Spanish Life in Town and Country

It has been thought well to include Portugal in this volume, so as to embrace the entire Iberian Peninsula. Though geographically contiguous, and so closely associated in the popular mind, the Spanish and Portuguese nations offer in fact the most striking divergences alike in character and institutions, and separate treatment was essential in justice to each country. The preferential attention given to Spain is only in keeping with the more prominent part she has played, and may yet play, in the history of civilisation.

* * * * *

I am indebted for the chapters on Portugal to Mr. Eugène E. Street, whose long and intimate acquaintance with the land and its people renders him peculiarly fitted to draw their picture.

L. HIGGIN.

CONTENTS

SPANISH LIFE

PAGE CHAPTER I LAND AND PEOPLE 1

CHAPTER II TYPES AND TRAITS 24

CHAPTER III NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 38

CHAPTER IV SPANISH SOCIETY 55

CHAPTER V MODERN MADRID 77

CHAPTER VI THE COURT 97

CHAPTER VII POPULAR AMUSEMENTS 111

CHAPTER VIII THE PRESS AND ITS LEADERS 129

CHAPTER IX POLITICAL GOVERNMENT 142

CHAPTER X COMMERCE AND AGRICULTURE 156

CHAPTER XI THE ARMY AND NAVY 183

CHAPTER XII RELIGIOUS LIFE 198

CHAPTER XIII EDUCATION AND THE PRIESTHOOD 213

CHAPTER XIV PHILANTHROPY--POSITION OF WOMEN--MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 226

CHAPTER XV MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 236

CHAPTER XVI MODERN LITERATURE 246

CHAPTER XVII THE FUTURE OF SPAIN 260

PORTUGUESE LIFE

CHAPTER XVIII LAND AND PEOPLE 277

CHAPTER XIX PORTUGUESE INSTITUTIONS 298

INDEX 315

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"IN CHURCH." SHOWING THE MANTILLA AND VELO Frontispiece

PEASANTS 2

A CORNER IN OLD MADRID 8

SEVILLE CIGARRERA 20

PEASANTS 20

VALENCIANOS 26

THE WATER TRIBUNAL IN VALENCIA. SHOWING VALENCIAN COSTUMES 34

PAST WORK 50

KNIFE-GRINDER 50

OUTSIDE THE PLAZA DE TOROS, MADRID 78

BUEYES RESTING 94

IN THE WOODS AT LA GRANJA 104

PLAZA DE TOROS. PICADOR CAUGHT BY THE BULL 120

PLAZA DE TOROS. THE PROCESSION 124

DRAGGING OUT THE DEAD BULL 126

THE ESCURIAL 140

A WEDDING PARTY IN ESTREMADURA 170

A COUNTRY CABIN IN GALICIA 292

SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY

CHAPTER I

LAND AND PEOPLE

Only in comparatively late years has the Iberian Continent been added to the happy hunting-grounds of the ordinary British and American tourist, and somewhat of a check arose after the outbreak of the war with America. To the other wonderful legends which gather round this romantic country, and are spread abroad, unabashed and uncontradicted, was added one more, to the effect that so strong a feeling existed on the part of the populace against Americans, that it was unsafe for English-speaking visitors to travel there. Nothing is farther from the truth; there is no hatred of American or English, and, if there had been, they little know the innate courtesy of the Spanish people, who fear insult that is not due to the overbearing manners of the tourist himself.

To-day, however, everyone is going to Spain, and as the number of travellers increases, so, perhaps, does the real ignorance of the country and of her people become more apparent, for, after a few days, or at most weeks, spent there, those who seem to imagine that they have discovered Spain, as Columbus discovered America, deliver their judgment upon her with all the audacity of ignorance, or, at best, with very imperfect information and capacity for forming an opinion.

For many years, the foreign element in Spain was so small that all who made their home in the country were known and easily counted, while those who travelled were, for the most part, cultivated people--artists, or lovers of art, or persons interested in some way in the commercial or industrial progress of the nation. Even in those days, however, too many tourists spent their time amongst the dead cities, remnants of Spain's great past, and came back to add their quota to the sentimental notions current about the romantic land sung by Byron. Wrapped in a glamour for which their own enthusiasm was mainly responsible, they beheld all things coloured with the rich glow of a resplendent sunset; their descriptions of people and places raised expectations too often cruelly dispelled by facts, as presented to those of less exuberant imaginations.