The traveller to Toledo will be glad, perhaps, of some practical information. A guide for a short stay is indispensable. I did not claim the services of any, so cannot speak from personal experience, but the proprietor of the Hotel Castilla assures me that his German guide can be recommended. His charge is ten pesetas a day, nominally eight shillings, but often considerably less owing to the rate of change. My friend and guide, the Spanish painter, who came fifteen years ago to Toledo lo sketch and has since never been able to leave the witching city, highly recommends a young Italian guide, G. Borraino, who speaks several languages and knows his Toledo to the last stone. His charge, I imagine, is less, and he dwells up in the little Plaza de las Carmelitas, above the Puerta del Cambron, with amiable Italians who make and sell plaster casts. There are four hotels in Toledo; the Castilla, the Norte, the Lina, and the Imperial. The Castilla is the best hotel of Spain, admirably situated, overlooking, behind, the broad Vega and the long serpentine Tagus curled upon the landscape. The table is French and good, the rooms are fine, the service quite modern, the whole fitted up with luxury and taste. The building is extremely handsome and spacious, with every modern comfort, and cost the marquis who built it a fortune. He rashly spent his money, but he is the benefactor of travellers to Toledo, and such is now the reputation of this first-class hotel that newly married couples from Madrid, and embassadors in search of distraction, come here instead of going abroad. Murray's guide-book describes it as dear, which is not true, for such accommodation and service are cheap enough at fifteen pesetas a day. Older travellers who have had to put up with the older hotels give appalling accounts of their experience, so that for the sake of a few shillings it is the height of folly to be miserable while sight-seeing, when for very little more, you may enjoy comfort, harmony, and an excellent table, with the most scrupulous cleanliness. The churches should be visited early; tips are everywhere indispensable but small. A plan of Toledo will be found very useful. [Illustration: TOLEDO 1 _Santiago Apostolo del Arrabal._ 2 _Domingo el Real (Sto) Dominicas._ 3 _Domingo el Antiguo._ 4 _San Vicente_: _Anejo_. 5 _San Juan Bautista._ 6 _Pantheon Provincial._ 7 _Biblioteca Publica._ 8 _Palazio Arzobiscal._ 9 _San Marcos_: _Muzarabe_. 10 _Fabricia de Utensilios Militaires._ 11 _Santo Tomé._ 12 _Casos de los Templarios._ 13 _El Salvador_: _Anejo_. 14 _Taller del Moro._ (_Palacio Arabe_) 15 _San Andrés._ 16 _Posada de la Sangre_ (_donde residio Cervantes_) 17 _Plazueta Santa Isabel._ 18 _San Clemente._ 19 _San Pedro._ 20 _San Roman._ 21 _Santa Fé._ 22 _San Pablo._ ] INDEX A ABDERRAMAN, Moorish sovereign, 67. ABD-AR-RAHMAN III., the Great Khalif, 75, 76. ABDULLA, 288. ABEN-EN-NOGUAIRI, 58.