ancient privileges of the gentilhommes de la chambre de roi.

No, my dear OLIVER, you must not judge of the press or the literature of France by these deplorable examples. The Bertins, the De Sacys, the Chasles, the St. Marc Girardins, the Fleurys, the Fauchers, the Saint Beuves, are men as learned and as respectable as are to be found -in any country; and you may rest assured the better portion of the French press,-the Débuts, the Constitutionnel, the Siècle, and the Revue des Deux Mondes, &c., are all anxious to rescue themselves from the opprobrium of being considered as persons of the stamp of the Girardins and Cassagnacs, of the Dujarriers and Beauvallons.

Forgive me for trespassing on you at such length, but it is right the case of respectable and learned men should be distinguished, as the lawyers in my day used to say, from the case of the scamps, of the scum of literature and politics. Beware in England of the Roman Feuilleton. If you ever allow romancers, jesters, or novelists to usurp the place held in your Times and Chronicle by serious and solid political writers, adieu to the respectability-adieu also to the liberty of the English press.

I remain, my dear OLIVER,

Your faithful and sincere friend,
BENJAMIN BLUnt,

Bencherman and Trencherman of the
Inner Temple.

WHEN we separated, my dear Grubley, at the Southampton Pier, you, to study the resources of the Channel Islands, I, for Seville, I was far more satisfied with my choice than I am at present. Unlike most of those whose midnight lamps glimmer with the same perseverance, I must frankly own that my reading has misled me. I forget which romantic bard first inveigled me into the dreamy admiration which I have ever since encouraged towards this land. But whoever it was, he is responsible for the course of reading I thenceforth pursued, and for my present disappointment.

I have accompanied tourist after tourist, poet after poet, through this southern paradise, and never met with the shadow of a disappointment to mar the delights of a residence at Seville as long as I remained at Putney. How different the descriptions in books are from the places they profess to paint, I have now begun to discover. I have here Byron, and one or two others of my deceivers; and am learning to smoke in order to use their leaves in lighting my pipe,

as I think that such atrocious exaggerations should end in smoke.

My first outbreak against the poet I have just named was occasioned by the journey from the coast to this place. I was all eagerness to arrive at the romantic land he talks of, and discovered by the end of the day that he could never have looked forward to any of his readers coming to see it. Why, the Thames between Hammersmith and Battersea is far more romantic than this Guadalquivir, along the whole fifty miles of which there is not sufficient foliage to deck the parterre of an alderman's villa! This disappointment was, however, trifling to that of my whole existence in this so vaunted city, which is as different as can be imagined from what they would make you believe.

Any one coming here after having been told, as I have fifty times, that Seville was a superb city-a city of palaces-would suppose the diligence had set him down at the wrong town. You know, my dear Grubley, that I always say what I mean; well then, I assure you that the narrowest part

of Fetter Lane is about the width of the principal streets of Seville; and as for the palaces, I have worn out two pairs of boots, and have not yet discovered the remotest symptoms of anything of the kind. You know how we abuse Buckingham Palace; there is nothing here that would stand the comparison with one of its wings. It is true they say that there is one built by the Moors, who are said to have done every thing with a sort of Oriental magnificence. I requested to have it shewn to me; but when we came to it I could not believe it was a palace. It is nothing row of houses in Portland Place. I was so disgusted that I would not go in; and I saw clearly by the smile on the countenance of my guide, an intelligent Spaniard, who understands English, that he appreciated my feelings on coming from such a country as England: and I am convinced he has since spoken well to his friends of my spirit in not allowing myself to be, as it were, taken in, by entering the doors of such a place.

to a

A circumstance which renders these disappointments the more provoking, is the great advantage a stranger possesses in this country, owing to the facility of the language. Having a tolerably quick ear, the peculiarity immediately struck me that all the words terminated in o. It is well known that much of the English language is of Latin derivation, as is also the case with the entire Spanish tongue; so that it immediately occurred to me that by adding an o to the English words, I could not fail of becoming intelligible; and that without the trouble of studying a new language. For, with a little practice, I expected to run on fluently enough with my native tongue thus modified; and I resolved to exercise myself aloud in my room during half an hour each morning, and also occasionally during a solitary walk in the country.

