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[Illustration: CHAPEL OF SAN ISIDRO,
IN THE CHURCH OF SAN ANDRES, MADRID.]
THE
PICTURESQUE ANTIQUITIES
OF
SPAIN;
DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS,
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,
REPRESENTING MOORISH PALACES, CATHEDRALS, AND OTHER MONUMENTS OF ART,
CONTAINED IN THE CITIES OF
BURGOS, VALLADOLID, TOLEDO, AND SEVILLE.
BY
NATHANIEL ARMSTRONG WELLS.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
M.DCCC.XLVI.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY, Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
PREFACE.
The author of the following letters is aware that his publication would
have possessed greater utility, had the architectural descriptions been
more minute. He ventures to hope, however, that this imperfection may be
in some measure balanced by the more extended sphere opened to whatever
information it may contain.
The absence of many technical expressions, especially those which enter
into a detailed description of almost all Gothic buildings, and the
employment of which was forbidden by the occasion, may tend to
facilitate the satisfaction of popular curiosity respecting Spanish art:
the more so from the circumstance that the most intelligent in such
subjects are scarcely sufficiently agreed on the application of
technical terms, to allow of the compilation of a standard vocabulary.
His ambition will be more than satisfied, should his past, and perhaps
future researches, succeed, in some degree, in pioneering the path for a
more scientific pen.
Should this work fall into the hands of any reader, whose expectations
of entertainment may have been encouraged by the announcement of another
Spanish tour, but who may feel but moderate enthusiasm for the artistic
and monumental glories of the Peninsula, an explanation is due to him,
exonerative of the author from much of the responsibility attached to
the matter-of-fact tone of his descriptions. It is no less his nature
than it was his wish to paint what he saw as he saw it. Unfortunately
his visits to Spain took place after the accomplishment of the
revolution, the hardest blows of which were aimed at her church. The
confiscation of the ecclesiastical revenues has necessarily stripped the
processions and other ceremonies of their former splendour, and by
suppressing what constituted one of their chief attractions to the
native population, transferred the interest of the lover of the
picturesque from the bright colours of animated grouping, to the dead
background of stone and marble they have left.
In studying, however, to preserve this strict accuracy in all that
related to the principal subject of his correspondence, his aim was to
enliven it by the introduction of any incidents worthy of notice which
came under his observation. In this object he hopes he may have
succeeded.
One more remark is necessary. The letters from Seville, which form the
second of the two parts into which the volume is divided, although
placed last in order of succession, date in reality from an earlier
period than the rest; and even from a different tour, as will appear
from the description of the route. They were addressed to various
individuals, whereas those forming the first part were all written to
the same person. They are thus placed with a view to geographical order
and clearness, and to a sort of unity, which appeared advisable in the
subject of a volume. The two excursions having been separated by an
interval of three years, should alterations have taken place during that
period in the places described, the above circumstance not being borne
in mind might lead to an appearance of chronological inaccuracy in the
descriptions, although there is not much probability of the existence of
such changes.
LONDON. _December 1845._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PART I.
LETTER I.
TO MRS. C----R 1
LETTER II.
ROUTE TO SPAIN THROUGH FRANCE 9
LETTER III.
THE BASQUE PROVINCES 15
LETTER IV.
ARRIVAL AT BURGOS. CATHEDRAL. 28
LETTER V.
TOMB OF THE CID. CITADEL. 52
LETTER VI.
CARTUJA DE MIRAFLORES. CONVENT OF LAS HUELGAS. 70
LETTER VII.
ROUTE TO MADRID. MUSEO. 78
LETTER VIII.
PICTURESQUE POSITION OF TOLEDO. FLORINDA. 103
LETTER IX.
CATHEDRAL OF TOLEDO 121
LETTER X.
CAFES. WEDDING CEREMONY. CATHEDRAL CONTINUED. ALCAZAR HOSPITAL
OF SANTA CRUZ. CONVENT OF LA CONCEPTION. MYSTERIOUS CAVERN.
CONVENT OF SANTA FE, OR OF SANTIAGO. SONS-IN-LAW OF THE CID. 143
LETTER XI.
STREETS OF TOLEDO. EL AMA DE CASA. MONASTERY OF SAN JUAN DE
LOS REYES. PALACE OF DON HURTADO DE MENDOZA. 172
LETTER XII.
ARAB MONUMENTS. PICTURES. THE PRINCESS GALIANA. ENVIRONS. 195
LETTER XIII.
CASTLES OF ALMONACID, GUADAMUR, MONTALBAN, AND ESCALONA.
TORRIJOS. 214
LETTER XIV.
VALLADOLID. SAN PABLO. COLLEGE OF SAN GREGORIO. ROUTE BY
SARAGOZA. 240