A LAST GLIMPSE OF OLD SPAIN

Evening Star, Issue 23451, 16 December 1939, Page 3

A LAST GLIMPSE OF OLD SPAIN

MALAGA, GRANADA. MADRID No. 111. [Written for the ‘ Evening Star.’] When’, the morning came to leave Seville a deluge of rain was falling and continued for hours. We continued our journey in rain, and about 3 o’clock the train came to a standstill, and after waiting an hour went back instead of forward. By this time there were great sheets of water lying everywhere. Another long stop, and then we proceeded very slowly, only to stop again. The train officials bustled in and in voluble Spanish tried to make us understand that it was not safe-for the train to go on. We could stay in the train and go back to Seville or we could get out and walk to another train that, was waiting some distance away and arrive at Malaga some time that night. We chose to walk in the rain and join the new train. By now it was nearly dark, hut fortunately Bovs' from a nearby village were available to carry ouf luggage. As the train was not standing at a platform, it seemed a great height from the ground. ' By dint of scrambling and being helped Up we'reached the carnage. The rain continued, and by half-past 1 in the morning we reached Malaga, wondering of the hotel would still be open. We were due to have arrived at 6.30 p.m. Were we not thankful to be addressed in English by Cook’s man and asked if we were ! the ladies - from the Hotel Regina? He took charge of our baggage. There were no ,cabs at the station, but Cook’s man soon found a taxi and !we drove off. to the hotel. We had had nothing to eat but sandwiches and oranges for lunch,, and hoped- for something when wo got to the hotel. But although Spaniards keep very late,hours, this was too late even for them and we had to be content with biscuits and a of sherry. We were very thankful "for that ana also to be able to go to bed. This was a time when we. fully realised the. advantage of travelling under the aegis or Thomas Cook and Sons, , „ . , Speaking of the-hours-kept by Spaniards, they differ from those kept'in England. Dinner is seryed m the hotels at 8.30, not before. We usually'finished dinner at 9.30. The performances in the theatres begin at TO and end.at X o’clock. In Palma our room faced tne chief theatre across the street, and the noise of the crowd leaving, between 1 and half-past, always waked us. These late hours show the reason for the siesta that everyone takes between the hours of 1 and 3 .p.m. ' All the shops close, and if one on a day’s'excursion wanted post cards of the town where one stayed for lunch, unless the hotel-sold them, they were unobtainable. . To see the famous Alhambra was our next goal. This was the seat of the Moorish .kings, a strong fortress like Edinburgh Castle, on top of a rocky peak. It overlooks the city of Granada and the plain below. The Sierra Nevada Range was 18 miles off, and we daw it covered thickly with snow. It was thence that the "water supply .was brought in a conduit for the fortress. All visitors to the Moorish kings were received at the Alhambra and all State business done there, . but the kings passed their hours of relaxation at the Generalife, another palace separated only by a valley from the Alhambra.. This was the quarters of the harem, with beautiful ■ pleasure gardens. and high look-out towers and cloisters or arcades supported on pillars with vaulted roof covered with fine carving. Being Mohammendans, it was forbidden to the Moors to make a representation of any living aning, such as an animal, a bird, a fish, a human being, or even a leaf or a flower. So their carvings and decorations are all geometrical patterns, circles, straight lines, diamonds, squares, With all their variants,, and it is marvellous what beautiful patterns can be made of these. The Persian carpets are designed on the same plan. There is never a floral pattern seen in them. A modern architect has at his own expense had one room at the Alhambra recoloured to show what it formerly appeared like. The ground colour is white, with gold and. sky blue, and here and there a very small touch of “ a Ti e j ~ gives an idea of splendour that the dull biscuit-coloured, unrestored walls give never a hint of. ; The walls of some of the rooms are covered with what seem to be blue-and-white patterned tiles when looked at directly.. When regarded from an angle they seem to be of, mother of pearl. In an Eastern palace the baths are very luxurious, ’ bathing being quite mi important pastime. There were different rooms for cold baths, for hot ones, and for vapour baths. The lighting of the rooms was by a domed roof, with stained'glass sides, the lights being cut the shape of stars. The baths themselves were of marble, and the walls lined with tiles. One room , had a special pipe for the purpose or bringing in perfume. As one went from one set of rooms to another it was through courts planted with orange trees or with cypresses, a pond lined with tiles being in the centre, dr else a tiled channel led a stream of water from one court to another. . Tlie guide told us to imagine these arches hung with rich hangings, silk cushions, and soft divans everywhere, and the cold floors, covered with thick carpets. One could not but think how cheerless in winter- the palace would be since there are no-fireplaces. All the heat would bo from a small, movable brazier of charcoal.