I tried my system for half a day, but I can't say it altogether succeeded. I was, however, as well understood as when I tried the Spanish itself. I believe the individuals with whom I happened to fall in that morning were not fair specimens of the average Spanish intelligence. One fellow to whom I applied for a

little coddo fisho and oystero sauso, ran away as though I had threatened to knock him down. Besides, I found the principle did not invariably admit of a successful application, from a practice this nation possesses of distorting the signification of terms; as in the instance of dinnero, which by an unaccountable perversion is made to signify money. From such obstacles as these I feared my system would require some previous study, with a view to drawing up a list of exceptions and modifications; I therefore laid it aside for the moment, and took to the old routine of learning Spanish as a distinct language. My intention is not, however, given up; and I shall devote my first leisure time to the mature consideration of the subject, in order that, at least, future travellers may profit by the discovery.

The most curious monument here seems to be the great tower called the Giralda, which I admire much. It is all square up to an immense height, and then tapers up to the top like a Chinese pagoda, with quantities of great bells all round in full view, turning head-over-heels when they ring a peal. I ascended this tower the day after my arrival, and never did I see so strange a place. I was let in through a door which looked like a rat-hole, at the bottom of the enormous building, and to pass through which I had to stoop. There was first a small room, and out of it another door leading to a passage, which went up-hill for about a dozen paces. A dead wall stopped me at the end; but the passage then turned at a right angle to the left, and I went up-hill another dozen steps to another wall, and again to the left; and this was uniformly repeated until I had walked about half-a-mile, turning always to the left. It then opened into a sort of platform, and there I was on the top, with a balustrade round the sides of the tower, and all the bells overhead, hanging out in the air.

The town was as ugly from that eminence as from below; but the cathedral, which is close to the tower, was most singular, and looked like the monuments of a whole city jumbled together as if they had been tossed out of a dice-box. On coming down I met a procession composed of

priests, soldiers, and others, and among them was moved along, on a wooden stand, a model of the great tower, supported on either side by female figures as large as life. I was informed that these two figures represented saints, which struck me as a circumstance worth notice, as shewing the difference between the ideas of our nation and this on these subjects, for they were figged out just like the females who figure on platforms in front of the shows at an English fair, and you know those females with us are never considered in the light of saints.

With regard to the charms of intercourse with these Andalusians, who have been so repeatedly described as the most fascinating race, irresistible in their winning ways towards foreigners, I was undeceived from the first day. The people at the inn scarcely paid any attention to me, but left me to look after every thing for myself. I was roused from my sleep on the first morning, by the entrance of a boisterous female into the room, who placed a tray of bad chocolate on the table. I turned in my bed and inquired in good Spanish,

"What's o'clock ?" To which she replied in equally good Spanish,"Don't know;" and slammed the door after her.

If I take my hat off to bow to the lady of the inn-a custom which, you are aware, is universal on the Continent-I hear a general laughter among the servants, which is sometimes repeated when I request them to do anything for me. Never shall I ask a Spanish lady again to take wine; for at the table-d'hôte, although all talk to each other at these dinners, whether they are acquainted or not, I asked a lady in my best manner to drink with me, and she stared without deigning to reply, while these cursed servants fell to giggling again behind our chairs,— a civility which they repeated when I stood up, my napkin in my hand, on the departure of two ladies from the table.

But this was not the worst. You know my bashfulness in the presence of women; in fact, no one has endeavoured more perseveringly than yourself to laugh me out of it. At all events, you would not believe me

guilty of outraging innocence in a foreign land, nor am I capable of anything of the sort. Wilson, whom you know, and who had been all over France-at least he said so,once told me that a little delicate and judicious gallantry towards the sex was sure to make a favourable impression, and secure to the stranger a good reception. Penetrated with this truth, I endeavoured to get rid of a little of my timidity, and the first chambermaid I met I threw my arms instantaneously round her neck without saying a word, lest the effect should be spoiled by my impure Spanish. The female started from me, dealing such a slap on my cheek that I suffered from a swollen eye for two days.

