LETTER ON SPAIN 85 



a half hours by rail, and if you care to break 

 the journey at Jeres and see the sherry stores, I 

 could give you a letter to one of the big wine 

 merchants. There is an excellent English club, 

 and some good fellows of our nationality virtually 

 rule the place. I never left Seville without a 

 pang of regret, though it is now much modernised 

 and spoilt. Within a drive the thing best worth 

 seeing is Italica, and to get an idea of Anda- 

 lusian country, another drive to Alcala de los 

 Panaderos. Cordoba is only four hours off by 

 rail, and the mosque now the cathedral is 

 worth walking barefoot from Calais to see. About 

 the end of April I should start for Granada. If 

 you have fine weather, as you are pretty sure to 

 have in May, I do not think you will be in a 

 hurry to leave it. You will find the good hotels 

 in the large towns almost all kept by Swiss or 

 Italians; almost all are poorly furnished, but 

 exquisitely clean, especially in the south, and 

 bread, wine, and eggs excellent and cheap. . . . 

 I know but little of modern guide-books ; Vaya 

 con Dios, and if you only derive a thousandth 

 part of the delight of Spanish travel that I have 

 experienced, you will be a happy man. Bead 



