nday throughout the season, which lasts
from April to October. Most of the bulls selected are bred at Utrera,
in Andalusia, about twenty miles from Seville, and are splendid
animals. All are not, however, fit for the ring, the more ferocious
ones only being selected. The Plaza is usually under the
superintendence of a society of nobles and gentlemen, called
Maestanzas, the king being styled "Hermano Major," or elder brother of
the Guild.
The bull-fighters themselves are of four grades: the espada or
matador, the picadores, chulos, and banderilleros. The first named,
who are at the head of the profession, engage in the last single
combat with the bull, while the others are employed to annoy and
harass him into as wild a state of frenzy as possible.
The fight I attended was graced by the presence of the King and Queen
Isabella (not the young Queen, who rarely attends these performances),
and the immense building was crowded to excess. It is about two miles
out of Seville, comparatively new (the old one having been burnt down
in 1875), and built of red and white brick in the Moorish style, with
horse-shoe windows, and is capable of accommodating 17,000 persons.
The ring is, as in a circus, covered with sand, a wooden barrier about
five feet high running round it, separated from the front row of
spectators by a narrow passage four feet broad, wherein the chulos or
others (except the espada, who must never leave the arena) vault when
hard pressed by the bull. The whole of the building is of course open
to the sky.
The bills of the performance ran as follows:--
"PLAZA DE TOROS, DE MADRID.
"_El Domingo, 3 de Octobre, de 1880._
"Se lidiaran siete Toros los seis primeros de la Antigua
y a creditada ganaderia de Don Manuel Bannelos y
Salcedo, vecino de Columiar Viejo, con divisa azul
turqui, y'el setimo de la de D. Donato Palonimo vecino
de chozas de la Sierra, con diviza amarilla."
Then followed the names of espadas (one of whom was the celebrated
Frascuelo), picadores, chulos, &c.
A flourish of trumpets now sounded, and announced the arrival of the
king and queen, which was the signal for the immediate clearing of the
arena and commencement of the performance by the quadrilla, or
procession of bull-fighters. These entering at the end of the building
opposite, advanced to the front of the royal box and bowed. The
espadas (three in number) looked particularly graceful, and were most
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