Chapter I: Preface

It is ill gleaning for a necessitous author when Ford and Borrow have been before him in the field, and I may not attempt to justify the appearance of these pages by the pretence that I have any fresh story to tell. Yet, if my theme be old, it is at least still unhackneyed. The pioneers have done their work with unapproachable thoroughness, but the rank and file of the travelling public are following but slackly in their train.

Year after year our horde of pleasure-seekers are marshalled by companies for the invasion of Europe: yet it would seem that there are but few in the total who have any real inkling of how to play the game. Some seem to migrate by instinct, and to make themselves miserable in the process. These ought to be restrained by their families, or compelled to hire substitutes in their stead. Others can indeed relish a flitting; but cannot find it in their hearts to divorce themselves from their dinner-table and their toilet-battery, their newspaper, their small-talk and their golf. To them all petty annoyances and inconveniences assume disproportionate dimensions, and they are well advised in checking their _razzias_ at San Sebástien, Pau, or Biarritz. But, to the elect, the very root of the pleasure of travel lies in the fact that their ordinary habits may be frankly laid aside. It is a mild method of "going _Fanti_" which rejoices their primitive instincts: and they will find both the land and the people just temperately primitive in Spain.

Many of us have felt the fascination of Italy. But those who have "heard the East a-calling" tell us that her call is stronger still;--and Spain is the echo of the East. "Lofty and sour to them that love her not, but to those men that seek her sweet as summer." Even Italy, with all its charm, tastes flat to a Spanish enthusiast. He craves no other nor no better land.

* * * * *

It has been said of Spain, that none who have not been there are particularly desirous of going, and none who have been there once can refrain from going again. The author has not found himself exempt from this common fatality; and his notes and sketches, as embodied in this volume, are the fruit of four successive bicycle tours, undertaken sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with a kindred spirit. Of their shortcomings he believes that no one can be so conscious as himself. But in the hope that they may prove of interest to sympathisers he ventures to expose them to the public gaze.

NOTE

ALL Spanish names ending in vowels are pronounced with the stress on the penultimate; and those ending in consonants with the stress on the final syllable. Any exception is indicated by an accent.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

THE NORTH COAST OF CASTILE 1

CHAPTER II

COVADONGA AND EASTERN ASTÚRIAS 24

CHAPTER III

ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TO LEON 43

CHAPTER IV

THE PILGRIM ROAD 64

CHAPTER V

THE CIRCUIT OF GALÍCIA 89

CHAPTER VI

WESTERN ASTÚRIAS 113

CHAPTER VII

BENAVENTE, ZAMORA, AND TORO 132

CHAPTER VIII

SALAMANCA 152

CHAPTER IX

BÉJAR, ÁVILA, AND ESCORIAL 171

CHAPTER X

TOLEDO 192

CHAPTER XI

A RAID INTO ESTREMADURA 215

CHAPTER XII

SEGÓVIA 237

CHAPTER XIII

BÚRGOS 256