SPANISH PICTURES DRAWN WITH PEN AND PENCIL. BY THE AUTHOR OF "SWISS PICTURES DRAWN WITH PEN AND PENCIL." With Illustrations by Gustave Doré and other eminent Artists. ORTY years ago Mr. Ford, writing in the Quarterly Review, complained that Spain was almost undescribed and unvisited. Though "a land of adventure and romance, full of historic and poetic and legendary association, yet is it withal a kind of terra-incognitaa mysterious realm untravelled by the crowd, and where the all-wandering foot of the all-pervading Englishman but seldom rambles. The beef-steak and the tea-kettle, which infallibly mark the progress of John Bull, and have been introduced even into Greece and the Holy Land are as yet unknown in the ventas and posadas of the Peninsula." This statement is becoming, year by year, less true. Old residents and tourists in Spain are beginning to complain of the invasion of the Northern hordes. Numerous English and American travellers may now be met with, not only in such places as Granada and Seville, but in Segovia or Ronda, or Avila. And books of Spanish travel have multiplied in proportion. But notwithstanding the many books on Spain which have recently appeared, it is hoped that, the preparation of this volume has not been a work of supererogation. The writer has enjoyed many facilities for acquainting himself with the actual condition of the Spanish people, and for examining their social, moral, and religious conditions. He has diligently availed himself of the opportunities afforded him; and he has endeavoured to narrate, simply and honestly, that which he himself has seen and known of the Cosas d'España. |