Madrid past & present

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    MADRID

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    BY THE SAME AUTHORLADY DIANA BEAUCLERKBEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN HISTORYAND ARTA ROYAL CAVALIERTWENTY YEARS AT COURTANNA JAMIESONMEMOIRS OF EDWARD, 8th EARLOF SANDWICH

    NOVELSTHE MAGIC PLUMESTHE WHEEL OF NECESSITY

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    THR HOLY EICHARIST. Cl.AUDIO COEl I.O

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    MADRIDPAST AND PRESENT BYMrs. STEUART ERSKINEWITH TWENTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS

    1-5 -5 -35

    JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITEDLONDON VIGO STREET W. i MCMXXII

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    ,KTEI> IN GREAT BRITAIN BV MORRISON AND G.BB LTD.. EDINBORGH

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    TOAlvaro de alcalA galiano

    MARQUES DE CASTEL BRAVOADMIRABLE WRITER AND TRUE FRIEND

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    PREFACETHERE are three magnets that attract theart-loving public to Madrid : the PradoMuseum, the Armoury and the Escorial.Having devoted a few days to the inspection ofthese wonders, the majority pass on to the showplaces of Spain, about which so much has beenwritten. The object of this book is to give someaccount of the attractions of the capital and ofsome of the places of interest that are not men-tioned in guide-books. It was intended to bewritten from an absolutely impersonal point ofview, but the number of interesting people thatit was my good fortune to meet causes me toalter, or rather modify, my original plan. Suchas it is, the book contains notes on the hfe, theart and the amusements of a city that is verylittle known in spite of its artistic treasures.Without trying to compete with the oJB&cial

    guide-book, and without giving the practical in-formation that such books contain, these notesmay perhaps be of use to those travellers whohave not time to investigate side issues, or the

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    viii PREFACEeven greater number who prefer to travel in thespirit, while sitting comfortably in an arm-chairby the fire.

    I should Uke to express my thanks to the greatartist Don Ignacio Zuloaga, to Don ValentinZubiaurre and to Don Victor Macho for permissionto reproduce their works. I have also to thankSir Keith Smith for allowing me to use his excellentand typical photographs of Madrid, which werekindly procured for me by Don Enrique Alcardz.As this book is going to press, comes the sad

    news of the premature death of Don A. de Beruete,the Director of the Prado, a loss to Spain and to hismany friends. BEATRICE ERSKINE.

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    NOTEChapter XXII., "A Great Woman Writer,"incorporates an article by the writer whichappeared originally in The Contemporary Reviewfor August 192 1. It is reprinted here by thecourtesy of the Editor.

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    CONTENTSCHAP.

    I.

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    xii CONTENTSCHAP.XVII. Art and Industry . ;XVIII. The Theatre .XIX. Social and Artistic Life .XX. An Educational MovementXXI. Musings in a LibraryXXII. A Great Woman WriterXXIII. The Churches and the ConventsXXIV. Pedro de Mena y MedranoXXV. Excursions round MadridXXVI. The Escorial .XXVII. Good Friday in ToledoXXVIII. Easter Day in MadridXXIX. A Suburb of Madrid

    Index .

    156

    1641771891952052l8229238248

    259269277

    283

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    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSThe Holy Eucharist

    Photo by Anderson.Paseo de la Castellana

    Photo by Alfieri.PUERTA DEL SOL .

    Photo by Alfieri.

    PUERTA DE AlCALXMules in a Side Street

    Photo by Alfieri.Cart drawn by OxenThe Fountain of Neptune and theA Country Cart .Plaza de la Cibeles

    Photo by Alfieri.Detail from the Burial of the Conde de Orgaz

    Photo by Anderson.Queen Mariana of Austria ....Photo by Anderson.Calle de AlcalA......Monument of Alfonso XII in the Retiro Park

    Ritz Hotel

    FrontispiecePACING FA6B

    6

    16

    4242

    52527474

    98

    108

    130130

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    xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSFACING PAGE

    Head of a Boy . . ... . . i44Street Sellers . . . .166The Paseo del Prado and the Post Office . 166Basque Peasants . . . .182Typical Costumes . . . . .198Paseo de Recoletos . . . .238A Country Cart . . . . . .238The Escorial ...... 254Photo by Anderson.The Victim of the Feast .... 278

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    MADRID

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    MADRIDPAST AND PRESENT

    CHAPTER IOLD MADRID

    "Madrid, Castillo famoso."Nicolas Fernandez de MoratIn.AWHITE town standing 2412 feet above sea-level, on a spur of rising ground set in avast plain that stretches northwards to theGuadarrama Chain and southwards to the mountainsthat guard Toledosuch is Madrid. Villa y Corte,Town and Court, she is not, technically speaking, acity, and is as far removed from the bustle of amodern commercial centre as she is from thegeneral appearance and the atmosphere of anyother capital of Europe.Madrid owes a great deal to her position. Thebulk of the town stands high, the streets slopingdown to the Manzanares on one side, and, on theother, to the deep furrow that was the bed of atorrent in prehistoric times and is now occupiedby the avenues of the Prado, the Recoletos and theCastellana. To north and east the new quarters

    I

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    OLD MADRID 8ful cathedral, or indeed from any of the famoustowns of Spain with their churches, their palacesand their universities taking one back to mediaevaltimes. There is nothing of the sort in Madrid, andthe traveller who, guide-book in hand, has spent aday or two in the Prado Museum and has visitedthe Armoury and the Escorial often goes away withthe impression that there is nothing more to see.It is a city without the reUcs of an age-long pastsuch as are to be found in other capitals, a citythat sprang into importance at the command ofPhilip II ; even so, it contains very much of interestbesides those wonderful collections of art that areamong the finest in the world. Madrid is a jealouscity ; she often hides her treasures from the casualeye. Priceless works of art are hidden away inconvents where the rule of clausura obtains, bits ofmediaeval architecture are to be found in some of thenarrow twisting lanes in the older quarter. Thosewho keep to the broad pavements in the main streetshave no idea that there are others just behindthe modern shops where the gallants of the GoldenCentury exchanged witticisms and where hungryscholars touted for the patronage of the great.

    But, after all, the interest of Madrid, apart fromthe great museums with which every traveller issuperficially acquainted, and apart from the smallercollections which he seldom visits, from the palaceswith their art treasures that are not on view, andthe churches and convents that guard their treasuresclosely, the interest is largely sentimental. Ad-mitting that there are limitations, both historical

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    4 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTand artistic, owing to the comparatively recent dateof the rise of Madrid, there is, surely, a story to betold that is worth telling. If the town began tobe important in the reign of Philip ii, it is connectedwith the greatest period of Spanish history, poUticaland literary ; it brings before us the figures of theaustere Philip and his greater father, Charles v,as well as the Planet King, PhiUp iv, with hisbriUiant Court and his neglected kingdom ; we seeagain the great shadow of Napoleon and the lesserform of his brother, the Key Plazuelo, while thelong struggle for hberty has left its mark here andthe rise of modem Spain, its pohtical and commercialimportance, can be studied in the progress andexpansion of the capital.The first historical mention of the present capitalof Spain is in the year 939 A.D., when Ramiro 11 of

    Leon, anxious to harry the Moors, stormed the" city called Magerit " on a Sunday morning, threwdown a portion of the walls, entered in and slewthe infidel " with a horrible slaughter," aided by" the divine clemency." The town was thereforealready walled and fortified, occupying, as it did,an important strategic position for the defence ofToledo, the Moorish capital.Ramiro did not attempt to retain the fort. TheMoors built up the walls and the towers and con-tinued to keep watch over the plains towards theSierra de Guadarrama, then known as the Alps,lest any encroaching bands of Christians shouldreturn to the assault. A hundred and ten yearslater Fernando i of Leon destroyed a part of the

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    OLD MADRID 5defences on his way further south, but it was notuntil 1086 that Alfonso vi of Castile finally wrestedthe fortress from the Moors. After this date Madridremained in the hands of the Christians, thoughoften attacked by her former masters, who, in1109, established their camp in the garden of thepresent Royal Palace, known to this day as theCampo del Moro.

    Alfonso VI turned the Moorish mosque into thechurch of Santa Maria de la Almudena, as it wasafterwards called ; he and his successor, Alfonso vii,did much to improve the conditions of Madrid,which increased in size, in importance and in thepossession of civic rights. As the city increased insize the girdle of walls was moved, and the gateswere taken down and rebuilt farther afield. Fer-nando IV was the first King to summon the Corteshere in 1327; he also appointed a Governor andmade a new system of municipal rule with tenRegidores, two Mayors and lesser officials. HenryIII, aged eleven, convoked the Cortes here in 1394 ;John II began his reign in Madrid; and Henry iiimade it his principal abode, hving in the gloomyMoorish Alcdzar where the wife of Henry iv borean illegitimate daughter known to history as LaBeltraneja.

    It was the failure of Henry iv's legitimate linethat placed his sister Isabel on the throne, and themarriage of this Queen, so well known underthe title of Isabel la Catolica, brought about theimion of Castile and Aragon, the foundation of themonarchy of Spain.

