back), Cordoba (rail), Sevilla (rail),
Cadiz (by the Guadalquivir steamer), Gibraltar (by steamer), Malaga (by
steamer), Granada (rail and "diligence,") Andujar ("diligence,") Madrid
(rail), a second time, Guadalajara (rail), Saragossa (rail), Lerida
(rail), Barcelona (rail), and Gerona (rail), thence to the frontier by
"diligence," and home by rail, via Perpignan, Carcassonne, Toulouse and
Paris.

To preserve some sort of order, I have arranged my sketches as they were
executed in point of time, and thrown my notes into a corresponding
sequence.

To assert that Spain can teach the lessons to the architect which may be
gained from Italy, or even from France would, I think, be to claim too
much for her, but on the other hand, it should be remembered, that it is
a mine which has been very much less exhausted. To the interest and
grandeur of its Northern Gothic buildings, Mr. Street has done a justice
long denied to them; while Girault de Prangey, and above all Owen Jones,
have helped us to a right appreciation of the works of those masterly
artificers, the Moors, who seem to have possessed an intuitive love for
the beautiful in structure.

It is with no small pleasure that I have laboured to direct attention to
other monuments, than those they have so satisfactorily illustrated, of
a land from travelling in which I have derived great delight, and much
instruction.

If asked what predominant sensation Spanish Architecture had produced in
my mind, I think I should be inclined to say, that of the manifestation
of an entire indifference to expense. No one appears to have counted the
cost of the work upon which he engaged. Whether it was a mediaeval
architect entering upon the vast construction of Cathedrals, such as
Seville, Toledo or Leon, a Renaissance architect dashing upon the
immense laying out of buildings such as the Cathedrals of Salamanca or
Granada, or an Herrera plunging into such stone quarries as the Escorial
or the Cathedral at Valladolid, not a shadow of doubt ever seems to
have crossed the mind of the beginners, that some one would complete
what they began.

Such peculiarities of national character are apt to beget proverbs, and
we accordingly find the grave ponderosity, and at the same time power,
of the Spaniard in the undertakings of his palmy days, thus
characterised in comparison with those of the other peoples of Europe.

"In their undertakings," says "Der curieuse Antiquarius durch
Europam,"[1]