church is the worst religious building, and the most destitute of ornaments of any I have seen in Spain. Nothing could exceed the poverty and misery of the posada at which we passed the night; it was literally devoid of every comfort; and our chagrin was increased by learning, when it was too late, that at another house we might have enjoyed comfortable accommodations. After a most unpleasant night, we left Loxa as soon as it was light, and began to ascend the mountains, which are very steep and lofty. We got in an hour among some thick clouds, and having, in the course of another, ascended above them, the appearance became very striking and singular: the clouds resembled the sea, while some of the higher peaks above them looked like islands. We continued ascending and descending till noon, sometimes above the clouds, sometimes below them, and frequently so completely enveloped by them, as to preclude the sight of objects at the distance only of a few yards. During these changes of elevation, we experienced equal changes of climate, and felt every degree of temperature, from the biting frost of a winter's morning, to the warmth of a May-day noon. Though fifty miles from the Sierra Nevada, we felt that when the wind from that quarter was not intercepted by the mountains, a very sensible alteration took place in the temperature of the atmosphere, which varied in the different situations from 46, to 68 of Fahrenheit. I reckoned the lowest part of our morning's journey to be about one thousand yards above the level of the sea, and our highest about two thousand five hundred, for in no instance did, we reach the snow, though it lay. on the tops of some higher elevations around us, After travelling five hours, we came to a mountain presenting height of about six hundred yards almost perpendicular, and apparently terminating in a single point; but in passing round it, its appearance became somewhat like the pyramidical spires in the crowns of our ancient kings. On one of these points is a Moorish fortress, which, like the hill forts in India, must be unassailable, and can only be reduced by hunger. At the foot of this hill we found the town of Chiuma, a place containing seven or eight thousand inhabitants. The surrounding country consists chiefly of corn land, but intermixed with olive grounds. There is very little water near it; and in consequence of the scarcity of that necessary article, in some years the fields are so unproductive, that the inhabitants, having no surplus commodities to send to more fruitful districts in exchange for the first necessary of life, suffer severely from famine. From Chiuma we descended into a plain, at the end of which we reached the river Guadalhorce, which winds round the mountains, till it empties itself into the sea at Malaga: at this spot it is merely a small, though beautiful stream, and washes the foot of a lofty perpendicular rock, of celebrity in the period when the Moors ruled Granada. Mariana, the historian, relates a tragical story of two lovers, who fled from Granada, and being pursued by the Moors, precipitated themselves from this rock to avoid captivity. Mr. Southey has given it to the English reader in his ballad : The maiden, through the favouring night, From Granada took her flight. She bade her father's house farewell, And fled away with Manuel. No Moorish maid might hope to vie In fear they fled across the plain, In hope to Murcia on they flee, To Peace, and Love, and Liberty. &c. &c. &c. I know not the Poet's reason for availing himself of the poetica licentia, and placing this rock on the road to Murcia, when it is in the opposite direction, and when the name of Seville, the place to which their flight was directed, would have answered his purpose just as well as that of Murcia. An hour's ride from La Peña de los Enamorados brought us through a fertile valley to this city. Like most others in this part of Spain, it is finely situated, is surrounded by beautiful gardens and fruitful fields, and is adorned by the sublime mountains which rise in the back ground; but a nearer inspection creates the customary disgust. We are, however, in a comfortable posada, where we can enjoy our meals and straw beds, when we return from viewing the curiosities that invite our inspection. I must remark, that on the whole road from Loxa to this place, a distance of twenty-five miles, we did not meet a single traveller; and, excepting the town of Chiuma, did not see a single house. LETTER XLV. POPULATION OF ANTEQUERA ITS ANTIQUITY PAINTINGS OF MOHEDANO · VARIETY OF SHRUBS-MINERAL SPRINGS-SALT LAKE-MANUFACTURES. - ANTEQUERA, JAN. 1810. I BELIEVE a degree of vanity respecting the towns in which they live, induces the Spaniards frequently to exaggerate the amount of their population. I have been informed that this city contains eight thousand families, which, at the common rate of estimating families, would give a population of forty thousand. The city, however, is very extensive, and being of antient date, abounds in Roman and Moorish edifices, which give it an appearance of great grandeur. The date of its foundation is unknown, but it is noticed in the Itinerary of Antoninus, and it is mentioned in one among the numerous inscriptions which have been preserved as a municipium; and in another there is a proof of its existence in the year 77 of the Christian era, as it is dated in the eighth consulship of the Emperor Vespasian. Eighty years before the conquest of Granada, this city was taken by John, the second king of Castile; and in the Moorish castle the arms captured by the Christians are still preserved. It appears by these remains, that the Moors used defensive armour of great weight, and employed short javelins to throw at the enemy, cross bows for shooting stones or arrows, and oval shields, formed of two hides, cemented together so thick as to resist a musket ball. The castle in which these warlike instruments are deposited is in better preservation than any Moorish fortress I have yet seen, and the entrance, called the Giants arch, is the finest specimen of their architecture. Within its inclosure is the church of Santa Maria, which was formerly a Mahomedan mosque, and without any other alteration than the introduction of a most profuse number of bad pictures, bad statues, and tasteless ornaments, is now converted into a Christian place of worship. The Franciscan convent contains some pillars of the most beautiful veined marble, of a flesh colour, that I have yet seen: they are twenty-eight in number, and support the arches of the cloister. I observed in several of the churches some good paintings, in fresco, which I learnt were the production of Antonio Mohedano, who was esteemed, about the year 1600, as one of the best artists of his time. But his principal works being on the walls of the churches in this his native city, on those of Cordova, and on the cloisters of the Franciscan convent of Seville, his merit can only be appreciated by those who contemplate his labours on the spot where they were executed. Mohedano had great celebrity as a poet, and his works, published in 1605, are admired to this day. This place produced another painter of singular merit, according to his contemporaries; but, like Mohedano, having exercised his talents on walls more than on canvas, his fame is not so extensive as it deserves; his name was Jeronymo |