Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History; Spain -- Social life and customs
We shall now hastily sketch the chief features of the old kingdoms, with
the modern provinces included in each. Beginning from the north-west,
we have the kingdom of GALICIA, with its four provinces, _Corunna_,
_Lugo_, _Pontevedra_, and _Orense_. We have before remarked on the Frith
or Fiord-like character of the western coast of Galicia, a conformation
which gives it by far the finest harbours of the whole Spanish coast.
Thus, in the province of Corunna there are the harbour and city (33,000
inhabitants) of the same name, so well known by our forefathers under
the title of "the Groyne," and the scene of many a gallant fight both by
land and sea from the days of Queen Elizabeth to the fall of Sir J.
Moore, but now the chief port of the cattle-trade with England. Its port
is frequented by about 130,000 tons of British shipping annually; and
about 20,000 bullocks are exported annually, mostly in small schooners.
It has also a tobacco factory. A little to the north-east Ferrol
(23,000) has a still better harbour, and is one of the principal naval
establishments of Spain. It is capacious enough to almost contain the
united fleets of Europe; and its only drawback, a singular one in so
humid a climate, is the want of good water. But the most famous city in
the province, and indeed, in all Galicia, the pilgrim-town of Santiago
(St. James) de Compostella (24,000) owes its magnitude to devotion
rather than to commerce. The legend of the voyage of St. James to Spain,
the finding his body at Compostella, and his subsequent appearances in
battle as the champion of Spain, made this the most celebrated shrine
in Europe. Roads led to it from every land, and one of the popular names
of the "Milky Way" was "The road to Compostella." The wealth both of the
military order of Compostella and of the cathedral and chapter was
immense. Even now, after all its spoiling, the cathedral is rich in
precious goldsmiths' work, in architectural, and in literary treasures.
Pontevedra (8000) is the capital of the thickly-populated province of
the same name, whose inhabitants reap a harvest both from sea and land.
Vigo (6000) has an excellent harbour and roadstead, but its commerce has
greatly fallen off in comparison with that of Corunna. It was formerly
the port at which the galleons disembarked their treasures for Northern
Spain. The total tonnage of the harbour in 1878 was 208,000. _Orense_,
an inland province east of Pontevedra, has a capital of the same name
(11,000) on the banks of the Minho. It is the head of an agricultural
and pastoral district, and in it are produced some wines which were
considered in the eighteenth century the finest of all Spain. Here, too,
is one of the grand bridges of Western Spain, possibly of Roman
construction. _Lugo_, with its city (8000), faces north instead of west,
and has its harbours, Vivero and Rivadeo, on the Bay of Biscay; but the
near neighbourhood of Ferrol and of Corunna deprive them of all but
coasting trade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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