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beat' to quarters ; and I forgot the late hubbub , storm , drowning men , Andalusian hills and African mountains , and Spanish cam-boats , in dreams of fern and blossom , gorse-bush commons , rutted lanes , and hazel coppices , till a full hour after day-li g ht ; and then hurried on deck , to take a look round s and see wnere we were . And what an entirely new world was every where ! What stupendous wonders , varied beauty , and diversified grandeur , rushed at once on my sight ! We were close to Europa Point ; it bearing NE . from us , not a mile distant ; with a speckless blue sky , and a shining sea , as smooth as a mirror , not the least ruffle or ripple upon it , as far as the eye could stretch around ; but it heaved and sank , and heaved , like some immense
creature breathing in a deep sleep : and there the impregnable rock snatched the eye up to its loftiest ridges , where each object was as clearly visible in the morning sun , save that it was diminished by distance , as if it concentrated all light upon itself . In every direction , downwards , ranges of batteries and barracks looked out in their formidable strength and preparation ; and the
numerous white dwellings , which , scaling the precipitous sides of the rock , were perched on every projecting ledge on which space could be found for them , looked even more like little fairy habitations , than those which I had worshipped at Madeira ; and though the absence of verdure and trees diminished the pleasing beauty , the shadowed yellow , and brown , and white , of the rock , added
greatly to the grandeur of effect : all looked heated and parched ; yet sternness and haughty confidence of strength , were the attributes of the mountain ; till , running the eye downwards and along its base , the forest of masts , the dock-yard , the mole , the town , and the grey walls of the ancient Moorish castle , spoke of old romance and white-ben ^ ded El Za gal , silent and dreamy sad , as they mingled with moderrrf ^ bustle and commercial and warlike
activity . But , so far , here was a feeling of something like satisfaction , that , strange , utterly new , as these objects are , so unlike anythirf g we see in England , yet the place is English . The sense that it is English , is rendered more tenactous by looking across that low neck of sand , to the towns and villages beyond , St . Roque , &c . which are planted on the mountains' sides ; and were so p laced to facilitate watchfulness and defence in the olden time of Moorish and Spanish foray . Every rock and cliff , valley and glen , thereabout , and round to Algesiras and the now unseen Tariffa , has been the scene of some adventurous exploit ; and , if it could speak , would be eloquent in tales of Mahommedan chivalry , and ferocity , &nd courtesy , and Spanish mercilessness and cunning , and fraud , and indomitable daring . There are verdure and cultivation , flocks of sheep and herds of cattle grazing now in easy quiet , with no armed watchman near them , on a commanding point , to give notice of the dreaded enemy ' s approach ; and richly do they beautif y and soften the scene . And that town of Algesiras , lying
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Autobiography of Pet . VerjiUce . 225
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No . 87 . R
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 225, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/69/
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