The impression I received of the urbanity of this class, when I presented myself at the residence, which I had had much difficulty in discovering, of a certain Señor Don with four names, to whom I had procured from my banker a letter of introduction, was not more favourable. On ringing the bell a voice from within the iron gates, and at a considerable distance, cried out, "Queen who?" dwelling on the termination of the monosyllable with a strong nasal twang. I hardly knew what to reply, as they did not know my name; and while I reasoned with myself-"Quien" was more loudly repeated, with anevidently impatient augmentation of the nasal en. I then mentioned my name to my invisible interrogator, and was replied to with a "Vaya Vd. con Dios," a civil way of requesting beggars to go about their business. As I did not like standing in the street with my face at an iron grille, explaining at the highest pitch of my lungs to people two or three pair of stairs above, at the window of an inner invisible court, I returned home and burned my letter of introduction.

Musing as I took my walk the following morning, on this circumstance, which shut the Seville houses to me, as though they had been convents, I met some old acquaintances lately arrived like myself; but before I introduce you to them, I must notify my extreme disappointment in the cathedral. This monument differs from the palaces of Seville in this respect, that it is not at all diffi

cult to discover. Wherever you go you cannot avoid seeing its enormous bulk out-topping every thing else, and filling a whole quarter of a town. Having heard and read of its wonders, I entered, expecting to have arrived at last at a compensation for all my other disappointments. I found myself in an immense grey, brown, dingy vault, of a prodigious elevation, and almost dark with mysterious-looking people of different sorts; some moving slowly from one part of the edifice to another; others making bows to the air, or to the walls; and some forming with their thumbs and fingers cabalistic signs. I had not, however, long to meditate, or to endeavour to account for what I saw, for a sort of familiar in a black gown and loose white spenser, wearing on his head a cap with angular projections upwards, as if intended for the reception of bells, and in his hand a long white stick, approached me and pointed to my shoulders, on which I had thrown my cloak à l'Espagnol. I ventured to inquire whether he wished anything, but could get no reply but noddings of the head and cap, and rapid signs of the hand, accompanied by half-articulate expressions, similar to bozo, or vozo, and quitar; now as quitar signifies do away, take away, or take off, and I would not take off my cloak for a fellow who had the impudence to wear his fools'cap while he gave me the order, I took myself off, and shall not certainly enter that building again.

No doubt you are aware that such a thing as a decent, quiet, respectable Protestant place of worship, is totally unknown here; such as, for instance, our Barnabas Chapel at Wandsworth. We must take things as we find them. The only way, in my opinion, of observing the Sabbath here, is to avoid setting foot in any of these flaunty Catholic churches on that day; for on other days one is constantly drawn into them to see their flummery shows and processions.

Last Sunday I was directed to the Christina promenade, as the rendezvous of the Seville fashionables. There, in fact, I should have been repaid for once by finding my expectations of enjoyment realised, had I been allowed to remain. magnificent marble terrace, larger

On a

than by twenty times the lord mayor's ball-room, surrounded with marble seats, and outside these a splendid garden, wafting all the perfumes of Paradise, were assembled a blaze of beauty and an ocean of animation. I had not been ten minutes absorbed in the study of this enchanting vision, when, a wide space opening by universal consent, a procession of a most novel description passed through the assembly, whose formal ranks and undivided attention were arrested by the event. A dozen British officers from Gibraltar had disembarked, and taken the Sunday promenade on their way to their hotel, each carrying his portmanteau on his shoulder, and cracking jokes in a loud voice as they underwent the ordeal of this universal criticism. "Well," thought I, as I observed the unequivocal signs of disgust and ridicule thus drawn on my compatriots, and which I felt would dog my steps as long as I remained on the ground, "it is time for me to be off!" and I filed off accordingly.

