by San Felipe de Xativa, the birthplace
of Ribera (Spagnoletto) and Pope Alexander VI., and the prison of his
son Cæsar Borgia, to Valencia.
At Valencia Ford stayed several days, delighting in the pictures of
Vicente Joanes[20] and Francisco Ribalta.[21] Thence he made his way by
Murviedro (Saguntum) to Tarragona and Barcelona. On the road from
Barcelona to Tarragona they turned aside to see Montserrat, spent a
night in the convent on the jagged saw-like hills, dropped down on
Manresa and the famous _cueva de san Ignacio_, visited the salt mines at
Cardona, rejoined the high road and the _diligence_, and so reached
Zaragoza.
Zaragoza, the pilgrim city of Arragon, “the Ephesus of Mariolatry,” as
Ford calls it in his _Handbook_, has two cathedrals, the _Seu_, and _El
Pilar_. The latter marks the spot where the Virgin, standing on a jasper
pillar, bade St. James build a chapel in her honour. At the time of
Ford’s visit to the city its houses were still riddled and pitted with
shot-marks. They were the honourable scars of two memorable sieges, of
which Agustina, “La Artillera,” the maid of Zaragoza who snatched the
match from a dying artilleryman and fired upon the French, and Tio
Jorge, “Gaffer George,” who organised the peasants for the defence, were
the real heroes. The first siege lasted from June 15th to August 15th,
1808. Led, as they believed, by the Virgin of the Pillar, the
inhabitants fought with desperate courage. It was in the convent of
Santa Engracia that the French effected a lodgment. On August 15th,
those of the invaders who survived had retreated, after blowing up the
monastery and leaving it in ruins. The attack was renewed on December
20th. Four marshals of France directed the operations of the siege. Shot
and shell, plague and famine, did their work within the walls. On
February 20th, 1809, after holding out for sixty-two days, Zaragoza
surrendered to Marshal Lannes.
_Saturday, 3rd Sept. [1831]_, ALHAMBRA.
I hope you got quite safely to Andujar in that tremendous machine
you started in. We are off on Thursday for Alicante: Pasqual in a
_Tartana_, wife on the _Burra_, and your humble servant on
_Cavallo_. With a troop of Miquelites we shall, I trust, get safely
to Alicante, and publish in due time a rival account of Mr.
Inglis,[22] another traveller _ingles_.
My wife kisses your hands, I your feet, offering you my
kitchenmaid, four children, and the _Burra_, and anything else.
VALENCIA, _Saturday, 24 Sept. [1831]_.
DEAR ADDINGTON,
We arrived here yesterday, having ridden from Granada to Alicante,
and thence to Xativa, a most magnificent mountain ride, full of old
towns, perched on rocks, and sheltered by ruined castles, narrow
defiles, precipices and torrents. The accommodation and roads
infinitely better than we had been led to expect, so that my wife,
riding on the foal of an ass, arrived at Alicante hardly fatigued.
San Philipe de Xativa is one of the most picturesque towns in
Spain, not even excepting Granada. The famous country about
Valencia may be very fertile, and rich, and extremely agreeable to
the eye of the proprietor, but very little so to the traveller, as
the mulberry and olive trees on each side of the road, in so flat a
country, completely intercept the view.
I see in the papers that you have had to interfere for some English
artist, who was taken up for sketching the Palace at Madrid, which
you will probably have to do some day for me, as I was nearly taken
to the Alcalde for drawing some palm trees at Elche; but, on
telling the officer that he and the Alcalde might go to _Carrajo_,
and refusing to go, the thing passed off; to be sure, I had six of
the Alhambra invalids with me, and might have ordered them to bring
the Alcalde to me, which would have been the best way after all. I
shall remain here four or five days, and thence proceed to
Barcelona and Zaragoça, to either of which places, if any crumbs of
comfort fall from your table in the way of Galignani, they may be
addressed, at all events to the latter place, Zaragoça.
I left Dionysia in great force, and Don José much delighted at the
honour of your Excellency’s visit. The Captain-General wrote me two
notes after you were gone, one addressed to me as _Gentilhombre de
S. M. Britanica_ and the second to Lord Ricardo Fort. There is no
saying what I might not have come to be had I remained there a few
days longer.
Valencia seems to be a nice place; the women as pretty here as the
Granadinas are ugly.
Ever most truly yours,
RICHARD FORD.
VALENCIA, _Wed., 28th [Sept. 1831]_.
