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country is to be found in its historic monuments, its well-defined Roman
period being especially rich in architectural remains; and, as to
cathedrals, nowhere else are they to be found so richly and superbly
endowed.

The cars took us to Toledo, a distance of about forty miles, in an hour
and a half, landing us in a strange, old place, the very embodiment of
antiquity, and the capital of Gothic Spain. Here let us drop a hint
gained by experience. If the reader makes the excursion to Toledo from
Madrid, he will most probably start early in the morning and get back
late at night, as one day in the place will afford all the time
absolutely necessary to visit and enjoy its most notable objects. A
prepared luncheon basket should be taken from Madrid. This will obviate
the necessity of encountering the dirt, unsavory food, and extortion of
the fifth-rate hotels of Toledo. It has been said that banditti have
been suppressed in Spain; perhaps so, on the public roads. It may be
they have gone into the hotel business, as a safer and less conspicuous
mode of robbing travelers. At Toledo the rule of the Moor is seen in
foot-prints no time can obliterate, and to visit which is like the
realization of a mediaeval dream. The sombre streets are strangely
winding, irregular, and steep; the reason for constructing them thus
was, doubtless, that they might be the more easily defended when
attacked by a foreign enemy. In the days of her prime, Toledo saw many
battles, both inside and outside of her gates. One can touch the houses
of these streets on both sides at the same time, by merely extending the
arms.

There are scores of deserted buildings locked up, the heavy gates
studded with great, protruding, iron-headed nails, while the lower
windows are closely iron-grated. These houses have paved entrances,
leading to open areas, or courts, with galleries around them, upon which
the various rooms open. The galleries are of carved and latticed wood,
generally in good preservation, but the main structure is of stone, most
substantially built, everything testifying to their Moorish origin. Some
of these houses, once palaces, are now used for storage purposes; some
for business warehouses, manufactories, and carpenters' shops. One would
suppose, in such a dull, sleepy, dormant place, that the streets would
be grass-grown; but there is no grass. Yet between the loosely-fitting
slabs of stone pavement, here and there, little fresh flowers, of