JOURNEY THROUGH SPAIN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13979, 14 August 1909, Page 3

JOURNEY THROUGH SPAIN.

(By iMartin Hume.)

The oidmary tourist's account of a journey uirough Spain oy railway, m itn more or icss picturesque and sentimental descriptions of a lew of' tne principal cuius, Jias been decideuly uvcruuiiu ol late by .English and American publishers. 'Jliere is usually m sucn books a straining to live i.,/ ij tne false romanticism with regaiu to tlie country, which lingers yet lrom tiie liighly-coiunreu pages or early ninctecntii century writers, Frencli and English. 'Jne pretence is still too Ol ten kept up Xliati you step back into a world of three liundreu years ago when you cross the Franco-Spanish liontier i.t a .railway carriage, and that people still dress and talk m Spain as they did in the days of the i'nilips.

. It is, therefore, somewhat refreshing to come across a travel book on the country in which the writer has depended more upon the evidence ol her own senses tnan upon an impossible ideal. " bun and Shadow in Spain " is the work of a lady, a niemof a well-known literary family in the United States, who prefers for purposes of her writings to retain her maiden name, though siie is married to an English artist whose studies in his art. in Italy and Spain, are the occasions of iiis wife's books.

Landing at Gibraltar, the authoress and her husband, accompanied apparently by a young friend whom she calls "" I'atsy," but who may be an imaginary person introduced for library cflect, procee<l to Kouda and Seville, and thence to Grenada, Cordova, Madrid, and Toledo. Her method of producing a readable and even interesting book out 'of such hackneyed material as this is rather novel. She mercifully spares her readers the personal details and small incidents of so prosaic a journey, and concentrates her interest upon impressionist sketches of the places mentioned. Seville iu the hurly-burly of the Holy Week offers ample material for many bright bit* of description, and more than a glimpse is caught of the home-life in tlie American city by mean of a charming household—again whether real or invented by tlie authoress is not quite clear—consisting of a young American resident in Seville and his beautiful Andalusian wife, with their child. The treatment of the samewhat abundant- guide-book information in tlie volume is also fresh. It is in ( very case put into the months of other-; in the form of casual conversation It is usually I'atsy who is the wellinformed person, but various other personages, met or invented in the course of travel, are made to. contribute their share of didactic matter. One person especially, who bears many signs or being an invention of the authoress rather than a reality, is absurdly and incorrectly referred .to as

the Don," ami is so addressed by others, lie is usually regarded as the light comedy element in the book,- his impossibly bad Knglish, his shabby gentility, 'and his aristocratic conneouons, being made the most, of in a »ay that, it lie be: a real personage, would be in decidedly Iwd taste.

lii'.t some misgivings may well be entertained even on tins score: for the writer and her husband, whilst in Madrid for quite a long period, stayed as. guests ill the house of om* of the most distinguished and highly esteemed of Spanish artists. Don Jose Villegas, who is the director of the Prado _\l lY-i-vuni: and the references to him, although naturally always friendly, are often of a personul directness which an Knglish writer would hardly think in the best taste ill the circumstances. It is. perhaps, a small thing that he is always referred . to as Villegas. tout court, which certainly does not seem very polite in a printed book, however 11-i tn ra 1 it might be m the intimacy of home life. This stay in so interesting a household as that of Senor Villegas gave to the writer a lar better opportunity than falls to most visitors of seeing the inner life of a M.idrilenean family of distinction, but of the higher professional, and not of tiie aristocratic class. Of this opportunity she makes wood use. The charming oi.a'feetediiess and k : ndli)ip.«s that are the characteristics of Mcdrilenos can only be rightly ap-

predated in their own homes, and by those admitted to their friendship, so that few English travellers have ever understood to the full how naturally delightful and hospitable these people are. 7n the time of her stay also the writer was equally fortunate, lor sh" is able to give a bright and vivid description' of King Alfonso's marriage with his English bride, and of the one terrible event that sullied the happiness of the day. It would be perfectly easy to point out many blunders in the facts and history quoted or travestied in the pages, but finding fault in detail is sorry criticism, and the book, judged as a whole, is distinctly above the average of such productions.