Everywhere The Rock Of The Prudential Beetles And Towers Over The Town;
But The Fortifications Are So Far Up In
The sky that you can really
distinguish nothing but the Marconi telegraphic apparatus at the top.
Along the sea-level,
Which the town mostly keeps, the war-like harness
of the stronghold shows through the civil dress of the town in barracks
and specific forts and gray battle-ships lying at anchor in the docks.
But all is simple and reserved, in the right English fashion. The
strength of the place is not to be put forth till it is needed, which
will be never, since it is hard to imagine how it can ever be even
attempted by a hostile force. This is not saying, I hope, that an
American fleet could not batter it down, nor leave one letter of the
insurance advertisement after another on the face of the precipice.
There is a pretty public garden at Gibraltar in that part of the town
which is farthest from the steamer's landing, and this proved the end of
our excursion in our state coach. We found other state coaches there,
and joined their passengers in strolling over the pleasant paths and
trying to make out what bird it was singing somewhere in the trees. We
made out an almond-tree in bloom, after some dispute; and, in fact, the
climate there was much softer than at the landing, so insidiously soft
that it required great force of character to keep from buying the
flowers which some tasteful boys gathered from the public beds.
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