1831.] 



C 89 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



Sketches in Spain and Morocco^ by Sir 

 Arthur de Capel Brooke, B(n-t., tj-c, 2 vols., 

 8vo. — Sir Capel Brooke — we must shorten 

 his name — scribbles his tours very agree- 

 ably. The reader has nothing to do but 

 accompany liim from town to town, and 

 take his chance of what the active tra- 

 veller happens to fall in with. He very 

 rarely generalizes or discusses, and the 

 less the better — for the one, it is not his 

 vocation, andfor thefirst, if he indulges, 

 he must be indebted to others — not be- 

 cause he has not time, for he has abun- 

 dance — he travels for pleasure merely ; 

 but because he does not suppose time 

 indispensable for the purpose, or he 

 would give it. Go where he will, he is 

 merely a bird of passage, and has no 

 notion that first impressions, in new 

 scenes, require correction. The closest 

 observers have preconceptions of what 

 they are going to see — and these are 

 things not easily or in an instant dis- 

 posed of. With all this Sir Brooke 

 troubles himself little — liis motto is, 

 " keep moving." 



At the Tower he takes his passage in 

 a steamer bound for Lisbon, Cadiz, and 

 Gibraltar, and has a fair weather voyage 

 to Lisbon. A few hours serve him to 

 scamper over the town and describe it. 

 The first glance of Cadiz charms him 

 so much, that he resolves to stop a few 

 days — let his baggage go on to Gibral- 

 tar, and find his way thither himself by 

 some other conveyance. A few days' 

 residence at Cadiz enables him to dis- 

 course thus delectably on the ladies of 

 Spain. 



" I need hardly ohserve, that tlie Spanish wo- 

 men are well known for their love of intrigue, 

 and that the marriage tow, as is too generally 

 the case wilh the higher classes in alincst every 

 part of continental Europe, is entered into but to 

 be broken," &c. 



Of course. Sir Arthur, though he 

 adopts the account without any hesita- 

 tion, must not be held responsible for 

 its veracity ; it is clear he can himself 

 know little about the matter. 



After scouring the neighbourhood, 

 and attending a bull-fight or two, in- 

 stead of making his way to Gibraltar, 

 he starts off suddenly for Seville. Se- 

 ville is filled with priests — the women 

 are wra])t up in mantillas, and alwavs 

 going to mass— beautiful as houris — 

 well-be-vciled at least — not so their 

 ancles, it would be as well if they were 

 — every body drinks delicious water, and 

 every house seems full of Murillos and 

 Kibcras. The Seville gazette is just 

 six inches long- tlie leading article, an 

 account of an old woman who died at 

 Falmouth, aged 140; and not a particle 



M.M. New AVHm.— VoL.XII. No.07. 



of news " foreign or domestic." Re- 

 turning to Cadiz, he meets with a wine- 

 merchant going to ^eres, and as he has 

 nothing to clog or controul his move- 

 ments, and is passionately fond of sight- 

 seeing — it is that for which he lives and 

 moves — off he goes to Xeres, and is 

 present at the vintage, picks up a pro- 

 digious deal of gossip about sherries, and 

 especially about umontillado—a. wine 

 which puzzles not only Sir Arthur 

 Brooke and the merchants, but from his 

 account of it, might the devil himself. 

 " It is," he says, " something like a 

 phenomenon (what does Sir Brooke take 

 a phenomenon to be ?) in wine-making, 

 for no cultivator can be certain that the 

 grape will produce it, though he may 

 conjecture that such will be the case 

 from past experience, knowledge of the 

 soil, and state of the vintage. It is sel- 

 dom obtained from young vines, neither 

 is it the produce of any particular vine- 

 yard or grape, although it is conjectured 

 by some that the Palomine grape is more 

 instrumental in j'ielding it than any 

 other. The difference which this wine 

 assumes from the general character of 

 dry white wines, is supposed to be the 

 consequence of a more perfect or pecu- 

 liar fermentation. It is never known 

 what casks will turn out amcntillado 

 before the first process of fermentation 

 is over, and frequently not even then. 

 Out of a hundred butts, not more than 

 five or six may turn out amontillado. 

 Every thing, relating to this wine, is 

 involved in so much uncertaintj', that 

 what has been supposed to be ammon- 

 tillado will, after some years, turn out 

 the reverse, and vice versa. On these ac- 

 counts and its consequent rarity, it is 

 greatly prized and carefully husbanded 

 by the merchants ; not for the purposes 

 of sale, but of mixing with their other 

 wines, and improving their flavours, 

 &c." 



To Gibraltar Sir Capel gets at last, 

 and after telling what of course every 

 sk-immer of travels already knows, he 

 crosses the straights to Tangiers; and as 

 Tangiers is not every day visited by 

 tourists, he has something a little less 

 hackneyed to tell. His nitention was 

 to storm the emperor's quarters at Fez, 

 but people cannot do jirccisely as they 

 like in Morocco, nor move when and 

 where they please ; and the Baronet's 

 movements accordingly wore a good deal 

 hampered. To Fez there was no get- 

 ting, and besides, the emperor was hun- 

 self coming to Tangiers. To Tangiers, 

 however, lie did not come, and Sir Ar- 

 thur finally quitted the country without 

 seeing this august personage, or any one 



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