s country there is not that
spur to exertion which is for ever goading us in this. The sun fills
one's heart with content, and for one's other wants a few halfpence a
day will suffice, and if you have them not 'tis no such great matter.
For these people are exceeding kind and hospitable; they will give you a
measure of wine if you are thirsty, as we would give a mug of water, and
the poorest man will not sit down to table without making you an offer
to share what he has. Wherever we went we were well received, and in
those poor villages where they had no money to give they would pay us
for our show in kind, one giving us bed, another board, and filling our
wallets ere we left 'em with the best they could afford.

'Twas our habit to walk a few miles before dinner, to sleep in the shade
during the heat of the day, and to reach a town (if possible) by the
fall of the sun. There would we spend half the night in jollity, and lie
abed late in the morning. The inns and big houses in these parts are
built in the form of squares, enclosing an open court with a sort of
arcade all round, and mostly with a grape-vine running over the sunnier
side, and in this space we used to give our performance, by the light of
oil lamps hung here and there conveniently, with the addition, maybe, of
moonlight reflected from one of the white walls. Here any one was free
to enter, we making no charge, but taking only what they would freely
give. And this treatment engenders a feeling of kindness on both sides
(very different to our sentiment at home, where we players as often as
not dread the audience as a kind of enemy, ready to tear us to pieces if
we fail to please), and ours was as great a pleasure to amuse as theirs
to be amused. I can recall to mind nothing of any moment occurring on
this journey, save that we spent some time every day in perfecting our
Spanish dances, I getting to play the tunes correctly, which at first I
made sad bungling of, and Dawson in learning of his steps. Also, he and
Moll acquired the use of a kind of clappers, called costagnettes, which
they play with their hands in these fandangos and boleros, with a very
pleasing effect.

At Valencia we stayed a week and three days, lingering more than was
necessary, in order to see a bull-fight. And this pastime they do not as
we with dogs, but with men, and the bull quite free, and, save for the
needless killing of horses, I think this a very noble exercise, being a
fair tria