Ten Days in Spain
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VI. A Child of the Escorial. ? Spain's Eighth Wonder of the World. ? The Tagus. ? Toledo's Streets and only Hotel. ? Mental Dyspepsia. ? Frozen Music. ?The Toledan Cathedral and Alcazar. ?A Carlist. MIGHT have had two comfortable days at Madrid for the study of Velasquez and Murillo, had not public opinion been too much for me. When Castelar asked whether I were going to Andalusia, where he was born, and I answered, " No," he said I would see nothing of Spain. I knew it; but, not having visited Spain to become acquainted with the country, T bore up under the President's astonished gaze. Seville was far away, comparatively, and I could defy criticism concerning it; butwhen the Escorial and Toledo were mentioned, my courage oozed out at the pores. Both were too near Madrid to be ignored, and I " did" them on
...successive days. First came the Escorial, ? built by Herrera, " architect of ennui," ? the eighth wonder of the world according to Spanish criticism; the monstrous conception of that tyrant, monk, and hypochondriac, Philip II., according to my own. I am not Murray. I don't propose to furnish information that will be of the slightest use to the most inexperienced traveller. All I shall relate is what stuck to me like burrs after the guide had poured the entire Escorial into my aching ears. And he was an excellent guide, mark you. He had a conscience. His father had been a guide before him. He was, as it were, a child of the Escorial, and felt that the eyes of the Bourbons were upon him. He made shoes in the dull season, but all seasons were dull nowadays, hesaid, and it was very hard to provide for his family. He did n't know how the war would end, for his part. He was quite tired of commotion. He would like an intelligent government that educated the people. Whatever happe...
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