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    6 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTFerdinand and Isabella often brought their

    wandering Court to Madrid, but as they were in-cessantly

    on the move, owing to the concludingactions of the Reconquest, they did not establishthemselves permanently. After the Queen's deathFerdinand convoked the Cortes in the church ofSan Jeronimo el Real, where he swore to governthe State in the names of his daughter, mad Juana,and her son Charles.

    Charles v always favoured Madrid, which wasconsidered to be extremely healthy. In those daysthe plains round the town were thickly wooded andwater was plentiful ; the cHmate was therefore farmore agreeable and less extreme than it is at present.When Philip ii chose to estabhsh his Court here in1560 there was not enough accommodation for hisnumerous retinue, so he proceeded to cut down thetrees in order to build houses ; he also issued alaw obUging any citizen possessing a large houseto lodge members of his household. The result ofthis arbitrary law was that only small houses werebuilt, casas de mahcia, which were not so taxed.Small houses in narrow streets were the order ofthe day, and the new importance of the capitalwas not marked by any great architectural effortas far as ordinary dwelUngs were concerned. Oneby one the churches were built, one after anotherthe great conventual buildings were founded, withtheir chapels and enclosed gardens ; Charles vconverted the Alcazar into a royal palace whichstill kept its characteristic gloom. As time wenton the Puerta del Sol increased in importance, the

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    OLD MADRID 7Plaza Mayor was built and became the recognizedtheatre for public functions, and the Prado waslevelled and became the fashionable promenade.The palace was several times partially or whollydestroyed by fire before the present fine buildingwas erected, and the Palace of the Retiro was setup in what was then a suburb of the town, wherenow the Park of the same name is open to thepubUc.

    So, with the passing years, Madrid changed anddeveloped, losing much by reason of constant firesand the riots and uprisings of lawless times, butgaining also in other respects. As we see it now itis a charming city, bright, open, full of Ufe andmovement. The air is particularly clear, and thehouses along the principal avenues, which stand intheir own gardens, have all the attraction of townand country combined.Whether or no PhiUp was happily inspired whenhe chose it for the capital of " the Spains," is amatter of opinion. The position, in the very centreof the kingdom, is convenient, the situation, ex-posed as it is to all the winds that blow and to thescorching rays of the sun, has its drawbacks.Speaking from the aesthetic point of view, it isideally placed with extensive views and on groundof such varying levels that few streets give theimpression of monotony. Politically it was possiblythe only alternative open to PhiHp that was freefrom offence to one or other of the prominent citiesof the Peninsula.

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    CHAPTER IITHE RACE

    " Race lies to-day at the base of all modern society, just as ithas done throughout the unrecorded past."Madison Grant.

    I WAS watching the traffic in the streets ofMadrid when I was brought insensibly toconsider, or rather to make the attempt tofocus, the national character and the genius of theSpanish people, the former of which offers suchstrong contrasts, and the latter which has given usan art and a hterature that are, at once, the mostrealistic and the most idealistic known to mankind.Now the traffic in itself shows greater contraststhan does that in most other countries. I waslooking, at the moment, up the wide sweep of theprocessional street of Alcala. In the centre of thestreet the yellow trams dawdled up and down inwhat appeared to be an interminable sequence ;they suggested the prosaic struggle for Hfe, as ex-emphfied by the human ants that were swarmingin and out at the stopping-places. As I looked, ahigh-powered car of the latest type dashed up-hilland was forced to put on the brakes suddenly becausea team of mules, drawing a country cart, had gotright across the roadway. The contrast between

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    THE RACE 9the shining landaulet and the tartana laden withcountry produce, between the immaculate chauffeurand the slouching driver, between the silver andleather and varnish of the car and the trappings ofthe mules, was most marked. The mules stoodpatiently and doggedly across the road ; their highwooden collars were painted with rude flowers,from their harness, which was patched togetherwith cord, hung gay pompoms of coloured wool andjingling bells. As I watched the driver succeed atlength in getting his team under control, and the car,with an indignant hoot, speed on its way, thereappeared the most typical sight of all, a couple ofmonumental oxen dragging after them a hugeblock of granite from the Sierra.The contrasts observable in the traffic are onlyanother manifestation of the contrasts elsewhere.

    The streets of Madrid are either very wide and pavedwith wood or asphalt or else they are very narrowand paved with cobbles ; the climate has theextremes of cold and heat, of hot sunshine and chillwinds, while the country itself shows vast alluvialplains varied by chains of rugged mountains. Itis apparent that the national character is onlytrue to type when it shows a tendency to sharpcontrast.Now some people will tell you that it is sheernonsense to talk of Spanish national character,because it differs so radically in different parts of thePeninsula. The hardy mountaineer of Asturias orGalicia, they will say, is quite unlike the easy-going, talkative Andalusian, and the Catalan, who

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    10 MADRID PAST AND PRESENThas a different language and literature and whoaspires to have a Dominion state of his own, istotally unhke the rest of his fellow-countrymen.Difference of character, from a regional point ofview, is surely noticeable in most countries, and thatwhich we find in Spain merely shows the variouselements of which the whole is composed.The Spaniard is intensely race conscious ; thewords " la raza " are always on his hps. He mayuse them sUghtingly, contemptuously, sarcastically,humorously or admiringly ; at bottom, they standfor him as the key-note of his patriotism, and heresents any deviation of type either in individual orin artistic manifestation. It is easy to ignore thequestion of race, but in doing so we risk losingmuch that is interesting in modern Spain and in thementaUty of the Spaniard.Spain has always been more or less of an enigma

    to other countries. The very name, which is derivedfrom the Phoenician " Span," the hidden or occult,the geographical position of the Peninsula lyingat the extreme east of Europe and at the gates ofAfrica, shut out from the rest of Europe by therocky barrier of the Pyrenees, have helped to keepup this feehng. And yet no country has been sopersistently overrun by successive invaders asSpain.The oldest people known to inhabit the landbeyond the Pyrenees were the Iberi, belonging tothe Mediterranean race which gave, when mixedwith Nordic blood, the civiUzation of Phoenicia,Greece and Rome. To them came the Celts, wan-

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    THE RACE 11dering tribes of the Nordic race, who first fought andthen settled among the aborigines, producing a mixedrace, the Celtiberi. The next comers were theGreeks and Phoenicians, who brought commerce andciviUzation in their train ; the latter estabUshedover two hundred colonies in Spain. The Greekswere emigrants who settled in the country; thePhoenicians were traders who were finally turnedout by the Carthaginians in 501 B.C., after whichdate the land was plunged into the long struggle ofthe Punic Wars.The Carthaginians do not appear to have made

    very much impression on the conquered people,but the Romans, as usual, imposed their laws, theirlanguage and their customs on the land which theyruled for six hundred years. Then the Visigothscame in a.d. 402, in the name of the weakening powerof Rome, and stayed in the Peninsula until they wereturned out by the Moors. Barbarians as they were,the Goths were Christians of the Arian persuasionand they were good rulers after their lights. Theyframed laws, on the model of the Roman Codices,although we learn from the author of EspanaSagrada that they loathed the name of Rome andpunished with death those who used that form ofjurisdiction. After a time they were converted toCatholicism, and held Councils dealing with reHgiousmatters at Toledo, where they estabhshed theirCourt. Their rule ended in dramatic fashion. Asthe result of a civil war the conquered party tookrefuge in Africa, seeking the help of the Moors, whoreturned with them to win a decisive battle near

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    12 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTAlgeciras, which made the Cross subject to theCrescent for nearly eight hundred years.Seven hundred and eighty-one years passedbetween the fall of Algeciras in 711 and the fall ofGranada in 1492. No wonder that the Moors haveleft indelible traces of their dominion on the Spanishnation. Their words crept into the Roman tongue,which had already taken something from theGothic ; their influence is evident in art, in archi-tecture, in music, in many of the national customs,and in the character of the race.The story of the Reconquest of Spain has oftenbeen told. It began in the north among the moun-

    tains of Asturias, where the remnant of Visigothsand Romanized Celtiberians had fled from the Moors,to whom they refused allegiance ; these valiant menare regarded as the nucleus of the Spanish race.From Asturias the torch of insurrection passed toLeon, from Leon to Castile ; at one time theSpaniards pushed their victorious forces farthersouth, at another they were driven back to theirmountain fastnesses. Meanwhile the country be-came extremely prosperous ; agriculture and theindustries flourished; learning was fostered in theuniversities to which the students of Europe flocked.It was an extraordinary mixture of races. Inter-marriages between Christian and Moor were frequent ;the Court at Toledo was the resort of learned menand poets from all over Europe. Charlemagne, theupholder of Christianity, came to Spain to settlethe differences between two Moslem tribes andretreated down the narrow Pass of Roncesvalles to

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    THE RACE 13be plundered by Moslem and Christian alike. TheCid himself, the epic hero of song, served a Christianprince or a Moslem caliph with equal fidelity.But through it all the clash of race and of religionpersisted, the conquerors themselves being weak-ened by internal dissensions. The original Moorshad brought with them the Berbers and the descend-ants of the savage Vandals who had been expelledfrom Spain by the Visigoths ; they themselveswere expelled by the Almoravides, fanatic tribesfrom the African desert, who, in their turn, wereturned out of Spain by the Almohades, followers ofthe Mahdi.

