The Life, Travels, and Literary Career of Bayard TaylorConwell, Russell H.
General
The Life, Travels, and Literary Career of Bayard Taylor
Conwell, Russell H.
Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878
On the 6th of November he left the great rock and took passage in a
steamer for Cadiz, in Spain. There he walked the streets three thousand
years old, and wherein, it is said, that Hercules strode. Yet there is
but little now to be seen that would remind one of antiquity. He noticed,
however, the beautiful and graceful women. From Cadiz he went by boat up
the Guadalquiver River to the pretty town of Seville. There were the old
Moorish houses; there the massive Cathedral; there the Saracenic palace
of Alcazar, with all its porches, galleries, arches, and sculptures;
there was the palace called Pilate’s House, with its decorations from
Arabia, and inscriptions from the Koran; and there was the museum
containing Murillo’s best paintings.
But it requires only a short time to visit all the attractions of
Seville, and Mr. Taylor soon proceeded to Granada. In nearly all the
cities which he visited he was reminded, directly or indirectly, of the
visit of his friend, Washington Irving. He found the same guides, or
lodged at the same hotel, or visited some celebrated locality of which
Irving had written.
In Granada was the celebrated fortress of Alhambra, which was captured
from the Moors by the troops of Ferdinand and Isabella the same year that
Columbus discovered America; there was the palace of Charles V.; there
the Carthusian convent, the Monastery of St. Geronimo, and there the
cathedral with the remains of Ferdinand and Isabella. He made a hasty
trip to Cordova and its ancient Moslem mosque. Then, visiting Alhama,
Malaga, and Ronda, he returned hastily to Gibraltar and examined the
renowned fortress, said to be the strongest citadel in the world.
In that somewhat hasty view of Southern Spain he obtained much valuable
information and an experience which often served him in his literary work
as a writer for the public press. Southern Spain and Southern France,
next to Rome itself, are replete with warlike and romantic associations.
Gauls, Romans, Moors, and Spaniards, have made nearly every plain a
battle-field; and the toppling walls of the ancient towers and palaces
tell of the fiercest contests, the most terrible inquisitions, and the
narrowest of narrow escapes. Song and story in prose and rhyme have
combined in every form to make the land attractive, and it is a matter of
deep regret that Mr. Taylor, who was so capable of developing all these
characteristics, had not more time in which to visit them and write out
his experience.
CHAPTER XXII.
Leaves Gibraltar for Alexandria.—Egypt and Old Friends.—The
Town of Suez.—Embarks for Bombay.—Mocha and its
Coffee.—Aden.—Arrival in Bombay.—Reception by the People.—Trip
to Elephanta.—Ride into the Interior.—Difficulties of the
Journey.—Views of Agra.—Scenes about Delhi.—Starts for the
Himalaya Mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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