SWABEY DIARY. 47 
as the abbey, though on examination it is infinitely more worth seeing, 
and interested me so much that I even preferred it to my dinner. 
The architecture is florid Gothic, and the external part is beyond 
measure beautiful; it has a lofty spire elegantly adorned with a 
profusion of simple ornamental sculpture. The internal architecture 
does not attract so much as the beautiful altar-pieces, chapels, choirs, 
ete., with which it is filled; there is nobody to show the place so that 
you can only glean a little information from a priest here and there. 
The first object of attention are the cloisters, each panel! of which 
is adorned by a large historical painting on the stucco by Francisco 
Bayeu especially representing the sufferings of Christian captives 
among the Moors. The St. Cecilia of Spain, so dubbed by my priestly 
cicerone, a Moorish princess whose charities to the Christians caused 
her banishment from her father’s court, is the principal subject in these 
paintings ; one tradition is beautifully delineated by the painter; it 
represents her at the moment when accused of assisting the prisoners, 
and in all the dread of conviction she is obliged to show the bread she 
has in her apron. By a miracle the bread is turned into flowers which 
she is showing unconscious of the change. The general effect and 
high colouring of these remarkable fresco paintings is such that unless 
the sun be very bright, they are not to be known from those on canvas. 
The evening is the time to see them in the galleries and chapelries 
etc., then you find, instead of silent gloom, elegant apartments contain- 
ing a very excellent collection of paintings of the Italian, Dutch, 
Spanish and Flemish schools. Generally the subjects are religious, 
and there is a full-length portrait of St. John which I could have 
sworn, if it had been cut off at the middle, was stolen from my father 
at Langley. 
The specimens of sculpture are equally admirable, and the finest I 
ever beheld. ‘These are not lavished on ugly tombs with lengthy 
epitaphs but form beautiful altar-pieces, etc. The carving of the 
wooden parts is likewise to be admired and the painting on the ceilings 
superior. I cannot dismiss the Cathedral without saying that it, as 
well as the rest of the city, was illuminated at night, and the spire was 
covered with lamps which had a beautiful effect. The Spanish illumina- 
tions generally however only consist of a few lamps, which give an obscure 
light. There was a ball given by the inhabitants at night in the palace 
formerly belonging to the Archbishop, who however has now joined the 
French. Our bands played, and as General Hill wished it we all 
attended. It is to be noticed there is no supper in these Spanish 
“ let-offs.” 
The dress and manners of the ladies and their beauty exceeds 
anything I have before seen in the country, but the nasty waltzyfied 
country dances made me sigh for Hnglish beauty, Humby’s Hotel, 
and Paddy O’Rafferty. It was curious that I danced with an Irish 
1 These panels, originally painted in frescoes in the style of Giotto, extraordinary and almost 
unique specimens of art in the 14th century, were unfortunately effaced in 1775, by the Chapter, 
who employed Francisco Bayeu, a pupil of Velasquez to repaint them about the end of the 18th 
century, but the cathedral has lost much by the change, the modern tone of the present frescoes 
being out of keeping with their surroundings.~—Murray’s Guide to Spain. 
2 An hotel at Christchurch.-2.4. 17, 
