606 
thermometer seldora exceeding 70; and 
the waik in. the evening by the sea side 
most refreshing and cool. The mode of 
living is also favourable to health and en- 
joyment, fruits and vegetables form the 
principal food even at the best tables; 
and, though a species of cookery ap- 
proaching to French is introduced at 
Cadiz, it isso combined with that which 
is purely Spanish, that the difference is 
scarcely to be distinguished. Very little 
wine is drunk during dinner, and imme- 
diately afterwards the gentlemen retire 
to coffee with the ladies. The habits of 
the Spaniards are very temperate and 
frugal, so far as regards the table and the 
furniture of their houses; but they keep 
a much greater number of domestic sev- 
vants than families of the same descrip- 
tion in England. In their dress and per- 
sonal ornaments both the men and women 
are very extravagant, especially the 
Jatter; and I am told that the money 
expended ona lady’s silk stockings and 
shoes alone (for they never walk out 
twice in the same) is enormous, 
CADIZ MARKET. 
Yesterday, though Sunday, the market 
was excessively crowded, especially the 
fish and vegetable markets; the latter was 
supplied with a surprising profesion of 
every thingin season. Garlicin this place is 
a most important article, and is sold in 
strings three or four yards long, which 
are piled in stacks. The market also 
abounded with onions, grapes, melons, 
pumpkins, turnips, carrots, and celery of 
a prodigious thickness, Tlie consump- 
tion of meat in this city is very small, 
and the little consumed 1s of a very infe- 
rior quality. The poorer and middle 
class of people live principally on fruits 
avd vegetables, with fish which is sold 
fried in oil, at shops in different parts of 
the town, 
WINE MANUFACTORY OF XERES. 
The principal commerce of this place 
consists of wine, especially of that spe- 
cies so generally known by the name of 
Sherry. The quantity annually made in 
this place. is about 40,000 pipes, of this 
25,000 are consumed in this city, in Ca- 
diz, and the vicinity; 15,000 are ex. 
ported, of which about 7000 are sent to 
England; and the remainder to the 
United States, or to the different Spanish 
dominions inSouth America. The value 
of the wine, when new, is from eight to 
ten pounds per pipe; it increases in va- 
lue by age, and that which is sent to 
England 1s always mixed with brandy, 
renderof Dupont’sarmy at Baylen; 
Mr. Jacob’s Letters from Spain. 
which occasions a further augmentation 
intheprice. Mostofthe wine merchants 
in Xeres have distilleries, to make brandy, 
to add to their wine, but do not export 
any. A large quantity of it is likewise 
consumed in the mountainous part of 
Andalusia, where it is mixed with anni- 
seed, and very much used by the lower 
class of people during the winter. There 
are no staves nor iron hoops made in this 
part of Spain, so that supplics are obliged 
to be obtained from foreign countries, 
for the packages. in which they even ex- 
port their most important production, 
The United States of America furnish the 
staves, and the iron hoops are sent from 
England. ; 
Besides the wine sent to England, un- 
der the denomination of Sherry, there are 
some sweet wines made in this neigh 
bourhood, which are much valued by 
the natives, and among others the tent 
wine, as itis called in England. Very 
little care is employed in the oriinal 
making of their wines: the growers ave 
generally poor, and indehted to the mer- 
chants of this city, who, by advancing 
them money before the vintage, are ena- 
bled to take advantage of their embar- 
rassed circumstances, to purchase at 
rates, which keep those growers in a pers 
petual state of dependance. This want 
of capital is felt in a still greater degree 
by the owners of the olive trees, the va- 
riable produce of which frequently leaves 
them too deeply in debt, in unfruitful 
years, to enable them to clear themselves 
in those which are more produgtive. To 
this deficiency of agricultural capital may 
probably be attributed the languishing 
state of the cultivation in Spain, 
THE GORDONS. 
The Gordon family has been long es- 
tablished at Xeres: it came originally 
from Scotland, and settled here in con- 
sequence of its attachment to the unfor- 
tunate House of Stuart, and its adbe- 
rence to the Catholic religion. Mr. James 
Gordon, though married to a Spanish 
lady, sent his daughters to England for 
their education, who, after some years re- 
sidence in the convent at York, returned 
to this city. One of them is married to 
a colonel in the Spanish army, who is 
now with his regiment in La Mancha. 
Mr. Gordon, besides being a wine mers 
chant and a distiller, is a very large 
farmer; he has purchased 2400 acres of 
good land, which is mostly in ullage, and 
is principally cultivated by the German 
soldiers who were captured at the sur- 
he has 
alse 
