66 



I submitted to what I was inclined to look upon as an act of extortion. Later 

 on, however, it was brought home to me that in Spain all trains are special 

 trains, with the exception of a few, which in equipment and pace are little 

 better than ordinary goods trains. The distance between Madrid and Seville, 

 for instance, is 355 miles by rail ; this distance is covered by the ordinary 

 train in 24f hours, that is to say, at the rate of a little over 14 miles an hour. 

 In the circumstances one cheerfully pays the supplement and travels by the 

 special. One should beware of imagining, however, that railway expenditure 

 ends with the purchase of circular tickets. There is this much to say in 

 favor of slow railway travelling : I never once found Spanish trains to be 

 behind scheduled time ; indeed, they frequently anticipated it. In Italy, 

 on the other hand, there appears to be no connection whatsoever between 

 scheduled time and the time actually observed by the railways. 



Our destination was now Madrid, by rail 392 miles from the frontier, a 

 distance covered by the special in 15 hours and by the ordinary in 26 hours. 

 At first the railway line winds in and out of most picturesque mountain 

 scenery. I noticed on favorable slopes frequent maize fields, much greener 

 and less forward than those of south-western France. Evidently here the 

 altitude is sufficiently great to neutralise the usual influence of latitude. 

 Here and there a well-tilled field of sugar-beet or mangolds lends variety 

 to the landscape. Robinias appear to have been planted very freely along 

 the railway line and in its immediate neighborhood. South of Alsasua, 

 however, erect poplars tend to supersede them. We were now traversing 

 a rather flat, uninteresting tract of country of no very promising agricultural 

 appearance. I noticed, occasionally, flocks of gaunt, hungry-looking sheep 

 not Merinos flat-ribbed, long-legged, and wholly unprepossessing. From 

 Santa Olalla, southwards, autumn ploughing appeared to be in full swing 

 the plough, the old Roman wooden plough ; the team, a pair of patient oxen ; 

 and the furrow, a mere scratch on the face of mother earth. They were 

 breaking up last year's stubbles, with the intention, no doubt, of sowing 

 them again to cereals on the first appearance of rain. These stubbles, as far 

 as I was able to see, were very far from the remains of heavy, well-grown 

 crops. Occasionally small heaps of farmyard manure were to be seen scattered 

 over the fields, but in even smaller quantities than those I had already noted 

 in the Basque country. As we approached Burgos the character, both of 

 the soil and general agricultural operations, appeared to improve. There- 

 after falling darkness gradually screened from our view what of interest 

 might attach to the country-side ; and eventually we steamed into Madrid 

 at 11-30 p.m. 



I made Madrid my headquarters until the evening of the 18th. The 

 town is without any particular cachet of its own ; it is no more than the 

 replica of many a town of its size scattered over southern Europe. The 

 Prado Museum is justly celebrated for its unique collection of the works of 



