There can be no doubt that Madrid is the least interesting capital in Europe, and that it is only worth the traveller's while to go there for the sake of the pictures.... It is settled that we leave Madrid on Saturday evening, and Henry has therefore consented to our going to Toledo tomorrow without him.] _19th_,--[Excursion to Toledo, fifty-six miles by rail.] _20th, Saturday_.--[After dinner started for Granada, where, after thirty-six hours (rail and diligence), we arrived on Monday morning.] _27th, Saturday_.--[At 6 P.M. we stow ourselves in the interior of the diligence, and pound along the dusty road towards Santa Fe. It is dusk before we get there, and dark after.] _28th, Sunday_.--[From Granada to Malaga is seventy-six miles. Guards are not only stationed along the road, but two or three are taken on the diligence. The roads were not good; we seemed to be crossing a series of sierras, and when day dawned, after a fresh, almost cold night, we found ourselves amid ghaut-like hills, and wondered when the topmost point would be gained and the descent to Malaga begun. I think it is at Fuente de la Reina that the magnificent view of the Mediterranean, the port and city of Malaga, and the long perspective of zigzags down spurs of mountains is seen. Neither the French nor English Handbook speaks of this view with the enthusiasm it deserves. It is far finer than the view on the heights looking down on Trieste and the Adriatic.... We entered Malaga about 10 A.M.; the descent had taken about two hours.] _29th_.--[Very early it was announced that an unexpected boat had come in, and was going on to Cadiz.... At 2 P.M. we went on board... but she did not steam till six. We should have been very irate at the delay but for the remarkably good dinner they gave us.... We made a detour and went very slow at starting, to avoid a vessel sunk in the harbour, on which a provisional pharo is placed. This vessel, the 'Genova,' had on board shells and powder for the Morocco war, when it was discovered that spontaneous combustion had broken out in the coal--a defect of Spanish coal--and, fearing she would not only blow up herself but also the city of Malaga, they determined to sink her; and, after a deal of bad practice by the guns of fort and fleet, she went under water, and there she has been eight months.] _30th_.--[Cadiz. On the 31st crossed over to Puerto Santa Maria; and on November 1st to Seville by rail.]