DEAR ADDINGTON,
Here we are still, and shall remain until Friday, when we go over
to Murviedro, to potter about the ruined Saguntum till the Saturday
_diligence_ comes through to take us on to Tarragona. As far as my
_finances_ are concerned, I had perhaps better not have come here,
for I have been tempted by a certain picture of Ribalta, and have
given 11,000 reals for it, a large sum here, or anywhere; but it is
a stupendous picture, and of the very grandest finest class, and
worth £500. However, tell not this in Gath or Askalon, for I always
make it a rule _crier au pauvre_, which an extravagance like this
would infallibly contradict. I have just written to that worthy
Israelite, Ravasa, to send me a credit of 4000 reals to Zaragoça,
Burgos, and Valladolid in case of accidents, and have referred him
again to you to say a word as to my being a _solvent_ person,
though I am afraid, after the Gold Rosario of the Senora and the
Ribalta of Milor, you will rather hesitate this time. However, if
you still think me responsible, write a line to Ravasa to tell him
that he may venture his monies, and that I will honestly repay him
when I reach Madrid.
We go to Barcelona, and by Zaragoça and Segovia to Madrid, where I
hope we shall arrive about the first week in November.
This is a very nice place, and I regret that it is impossible to
convey my _impedimenta_ here, as I should much have liked to have
spent the winter here, instead of Gibraltar, where I take refuge to
escape the protection of His M. Consul at Malaga, from whom I have
had such a letter which I am keeping for your amusement. Chico’s
motto of “there is no conqueror but God”[23] is nothing to the
account Mark gives of himself.
The pictures they possess here are endless, almost as many as at
Seville; but, if possible, even still more neglected and unknown,
not unknown only by the natives, but by the dignitaries and heads
of the churches, and going to ruin from neglect, damp, dust, and
smoke. No information of any kind is ever to be obtained; “_No sé_”
[I don’t know] the universal answer. The fine pictures are kept
merely as objects of idolatry, not as matters of art, and called as
such; if you ask for the Virgin of Juanes, the sacristan or curate
knows nothing about it; but ask for the _Purissima_ and up goes a
curtain in a minute.
The women are very pretty indeed, fairer than the Andalucians,
quite as small feet and much better shoes, not so tight or pointed.
I do not know when the seventh commandment has run such risks.
To-morrow, Friday, we go to Murviedro and thence to Barcelona.
Ever most sincerely,
RICHARD FORD.
BARCELONA, _Oct. 9_.
Your letter with the papers reached this place quite safely, as did
we some four or five days ago; and, being heartily tired of these
Catalonians, who are neither Spaniards nor French, are going to
set out to-morrow for the Salt Mountain at Cardona and the
monastery of Monserrat, and thence to Zaragoça, where we expect to
arrive the 16th, and proceed directly afterwards to Madrid, as we
find we shall have much difficulty in crossing the country to
Burgos. I hope we may manage to get to _La Corte_ about Saturday,
the 22nd, _si Dios quiere_ [God willing], and shall be both proud
and happy to be installed in the Duchess’s dry dock.
This is a fine town, but not Spanish. The troops have shoes instead
of sandals, and, I believe, stockings. They can roast at the inn,
and have mustard and French wines. The women wear mantillas over
caps, and commit divers other equally un-Spanish atrocities; people
stupid and ill-mannered; a horrid language; all the discomforts and
prohibitions of Spain, without being made up for by the curious and
original people of the South; women ugly and coarse; men in large
high trousers, looking like Cruickshank’s prints of “nobody, all
legs.” Everything in perfect order and quiet. The name of the Conde
de España does here what that of Quesada does in Andalucia. They
are all frightened about the cholera, and the quarantine
regulations most severe. The Captain-General has sent to England
for _four gallons_ of Cajeput oil, which for a population of more
than 100,000 is a fair stock.
ZARAGOÇA, _Oct. 18_.
DEAR ADDINGTON,
We arrived here quite safely on Sunday in a tremendous storm of
rain, having stuck in the mud divers times during our journey, and
being extricated by the spades of peasants and many supplications
to the _Santissima Virgen del Pilar_, whose effigy I have bought in
consequence.
On our arrival here, to my utter dismay and discomfiture, I found
no letter from V. E., and, worse, no letter of credit from that
arch-circumcised dog, Ravisa, to whom I had written from Valencia
at the same time as I wrote you, but which letters must, from some
Spanish mismanagement, have never reached their destination. Well!
here we are with about 800 reals in our pocket,--no means of
getting any more, the bill to pay, and the places to Madrid some
600 or 700 more. I had, like a fool, refused a letter of credit
from my Barcelona banker, trusting to that Philistine Ravisa.
