Mrs. Hope

“ I rub my eyes and remember it is Spain, and, pitying the poor little baby so hedged in from infancy by ceremonial and conventionality, I wend my way to the monkeys, who jump and frisk no less blythely for me than for any crowned head. Poor little royal babies, how can they guess what human nature is like? What wonder they grow up proud and cold when from babyhood they have seen nothing but court ladies and chamberlains bowing to the dust before them! ”

“ A diligence goes from Barcelona to Valencia in forty-eight hours, and, in an evil hour, we preferred it to going by rail to Madrid. Who, that has not endured the same, can picture to himself the fustiness when the windows are shut, the draughts when they are open, the jumbling, the jolting, the rumbling, and the din of perpetual tinkling. ”

“ Bump, bump; roll, roll; on we went; heavy clouds hiding the mountain tops, and the rich Valencian plains wearying the eye with their endless monotony of olive-yards and orange-groves. Every now and then we passed peasants enveloped in their huge cloaks, jogging along on their patient mules, and presenting the most ludicrous appearance, as the ample cloak, flowing over the mule’s back, concealed his tail, so that his hind legs appeared as part of the figure of the peasant. Night was the time of the greatest misery ”

“ Leaving the cloisters’ shades, we emerged into the quiet streets, down which peasant girls were bringing home flocks of goats from the hillside, where they had browsed all day: each goat seemed to know its own habitation, and quietly walked in at the open door of its master’s house. We now bent our way to the market-place, the focus of animation: all the people of the town were there—laughing and shrieking at the top of their voice with true Spanish shrillness. ”

“ Railways are fast invading the old haunts of ignorance, superstition, and prejudice. Even Spain, that stronghold of intolerance and conceit, is having civilisation thrust upon her. Relentlessly the iron roads eat their way into the heart of the country, remorselessly the telegraph stalks round and round the land, encircling it by sea as well, and as if by a galvanic shock awakening the slumbering nation. ”

“ The elevation of the Deaconess House is not very tasteful, but the outward impression is effaced on opening the door, the inside view presents an aspect of such order, cleanliness, and comfort. A peaceful atmosphere pervades the whole house, and seems to impress itself not only upon the inhabitants but on all who enter it. Its internal arrangements resemble much those in all conventual houses of charity among the Roman Catholics; but neither mystery nor concealment exists among the Deaconesses: all is fair and open, well fitted to stand the test of daylight and inspection. ”

“ In the most out-of-the-way hamlet where he is storm-stayed, he finds some trace of by-gone years, either in the peasant’s cottage or the ancient church. Not only has he all the present interests of the age, but he is “en rapport” with the past, and is familiar with the works of the noblest spirits of each age. In his researches he invades alike princely halls and peasants’ cottages, and has thus an immense insight into the modes and habits of life of a nation. It becomes more interesting and exciting than hunting, which it resembles, in details of action ”

“ Precipitous rocks, on the other hand, rise so near to the sea, that there is scarce room for the road, and the single line of houses, which, extending miles along the shore, forms one never-ending street. The numerous stations involve a perpetual trial of patience to the traveller, as the villages are painfully like one another, and offer nothing of interest. At times the cliffs recede, and, embosomed among orange-groves and olive-yards, you see the summer retreat of some wealthy citizen of Barcelona. ”

“ It is, after all, only a Teniers the size of life; and it is amusing to hear the critics, who despise the low realities of the Flemish school, wax eloquent over this and a tribe of pictures of grinning beggars, because they are the work of a Spanish hidalgo.
The poor Flemings have got a bad name; they are ever branded as coarse and boorish, and unideal; even in the descriptions of the great chef-d’œuvre of Velasquez, “The Surrender of Breda,” they come in for a slap in the face, and we are told to admire the grave, dignified Spaniards, in contradistinction to the heavy, dull Dutch boors. ”