    It is easy enough to dwell on the prosperity of thecountry under the Moors and to wonder at theirsubsequent expulsion when the Christians got theupper hand ; the loss sustained when the great massof agricultural and industrial workers left is self-evident. What is sometimes forgotten is the factthat while Spain was fighting for national existenceand for faith other nations of Europe possessed theirown lands, however much they might be at warwith each other, and the supremacy of the ChristianreHgion was uncontested. Spain came out of thelong struggle embittered and intransigent, and herpent-up wrath found vent later on in the fires of theInquisition.The fusion of the various principalities andkingdoms of Spain, cemented by the union of Castileand Aragon, enriched by later inheritances andconquests, made wealthy beyond the dreams ofavarice by the discovery of the New World, formed

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    14 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTa kingdom that was, in its day, the most powerfulin Europe. When Philip ii made Madrid " theonly Court

    " in the year 1560, it was the centre ofa vast Empire and occupied a position of greatimportance on the map of the world.

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    CHAPTER IIITHE GATE OF THE SUN

    ". . . If the Gate of the Sun have now no material form, itcontinues to be the true Entrance Gate to the Capital of Spain ;rather may it be said that the Gate of the Sun is Madrid, it isthe century, it is progress, civilization, the modem spirit. Itresumes all the good and it is the epitome of all the evil, it isthe Alpha and the Omega of the life of Madrid."Viaje criticoalrededor de la Puerta del Sol, Ossario y Bernard.

    THE heart of Madrid is an oblong space fromwhich ten roads open out,arteries carryingthe traffic to all parts of the town. Forthis reason, if for no other, it is a good starting-point from which to set out on a ramble.With but Uttle architectural distinction, thePlaza has an infinity of national savour and afascination all its own that increases with moreintimate acquaintance. It is also abundantlyconnected with the history of Madrid and is analmost classical field of observation for those whowish to study the manners and customs of theMadrileiios.Looking down from a height on the Plaza, it

    presents a most animated appearance. At firstthere is much that is strange to a foreign eye, buton second thoughts there is much that is oddlyfamiUar, owing, no doubt, to the many books that

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    16 MADRID PAST AND PRESENThave been written on the subject. How well weseem to know this historic spot, with its manybalconied houses, its shops and its cafes, with themassive Home Office on the south side and thesquare block of the Casa de Cordero at the entranceto the Calle Mayor ! And yet, familiar as thescene is, it is less so than are the groups of peopletalking down below in the sunshine. For they areall there, those loiterers on the pavements aboutwhom we have so often read ; so much are theytrue to type that a first impression is apt to betinged with recognition rather than surprise.There are the priests, open breviary in hand,

    cigarette in mouth, the soldiers talking togetherwith animated gestures, the women going to churchwith lace or tulle mantillas on their well-dressedheads, the beggars in all their squalor, a band ofblind musicians toothng faintly as they stand alongthe curb, an old-fashioned countryman with thefast-disappearing cloak showing a strip of brightvelvet where it turns over on the shoulder, andthere are the inevitable old women and childrencrying on the passer-by to take lottery tickets.The passers-by are, as a rule, less interesting thanthe stationary crowd. Nurses and children, nunsand soldiers, men and women with parcels andshopping baskets, they might have stepped fromthe pavements of any great city. But the stationarygroups that remain for an incalculable time outthere in the sunshine, talking indefatigably, are farmore typical. Middle-aged business men, youngmen, women bareheaded or with mantillas, each

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    THE GATE OF THE SUN 17group has its own character. What are they alltalking about so earnestly ? Stocks and shares,political changes, a lucky lottery ticket, the priceof food, the charms of Fulanita at the Teatro Apolo,who can say ? Threading their way in and out ofthe groups are the professional idlersthe Pirantes ;untranslatable wordand the pedlars with theirlittle portable frames on which are hung suchtrifles as postcards, rubber bands or braces. In thecentre of the Plaza is a tangle of tram Unes and acongestion of yellow tram-cars ; across the roadcars are dashing, hired carriages crawl, pedestriansdodge about among the traffic and a couple ofmounted poUcemen the celebrated pareja or" pair "sit motionless on their sturdy mounts.

    " The Gate of the Sun," says Edmond de Amicis,in his Spagna, "is at once a salon, a promenade, atheatre, an academy, a garden, a place of arms, amarket. From daybreak till after midnight thereis a motionless crowd as well as a multitude thatcomes and goes to and from the ten great streetsthat lead into the Plaza."A modem Spanish writer, the inimitable " Azorin,"writes charmingly about the Puerta del Sol in hisMadrid, Guia sentimental, a tiny book that is oneof a series. We must not talk too lightly of thePlaza, he tells us ; we must distinguish betweenone part and another of its hospitable pavements.In that portion that is comprised between the libraryof Fernando Fe and the Calle del Arenal a certainclique of notabihties are wont to meet, amongstwhom, apologizing for his immodesty, the author

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    18 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTnumbers himself. " In winter," he writes, " whenfrom the Guadarrama comes a cutting north wind,when it is necessary to hasten through the streets,when there is not a corner in Madrid that is not asnow-drift, this bit of pavement in the Puerta delSol is a veritable haven. The rays of the sun beatdown on this spot with brightness and warmth andare reflected in the glass of the shop-windows andenvelop us all with a glow of comfort. Some ofthose who frequent this bit of pavement standbeatifically still, some walk slowly up and down.It is for us that the pretty women of Madrid passby, in order that we may admire and make eyes atthem. It is for us that the sky above is of theintense and hmpid blue that distinguishes the skyof Madrid. For us the diplomatists pass by inthe Royal carriages, followed by a military escort... in short it is for us that the clock on the Govern-ment building sounds the passing hour."

    There is no hour of the day, and very few of thenight, when the hfe of the Plaza does not affordfood for amusement or reflection. As night beginsto fall and the sky becomes greenish-blue, with aflush of red and gold where the buildings to eastwardcut the sky-Une, there is a subtle change. TheHome Office is now just a square mass of masonrywith its httle cupola standing out against the clearatmosphere, while the large dial of the clock showsup pale and luminous in the fading light. Andthen the sky signs flare up into the last flush of thesunset and one crystal star after another appearsin the heavens.

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    THE GATE OF THE SUN 19Still the Plaza is full of life, but it is more palpitat-

    ing and subdued. Cars skim past on their way tothe palace, or to a

    "de moda

    "performance at theOpera ; motor-horns hoot, tram bells ring, but the

    traffic and the passers-by and the thinning groupsof idlers have now something mysterious in themin the mysterious hour that comes to all great citieswith the mingling of natural and artificial lights.

    It is late, or rather early, before the last loitererswalk slowly away and the tram bells cease theirpetulant sound ; when at length all is still, thePuerta del Sol ceases to be the centre of modernMadrid and becomes a mirror in which you can, ifyou choose, conjure up a vision of the past.

    It is easy enough, by the hght shed by the worksof painstaking authors, to reconstruct the Plaza asit appeared in the Golden Century. In those daysthe church of the Buen Suceso, behind which was thehospital of the same name, occupied the wedge ofland that lies between the streets of Alcala and SanJeronimo, the site of the modern Hotel de Paris.The hospital was founded in 1438, when the plaguewas raging ; it was rebuilt in 1529 by Charles v,who converted it into a military hospital, afterwardsadding the church which fronted the Plaza. Infront of this church was an enclosure surroundedby an iron raihng and before it was placed, at alater date, the famous fountain, which representedVenus but which the Madrileiios called Mariblancain honour of the Virgin. On the opposite side ofthe Carrera de San Jeronimo was the imposingmass of the Convent of Victory with the church of

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    20 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTOur Lady of Solitude, once a fashionable meeting-place for gallants and their lady-loves. At thecomer of the Calle del Carmen was a foundlingHospital known as La Inclusa, which has sincebeen removed to the Calle de los Embajadores.But by far the most interesting church was thatof San Felipe el Real, which stood at the entranceto the Calle Mayor, on the site of the Casa de Cordero.Built by Phihp ii in 1547, the architecture wassombre and simple, typical of the man who broodedover the plans of the Escorial, dehberately choosingthe plain undecorated style and so ringing thedeath-knell of the beautiful decorated Plateresqueor Renaissance architecture. It was along the wallof this church that there was a raised walk knownto fame as the Mentiderothe late Major MartinHume has translated this nickname into " Liars'Walk "where the wits and hangers-on of theCourt used to meet. Gossip circulated here sofreely that Moreto wrote that if he sowed the seedof a lie in the morning he found the corn sproutingin a couple of hours' time. On the steps of St.PhiUp's Church and on the Mentidero came, dayafter day, Lope de Vega and Gongora and many ofthe brilliant men belonging to the Court; as theywatched the world go by, reputations were made ormarred and gossip passed from mouth to mouthuntil it ended in a duel or disappeared in a jest.Under the Mentidero were little booths whereaU sorts of trifles could be bought, with a speciahtyfor toys. On the other side of the CaUe Mayorthere was a rough side-path along the wall of the

