And Then, When
One Of Those Young Hearts Is Turned To Dust, And One Is Left
To Think Of It - Why Then, 'tis Not Much Comfort To Reflect
That - Nothing In The World Is Commoner.
We got a Spanish master and worked industriously, also picked
up all the Andalusian we could, which is as much like pure
Castilian as wold-Yorkshire is to English.
I also took
lessons on the guitar. Thus prepared, I imitated my friend
and adopted the ordinary costume of the Andalusian peasant:
breeches, ornamented with rows of silvered buttons, gaiters,
a short jacket with a red flower-pot and blue lily on the
back, and elbows with green and scarlet patterns, a red FAJA
or sash, and the sombrero which I believe is worn nowhere
except in the bull-ring. The whole of this picturesque dress
is now, I think, given up. I have spent the last two winters
in the south of Spain, but have not once seen it.
It must not be supposed that we chose this 'get-up' to
gratify any aesthetic taste of our own or other people's; it
was long before the days of the 'Too-toos,' whom Mr. Gilbert
brought to a timely end. We had settled to ride through
Spain from Gibraltar to Bayonne, choosing always the bridle-
roads so as to avoid anything approaching a beaten track. We
were to visit the principal cities and keep more or less a
northerly course, staying on the way at such places as
Malaga, Cordova, Toledo, Madrid, Valladolid, and Burgos.
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