FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  
_Sin trabajo_. 'There is no short cut Without some deep rut.' says the Spanish proverb. We now began to descend the valley by a broad and excellent _carretera_, or carriage road, which was cut out of the steep side of the mountain on our right. On our left was the gorge, down which tumbled the run of water which I have before mentioned. The road was tortuous, and at every turn the scene became more picturesque. The gorge gradually widened, and the brook at its bottom, fed by a multitude of springs, [grew] more considerable; but it was soon far beneath us, pursuing its headlong course till it reached level ground, where it flowed in the midst of a beautiful but confined prairie. There was something silvan and savage in the mountains on the further side, clad from foot to pinnacle with trees, so closely growing that the eye was unable to obtain a glimpse of the hill-sides which were uneven with ravines and gulleys, the haunts of the wolf, the wild boar and the _corso_ or mountain-stag; the last of which, as I was informed by a peasant who was driving a car of oxen, frequently descended to feed in the prairie and were shot for the sake of their skins, for the flesh being strong and disagreeable is held at no account. But notwithstanding the wildness of these regions, the handiworks of man were visible. The sides of the gorge though precipitous were yellow with little fields of barley, and we saw a hamlet and church down in the prairie below, whilst merry songs ascended to our ears from where the mowers were toiling with their scythes, cutting the luxuriant and abundant grass. I could scarcely believe that I was in Spain, in general so brown, so arid and cheerless, and I almost fancied myself in Greece, in that land of ancient glory, whose mountain and forest scenery Theocritus has so well described. At the bottom of the valley we entered a small village washed by the brook, which had now swelled almost to a stream. A more romantic situation I had never witnessed. It was surrounded and almost overhung by huge mountains, and embowered in trees of various kinds; waters sounded, nightingales sang, and the cuckoo's full note boomed from the distant branches, but the village was miserable. The huts were built of slate-stones, of which the neighbouring hills seemed to be principally composed, and roofed with the same, but not in the neat tidy manner of English houses, for the slates were of all sizes
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
mountain
 

prairie

 

bottom

 

village

 

valley

 
mountains
 
general
 

scarcely

 
slates
 

ancient


fancied

 

cheerless

 
Greece
 

cutting

 
fields
 

barley

 
yellow
 
precipitous
 

handiworks

 

regions


visible

 

hamlet

 

church

 

scythes

 

toiling

 

forest

 

luxuriant

 

abundant

 

mowers

 

whilst


ascended

 
English
 

boomed

 

cuckoo

 

sounded

 
waters
 

nightingales

 
distant
 

branches

 
stones

principally
 

neighbouring

 
composed
 
roofed
 

miserable

 

entered

 
washed
 

swelled

 
stream
 

houses