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    22 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTPerez Galdos' Episodios Nacionales to his countryfriend. " See what magnificence ! the buildings inthe curve are nearly finished."The Puerta del Sol has always been the sceneof popular rejoicings and of popular risings. Lopezde Hoyos, writing in 1570, describes the wonderfulpreparations made for the public entry of the newQueen Anne of Austria, the niece and the fourthwife of Philip 11. Her long ride through Madrid,diversified by theatrical " set pieces " with statuesof celebrated Spaniards, with real lakelets in whichreal ships besieged real forts, by triumphal archesconstructed with marvellous ingenuity, culminatedin the Puerta. In the Carrera de San Jeronimothe new Queen had been presented with a crown ofseven stars and with two golden keys, emblems ofLove and Vassalage, Spain and America had offeredher their crowns, all sorts of allegorical figures hadbeen arranged in groups to do her honour ; here,in the Plaza, she passed under yet another triumphalarch before proceeding to the ancient church of SantaMaria de la Almudena where a Te Deum was sung.Many other marriage processions have passedthrough the Puerta, many festive occasions havebeen celebrated here, the day of the Corpus beingespecially a festival to be noted ; but, in the end,it is the tragic rather than the joyful episodes thatcount in the history of the heart of Madrid.The rising of the Comuneros in 1520 is the firstfight that is known to have taken place in thePlaza ; the Esquilache mutiny came to a headhere also when the troops had to fire to disperse the

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    THE GATE OF THE SUN 23mob. But the real baptism of fire was in 1808,when Murat's Mamelukes charged up the Calle deAlcala and fired on the defenceless and unarmedcitizens, who fell, many of them, on the steps oftheir churches Inside the iron railings of theBuen Suceso Church the bodies were piled up,robbed of all valuables, half naked and sometimesmutilated, to be buried in the cloisters of the conventThe 2nd of May is an unforgettable date in Madridand no mention of the Puerta del Sol, howeverfragmentary, would be complete without somemention of the deeds of blood accomplished thatday by order of Napoleon's general.

    In 1812 the Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish troopsrode through the Plaza with WelHngton and CiudadRodrigo at their head and received an enthusiasticovation from the liberated people.Those who desire a closer acquaintance with the

    events great and small, poHtical and military, thattook place in the Puerta and adjoining streets, canrefer to the series of Episodios Nacionales of B.Perez Galdos, In these sketches of the troubledtimes of the reigns of Isabel 11 and her successors,fictitious characters are introduced and the courseof events is not very clear unless the reader has someknowledge of history ; given that knowledge, thenovels can be read with advantage as they givemany local touches and have the great gift ofconveying atmosphere.A bronze tablet outside the Library of SanMartin, which was executed by Jose Benlliure,commemorates the murder of Canalejas.

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    24 MADRID PAST AND PRESENT" Although many people have been assassinated

    in the Puerta del Sol," says Ramon Gomez de laSerna in his Toda la Historia de la Puerta del Sol,"the historic assassination is that of Canalejas,which can be compared to the murder of Prim.This other renovator, this other democratic liberator,was killed not so much by the blow of one man as bydelay ; which is an idea and a symbol." He was standing before the Ubrary of San Martin,just as he always stood before those bookshops inthe Plaza de Santa Ana, in the Calle de Carretas andin the Puerta del Sol. Like the President of theCouncil of Ministers, who liked to loiter along thestreets, buying all the penny toys that he saw onthe way, he preferred to be on foot. The booksellerslooked at him from within their shops and thewaiters, napkin in hand, quiet, unoccupied andcurious, gazed at him from the cafd windows."And then came the blow of the unknown assassin,delivered with such fatal science that the great manfell dead on the pavement, with a still open book inhis hand. The motive of the deed was never known,as the assailant killed himself shortly after. Thebronze tablet gives the date : November 12th, 1912.

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    CHAPTER IVTHE ROYAL PALACE

    ONE of the first sights that is shown to avisitor to Madrid is the changing of theGuard in the Plaza de Armas. Leavingthe Puerta del Sol we follow the Calle del Arenal,which Ues on the sandy plain reclaimed by themonks in days of old, pass through the Plaza deIsabel II, with her statue in the centre of a smallgarden, skirt the side of the Teatro Real and comeout in the Plaza de Oriente.The Plaza de Oriente, which, by the by, occupies

    the most western position in the town, is the largestin Madrid, Guide-books tell us that JosephBonaparte, the Rey Plazuelo, caused a church,several convents and five hundred houses to bedemolished in order to create the open space. Itwas wisely done, as were other improvementseffected by this unpopular ruler, and it addsgreatly to the imposing appearance of the palacethat stands at the western end of the Plaza withthe open Calle de Bailen between it and the garden.The equestrian statue of Phihp iv that standsin the centre of the Plaza was modelled by PietroTacca after the portrait of Velazquez ; it was cast in

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    THE ROYAL PALACE 27women squat down on the sandy ground ; some ofthem have brought their work, others put a hand-kerchief or a newspaper on their bare heads to pro-tect themselves from the rays of the winter sun.Children innumerable play about, men and womensell oranges, beggars settle themselves picturesquelywith their backs up against the railings. A beggarasks a passer-by to give him a light for his cigaretteThe gentleman gives a light and a coin into thebargain." Do you know who that was ? " some one m thecrowd says. " It was the King ! "The palace that we see before us is of compara-tively recent date, having been erected between1737 and 1764. On the site stood the MoorishAlcazar which was so often partially burned, butwas as often built up, restored and enlarged.Through its various transformations it appears tohave preserved the gloomy character of the ancientfortress, although efforts were made to render it moreluxurious. A good description of the palace as itwas in the days of Philip iv is given by D. Aurihanode Beruete y Moret, the present Director of thePrado Museum, in his School of Madrid :" The King lived in the Alcazar. This palace waslarge and roomy, but doubtless it lacked the con-ditions which help to make life comfortable. Itsorigin was the ancient Arabic Al-cassar which hadbecome the Castiello of Christian times and had beenenlarged and improved in the reigns of Charles vand Philip 11. These monarchs received within itswalls ambassadors from all the Courts in the world.

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    THE ROYAL PALACE 29built before the regency of Dofia Mariana of Austria.In this frontage large doorways gave ingress to twoimmense courtyards, at the further end of whichwere the staircases leading to the royal apartments,which were very large and adorned with magnificentpictures. The northern and western fagades wereolder and preserved that fortress-hke air which thebuilding had formerly possessed."The old Alcazar was burned to the ground in aterrible fire that took place on Christmas night,1734, in the reign of Philip v, the first of the BourbonKings, who had been chosen to succeed Charles li,the last of the Hapsburg line. This King was thegrandson of Maria Teresa, the sister of Charles 11 ;he was also grandson of the Roi Soleil, and hadmany of that sovereign's leanings towards magni-ficence. He resolved at once to erect a palace thatshould exceed in grandeur any that had precededit, the vast extent of the last to be demolished nodoubt inspiring him to make its successor immensein size.

    Filippo Jubara, an Italian architect, was entrustedwith the designs for the new palace, which hecomposed with the intention of placing it on theheights of San Bernardino ; it was so vast that itcontained, among other features, no less thantwenty-three courtyards. When the King decidedthat he wished the new building to stand on thesite of the old Alcazar, it was found that therewas not space enough, and the projected palace wasnot begun until after the death of the architect, anevent which some said was hastened by his disap-

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    30 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTpointment . Before he died he recommended anotherItalian, Giovanni Battista Sachetti, a pupil of hisown, to conclude the task. Sachetti modified theoriginal design and, cleveriy taking advantage ofthe sloping ground, he increased the elevationbecause he could not extend the building laterally.Entering the palace by the Puerta del Principe,we find that it is built on the usual plan round amain courtyard. The famous marble staircase

    leads up to the principal story where a glazedcorridor runs all round the inner side. From thiscorridor we enter a long series of saloons, openingone into another, some overlooking the Plaza deArmas, some the Plaza de Oriente, and some thevalley of the Manzanares.The impression created from the start is one offrank magnificence. The exterior, with its Ioniccolumns and its Doric pilasters, is in the baroque

    style, and this character is emphasized in theinterior, where we find a profusion of marble and ofgilding, a wealth of ornament that would be ex-cessive were it not all so harmonious. The tastedisplayed is, no doubt, that of the French BourbonKings, but it is a moot point if the Spaniards, withtheir complex mentality, do not appreciate magni-ficence as much as the castijo or undecorated styledear to the soul of Philip ii.The first room to be shown is the Sala de lasColumnas, a large square room with the roof sup-ported by marble columns. This was used as adining-room until the body of the beautiful QueenMercedes, the first wife of Alfonso xii, lay here in

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    THE ROYAL PALACE 31state ; since then it has been used only for suchceremonies as the washing of beggars' feet at Easter,or the distribution of garments to the poor by theQueen. Passing on we come to the Throne Roomwith its crimson damask walls, its fine paintedceiling by Tiepolothe best in the palacewithits marble frieze and profusely gilded cornice, andits throne with gilded lions. It was on one of theselions that the boy King mounted during his firstAudience, being moved to this unregal act by anatural and uncontrollable impulse.

