CHAPTER XV.

JOURNEY TO BURGOS-THE CATHEDRAL-SAN ESTEBAN-THE CID-THE CONVENT OF MIRAFLORES-SAN PEDRO DE CAR

DENA THE TOMB OF THE CID-LAS HUELGAS

STREETS, PROMENADES AND OLD HOUSES.

REALES

WE left Valladolid at four o'clock in the morning, and had a wearisome ride of thirteen hours to Burgos; nothing can be more uninteresting than the Castiles, indeed they are perfectly intolerable after the South; and yet the Spaniards with us were in raptures at the extensive districts, but indifferently cultivated. A gentleman, a resident of Valladolid, was never weary of extolling the merits of his native land, and how the fields of corn (and poor indeed were the crops) extended to the distant hills; and then there were vineyards of excellent grapes, red wine and white wine, partridges, hares and rabbits, everything, in short, that man

could desire, and yet not a tree, nor a fence, nor a decent dwelling, nor anything cheerful to relieve the eye.

The road was excellent, but ankle-deep in such a penetrating dust as is never met with elsewhere; it was really a blessing when a shower of rain fell, and laid it a little. We saw also on this road, as on the way to Leon, immense flocks of half-famished sheep, attended by a number of men, with horses laden with provisions, and a quantity of dogs, on their way from Estramadura to the rich pastures of their mountain homes in the North.

At Torquemada we breakfasted; and the Castilian meals being as uninteresting as their plains, we begin to long for the flesh-pots of France, and are anxious to get out of the country; but the roads in the north are very good, and the diligences generally drive at a quick rate, which is consolatory. Torquemada has a fine bridge, and the view near the river is a degree more interesting. Approaching Burgos, the country is more agreeable, and the trees and hills are pretty, compared to the dreary plains we have crossed.

We passed Las Huelgas, a celebrated Cistercian nunnery, which is imposing with its tower, and the village which has sprung up around it; but the attention of all approaching the city is riveted on the magnificent cathedral. Nothing can be grander

than the distant view. The noble towers, with their beautiful rich filigree spires, the rich and lofty centre octagonal tower, and the fine one of the chapel of the Constable, both bristling with pinnacles, which seem to rise from every part of the body of the church, are truly magnificent. One acknowledges at a glance that this is the best exterior of any cathedral in Spain.

Burgos was founded by Diego de Porcelos, in 884, when the tide of war in this part of Spain was beginning to turn against the Moors. In the latter half of the tenth century, the Moslems, under An-nasir, took and destroyed the city. After being retaken by the Christians and for some time under the dominion of Leon, it became the metropolis of a new kingdom, under Counts subsequently called Kings. When abandoned by the Court, the ancient capital of Old Castile became gradually a mere provincial town, and the French invasion completed her ruin-a population which was once fifty thousand, not numbering now more than twelve thousand.

The façade of the cathedral looking at it from the plaza is not at all equal to the distant view, though the little plaza itself is rather picturesque, with its fountain, and the Archbishop's palace adjoining the cathedral, but it is not large enough to enable you to appreciate fully the fine proportions of the towers and spires. The three deep pointed-arched entrances

which once adorned the façade, were taken down, and the vilest and most miserable portals substituted for them. One cannot believe these were intended as an improvement, but would rather suppose that the rich Gothic doorways were destroyed, and they could afford no better.

The cathedral is altogether surrounded with buildings, which prevent a close examination of the exterior; but if the three old doors were like the one still remaining on the north side, this must have been one of the most perfect and most splendid florid Gothic façades in the world. There are posts and steps up to the cathedral, as at Leon, and a balustrade above the entrances. It would be difficult to find fault with the upper part of the façade. The rosewindow is magnificent, the towers richly decorated with trefoil and lancet arches and statues; and the two spires, of exquisite open filigree-work, are so delicate and so beautiful, as justly to create surprise how they can have stood the hurricanes of ages. The exquisite large octagonal tower is seen best from the cloisters of the cathedral, as is also the one over the chapel of the Constable.

The interior is not to be compared to the exterior, and the effect is almost destroyed by an unusually high choir blocking up the centre aisle. There is a want also of the rich-painted glass, which generally, in Spain, throws a halo over any number of blemishes; and there is also an unpleasing contrast between

the comparatively unadorned architecture of the western end, and the over-decorated plateresque of the fine dome, one hundred and eighty feet high, and the transepts; but still the latter are very rich and very magnificent, though one could have wished for greater simplicity. The carvings of the choir are good, but not first-rate; those of the upper part are from the New Testament. The lower stalls are sculptured in better taste, and the subjects more curious. The organs are more simple and elegant than usual, and the tone very good. The Archbishop's throne is handsome, with the Taking of Christ carved on the back of it. All the exterior of the choir is Corinthian, and does not harmonize with the Gothic architecture. The iron rejas of the coro and transepts are fine. The retablo of the grand altar is rich, and ornamented with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns, with the genealogical tree of our Saviour winding like ivy around the otherwise plain shafts. Some of the Apostles of this retablo are deserving of notice, but there is a want of simplicity, and none of the figures are of first-rate merit. The exterior of the grand altar is richly decorated with sculpture— some of it good, especially the Taking of our Saviour.

The most interesting chapel in the cathedral is that of Del Condestable, erected as the burial-place of the Velasco family, the hereditary Constables of Castile.