putian brick castle. Nor
shall my first glimpse of a matador occasion you a list of bull-fights,
voluminous enough to line the circumference of the _barrera_. No
Diligence shall be waylaid, nor in my presence shall any ladies' fingers
be amputated, the quicker to secure her rings, if I can possibly avoid
it; and, as far as depends on me, I shall arrive in a whole skin at each
journey's end, and without poisoning you or myself with garlick, unless
the new Cortes pass a law for denying to the stranger all other sorts of
aliment.

I have resolved, by a process of reasoning which I need not at present
impart to you, and in virtue of a permission which I have little doubt
of your granting, to publish my part of our correspondence. I think that
neither of us will be a loser by this plan, however conceited I may
appear to you for saying so. Yourself, in the first place, must be a
gainer by the perusal of descriptions, on which, from their being
prepared for the ordeal of a less indulgent eye, greater care will
necessarily be expended: the public may benefit in obtaining
information, which shall be at all events accurate, relative to subjects
as yet inadequately appreciated by those they are the most likely to
interest: while the chief gainer, in the event of these two ends being
attained, will of course be your devoted and humble correspondent.

LETTER II.

ROUTE TO SPAIN THROUGH FRANCE.

Bayonne.

The position of Burgos on the principal line of communication by which
Madrid is approached from the north of Europe; the fact of its being the
first city met with, after crossing the Pyrenees, in which monuments are
found remaining of the former genius and grandeur of the country; and
the name of which calls up the more stirring and eventful epochs of
Spanish history,--render it, notwithstanding its actual distance from
the frontier, a sort of introduction or gateway to Spain--the Spain of
the tourist.

The most agreeable and least troublesome way of visiting the best parts
of Spain excludes, it is true, this route; for the provinces of the
Peninsula which combine the greater number of requisites for the
enjoyment of life with the most attractive specimens of the picturesque,
whether natural or artificial, are those nearest to the coast, and they
are approached more conveniently by sea. Those, however, who can devote
sufficient time, will be repaid, by a tour in the interior of the
country, for the increase of troub