Hernani and the Basques

Hernani, about 60 years after Nathaniel saw it

"It is composed of one street, of the exact required width for the passage of an ordinary vehicle. This street is a perfect specimen of picturesque originality. The old façades are mostly emblazoned with the bearings of their ancient proprietors, sculptured in high relief. On entering the place, the effect is that of a deep twilight after the broad blaze of the sunny mountains. This is caused by the almost flat roofs, which advance considerably beyond the fronts of the houses, and nearly meet in the centre of the street: the roof of each house is either higher or lower, or more or less projecting, than its neighbour; and all are supported by carved woodwork, black from age. The street terminates on the brow of a hill, and widens at the end, so as to form a small square, one retreating side of which is occupied by the front of a church covered with old sculpture; and the diligence, preceded by its long team of tinkling mules, disappears through the arched gateway of a Gothic castle."

This photo was evidently taken from that arched gateway, looking back down the slope which the Diligence had ascended, drawn by its team of 'tinkling mules'. The Basque people interested Nathaniel: they seemed so different, in looks as well as language.  Well...the women interested him, at any rate:

"The women are decidedly handsome, although they also are anything but Spanish-looking; and their beauty is often enhanced by an erect and dignified air, not usually belonging to peasants, (for I am only speaking of the lower orders,) and attributable principally to a very unpeasant-like planting of the head on the neck and shoulders. I saw several village girls whom nothing but their dress would prevent from being mistaken for German or English ladies of rank, being moreover universally blondes."

But his chief concern was another group entirely - his fellow passengers, because as he pointed out, passengers in a Diligence are destined to spend several days in almost intimate proximity and they have the power to make each other's lives a misery.

I think this one would have ruined the journey for me:

"I mounted.. the Diligence... with a good-looking, fair, well-fed native, with a long falling auburn moustache. We commenced by bandying civilities as to which should hold the door while the other ascended. No sooner were we seated than my companion inquired whether I was military; adding, that he was a Carlist captain of cavalry returning from a six months' emigration.

Notwithstanding the complete polish of his manners in addressing me, it was evident he enjoyed an uncommon exuberance of spirits... and I at first concluded he must have taken the earliest opportunity (it being four o'clock in the morning) of renewing his long-interrupted acquaintance with the flask of aguardiente: but that this was not the case was evident afterwards, from the duration of his tremendous happiness. During the first three or four hours, his tongue gave itself not an instant's repose. Every incident was a subject of merriment, and, when tired of talking to me, he would open the front-window and address the mayoral; then roar to the postilion, ten mules ahead; then swear at the zagal running along the road, or toss his cigar-stump at the head of some wayfaring peasant-girl."

How cute. I think I speak for wayfaring peasant-girls everywhere when I express a hope he set himself alight one night while smoking a cigar in bed.

"Sometimes, all his vocabulary being exhausted, he contented himself with a loud laugh, long continued; then he would suddenly fall asleep, and, after bobbing his head for five or six minutes, awake in a convulsion of laughter, as though his dream was too merry for sleep. Whatever he said was invariably preceded by two or three oaths, and terminated in the same manner. The Spanish (perhaps, in this respect, the richest European language) hardly sufficed for his supply. He therefore selected some of the more picturesque specimens for more frequent repetition. These, in default of topics of conversation, sometimes served instead of a fit of laughter or a nap: and once or twice he hastily lowered the window, and gave vent to a string of about twenty oaths at the highest pitch of his lungs; then shut it deliberately, and remained silent for a minute. During dinner he cut a whole cheese into lumps, with which he stuffed an unlucky lap-dog, heedless of the entreaties of two fair fellow-travellers, proprietors of the condemned quadruped."

Yes, sharing a coach for several days with a swearing, dog-abusing, ginger drunkard suffering from ADHD would pretty much spoil a trip for me. But Nathaniel was clearly made of sterner stuff and took it in his stride. 

He winds up Letter III by gratefully recalling his conversations with the two pretty owners of the lap-dog, "the daughters of a Grandee of the first class, Count de P. These youthful señoritas had taken the opportunity, rendered particularly well-timed by the revolutions and disorders of their country, of passing three years in Paris, which they employed in completing their education, and seeing the wonders of that town, soi-disant the most civilized in the world; which probably it would have been, had the old régime not been overthrown. They were now returning to Madrid, furnished with all the new ideas, and the various useful and useless accomplishments they had acquired."

He found the girls' anecdotes of Parisian life and the world of French theatre particularly charming, all the more for being delivered in their delightful Spanish accent.  Sadly for him, during the actual journey the young ladies had a central carriage to themselves, so he could only chat to them when the coach had to climb a steep ascent and the passengers got out and walked.

Interesting too that despite having lived there he seems rather dismissive about Paris itself, evidently regretting he had not known it before the Revolution, when it might have been truly elegant.  Not a man of revolutionary sympathies perhaps.

Interesting too that he speaks French enough like a Frenchman to be charmed by hearing the language spoken with a Spanish accent.


 
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Series of portraits of modern Basques on YouTube
Carlists: supporters of Don Carlos, a brother of the late King, who disputed the Succession: several wars followed his challenge for the throne.  These devastated the Basque region and atrocities occurred on both sides.