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    58 A Traveller Accommodated with a Robbe...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    A Traveller , Accommodated With A Robber

    oranges and dried fruit . Smoke also arose from the little charcoal fires , fanned into red heat by those that sold cigars and spirits ; and one of those patient looking money changers , of whom there are a great number in Granada , was arranging his little table and small stock of

    silver and copper money . Occasionally , too , we heard the clink of the brazier ' s hammer as we passed ; and we threaded with difficulty troops of asses laden with bread from the

    country . ( The ovens are a curious addition to a house . They stand like our pigsties , outside , and are built of stone , with a dome top , and a little smoky door . ) The bread is thus brought in from a considerable distance , and the poor donkeys stand patiently

    together , until they are gradually lightened of their load by the customers . We passed into a less frequented street , and from thence by the magnificent cathedral . By this time we had gained the suburbs , and I was shown the defence in a wall

    with slits for musketry , lately raised to protect the town from Gomez and his marauders . We now got quite outside the streets ; and morning , with that quickness to be observed in the

    9011 th , was opening in all its glory . We passed the bull-ring , where the day before I had seen this most captivating * but barbarous amusement practised , at the expense of nve noble animals that were killed , to the smiling satisfaction of the thousands of brilliant eyes and blooming

    A Traveller , Accommodated With A Robber

    cheeks of the fair beauties of Granada . This heroical mode of killing ; beef is defended on the plea of its keeping up the national courage . Query , how far it keeps up also the brutality that still marks their civil wars ?

    Besides , other brave nations are not obliged to be butchers in order to be valiant . We took the road to Santa Fe ; and the long plain of Granada now lay stretched before us , without a hedge or tree to

    intercept the view towards the mountainous ridge of Sierra Elvira , dimly seen in the distance . We passed on in silence , for as yet my knowledge of Spanish extended no further than to the necessary applications for food , & c , and my guide

    knew nothing whatsoever either of English or French . Travelling in Spain is yet in a very primitive state . The horses for the road are generally of a poor worn-out character , yet , with great patience and docility , they will travel for fourteen or fifteen

    hours a day . Their practice is to follow one another , and in vain I tried to keep mine up abreast with my guide . For a time I was successful ; but gradually he sunk behind , jog _^

    ging on at a regular distance from the leading horse . This is the way mules are driven . Long strings of these patient animals I have met heavily laden , toiling up one of the steep ascents of these mountains . The

    quickest mule takes the lead with his iron bell , or cannister , in which hangs a clapper ; and

    58 A Traveller Accommodated With A Robbe...

    58 A Traveller Accommodated with a Robber

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 58, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/56/