f one of the straight, narrow streets. On either
side of the blue ribbon of sky, which separates the summits of its lofty
houses, is seen a confusion of balconies, and projecting
box-windows,--all placed irregularly--each house possessing only one or
two, so as not to interfere with each other's view, and some placed on a
lower story, others on a higher; their yellow or green hues relieving
the glittering white of the facades. Nor could anything improve the
elegant effect of the architectural ornaments, consisting of pilasters,
vases, and sculpture beneath the balconies, still less, the animated
faces--the prettiest of all Spain, after those of Malaga--whose owners
shew a preference to the projecting windows, wherever a drawing-room or
boudoir possesses one.

The pavement of these elegant little streets, is not out of keeping with
the rest. It would be a sacrilege to introduce a cart or carriage into
them. A lady may, and often does, traverse the whole town on foot, on
her way to a ball. It is a town built as if for the celebration of a
continual carnival. Nor does the charge brought against the Gaditanas,
of devotion to pleasure, cause any surprise: were they not, they would
be misplaced in Cadiz. Hither should the victim of spleen and melancholy
direct his steps. Let him choose the season of the carnival. There is
reason to suspect that the advertiser in the Herald had this remedy in
view, when he promised a certain cure to "clergymen and noblemen, who
suffer from blushing and despondency, delusion, thoughts of self-injury,
and groundless fear:" these symptoms being indications of an attack of
that northern epidemy, which takes its name from a class of fallen
angels of a particular hue.

In Cadiz, in fact, does Carnival--that modern Bacchus of fun, give a
loose to his wildest eccentricities--nor may those who are least
disposed to do homage to the god escape his all-pervading influence. All
laws yield to his, during his three days of Saturnalia. Not the least
eccentric of his code is that one, which authorizes the baptism of every
passenger in a street with the contents of jugs, bestowed from the fair
hands of vigilant angels who soar on the second-floor balconies. The
statute enjoins also the expression of gratitude for these favours,
conveyed with more or less precision of aim, in the form of hen's
eggs--of which there is consequently a scarcity on breakfast-tables on
the mornings of these festive days. At eleven o