Chapter 43 (Vilaseca)

CHAPTER 43 Villa Seca - Moorish House - The Puchera - The Rustic Council - Polite Ceremonial - The Flower of Spain - The Bridge of Azeca - The Ruined Castle - Taking the Field - Demand for the Word - he Old Peasant - The Curate and Blacksmith - Cheapness of the Scriptures. It was one of the most fiercely hot days in which I ever braved the sun, when I arrived at Villa Seca. The heat in the shade must have amounted at least to one hundred degrees, and the entire atmosphere seemed to consist of flickering flame1. At a place called Leganez, six leagues from Madrid, and about half way to Toledo2, we diverged from the highway, bending our course seemingly towards the south-east. We rode over what are called plains in Spain, but which, in any other part of the world, would be called undulating and broken ground. The crops of corn and barley had already disappeared. The last vestiges discoverable being here and there a few sheaves, which the labourers were occupied in removing to their garners in the villages. The country could scarcely be called beautiful, being perfectly naked, exhibiting neither trees nor verdure. It was not, however, without its pretensions to grandeur and magnificence, like every part of Spain. The most prominent objects were two huge calcareous hills or rather one cleft in twain, which towered up on high; the summit of the nearest being surmounted by the ruins of an ancient castle, that of Villaluenga3. About an hour past noon we reached Villa Seca.4 We found it a large village, containing about seven hundred inhabitants, and surrounded by a mud wall.5 A plaza, or market-place, stood in the midst, one side of which is occupied by what is called a palace, a clumsy quadrangular building of two stories, belonging to some noble family, the lords of the neighbouring soil. It was deserted, 1 100º in Fahrenheit, slightly less than 40º Celsius. In his letter to Brandram of 14 July 1838 [Darlow, 333] Borrow mentions it is 36º Reaumur in Villaseca, which is no less than 45º C. 2 A confusion. Borrow did travel to Villaseca by Leganés, as may be derived from a list of villages visited at the end of his letter to Brandram of 3 August 1838 [Darlow, 348f], but the latter town is only some 15 km from Madrid’s city centre, not 35 as he here pretends; nor is it the appropriate spot to turn off the main road to the south-east. He must have been thinking of Illescas or Yuncler. [See Missler, Daring Game, 83f.] 3 See footnote 13 below. 4 Borrow probably left Madrid on July 10, and – as Villaseca is some 60 km from Madrid – probably arrived there on 11 July [Darlow, 331 & 333]. The full name of the village is Villaseca de la Sagra, the Sagra being the arid region of roughly 40 x 40 km between Toledo and Madrid, home to some 30 villages. The origin of ‘Sagra’ is obscure. Just as the name of the famous African Sahara desert it may go back to the Arabic root sahra, meaning so much as ‘red earth’, or to ṣaḥra: ‘a plain’ [Knapp I : 299; Burke, Glossary and footnote to page 257]. 5 Madoz, DG, vol. 16, 284: by the late 1840s Villaseca counted 285 houses, with 296 householders and 1,084 inhabitants. The mud wall around the town has disappeared today. George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition) however, being only occupied by a kind of steward, who stored up in its chambers the grain which he received as rent from the tenants and villanos who farmed the surrounding district6. 43.1 The Palacio de los Marqueses de Montemayor The village stands at the distance of about a quarter of a league from the bank of the Tagus, which even here, in the heart of Spain, is a beautiful stream, not navigable, however, on account of the sand-banks, which in many places assume the appearance of small islands, and are covered with trees and brushwood. The village derives its supply of water entirely from the river, having none of its own; such at least as is potable, the water of its wells being all brackish, on which account it is probably termed Villa Seca, which signifies "the dry hamlet."7 The inhabitants are said to have been originally Moors; certain it is, that various customs are observable here highly favourable to such a supposition. Amongst others, a very curious one; it is deemed infamous for a woman of Villa Seca to go across the market-place, or to be seen there, though they have no hesitation in showing themselves in the streets and lanes. A deep-rooted hostility exists between the inhabitants of this place and those of a neighbouring village, called Vargas; they rarely speak when they meet, and never intermarry. There is a vague tradition that the people of the latter place are old Christians, and it is highly probable that these neighbours were originally of widely different blood; those of Villa Seca being of particularly dark complexions, whilst the indwellers of Vargas are light and fair. Thus the old feud between Moor and Christian is still kept up in the nineteenth century in Spain. 