704 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1880, 



castle, also at Chambord, to which we drove. Two 

 nights there and three at Tours. The cathedral 

 charmed us ; also the old houses and ruined bits and 

 towers. We passed Amboise, and went from Tours 

 to Chenonceaux and back by railway,- -a bijou to be 

 enjoyed ; but the next day's excursion to Loches had 

 a much deeper and more varied interest. By travel- 

 ing over night to Bayonne and passing Biarritz at 

 sunrise, a noble sunrise and morning, with the Atlan- 

 tic on one side and the Cantabrian Pyrenees on the 

 other, we gained the privilege of a daylight journey 

 from Irun to Burgos. It is far more picturesque and 

 striking than I had supposed. A day at Burgos was 

 a treat, as you may suppose. Leon lay out of our 

 track and demanded night hours and night changes 

 too severe and too formidable for a couple ignorant of 

 Spanish and impatient of couriers. So we went on 

 overnight to Madrid (night travel being inevitable) ; 

 and here we had a warm, sunny, busy, and most en- 

 joyable week, some pleasant home-friends for compan- 

 ions, as also a charming Spanish family, M. and 

 Mme. Riano, whom we had met at our minister's, 

 Lowell, at London. She is a daughter of Gayangos 

 and had an English mother ; is a charming mixture of 

 Spanish and English and everything that is bright 

 and good. Then there was a raree-show not to be 

 matched out of Spain : the royal family with the in- 

 fanta going to church in state, the grand procession 

 kindly going and returning under our windows. The 

 Armeria and, still more, the Archeological Museum 

 were full of the Old World things we Americans dote 

 on. And then the great picture-gallery, supplemented 

 not a little by the Academia San Fernando. Add to 



