"The _Valencian_, with his gay-coloured handkerchief rolled about his head in the Moorish fashion, a brilliantly striped _mantã_ thrown gracefully over his shoulder; the _Maragato_, looking for all the world like a well-fed Dutch skipper in flesh and costume; the man of _Estremadura_, his broad buff belt buckled about his loins, and a string of sausages in his hand; the _Catalonian's_ wild Albanian look and cut, a red woollen cap falling on his shoulder in the way of the Neapolitan mariners; the _Andalusian's_ elegant dress, swarthy face, and immeasurable whiskers; _Galicia's_ heavy, dirty son, dragging after him at every step a shoe weighing from two to three pounds, including nails, doublings, and other defences against a treacherous and ruinous pavement. All these might well have been taken for the inhabitants of regions hundreds of leagues asunder, differing as essentially in language as in costume." But one of the most remarkable features of Madrid was the predominance of large convents in the finest situations and best streets, often monopolising more space than should have fallen to their share. The fronts of the holy houses extended themselves widely up and down the street, causing a dead blank, and destroying the symmetry of the _calle_. The monotonous appearance was, however, frequently relieved by the close-shaven heads of some of the "fathers" appearing at the little windows of their cells, condescending to look upon what was passing outside--faces, some fat, ruddy, and shining, others pale and sallow, with strange black beards and flashing eyes. The nunneries, in point of usurping place and selecting the most frequented quarters of the town, yielded nothing to the male convents. There were no less than three of them in the Calle Alcala, perched in the very midst of the thoroughfare to and from the Prado. The sisters used to have a number of latticed windows towards the street, whence they might see without being seen. These celestial spouses, as they called themselves, were very troublesome neighbours, for they were so chary of being seen, even when walking in their garden, that, not contented with running up a wall twenty feet high at least and spoiling a whole street, they insisted on doing the same service to all the houses which had the misfortune to be within eyeshot of them. Hence there would be seen whole balconies completely boxed up with sheet-iron opposite a long dead wall, with a few ascetic-looking cypresses peeping over it.