    It is impossible to do more than note the generalimpression left on the mind by an hour spent in theroyal palace in Madrid, admittedly one of the mostsumptuous in Europe. Room after room we see,each one with something individual about thedecoration or the treasures of art contained there.Every one has the walls covered with soft silk orsatin from Talavera de la Reina, every one has acarpet woven in the looms of the royal factory,usually designed for the room in which it is placed.We come away with a confused impression of Empirefurniture, painted ceilings from which crystalchandeliers hang, monumental clocks, pricelesschina, ivories, miniatures, bronzes, statuettes ex-cavated from Pompeii, Oriental jars, cabinets filledwith ohjets d'art ; in short, a thousand things thatwould repay detailed study.There are not very many pictures since so manyhave been removed to the Prado Museum, but whatthere are are admirable ; I can recall several ofGoya's masterpieces and a fine portrait of Queen

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    82 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTMargarita by Gonzalez. A vision that remains withme as one that is intimately satisfying is of a roomwith the walls hung with

    "royal

    " blue satin, whichhad some sort of striped design in gold forming asplendid background to one of Goya's most char-acteristic portraits of Queen Maria Luisa. Anothermental picture is connected with oyster white satinwith a design worked on it that suggested Japan ;the ceiling of this room was composed of china withfigures and flowers in high rehef . It is the work ofGasperini, who was the Director of the Buen RetireChina Factory.One of the assets of the palace is the view fromthe windows in the western front, especially remark-able from the upper stories. Looking down overthe many windows and the Puerta Escondida farbelow, the great height of this fa9ade is reaUzed.The gardens, which were laid out by Phihp ii, butwere neglected in subsequent reigns, and were onlyredeemed in 1890, are sometimes called the Campodel Moro. This name recalls the daring deed ofthe Almoravide AU Ibn Yousouf, who establishedhis camp here in 1109, right under the fortress thenoccupied by the Christians. Thickly planted withtrees, and having fountains in the centre, thesegardens slope rapidly down to the level of the river,a carriage drive zigzagging among the plantations.Beyond the river is rising ground also thicklywooded, known as the Casa de Campo, and to theright the Manzanares gleams in its stony bed as itwinds away and is lost to sight in the far-stretchingdun plain. To northwards the view is shut in by

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    CHAPTER VTHE CAPILLA PUBLICA

    THE Capilla Publica is a public function thattakes place in the palace on the occasionof certain ecclesiastical festivals. On thesedays the King and Queen attend Mass in the chapeland afterwards walk in procession through thecorridors, led by the clergy and attended by theCourt. The pubhc is admitted to the corridors,and there is usually no difficulty in obtaining aticket, but on the feast of the Purification of theBlessed Virgin Mary, or Candlemas, which occurson 2nd February, these cards of admission weredifficult to obtain on account of the presence of theBelgian Sovereigns. Owing to the kindness of ourAmbassador and Ambassadress, Sir Esme and LadyIsabella Howard, I was able to be present, and Ishall never forget the imposing and picturesquescene that we witnessed.When we reached the corridor that runs all roundthe principal floor of the palace we found a massof people already waiting to see the procession pass.The brilliant uniforms of the men and the uniformblack of feminine attire made a very good effectfrom a pictorial point of view, especially as the

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    THE CAPILLA PUBLICA 35walls against which they stood were hung withsome of those glorious tapestries that form part ofthe accumulated treasure of the Spanish Court.The time of waiting passed quickly enough.Farther down the corridor a stream of people wereentering the chapel, the doors of which communi-cated with it, and, by and by, the Queen-Mother ofSpain passed in with the King and Queen of theBelgians, after which the service began. We couldbarely hear the music until the doors of the chapelwere thrown open and the procession started.

    It is almost impossible to give a picture of some-thing that was so unusual and arresting, and thatpassed so quickly. The spectators were now stand-ing three and four deep on either side of the broadpassage, the women all in black dresses and blackmantillas, the men in uniform. Looking down thelong vista one saw all faces turned towards thechapel doors from which the choir now advanced,singing. After the choir came the Crucifix and theclergy of the Royal House with the Bishop of Sion,who had acted as Pontifical in the ceremony ofblessing the candles, the Bishops of Plasencia andCiudad Real and the mitred Abbot of Silosavision of austere black and traiUng crimson silk.Following the clergy came the grandees of Spainin their dark blue uniform heavily braided withgold lace, and a quantity of officers. The Queen-Mother and the King and Queen of the Belgianswalked with the King and Queen of Spain, allcarrying lighted candles, as did every one else inthe procession ; they were followed by the ladies of

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    6 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTthe Court wearing evening dresses and white lacemantillas and by some more officers and officials.

    After the procession had passed by, and the lastlight had flickered away, the spectators began todisperse, and we made our way up a small windingstaircase which led to the tribune of the Duquesade San Carlos, who had put it at the disposition ofLady Isabella. From this point of vantage we sawthe doors thrown open, and the procession returnin the order in which it had set out.The chapel has nothing very remarkable about it,

    though it is lofty and has a dome that is paintedin fresco by Corrado Giacinto and an altar-piece byRaphael Mengs. The columns are of marble, andthere is much heavy gilding and, to the left of theHigh Altar, is a throne before which are faldstoolsand over which is a white canopy. To this thronethe Spanish Sovereigns proceeded, the King uprightand military in his bearing, the Queen looking veryhandsome in pale blue and silver with a diamondcrown and a white mantilla on her fair hair.The Mass was then sung, the choir being in atribune near the one in which we were, and I

    remember the tenor solos in the Oh Sanctissimusand the Ave Maria being finely rendered. Andthen the doors were opened once more, lettingin streams of sunhght which made the artificiallight in the chapel turn pale, and the Spanish andBelgian Sovereigns went out, followed soon afterby the Court. The function was ended.On the way out we paused to watch the Hal-berdiers, who are the Palace Guards, march down the

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    THE CAPILLA PUBLICA 37great marble staircase which is one of the featuresof the building. They looked most picturesque intheir Napoleonic uniform of white tights, long blackgaiters, cut-away blue coats with red facings andthree-cornered hats, bringing back to the imagina-tion the days of the Empire. As we drew near,they began to descend the steps, slowly and rhyth-mically, holding the foot poised for a full momentbefore placing it on the stair below. One wasreminded irresistibly of the great Napoleon standingthere, on the landing, and placing his hand on oneof the white marble lions as he said to the brotherwhom he had foisted on to the throne of Spain :" Je la tiens enfin, cette Espagne si desiree ! "adding the often quoted words : " Vous serez mieuxloge que moi ! "Another historical event took place on this stair-case^the fight between Diego de Leon and theconspirators who came to steal away the youngQueen Isabel ii, and the Halberdiers who repulsedthem. Eighteen of these men under Colonel Dulcekept the invaders at bay on this white marblelanding until they were reinforced and the situationwas saved.On the morning after this ceremony I was luckyenough to have a private view of the tapestries,which are only exposed on great occasions.The number of tapestries in the Royal collectionsis estimated at 1629 by D. E. Tormo Monzo andD. F. Sanchez Canton in their catalogue raisonne.Of these 374 are in the Prado, 300 in the Escorialand 955 in Madrid. Large and almost invaluable

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    9S MADRID PAST AND PRESENTas this collection is, it is not complete as regardscontaining specimens of all periods. The earlierGothic tapestries are to be found in some of thecathedrals, but here we have only one that isgenuinely fourteenth century, " The Birth ofJesus," number one in the Catalogue. We have,however, magnificent specimens of the transitionGothic Renaissance and of all that wonderful periodbetween the middle of the fifteenth and the middleof the sixteenth century that has been called theGolden Age of Tapestry.

    Charles v, who was not only Sovereign of Spainbut also the ruler of the Low Countries, and whowas, moreover, Austrian by descent, inherited fourcollections of tapestrythose of Austria, Bur-gundy, Castile and Aragon. He was, besides, apatron of the tapestry weaving and an impassionedcollector, as were the Cathohc Kings before him,of all works of art. It is no wonder that theSpanish palaces are rich in tapestries of the bestperiod.Among the examples displayed on the walls of thecorridor on that February morning were some of

    the gems of a collection that is accounted the firstin the world. There was, for instance, the series of" The Foundation of Rome," which was bought byCharles v before 1528 in Brussels and is without themark B.B. which was used after that date ; therewas " The Triumph of the Mother of God," fourpieces that are considered unique in the world ;there was " The Capital Sins " set which hadbelonged to Count Egmont, of heroic memory, and

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    THE CAPILLA PUBLICA 39the charming set of ten pieces depicting " TheLoves of Vertumnus and Pomona," designed byan Italian artist and executed in Flanders. One ofthe most famous of the tapestries made for Charles vis " The Conquest of Tunis " ; it was designed byJan Vermayen, who accompanied the Emperor onhis campaign, and executed by the celebratedweaver of Brussels, Willem Pannemacker. Theorder was given in 1549, with instructions that onlysilk from Granada and filet from Lyons were tobe used, with gold and silver from mines within theEmpire. The Emperor's agent stayed in Granadafor over two years superintending the dyeing of thesilk, using nineteen colours with from three to sevenshades in each, and is said to have spoiled 160 poundsof silk before he achieved a peculiar shade of blue.The work was finished in 1554.