“ On one side are tight dapper little men,—women in mob caps of spotless purity, who speak not one word nor understand one syllable of Spanish; while on the other side there is the Spanish costume, Spanish language; the very air is Spanish, being redolent of mules and garlic, and French is as unintelligible as Arabic. At the very next stage the horses put into the diligence are of a new race—bony, skinny, ill-used creatures, galled and chafed by the ill-contrived harness, and bruised by the stones thrown at them by the driver from time to time to urge them on their way ”

“ From the height, whence you survey it, the streets are scarcely discernible, and it appears a mass of red tiled roofs. Rich plains stretch on every side down to the sea, and to the not very distant range of mountains, enlivened by white houses, sparkling among mulberry and orange groves. The cathedral itself is not very attractive. Like all other Spanish churches it has no chairs, and it was amusing to watch the different worshippers when the time came to kneel down: plump on the hard pavement knelt the devout peasant ”

“ A road, sheltered by magnificent oriental planes, leads to the busy port. On either side are villas, stuccoed and painted bright blue, yellow, and red. The land is like a garden, so well and carefully is it cultivated. It is still irrigated by the canals dug by the Moors, and water raised by the creaking noria, or waterwheel, which they introduced. Water is wealth, under this burning sun; with its aid ten or twelve crops may be raised on the same land in the year. The earth never lies fallow, summer or winter. ”

“ Strong cobby horses drag these clumsy vehicles at a slow pace; if you insist on going quick, the shaking is torture, as springs are a luxury unknown.
The smoothly paved streets are beautifully clean, but very narrow and winding. The houses are eastern in appearance, on a level with or three or four steps lower than the street: below are large open shops, guiltless of windows; above, balconies shaded from the sun by strips of gay matting, gay with hoyas and convolvulus, where all day the women sit sewing, and watching their neighbours. Valencia is well off for gardens ”

“ If anyone wishes to see the land of Cervantes ere it has become stale, flat, and prosaic, haste, haste—let them fly, for day by day Progress marks her triumphs, and soon the Spain of chivalry, the Spain of our romantic imagination, the Spain of the Inquisition, will be no longer recognisable, tricked out in nineteenth-century ways, manners and opinions, which it has acquired second-hand with the gloss off. ”

“ Spring is a most enjoyable season in Washington; in March the heat begins, and soon the peach-trees are covered with white blossoms thick as new fallen snow, the magnolias lade the air with delicious fragrance, and countless rainbow-hued blossoms adorn the stately tulip-tree, and afford shelter in their deep calices for the fragile humming-birds. ”

“ There are no worldly inducements to attract them; no exalted display of wonderful self-denial or extraordinary austerity, which has a strange attraction to some natures; the life is completely unobtrusive in its simplicity, so that even the enthusiastic and overstrained feeling of being set apart in some special way does not exist among them, as they are bound by no vows, merely promising strict obedience to the rules of the house. ”

“ The politicians are, therefore, no fair sample of the American gentleman. They are of all grades of society, have generally tried their hands in every profession, and been country lawyers, schoolmasters, and backwoodsmen, turn about. They are as self-sufficient as they are ignorant; violence in their speeches and vituperation against England make up in their own eyes, and those of their colleagues, for calm reasoning and enlightened views. England was invaluable political capital to them. ”

“ Often, on opening the door, a peasant-woman, dressed in her peculiar costume, would enter, weary and wayworn, and yet determined not to return home without bringing her present of plums, apples, or sometimes a loaf of home-made bread, and have a little talk over all her own family history, her troubles and her joys, to which most affectionate and ready ear was always lent by the sisters. ”

“ Political life in the States involved so much that was utterly abhorrent to the mind of a refined and well-educated man, that the arena was too much abandoned to an inferior class, whose sensibility to honour was callous, and who cared not for upholding the dignity and integrity of the nation, so long as they could, in the general scramble which occurred every four years, secure some comfortable post for a friend or relation. ”

“ A side door leads to the grand deserted old cloisters, built round a garden, which no doubt was once adorned by choice blossoms, under the care of the departed monks. The abandoned monasteries all through Spain are sad to see: though no country has gained more by the secularisation of monks, still the antiquarian mourns over the grand old buildings given up as habitations for the bats and the owls, and gradually sinking into decay.
Imagination peoples the cloisters again with solemn slow-pacing forms. ”

