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. Kead 