    It was clearly no light task setting about the pro-duction of tapestry on this scale ; orders weresometimes over a hundred years in being com-pleted, as was the case in the fabrication of thecelebrated set of the " Apocalypse." Begun in 1376for Louis d'Anjou, it was continued for Yolanded'Aragon after 1417, for Rene d'Anjou between1431-1453, and finally for Anne de France, daughterof Louis XI, in 1490, when the work was finished.Many of these historic tapestries have travelledmuch. In the old days hangings made part of the

    luggage of the Kings and were looked on as neces-sities to keep out the cold in Courts that were alwaysmoving. Some of them came over with Philip theHandsome from Brabant, some were taken by Juana

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    40 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTthe Mad to Tordesillas, by Charles v to Yuste andby Philip ii to the Escorial.A whole chapter might be written about thestories woven into these works of textile art. Theold Mystery plays, with the Vices and the Virtuespersonified, live again here ; Fame and Humility,Pride, Lust, Love, Hatred, Envy, and a dozen othersymbohcal figures jostle one another, accompaniedby angels and devils. History and mythology areinextricably mixed. The story, as story, is toldwith all the fervour and all the attention to detailthat marks the Gothic spirit ; the architecture andthe decoration, more often than not, is franklyRenaissance. As to the colour, it is often so richand so varied, yet so entirely harmonious, that it isdifficult to beUeve that it is the work of weavers whopUed their bobbins five centuries ago, using the silkand wool dyed with vegetable dye and inter-weaving it all with gold and silver thread that stillkeeps its lustre. All honour to the designers andthe weavers who built up their woven pictures withas much care and with as great a length of time aswe should devote to a cathedral in these hasty andlatter days, achieving, in their leisurely way, a workthat will remain as a monument to an age that isgone. For we can, besides admiring the tapestriesas works of art, study in them the story of thetimes, the dress and manners, the ideals and thementality of the people for whom they were executed.Theyshow us scenes that illustrate history more surelythan many a book, and they have the additionalgrace of amusing us as well as opening our minds.

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    THE CAPILLA PUBLICA 41One lesson that is learned by comparing the older

    with the more recent tapestries is important. Theolder designs were made with a definite view to theart of the weaver ; the later specimens aimed atproducing a woven reproduction of a picture. Inthe fifteenth century the weaver was still para-mount ; after Pope Leo x commissioned Raphaelto design for reproduction in tapestry scenes out ofthe Acts of the Apostles, his importance declined.If you can look first at the Gothic or early Renais-sance tapestries and then at those of later date, thedifference is clearly shown. The decorative qualityof the former is far greater than that of the latter,and the whole effect gains because the design andthe medium in which it is effected harmonize soperfectly.

    I carried away with me an impression of richcolour, of wonderfully decorative composition, aswell as mental pictures of historical and mythicalcharacters, of angels and devils, of heaven and hell.It was like a breath of the Middle Ages, and I cameout regretfully into a sadder and less imaginativeday.

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    CHAPTER VITHE ARMERfA

    WITHIN the unpretentious-looking buildingthat stands at the south-west corner ofthe Plaza de Armas is housed one ofthe great collections of the world.A stranger, entering the Armoury for the firsttime, cannot fail to be impressed by the beauty ofthe scene. Here is no dry-as-dust Museum, but asplendid display of the men of war in their harnessas they wore it when they went forth to tourney orto war. In the centre of the long gallery are horse-men astride on their big Flemish steeds and men onfoot equipped for battle or joust, while along thewalls are the men-at-arms and

    glass-cases containingweapons of all periods and of many sorts. Apartfrom the historical and archaeological interest, evenapart from the artistic quaUty of the workmanship,this delight of the eye must count for somethingto all those who, without having a special knowledgeof armour, can enjoy an artistic mise en scene.The base of the collection was formed by Charles v,who excelled in all warhke sports and who requiredmuch armour for use in his endless wars. Son of

    Pliilip the Handsome and grandson of the Emperor

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    PUERTA DE ALCAI.A, FLAZA DE LA INDEI'ENDENCI A. MADRID

    MULES IN A SIDE STREET. MADRID

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    THE ARMERIA 48Maximilian iii, the most celebrated jouster of hisday, Charles inherited a warhke spirit. He actuallywore the many suits that we see here,and he treasuredthe armour of his forbears which were preserved atValladolid and Segovia. Philip ii, though withoutthe warlike qualities of his father, was a fairlyaccomplished jouster in his youth and he necessarilyacquired armour in his turn ; he had also an orderlymind and a desire to keep up tradition, whichshowed itself in his work in connection with theEscorial. After the transference of the Court toMadrid he commissioned Gasper de Vega to con-struct a building near the existing Riding School ;when it was finished, he placed in it his own andhis father's armour, adding the collections fromValladolid and Segovia. Here the treasures re-mained intact until 1808, when the Madrileiios roseup against the French and, finding themselves un-armed, invaded the Armoury and took three hundredswords and many other weapons. These weaponswere never returned and the collection was thepoorer.The next misfortune that befell the Armoury wasin the year 181 1, when Joseph Bonaparte decidedto give a ball in the Museum and ordered the price-less collection to be turned into the garrets in orderto clear the floor for the dancers. Here theyremained until Isabel 11 made an attempt to havethem rearranged, an attempt that did not accomplishmuch, however, leaving it for King Alfonso xii,father of the present King, to make the settingworthy of the jewels that had come down to him.

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    44 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTAfter three years' work the collection was classifiedand arranged, wooden effigies of men and horseswere made and the armour displayed to the bestadvantage ; and then a calamity occurred whichmight have proved fatal, A great fire broke outon the 9th of July 1884, during which the buildingerected by PhiUp 11 was burned to the ground,seventy-two banners were destroyed, as well astwenty leather shields, many lances and all thewooden figures of men and horses, with theirtrappings and clothing. Some of the armour wasa good deal injured.The whole of the work had to be done again,besides that of erecting a new building. Nothingdaunted, the King caused the present Museum tobe built on the site of the old one, and he continuallyadded to the collection himself, buying specimensfrom well-known collections abroad and from thoseof the Dukes of Infantado and Osuna in Spain.In 1893 the Museum was opened once more.The late Conde de Valencia de Don Juan haswritten an admirable Catalogue of the Armoury,which is profusely illustrated. Those who desireto know something of the history and provenanceof the exhibits must study its pages. Withoutattempting any detailed description of the beautifulspecimens of the armourer's art that can be studiedin the Armoury, we may, perhaps, take a cursoryglance at the collection as a whole and note somepoints of general interest.

    All the books that deal with this subject impresson the student that there are three phases of body

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    THE ARMERtA 46armour : the earliest is the chain armour, whichwas superseded by the plate armour, called theGothic armour, which, in its turn, gave way toMaximilian armour. The best period of plate armouris between 1440 and 1500, that of MaximiUan, orfluted armour, between 1500 and 1540. After thisdate plated armour became the fashion, followedby demi-suits and ending with its total disuse. Wealso learn that fashions in clothes dictated those ofarmour, and that armoured headgear was as variousin design and often far more fantastic than that ofwomen in that or any other age.

    Gothic armour is usually simpler and more elegantin form than the MaximiUan, and the accessories aremore graceful in shape. The cuirass, though oftenplain, was sometimes richly ornamented, theepaulieres, or articulated shoulder - pieces, thecoudieres or brassards, to protect the arms, thetuilles, cuisses, genouillieres and jambs for thethighs and legs, all these, and also reinforcingpieces, had their distinctive shape and were oftenembellished. The soUerets, or coverings for the feet,were distinctive, being long and pointed Uke theshoes of the day. When Maximilian reigned a newfashion obtained and was named after a sovereignwho was famous in war and in joust. The newfashion, besides introducing fluted armour, followedin shape the cut of masculine garments and alsochanged the shape and sometimes the name ofthe accessories. Great attention was given tostrengthening weak places with reinforcing pieces.One of the innovations consisted in the steel petti-

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    46 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTcoat or lamboys ; the shoes, too, were now shortand broad and the epaulieres became pauldrons ofless graceful shape and often of unequal size. Maxi-miUan armour, nevertheless, is of extraordinarybeauty, being fashioned by the greatest armour-smiths and enriched by the best artists of theRenaissance.Perhaps the best way of enjoying the exhibition

    is to take a prehminary stroll round the gallerybefore studying details with the help of the Cata-logue. In this way we can admire the realisticefi&gies of men and horses, the shining armour of theCavaliers, the velvet trappings and the iron andsteel " bards " that protected the haunches of thesteeds. From the casques of the former cascades ofostrich feathers droop, and the same adornmentstands up from the horses' heads. Charles v isdistinguished by great upstanding tufts of peacock'sfeathers in his helmet, and his horse's head issimilarly adorned. Little Prince Baltasar Carlos,endeared to all who love the work of Velazquez, ishere, sitting gallantly on his ponyperhaps the" devil of a pony " that his Uncle Fernando sent himfrom Flanders ; the boy looks as if he had beenbrought to life from his equestrian portrait in thePrado. Close by are six suits for children, made inPamplona, and the figure of a great courser witharmoured saddle and Uttle flat helmet on his broadhead. At the end of the gallery is the tent thatFrancis i used at Pavia and a battered old carryingchair which belonged to Charles v in his gouty days ;perhaps it was the one used in his long and uncom-

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    48 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTthe highly enriched suit said to have belonged toDon Sebastian of Portugal. Other famous MasterArmourers, whose work we can admire, are Tomasoand Antonio de Musaglia of Milan and the Negroliwho succeeded them, as well as the Piccinini andMondrone, all of the same city. There are alsoexamples of Spanish workmanship from the factoriesat Pamplona, but the fame of Spain rests rather withher swords than with her body armour.

