100 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



nificent palaces jostling eacli other/^ So writes one of 

 our popular sensation novelists. Certainly tlie gram- 

 mar is a little obscure ; as* liowever_, he commences 

 another novel in almost exactly the same words, I am 

 afraid he must have been dreaming, to say the least of 

 it, at the time, or else never was at the town in question. 

 For downright filth, certainly it cannot be compared to 

 any other city I have ever seen ; and as for the '' deli- 

 cious bay," if an entirely open and excessively dangerous 

 roadstead filled with the filth and ofiscourings of such a 

 city can be so called, then I can only say that ideas differ 

 on the subject of bays, as well as on other subjects. 

 Valparaiso is simply an extremely dirty and very ugly 

 town, composed of one long straggling street about three 

 and a half miles long, with hardly a single attractive 

 building in it. Five days in the week you are nearly 

 carried oflfyour feet and half blinded by the ^'^southers" 

 and " northers " that blow with tremendous violence 

 from the sea, and down the quehradas or gulleys 

 that permeate the hills all round the town ; and the 

 other two you are nearly poisoned by the insufierable 

 smells which meet you at every turn and corner. I 

 believe I shared, in common with a good many others, 

 a sort of hazy idea of Venetian blinds, proud and 

 haughty caballeros, dark-eyed seSoritas, romantic meet- 

 ings, gay and happy Spanish muleteers smoking and 

 dancing all day long ; a notion that money came some- 

 how very easily, that everyone was very hospitable and* 

 kind, and that an Englishman was sure to marry an 

 heiress at the very least. Alas ! my very first expe- 

 rience, before even I touched the magic soil, dispelled all 

 these illusions like a magician^s wand. In the morning 

 we saw a boat approaching us ; now then for a chance of 



