9,^g A N N U A L R ]^-G I S T E R, 1800. 



my crossing the Guadiana. It was 

 not a mercenary attention, which 

 flies to execute your orders with 

 the prospect of to-morrow's gain ; 

 but a grateful eagerness, which con- 

 vinced me more and more how 

 deeply the services which England 

 had rendered to Spain were here 

 imprinted upon every bosom. Such 

 are the advantages which nations 

 derive from acting on great and 

 generous principles. The feelings 

 not only of these peasants, but of 

 the great mass of Spanish peasantry, 

 ■will survive many a political storm, 

 and remain true to England, at a 

 period too distant for us yet to 

 form hypotheses upon. The pea- 

 santry of all countries form the 

 true basis of their strength. Their 

 prejudices are strong, generous, 

 and obstinate ; and amid the fall 

 of thrones, and the puerile vacilla- 

 tions of emperors and kings, it is 

 at least grateful to reflect, that the 

 peasantry of the peninsula, are in 

 these respects, decidedly English. 

 It may, perhaps, be said with 

 truth, that England alone can de- 

 stroy these favourable prejudices. 



•' The family at Monasterio, 

 as usual, supped after me ; and I 

 observed with pleasure the children 

 repeating their prayers, and kiss- 

 ing their hands to their parents be- 

 fore retiring to bed. This was not 

 the first time that I was struck with 

 the many points of resemblance 

 between the generality of the Scot- 

 tish peasants and those in many 

 parts of Spain. The dark caps of 

 the peasants of Sierra Mdrena, the 

 uniformity of their dress, many of 

 their dishes, the interior arrange- 

 ment of their houses, the domestic 

 manners of their women, their 

 looks, their air, their gravity mixed 

 with a dry humour, and an un- 



feigned spirit of piety, all tend to 

 remind us of many of the most 

 prominent features in the character 

 of che Scottish peasantry. I once 

 made the same remark to a well- 

 informed Spaniard at Madrid, on 

 some of the peasants whom I ob- 

 served to arrive there from various 

 provinces. * Undoubtedly,' he re- 

 plied, in all the spirit of a true 

 Spaniard, ' do you not know, that 

 we have formerly sent colonies to 

 Scotland r' 



" Four hundred men of the se- 

 cond battalion of Cantabria were 

 quartered here. Tlie first batta- 

 lion, they told me, was with the 

 army ; and in talking on these 

 subjects, I found that an English 

 regiment, the fortieth, which had 

 lately passed along this road, on its 

 way to Sevilla, was the theme of 

 universal admiration. What chiefly 

 excited the astonishment, and al- 

 most the envy, of the Spanish re- 

 cruits, seemed to be the uresj and 

 accoutrements of that regiment ; 

 nor could they avoid contrasting 

 their own miserable dress and 

 scanty pay, with those of their 

 new allies. The women were par- 

 ticularly charmed ; and the musi- 

 cians, with their hats dressed round 

 with feathers, had, I found, made 

 a deep impression on every heart. 

 The death of general Moore, and 

 the embarkation of the English, 

 was not yet known here, even to 

 the best informed. A French emi- 

 grant of the revolution, married in 

 Spain, and an officer of some rank 

 in the Spanish army, visited me, 

 and was now, for the first time, in- 

 formed of these important events. 

 The miserable system of keeping 

 the people in a state of ignorance, 

 as much as possible, is still as 

 strongly persisted in by the govern- 

 ment 