    It is interesting to note the way in which armourfollowed the fashion of clothes. The steel cuirassof the Maximilian armour with its stiff lines fallinginto the waist suggests the doublet of the day, andthe lamboys was designed because of the puffed-outtrunk hose in vogue, while the claw-shaped soUeretsresemble in shape the stuffed and padded shoes, oftenadorned with jewels, that disfigured the feet of man-kind. After 1540, plate armour returned to favour ;it was wonderfully enriched, engraved, embossed ordamascened. It was hghter also and more mobile.One of the fine suits to be seen here is that whichwas fashioned for Charles v, by Mondrone of Milan,and worn by him at the taking of Tunis ; anotheris notable as being that which was worn by theEmperor at the battle of Muhlberg in 1547, and alsowhen he sat to Titian for that grim portrait thatwe know so well in the Prado. Yet another, aParade suit that is wonderfully damascened in gold,and has a shield belonging to it that is a marvel ofexquisite work, is also interesting as having beenbrought from Yuste after his death. There are alsomany beautiful suits which belonged to PhiUp 11,

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    THE ARMERIA 49from the plain business-like harness that musthave pleased his austere taste to those embossedParade suits that he was obliged to possess for cere-monial purposes. One of these was by Kolman,another suit was by Wolf of Landshut. To Philip iiibelonged a number of suits, many of them beinghighly ornamented. One of these has a lamboyswith an engraved border in which animals arerepresented rampant.The headgear is as various as it is wonderful. Wesee examples of the great crested helmets with headsof animals, flat tilting helms, the salade thatresembles a saucepan with a peak behind and achin-piece called a mentoniere ; the sixteenth-century celada borgonana, conical helm with thehead of a griffin in front, is as remarkable as theyelmo de mascara of Charles v, which representedthe head of the Emperor, while the visor, which ismissing, was a model of his face. There are, ofcourse, many specimens of the typical morion,which the Spaniards took from the Moors andintroduced to the rest of Europe, an oval helmet witha brim that is almost semicircular and is peaked atboth ends.The shields are of great beauty, as they lend

    themselves to the artists' fancy and to that styleof decoration that was typical of the Renaissance.Negroli of Milan is the maker of one that has asimple circular space in the centre with a borderengraved with a design of griffins, but most of theothers are far more ornate. Countless figuresmassed in battle array sweep across the allotted

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    50 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTspace, allegories are there and religious symbols. *Of course the decorative shields were for use intourneys rather than in actual warfare.The swords require a chapter to themselves, fornot only are there examples of the weapons ofmany ages, but many of them belonged to notablepeople. The famous sword " Colada," beloved bythe Cid, once was included in the collection, but hasnow disappeared ; that which has been cataloguedas his is now believed to be the sword of the KingSt. Ferdinand, who gave it on his death-bed to hisson. That was in the year 1252. The famoussword of Charles v, said to be by Kolman, is here,a thing of artistic beauty ; we have also swordsand daggers that were used by heroes of old. Anawesome weapon which might have been that withwhich a King of Aragon, as Montaiies tells us in hisChronicle, dealt such a blow to his adversary " uponhis iron hat that his brains came oozing out at hisears," leads us on to admire the Sword of Stateof the CathoUc Kings, the dagger of Boabdil elChico, last King of Granada, the swords of Cortes,Pizarro, Don Juan of Austria and many others.Coming down to the present day we find that ofthe great Duke of WelMngton.There is a fine example of the Toledo sword

    blades, which were famous all the world over, inone that was made by Miguel Cantero for Philip 11.These blades were formed of two strips of steelfrom Mondragon in Guipuzcoa and of an iron corewhich went through many processes of heating andcooling, of being immersed in water and sprinkled

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    THE ARMERiA 51with sand. Martial of Bilbilis, a place celebratedeven before his day for the tempering of weapons,has sung of

    "Gerone qui ferrum gelat ..." andthere was a superstition that the sand and the cool

    waters had special properties for tempering thesteel. A Toledo test consisted in driving the bladethrough a thin iron plate.

    r

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    CHAPTER VIITHE PLAZA MAYOR

    I CAME upon the Plaza Mayor quite by chance.It was very soon after my first arrival inMadrid, and the geography of the place wasnot yet impressed upon my mind. As I passeddown the Calle Mayor, going towards the Puertadel Sol, my eye was caught by some picturesquefruit stalls to the right, standing up against therough granite pillars of an arcade. The narrowarcaded street led to a lofty archway throughwhich I caught a ghmpse of greenery. As I pausedto look, one of the ubiquitous yellow trams lurchedthrough the archway, and I followed in its wake,to find myself in a large square, in the centre ofwhich was an equestrian statue surrounded by agarden.

    It was about midday, as far as I remember, andthe square was crowded. Soldiers and civihansstood about in groups, women gossiped or crossedthe garden intent on their affairs, people of bothsexes and all ages waited about for the trams or saton the seats that were placed roimd the statue.It was the typical Madrid crowd, talkative, good-natured and emphatic as ever ; a scene of placid

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    CAIM DK'AWN \:V dXI'N. M A ] ) K'

    THE FOUNTAIN ' ' i- N K I' I I N !: ANIi INI: 1; 1 1 / IIOIHI.. MAI)

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    54 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTthe Plaza ; in 1494 foundations were laid of newbuildings, and in 1591 the wooden pillars were re-'placed by pillars of granite. In 1619 Philip liordered the demolition of part of the parish ofSanta Cruz in order to enlarge its boundaries,having commissioned Juan Gomez de Mora toconstruct an entirely new Plaza, which he did inthe space of two years. It was formally opened inthe day of the beatification of San Isidro, thesainted husbandman, 15th May 1620. It is thestatue of PhiUp iii that now adorns the centre ofthe place ; modelled by John of Bologna, after aportrait by Pantoja de la Cruz, it was cast in bronzein Florence by Pietro Tacca.The Plaza is not a true square, being 434 feet longby 334 feet wide. Rude granite piUars, square cut,make an arcade which runs all round the enclosure,within which are all sorts of small shops that cater.for the wants of the neighbourhood. Standingapart from the rest of Madrid, with which it com-municates only by means of the lofty arches piercedin its fabric, the square, although of comparativelyrecent construction, has a distinct character of itsown. As a whole it is distinctly impressive andharmonious with its five-storied houses to which, insome cases, extra ones have been added on the roof,piled up, as it were, at haphazard, as the need arose.Although it has suffered, like so much of Madrid,from fire, it has always been restored in the samestyle, and it must have looked much as it does to-day in the reign of Charles 11 or PhiUp iv. To thenorth it communicates with the main artery of the

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    THE PLAZA MAYOR 55Calle Mayor, to the east with the Calle de Atochaand to the south, descending a steep flight of steps,with the Calle de Toledo and the strange quarterthat has been swallowed up by the Rastro, or popularmarket of the town.

    In old days the Plaza was given up to certaintrades, each of which had its special quarters. In1590 the Municipality bought some houses in orderto establish a bakery, the Casa de la Panaderiawhich we see to-day. The reason for their actionwas that the competition between the bakeries ofthe town and those outside the gates having becomeacute, they desired to protect the former. Thebalconies were to be reserved for public spectacles.In 1672 the house was burned down and the QueenRegent Mariana authorized a sum of money to bespent on its restoration, a fact which is recorded byan inscription : " Reinando Carlos 11, gobernandoDoiia Mariana, su Madre, 1674." The ceilings werepainted by Coello and Donoso and the facadeornamented by the former with frescoes, which havesince been replaced by those of Martinez Cubells.The Casa Consistorial, on the other side of the Plaza,has also been twice rebuilt.The Comtesse d'Aulnoy, who paid a visit to Madrid

    in the reign of Philip iv, gives graphic accounts ofthe functions that took place in the Plaza Mayor.Although her historical accuracy may be doubted,and although she had the strangest habit of sand-wiching in imaginary characters and events in whatpurported to be a diary of her life in Spain, thedescriptions of Court life and functions are probably

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    THE PLAZA MAYOR 67dressed in black rode up, followed by those who wereto take part in the contest. In those days bothpicadors and espadas had to be nobly born andthe latter, especially, were not allowed to fight onhorseback unless they could prove their title. Onthis occasion the principal espada was the CountKonigsmarck, who was magnificently attired inblack, embroidered with gold and silver ; whiteplumes waved from his hat, his boots were whitewith golden spurs. As each cavalier was equallybrilliantly turned out, wearing always the colours ofa lady on the sleeve, and as each was followed byforty men on foot the procession was one of muchsplendour.The King gave the key of the enclosure where thebulls were kept to Don Juan, and the Prince gave itto the officials who opened the doors and let one ofthem out. The contest that ensued was a regularduel between man and bull ; the former might notattack the latter unless he had received an " affront "from the bull ; if his horse refused or fell, he finishedthe fight on foot, Madame d'Aulnoy recounts theevents of the day without enthusiasm, and isevidently relieved when the last bull has beendragged out of the arena by the gaily caparisonedmules.

