El Camino Real 187 



shops for the sale of curiosities ; its Chinatown, where 

 the odour of opium and firecrackers mingles with the 

 perfume of flowers ; its long wharf, yachts, and vessels, 

 all offer inducements to tarry. Parts of Spanish-town 

 still remain inviolate, and we are told of the glories of 

 the old De la Guerra mansion, where Richard H. Dana 

 witnessed a marriage festival in 1836. The family is 

 still living in Santa Barbara. We buy a reboso, an 

 Indian basket, from an old Mexican woman, " for luck," 

 the driver puts it, and are away up the fine, hard road 

 to La Patera, where the Indians buried their stone 

 mortars and household gods in the long ago. 



Near here we drive through the fine ranches of 

 Hollister, Cooper, and Stowe, the former known as 

 " Glen Annie." " Ellwood," the Cooper homestead, is 

 famous for its olive orchard, the largest in Southern 

 California, also in America, with works the perfection of 

 neatness, over which the courteous host takes us. The 

 home is embowered with flowers from every clime, a 

 garden the year round. From here we pass for several 

 miles up the picturesque little canon by the side of a 

 stream and beneath trees that were young in the days 

 of the Franciscan padres, and, finally, at the head of the 

 ravine, halt for a consideration of the well-filled hampers 

 which the coach is made to disgorge for this is a 

 feature of coaching in Southern California ; the mid- 

 day meal is carried, and a picnic is enjoyed in some 

 nook or corner that may meet the eye. 



From this region numerous trips can be made to 