Henceforward I have vowed before the _Pilar_ of Zaragoça never to
trust to Jew or Christian again. In this quandary, the post to-day
from Madrid having brought no letter, I have despatched my
eloquent, mellifluous-tongued Pasqual, who has persuaded the
_diligence_ to take us to Madrid without our paying here, my wife,
Pasqual, and the luggage to be detained in pledge at the office
until the dollars are regularly booked up. It would be a rare
opportunity for a husband who wanted to break up his establishment
to leave these tender pledges unredeemed; but I do not propose
doing so if your Excellency will interfere, and this is _dignus
vindice nodus_. My plan is to start on Friday; we are to arrive at
Madrid on Sunday, time uncertain, somewhere between 12 and 5. Will
you therefore be so good as to put up 600 or 700 reals in a paper
directed to me, and leave it with your porter? I shall get out at
the P. de Alcalá, pass your door, take the cash, and hasten to
liberate the pledges from the magazines of the _diligence_, and
proceed from their prison to the sumptuous quarters you have
prepared for us.
We made an interesting tour into the mountains on leaving
Barcelona, first to Monserrat, where we slept in the convent, and
spent the next day in wandering about the rocks and hermitages,--a
most wonderful rock, and scenery well worth of itself the journey
to Monserrat from Granada. Thence we proceeded to Manresa, and on
to Cardona to the celebrated Salt Mountain, which stands out of the
ground like a huge lump of _confiture_, peach, apricot, and lemon,
all candied over with little pearly globules of salt--a true
Spanish mine, as they have absolutely nothing to do but knock off
lumps, put them into a bag, pound them and eat them--no salt-pans,
refining, corporations, or any other tedious processes. Thence we
rode over a wild mountain, sometimes up the bed of dry rivers,
sometimes through torrents, generally over rock, and never over
road, to Igualada, and so on in the _diligence_ to Zaragoça, a
gloomy, old, dirty, brick-built town, but truly Spanish; many
things very well worth seeing--the Virgen del Pilar and the
positions during the siege, the great lions. As to the siege, they
seem neither to know nor care much about it, though, really, here
the Spaniards might be proud of their truly Moorish exploits of
_fighting well behind a wall_. I met two well-dressed men on the
walk to Sᵗᵃ Engracia, and made Pasqual ask them (to prevent the
possibility of being misunderstood) where Sᵗᵃ Engracia was, and,
though it was close by, and the famous Quartel of the French, they
shrugged their shoulders with the true Spanish shrug, and muttered
out the usual true meaning of said shrug--_No sé!_ Fine, honest,
downright simplicity of ignorance! _Viva la España, viva la Stˢᵃ Vⁿ
del Pilar y S.E. mille años!_ But do not forget _los 600 reales_;
for, if my wife is knocked down for a dollar at the _diligence_
sale of unredeemed pledges, it will be entirely the fault of the
want of these 600 _reales_. So farewell.
Ever most sincerely,
RICHARD FORD.
A letter dated Saturday, November 19th, 1831, announces the return of
Ford and his wife to the Alhambra.
We arrived safely at the Alhambra this afternoon, after rather an
uncomfortable ride from Andujar. As you predicted it would rain, it
did, and we got into Jaen wet one evening to set out the next
morning in a Scotch mist, which lasted all the way to Campillo,
where we put up in the worst posada in Spain, which pray commend to
Col. Oxholm, who has a list of them. At Jaen we saw Don Carlos
[Downie], whose heart, body, and soul are at your service. I called
on the _Intendente_ to enquire after his precious health, and
praise his cigars, both of which he felt, as he ought, highly
flattered, and Jaen is at your _disposicion_, whenever you choose
to have it.
Don Carlos very fat, talking bad English and worse Spanish,
delighted with your visit and the dinner he gave you, which was,
like his _Tertulia_, a contribution from all the houses in Jaen, as
he sent round to everybody to say the great man was to dine with
him, and begging them to send him their best wine and the best dish
of their own dinner to his. I did not see “God’s Face,” which is
only shewn to representatives of Kings and Bishops.[24]
We rode a pretty ride from Campillo this morning through Benalua,
which you may inform the Duchess of San Lorenzo is in a high state
of preservation; a sort of town on the side of a hill, which looks
as if giants had been pelting each other with pigsties.
At Valdepeñas we fell in with three ’pon-honourish, well-fleshed
English, journeying on to the Corte, a trio, which will relieve you
when you have had enough of _duets_, the order of travelling in
Spain since the unnatural alliance of those modern Pyladeses and
Oresteses, St. Barbe and Custine, Eden[25] and Martin, Meara and
Heaphy, all hunting in couples, to say nothing of a more proper
marital couple, who have lately drawn so largely on your
good-nature and hospitality.
I have not had time to throw myself at the feet of Dionysia, being
fully occupied with the joys of paternity, having a small
boarding-school now romping about, to the utter discomfiture of any
intelligible writing or spelling.
Pray let us hear of that horrid cholera, whether the last news in
Galignani is confirmed. The smallest donations in that way
thankfully received.
Excuse this scrawl, which is just to notify to you that we have
escaped José Maria and Botiga, and are always your secure servants.
What a sheet of paper to write, as Don Carlos says, “to such a
great man as we never had in Jaen.” You will become a Carlista.