“ The drawing-rooms are most dreary places, no books, work, or any evidences of daily occupation are to be seen,—it is a mere talking-room. Crimson silk curtains, a gaudy carpet with an immense flowery medallion in the centre, rows of chairs placed with stiff primness down either side, and a few rocking-chairs—such is the stereotyped drawing-room all over the States. live in a snuggery up-stairs, or in their bed-rooms, surrounded by their children, who are fastened into baby-jumpers, while they tread everlastingly at sewing-machines. ”

“ Such a trying position is more than even British courage could face more than once in a lifetime. Excitement seems to be a necessary of life in the States. Every circumstance is made conducive to it, even a death is an occasion for a display of promiscuous sympathy, as annoying to the English as soothing to the American mind. ”

“ On the head a bright handkerchief is the only protection from the heat. The Valencians are a handsome, attractive race, very different from the Catalans; the men are active and well-proportioned, the women slight and gracefully formed, with soft mischievous eyes and luxuriant tresses. ”

“ My short visit to the Institution made me most desirous to see this system adopted in our own country. We have many excellent and energetic women who require a more extensive sphere of action than is afforded to them in a small family circle, and yet whose sensitive natures and retiring dispositions prevent them from bringing themselves forward in individual action: their various characters would find suitable work and constant occupation in an establishment of this kind, free from useless austerities and unfettered by oppressive observances. ”

“ So careful are they of the liberty of the young citizen, that frequently the rite of baptism is delayed, that the infant may not have his opinions, as it were, pledged to “Hard-shells,” or “Soft-shells,” without a right of judgment. Children really tyrannise over their parents, everything is in abeyance to their wills and wishes; the result is, that the American is never anything but a spoiled child. He never learns self-denial or self-control ”

“ Without water, the very same land would be worthless: so, while one mocks at the empty dry bed of the Toria, on which the cavalry of the garrison find exercising ground, one should remember that its diverted streams are enriching the whole country, and causing the wealth and opulence of the Valencians. ”

“ Sunday is the great day in the Deaconess House. After two o’clock not only the friends and relations of the patients, but all who are in any way interested in the little Institution are welcome to come as visitors; and those who come display much sympathy in the occupations and proceedings of the sisters. The Deaconess House attracts the best feelings of all classes, from the Grand Duchess to the peasant. ”

“ Only a few of the wide streets have the glory of trees, for trees in such a dry country involve much care and attention. Round their roots is a carefully-bricked little well, about a foot deep, intended to retain the water, with which they are daily supplied; when full, a little channel conducts the precious fluid to the next tree, and so on till the whole avenue is refreshed. The Prado is the most disappointing place in Madrid. ”

“ Inexhaustible gallery, never-failing source of interest, months might be spent in roaming from one masterpiece to the other. Divine Virgins by Murillo seem to float in a heavenly atmosphere, and the perfect innocence and fascinating grace of the Infant Saviour and little St. John, must be seen to be understood. What Murillo’s pictures must have been before they were scraped and repainted, it is difficult to imagine, as even after all they have gone through they are unutterably beautiful. ”

“ The dinner-hour is twelve o’clock, and in the well-kept, clean kitchen, the Sister Superior appears ready to cut and apportion the meat for the different wards, and the sisters with their trays stand ready to carry it up-stairs.
The food is plain and well cooked; great care is taken where attention to diet is ordered; everything by being done regularly is done quickly, and it is astonishing with what rapidity the many dinners are sent up-stairs and distributed. The sisters then dine together, if the cases of illness are not very imminent ”

“ The sisters then visit their patients, and if all is going well, and they can leave them, they take a short turn in the garden, in which their beloved vegetables and a pet pig are no small attractions. A few flowers are gathered to please their patients, and to offer to the convalescents, who sit about under the trees; and the lively laugh when the sisters pass, or enter into conversation, shows that many a little repartee and joke slip behind the gates of the Deaconess House, and that a little harmless fun is not considered sinful. ”