    Besides the bullfights and the autos de fe, therewere Court festivities in honour of some event, suchas a royal marriage, which might last a whole month.On these occasions plays, rehgious and secular,horse-racing and all sorts of entertainments wereoffered to the public. Up to 1762 executions were

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    58 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTcarried out in the Plaza ; garrotting took placebefore the booths of the clothmakers, hanging infront of the Panaderia and beheading, appropriatelyenough, before the butcher's quarters.But to-day, when the Plaza is bathed in brightsunshine, and the Hnen hanging out to dry on theroofs of the tall houses shows up against an ultra-marine blue sky, we must not dwell on horrors.Leaving these sombre memories, we come back tothe present and must agree with Ramon deMesonero Romanes, who says in his Manual deMadrid that the Plaza was well restored and thatit was very elegant, although it had an appearanceof irregularity and want of symmetry owing to thearches being at the entrance to streets that were atodd angles with the Plaza. The second edition ofthat useful Uttle book was pubUshed in 1833, and itmay be noted in passing that it was sold at thelibrary of Cuesta, " opposite the steps of San Felipeel Real," which takes us back to the palmy days ofthe Puerta del Sol. In this edition he laments thebald appearance of the Plaza, which had been useduntil quite recently as a market. The statue ofPhilip III was brought here from the Casa de Campoin 1848.

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    MADRID IN THE GOLDEN CENTURY 63Courts of Europe, with the patriotic exception ofher own. Slie speaks of the rich interiors of thepalaces, of the furniture covered with tapestry, ofthe embroideries of gold and silver upon velvet, ofcloth of' tissue, both gold and silver, and of thedelicate fine linen used for the table and the bed-room. The women, she tells us, are witty, and theyall paint red and white, from the Queen to thecobbler's wife.The Comtesse d'Aulnoy tells much the same tale,

    with more detail. The women, we learn, are smalland dark and very agreeable. Their dress shefrankly dislikes, especially the great crinolines,that are only used for Court functions now, and theirway of dressing their hair. She gives a charmingpen-and-ink sketch of a visit that she paid to anacquaintance who was still in bed.

    Leaning back against cushions that were borderedwith lace, the lady received her early visitor.Her hair was parted and knotted behind withscarlet silk ; her nightgown was long as a surpHce,and composed of very fine linen, which wasembroidered with flowers and fastened at the wristswith diamond studs. Her bed was gilded and hadknobs of ivory and ebony, and her coverlet wasof Spanish point interwoven with golden threads.When she rose to dress she surprised her visitor bylocking her door while she put on her stockings, itbeing considered the height of immodesty to showthe feet. She afterwards took a cupful of rouge anda large brush, with which she rouged, not only hercheeks, but her nose, chin, ears, under her eyebrows.

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    64 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTher shoulders and the inside of her hands. She wasthen scented by her women from head to foot, andone of them squirted orange-flower water from hermouth to that of her mistress, which was her pecuHarway of having her teeth cleansed. We can imaginethe critical, keen-witted Frenchwoman noting allthese curious facts in her diary directly she got home.Madame d'Aulnoy also notes the Eastern habitswhich still obtained among the great ladies thatshe knew. She would be received in a long gallerywhere they were all sitting on cushions placed on thefloor, a sofa being for the use of the master of thehouse alone. At dinner they still sat on the floor,while the male members of the family sat at a table.On the whole, they seem to have led a dull enoughUfe. The younger ladies used to work at theirembroidery frames, but they had small inclinationfor it and much preferred to talk. No doubt it madea pleasant change for them to drive out to attendan auto, a bullfight or the fashionable Misa de Dosat the church of the Buen Suceso. This service,sung at the unusually late hour of two o'clock,became popular with the Madrilenos, who were neverfond of early rising, and here came all the gallantsof the Court in the hope of seeing their lady loves. Atouch on the fingers dipped in Holy Water, a whisperin the ear from some favoured admirer, and thelady stepped back into her swinging coach and wasborne back into the monotony of daily life.The men of genius who floiuished at this time,and indeed during all the period of the Golden Ag.e,were linked together by an undefinable hall-mark.

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    MADRID IN THE GOLDEN CENTURY 65Whether it be of style or something in the point ofview, they stand together as distinctly as the EUza-bethans do in English Uterature. They were nearlyall soldiers and men of action ; many of them hadnot only fought for Spain in foreign lands, but hadsuffered imprisonment both at home and abroad.They lived strenuous lives, received hard knocks offate, were often cold and hungry, and sometimes dealteach other shrewd blows in the dark streets of thecapital. Besides this experience of Mfe, that somany of them had in common, there was the out-standing fact that the Spanish tongue was at lastconsoUdated, that the native writers had thrown offforeign influence and were the real makers of anational Uterature.Although many of the men who were making theartistic and Uterary history of Spain hved into the

    reign of PhiHp iv, some had already passed away,including the greatest of all, the immortal author ofDon Quixote. Cervantes was born in the reign ofCharles v, and was proud to the end of his days ofhaving served under him, and of having lost the useof his left hand at the battle of Lepanto. Afterservice in the Levant, and after weary years ofcaptivity in Turkey, he came to Madrid to make hisUving by his pen. Finding that he could not supporthis family in that way, he accepted the office of taxcollector and inspector of corn for the Government.Wandering about the wide plains of La Mancha,making acquaintance with all sorts and conditionsof men in wayside inns and on the highway, heaccumulated material for his astonishing master-

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    MADRID IN THE GOLDEN CENTURY 67calendar, that Shakespeare breathed his last atStratford-on-Avon .

    Cervantes has left a little pen-and-ink sketch ofhimself as he appeared in his later Hfe. BesidesteUing us that he is a man who has learned patiencein the school of adversity, he presents his outwardsemblance to us in a few graphic words. We seebefore us a man who is neither tall nor short, ratherfair than dark, a man with an eagle face, a curvednose, a small mouth with bad teeth under a largemoustache, with hair that is still chestnut, and abeard that has been golden but is now silver. Wenotice that he stoops a Uttle and that he is not soactive on his feet as he used to be, and we agree withhim that his maimed hand is a glory rather than adefect.

    Although Cervantes died before Phihp came tothe throne, he was intimate with most of the menwho adorned that Augustan age. Lope de Vega,the Phoenix of Literature, he sincerely admired,but perhaps did not altogether consider his friend,though he often met him at one or another of thehterary clubs that arose from time to time. Here,too, he met Quevedo the learned, a faithful friend ;Fray Luis de Leon, when he chanced to visit Madrid,that master of eloquence and the last of the poetsof the old style ; Gongora, the initiator of a newstyle of writing that was known as " Gongorismo

    ";

    Tirso de Molina, whose works were to inspire Cor-neille and Byron and many another of lesser note.Some he mentions himself, such as Vicente Espinel,the soldier poet, who translated Horace and added

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    68 MADRID PAST AND PRESENTa fifth string to the guitar; Luis de Montalvo," a precious jewel " ; and Cristobal de Virues, " aLepanto man "we can imagine them talking overthe grand old times together in this modern Madridwhere warlike glories were forgotten. With thelast phase of Gongora's poetic diction Cervantes hadlittle sympathy, and probably approved of Lope'samusing skit, La Culta Latinaparla, which ridiculedGongora's " precious " phrasing, his adoption ofGreek and Latin words, his affectation. But G6n-gora persisted, and many of his adopted wordshave become grafted on to the Spanish tongue.The most unfortunate of the band was Quevedo,who fell into disgrace for his too plain speaking andwas imprisoned for five years in an undergroundcellar, which he described as being as damp as awell, as dark as night and as cold as January. Hedied two years after his release, his death being,no doubt, hastened by the hardships that he hadendured.PhiUp IV, the Planet King, outlived all these men

    of whom we have spoken, with the exception ofCalderon, who became Court poet after the deathof Lope de Vega. Velazquez died in 1660, theConde Duque had died in disgrace and his widowhad died in a modest house near the Prado. Theold order had changed and yet the monotony ofexistence was the same. Every day plays weregiven at one of Philip's palaces, which probablyamused his second wife, who was young and lively,more than they did a man who was torn by remorsefor a wasted life. And then the end came. Lady

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    70 MADRID PAST AND PRESENT" Who is in that coffin and what do ye heredemand ? ""It is the body of PhiUp the Fourth of Spain,whom we bring for you to lay in his tomb," was the

    reply.On the 8th of October the Duque de Medinade las Torres, gorgeously attired and bristling withdiamonds, proclaimed the four-year-old Charles iias King of Spain, and the great period of the GoldenAge was practically at an end.

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    CHAPTER IXTHE RASTRO

    " Oh, the tremendous eloquence of the Rastro ! "Ramon Gomez de la Serna.

    THERE are various ways of arriving at thecelebrated Rastro or bric-a-brac marketof Madrid. You may take the tram fromthe Plaza de Cibeles to the Calle de los Embajadoresso-called because once, in times of plague, someforeign ambassadors took refug