The courteous Spaniard conceals his contempt for the foreigner, but were he privileged to read the numerous sketches, scenes, and saunterings published yearly of Spain, he would have some scope for legitimate amusement. A faint remonstrance has indeed been heard in the Peninsula against the idea of Spanish grandees lying in wait at dark corners to rob a French journalist of his fortune. But mostly they are content to let the foreigner continue in his ignorance. For stern and melancholy Spain retains her secret, and is not to be won from her Oriental impenetrable mystery by any wiles. Unchanging and impassive, her cities seem to mock the stranger, and the roughness of the intervening wildernesses discourages him. But he returns again and again to this remote and mediæval country, that in his practical eyes should be so rich and is so poor. The repulses he receives whet his curiosity and increase his ardour. Yet Spain is not, in spite of its many tourists, a country of foreign colonies. To the Englishman this fact brings a striking novelty, for he may visit Switzerland and Italy and France and scarcely leave the atmosphere of England, but in Spain he will find no difficulty in following Bacon’s advice to the traveller in foreign countries to “sequester himself from the company of his countrymen.”
I. SPANISH CHARACTER-- i. Some Stray Opinions 17 ii. Vain Generalities 25
IV. ESKUAL-ERRIA-- i. Basque Country 66 ii. Basque Customs 72
XVI. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF SPANISH LITERATURE 142
XVII. THE POEM OF THE CID-- i. A Primitive Masterpiece 153 ii. Valencia del Cid 157
XVIII. A PRISONER OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION-- i. Novedades 163 ii. Salamanca University 165 iii. In a Valladolid Dungeon 169 iv. Ex forti dulcedo 178
XIX. THE MODERN SPANISH NOVEL-- i. Revival. Fernán Caballero 185 ii. 1870-1900 191 iii. In the Twentieth Century 201
XXI. NOVELS OF THE MOUNTAIN-- i. “Savour of the Soil” 222 ii. “On the Heights” 231