1804.] Trip from Bayonne in France, to St, Sebaftiaw in Spain. 11 
his joke, this anecdote muft perhaps be 
received with certain allowances. 
The churches of St. Sebaitian are orna- 
mented, or rather encumbered, with {culp- 
ture, carving, and gilding, in which the . 
value of the materials far exceeds the 
tafte and execution. The fame remark 
may be applied to the greater part of the 
buildings in the town. 
From the days of Pailip II. which may 
be ftiled the Auguftan age in Spain, the 
fine arts, particularly architecture, had 
been gradually corrupted, until in latter 
times, the genuine principles and rules of 
the art, as praétifed by the antients, were 
almott entirely forfaken, and {uch fpeci- 
mens were préduced, as feremed to vie 
with each other which fhould depart the 
mot widely from the jut ftandard. 
This depravation of tafte and {fkill, 
however, far from being confined to 
Spain, prevailed over all Europe, not ex- 
cepting Italy itfelf, with pernaps fewer 
exceptions than in the Spanith dominions. 
The reproach will, however, be very 
foon removed, by the Jaudable and pa- 
triotic meafures lately adopted, by which 
it has been regulated that even in the re- 
paration of a country church, or the re- 
newal of the altar of a folitary chaj:el, no 
defign fhall be executed, until it be fub- 
mitted to the examination of the Royal 
Academy of Madrid. 
Examples are not wanting already of 
public buildings of even humble rank, 
which for purity of tafte would have done 
honour to Greece or Rome. 
Let not then other nations of Europe 
continue to repeat ftale refle€tions on 
Spain. If Spain have erred, let them be 
warned by her errors; but if fhe have 
laboured earnefily and fuccefsfully to cor- 
rect many of her errors, let them go and 
do fo likewife. 
In St, Sebaftian we lodged at a very 
comfortable inn, kept in the French fa- 
fhion. As bufinefs draws many ttrangers 
to the town, we dined at the ¢able a héie, 
with an agreeable company, confifting of 
a German baron, a Savoyard merchant, 
and two French officers in the Spanifh fer- 
vice, witha tingle Spaniard, a dealer in 
wool, from the neighbourhood of the fa- 
mous Numautia, 1 Old Cattille. 
The trade of St. Sebattian is confidera- 
ble, but in a great meafure carried on by 
foreign houfes eftablifhed in the town.— 
Its principal exports are wool, and iron, 
That esha OS SS 
and hereby do grant unto them, full power 
and authority to flaughter bulls publicly in 
the amphitheatre. | 
both rude and when manufactured into 
fire-arms, fwords, &c. 
Having in a fummary way fatisfed our 
curiofity, we on the morning of the 8th of 
June, at four o’clock, fet out on our re- 
turn to Bayonne. 
On arriving at the fouth-weft corner of 
the bay of Port-Paflage, we found our 
Bafgue women with their boat waiting for 
us, as ~e had appointed. ! 
They rowed us again over the harbour, 
and out to the mouth of the entrance ;' 
after which they landed at Lefo, where 
we had formerly embarked. 
This place was fomewhat to the fouth- 
ward of our proper route for Fontarabia, 
but our guide, who had been hitherto cn 
foot, having or pretending to have f{prain- 
ed an ancle, pleaded fo earnefily that he 
might be allowed an opportunity of ftat- 
ing his cafe to a miraculous crucifix ve- 
nerated in the church of Leffo, and re- 
nowned far and near for its peculiar 
fuccefs in reftoring diflocations, that we 
could not refilt his entreaties. We ac- 
cordingly approached the church, but the 
crowd not only within but without doors, 
was fo great, this being the anniverfary 
feftival in honour of the crucifix, that we 
had fome difficulty in making way through 
the village. 
Whether it was that the guide could 
not arrive within the {phere of the figure’s 
energy 3 or that he was in the company of 
heretics; or that he was a Frenchman, 
and therefore no better catholic than he 
ought to have been; or that he was not 
endowed with the qualities and difpofition 
requifte for rendersng hima prop-r ob-. 
ject of rel ef—how it happened we know 
not—but his lamenels fo increa‘ed, thas 
we were obliged to provide him with a 
horfe, all the way back to Bayonne. 
From Leffo we turned down to the left, 
and ranging the fkirts of the Sierra du 
Jay!quivel, winding through vallies co- 
vered with wood, and once, according to 
our guide, infefied by banditti, arrived, 
attcr a couple of hours, at Fontarabia, 
round which place the woods have b<en 
cleared away to make room for fome alas 
bie land ant vineyards 
This town, called by the French Fon- 
tarabie, by the Spaniaids Fuentersabia, 
but by the natives of the diftriét, in the 
Bafque language, Ondarrabia, is {mall bus 
firong by both nature and art. It ftands 
on an elevated peninfula over the weit 
fide.of the Bidaff:a,a mile and a half from 
its entrance into the fea, and four miles 
below Joun. | 
The town is wefhed on three fides by 
C2 the 