I mentioned having fallen in with some acquaintances; it is a lady with her son, who came in their yacht,— a Mrs. Smuggins, of Whitechapel. Young Smuggins went to sea five years ago, and made two voyages to Bombay,-on which occasions, as his widowed mother had been liberal, and given him a pacotille, he scraped together a capital sufficient to enable him to dabble in scrip; so that, being lucky, he soon realised a (for him) dazzling fortune. Having acquired a taste for the sea, he immediately purchased and fitted up a yacht, in which he stowed away biscuits and tea for ballast, these being the comestibles he prefers. He started with the intention of taking his beloved parent to Gibraltar, but meeting with contrary winds, and being, at length -owing, possibly, to his farinaceous ballast seriously maltreated by a gale off the Algarbe, he ran into Cadiz for shelter. He tells me he should never have dreamed of coming to these parts, but the damages of his ship requiring time to repair, he had been persuaded to come to visit Seville, after being thoroughly tired of Cadiz. He quite agrees with me about this place, and says that Cadiz is just as bad. "I never expected," he adds, "to find there so much as

an ounce of tobacco for my sailors; and when I went into a café and asked for a devilled gizzard and a pint of porter, they replied that they had nothing but old charters to chew [no doubt he means orchala de chufas -almond orgeat], and something about hell and a dose" [heladosfrozen lemonade, &c.] He therefore came here, and is no better satisfied, but anxious to get out to sea again, or, at least, to touch at Gibraltar, where he expects to find himself more at home. He had founded great expectations on a bull-fight, which he expected was similar, though, of course, not equal, to a bull-bait with English dogs.

He

had taken tickets for himself and Mrs. Smuggins for the next corridor [corrida], as he termed it; and, as I had never witnessed the sight, I agreed to meet them at the Circus. It was yesterday.

I found the place very crowded when I arrived, and, being shewn the way in, came into a passage with a row of boxes on one side, filled with ladies and gentlemen, whose view I interrupted as I stood, and on the other, a descent of some half-dozen stone gradines down to the arena. These, also, seemed to be as full as they could hold. The people at the hotel had procured me, as the best sort of ticket, one that admitted to the barrera. On shewing it to a gentleman in the front seat of a box, he directed me to the lowest of the gradines, where, in fact, I should have been in front, and as near as possible to the action, like the orchestra places at a theatre. But how was I to arrive? Each gradine is at once the seat of its occupants and the footstool of those belonging to the next above; and what with coat-skirts, elbows, knees, and feet, the passage did not appear practicable. Seeing my hesitation, the gentleman again asked to see my ticket, and pointed to the number on it to shew that my place must be reserved. I therefore ventured on the attempt, and, begging as many pardons as I could, put forward one foot, then the other; but although the uppermost row, having no knees nor feet on their seats, let me through, the next were rebellious, and cried out openly that the forastero should have come in time, that the funcion

had commenced; and, on a shout of applause greeting some exploit of a great black bull, all further attention was refused me. "Now, therefore," thought I, "it seems I must renounce this dissipation also;" and I was about to withdraw from before the boxes, the view from which I interrupted, when two good-natured natives opened me a small space on their stone-seat, and I slipped in, making one of a row of 700 or 800 spectators seated on that step.

Well, this was a novel scene! and the only thing worth coming to Seville for. Around a circus of such dimensions as would admit of Astley's being set upright and played at hoop with round and round it, was a sloping wall of human beings up to and above where I sat-at a rough guess I should say 20,000-all in a fever of enthusiasm. In the intervals of the bursts of applause, or disapprobation, or laughter, or groans, single voices were occasionally audible, uttering homely witticisms, usually responded to either by some brilliant repartee or by a general laugh. But the principal attention was bestowed on the performers, and deservedly.

The first thing I saw was the termination of the career of the big black bull. A troop of most elegant gentlemen, in white silk stockings and embroidered silk jackets and breeches, either scarlet, or yellow, or blue, &c., each carrying a scarf on his arm, were lounging about on all sides of the animal; while in front of him, ready for attack, stood one of the most slim and graceful, in an entire tight dress of black embroidered satin, except the little, light, open jacket. This was the only performer who bore an offensive arm, for the cavalry had retired. He held in his right hand a straight sword in a horizontal position, concealed from view by a scarlet mantle which hung upon the blade. He was motionless, and looked the monster in the face. The whole arena had suddenly become silent, and all eyes were intent on the two principal actors. The bull was also standing still, but soon commenced a slight movement of the head, which he turned first on one side and then on the other; his eyes were, however, again immediately fixed on his enemy, and at length he