A MANDURRA SOLO.
S P A N I S H V I S T A S
BY
GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP
ILLUSTRATED
BY
CHARLES S. REINHART
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1883
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
—
All rights reserved.
TO
FRANCES M. LATHROP
WHOSE TASTE FOR TRAVEL AND OBSERVATION EARLY PROMPTED HIS OWN
These Sketches are Dedicated
BY HER SON
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE.
THE two great Mediterranean peninsulas which, in opposite quarters,jut southward where—as George Eliot says, in her "Spanish Gypsy"—
Like fretted leaflets, breathing on the deep,"
may not inaptly be likened to a brother and sister, instead of taking theirplaces under the usual similitude of "sister countries." They have pointsof marked resemblance, in their picturesqueness, their treasures of art, theirassociations of history and romance; but, just as the physical aspect of Spainand its shape upon the map are broader, more thick-set and rugged than theslender form and flowing curves of Italy, so the Spanish language—with itsArabic gutturals interspersed among melodious linguals and vowel sounds—hasbeen called the masculine development of that Southern speech of whichthe Italian presents the feminine side. The people of both countries exhibita similar excitable, ardent quality in their characters; but the national temperamentof the Spaniards is, perhaps, somewhat hardier, more virile, andsturdier in its passionateness.
It seems to be true that, while the Greek spirit transferred itself to Italyin the days of Augustus, renewing its influence at the period of the Renaissance,and leaving upon people and manners an impress never since quiteeffaced—an influence tending toward a certain feminine refinement—the spiritof Rome also transferred itself to the subject country, Hispania, and imbuedthat region with the strong, austere, or wilful characteristics of purely Latincivilization, which are still traceable there.
But, however we may account for the phenomena, it is likely that themingled contrasts and resemblances of Italy and Spain will more and moreinduce travellers to visit the Iberian Peninsula. Italy has now been so thoroughlydepicted in all its larger phases, from the foreigner's point of view,that investigation must hereafter chiefly be concerned with the study of specialand local features. Spain, on the other hand, offers itself to the general observ