Near the city of , Granada the hills are full of caves, and .these the gipsies have made their homes; but they move about so much that the Government has given up trying to make them pay any rent, though taking most of their earnings indirectly. The men follow the occupations of tinkering, basketmaking, horse-dealing, and even so honest and laborious a trade as bladksmithing. The old women are fortune-tellers: the younger ones dancers—they will perform the Moorish dances for visitors. We saw the girls ; in their bright dresses with tambourines, castanets, and fluttering ribbons, hovering about near tho hotel waiting for a commission. Their fee was 30s for. an exhibition, but exhibitions of pantomimic Eastern dancing were not in my line. ~' The reports on. the. way the gipsies keep their houses vary considerably. From the glimpses of the interiors w.e got as, we drove past we judged they were very neatly furnished. Visitors are welcomed (for a consideration) in the afternoons, but we did not go in. Our visit to Granada lasted two days longer than we expected. On the day

we were to leave we had early breakfast, and were waiting in the hall for the.bus to take us to the station, when we were called to the telephone, T.he hotel manager was speaking from Granada city, where he had gone to a bank directors’ meeting. He told us there was a general strike—no buses and_no trains. So there we had to stay. The hotel manager’s wife undertook to cook for the few visitors, and, as there were no housemaids or waiters, we waited on ourselves. The shutters over the hotel windows were closed and the doors kept locked. We asked if it were safe to go for a walk, and were told not to go far, not to go down into the town, and not to stay out long. We could see the smoke rising from the town from the theatre, the cafe, and the two churches that were burnt. Air through the day we heard _the sound of firing. Outside our hotel tour soldiers on horseback were posted all night, across the road. Other parties of four soldiers and an officer rode by at intervals, clattering up the hill to villages further on. The next day all the cooks, waiters, taxi drivers, and engineers returned to work as if nothing had happened. We went down into the town to view the smouldering remains of the burnt buildings and found dense crowds of people, orderly, quiet, and respectful, doing the same thing. We heard that the firing by the troops of the day before was largely of explosives, not ball cartridges. One man only was killed. , The next dav we moved on to Madrid. The public buildings, such as banks, insurance society premises, and Government offices, were more magnificent, costly, and elaborat© than I could have imagined, much finer outside than anything I saw in London or Mel bourn o. This is according to Spanish nature, fond in the extreme of show and ostentation, the exact contrary of the English disposition. Madrid streets are infested with people 'selling Government lottery tickets. Huge posters on the hoardings advertise the lottery, and there is a ticket office in every_ street. Formerly the casino at a seaside resort _ was one of the attractions to some foreign tourists, but to have the monopoly the Government has closed these and permits its own gambling only. It does not seem to matter much who gets the profits; the public is fleeced, and hard work to .gain money is lowered in public esteem. While we sat at dinner one Sunday night, overlooking the centre of Madrid business, the Puerta del Sol, suddenly we heard a shot fired. Tire waiters raced down the dining room to close the shutters over the windows, but before they were fastened we could see that the street, always thronged with promenaders at that hour, was empty in about five seconds. Everyone had taken shelter—in a porch, inside a restaurant door, anywhere. Our waiters said: “ We always close the shutters when firing in the streets begins,” So apparently it had happened before. The'group of waiters, anxious to know what was happening outside, opened one of the shutters and peeped nut. but the manager was on the spot at once and ordered the .shutters to be kept closed. A man had been killed m the street, and a day or two afterwards he was given a magnificent funeral. All those attending, marched—none rode in vehicles. Then there was another clash and a man of the opposite political partv was killed, and they gave him also “a great funeral. The funerals seemed to be regarded as political demonstrations; the wheje population turned out to watch. The royal palace in Madrid is now a national monument, and one pays for admission and hires a guide to go oyer it. The ground floor is all reception rooms—the audience chamber, throne rooms, the private sitting room of Queen Ena, council room, and so on.

The floor above is not, shown ; these are the sleeping rooms. . On the ground floor .the rooms all open one into .the other—no passages visible. There were secret doors in the walls, used by the domestics about their-wprk. Wallpapers were not used at all; tapestries, silk brocade, velvet or moire silk hung on the walls. The magnificence of the central chandeliers struck us—rock crystal or cut glass in every room. The furniture remains in the palace. It is antique and valuable, but not always beautiful. There are gilt chairs and carved chairs, and upholstered in silk or brocade or velvet, inlaid tables worked in many marbles and others in metals, others, again, in various woods, with vases of every size, shape, colour, and material from every country, and hundreds of clocks in every variety of fantastic case. Some of them showed the day of the month and the phase of the moon, as well as the hour of the day. The cabinets, too, came from Holland, Italy, France, and Germany, and very many from India, China, and Japan. Each has its own well marked style- and individuality. The palace seemed a great museum of ancient things. There was an army of attendants to keep it in order and prevent stealing. Below the ground floor is a, huge basement consisting of four stories. The kitchens are just below the ground floor; the next below is devoted to storing the tapestries and repairing the damages of time and moths; next below is the wine cellar and store, and the lowest is the coal cellar. King Alfonso installed central heating in the palace, and the coal consumed for that and in the kitchens is said to have amounted to seven tons a day. In the kitchen the hotplate for cooking was larger than three ordinary kitchen tables put together. The smoke from the fire Keating it was, led away below the hotplate, so nothing had a chance of 1 being smoked. The walls were lined with shelves, holding copper pans of every size. 'A good deal of gold was used as an alloy with the copper. The pans for soup were half the size of a good sized washing copper. The fish kettles were large enough to take a 201 b salmon. There was a large stone trough for washing vegetables. Thirty cooks used to do the work in this kitchen and bakery. The bakery was a separate room; all the tables were topped with slabs of marble, and the moulds for baking sponge cakes were of every size and shape. The kitchen, bakery, and washing-up room were very clean, but the stone steps up to the ground floor were greasy and the paint needed washing badly. It took us a whole long morning to view the palace, and we felt that these legacies from past ages could be a terrible burden and a great expense. In fact, the whole equipment belongs to the middle ages. For modern times and requirements we really cannot afford to keep to the old style of housekeeping. (Concluded.)