Introduction 



But what is quite inconceivable is that two young 

 English gentlemen of the present day, accustomed to rapid, 

 luxurious transit and cleanly comfort, would voluntarily 

 undergo the dirt, hardship, discomfort and delay which a 

 journey over by-roads and bridle-tracks from one end of 

 Spain to the other would even now necessarily entail. In 

 the pursuit of sport, as it is called, it is true that even 

 greater hardships are faced by gently nurtured Englishmen ; 

 but of sport as they understand it there is little to be had in 

 Spain, especially by chance travellers ; and poor fare and 

 squalid surroundings do not commend themselves to our 

 pampered generation. Quite recently I passed a time upon 

 the road and in the small pueblos^ far away from railways, in 

 the ancient kingdom of Murcia, passing the nights often in 

 lonely granges before the log fires, or in village posadas as 

 primitive as those described by Cayley. And there was 

 much talk there at the time of a certain daring handelero 

 who had an inconvenient habit of waylaying and robbing 

 honest citizens on the road not far from Lorca. I can 

 answer for it that if a pair of young Englishmen were to set 

 forth, as Cayley and his friend did, with ponies and no 

 guide, and were to ride, we will say, from Lorca through 

 the ancient Moorish kingdom of Granada, by Velez Rubio, 

 Baza, Guadix and Granada, to Motril on the Mediterranean, 

 they would see as much local colour, wild scenery and 

 rough accommodation as would last them in a general way 

 for the rest of their lives, although they might not make so 

 fine a book of their wanderings as George Cayley did. 

 Indeed, for a good portion of the way the route of the 

 earlier traveller might still be traversed without much 

 alteration being found in the roadside inns or in the roads 

 themselves. It is not, however, primarily as a guide-book 

 that " The Bridle Roads of Spain " should be regarded. It 



II 