6 This ‘Palacio de los Marqueses de Montemayor’ still stands, and still looks perfectly deserted. 7 Madoz, DG, vol. 16, 284: ‘no hay en el termino ni una gota de agua’, ‘there is not a drop of water to be found in the whole council area’. Note that modern scholarship derives the name of the town from ‘Villa d’Aceca’ with its origin in Arabib ‘as-seca’, ‘the road’. Chapter 43 Drenched in perspiration, which fell from our brows like rain, we arrived at the door of Juan Lopez, the husband of Maria Diaz. Having heard of our intention to pay him a visit, he was expecting us, and cordially welcomed us to his habitation, which, like a genuine Moorish house, consisted only of one story. It was amply large, however, with a court and stable. All the apartments were deliciously cool. The floors were of brick or stone, and the narrow and trellised windows, which were without glass, scarcely permitted a ray of sun to penetrate into the interior. 8 43.2 The market square of Vilaseca A puchera had been prepared in expectation of our arrival; the heat had not taken away my appetite, and it was not long before I did full justice to this the standard dish of Spain. Whilst I ate, Lopez played upon the guitar, singing occasionally snatches of Andalusian songs. He was a short, merry-faced, active fellow, whom I had frequently seen at Madrid, and was a good specimen of the Spanish labrador or yeoman. Though far from possessing the ability and intellect of his wife, Maria Diaz, he was by no means deficient in shrewdness and understanding. He was, moreover, honest and disinterested, and performed good service in the Gospel cause, as will presently appear. When the repast was concluded, Lopez thus addressed me:- "Señor Don Jorge, your arrival in our village has already caused a sensation, more especially as these are times of war and tumult, and every person is afraid of another, and we dwell here close on the 8 Tom Burns Marañon [Hispanomania, chapter 5, 149] records that according to the local historian Diaz Fernandez, the house stood in a street behind the town hall, called Calle Vacas at the time, and Calle Principe today. In the summer of 2007 there were still two or three houses visible, which answered Borrow’s description, although their existence was obviously being threatened by encroaching new building sites. George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition) confines of the factious country; for, as you well know, the greater part of La Mancha is in the hands of the Carlinos and thieves, parties of whom frequently show themselves on the other side of the river: on which account the alcalde of this city, with the other grave and notable people thereof, are desirous of seeing your worship, and conversing with you, and of examining your passport." "It is well," said I; "let us forthwith pay a visit to these worthy people." Whereupon he conducted me across the plaza, to the house of the alcalde, where I found the rustic dignitary seated in the passage, enjoying the refreshing coolness of a draught of air which rushed through. He was an elderly man, of about sixty, with nothing remarkable in his appearance or his features, which latter were placid and good-humoured. There were several people with him, amongst whom was the surgeon of the place, a tall and immensely bulky man, an Alavese by birth, from the town of Vitoria. There was also a red fiery-faced individual, with a nose very much turned on one side, who was the blacksmith of the village, and was called in general El Tuerto, from the circumstance of his having but one eye. Making the assembly a low bow, I pulled out my passport, and thus addressed them:- "Grave men and cavaliers of this city of Villa Seca, as I am a stranger, of whom it is not possible that you should know anything, I have deemed it my duty to present myself before you, and to tell you who I am. Know, then, that I am an Englishman of good blood and fathers, travelling in these countries for my own profit and diversion, and for that of other people also. I have now found my way to Villa Seca, where I propose to stay some time, doing that which may be deemed convenient; sometimes riding across the plain, and sometimes bathing myself in the waters of the river, which are reported to be of advantage in times of heat, I therefore beg that, during my sojourn in this capital, I may enjoy such countenance and protection from its governors as they are in the habit of affording to those who are of quiet and well- ordered life, and are disposed to be buxom and obedient to the customs and laws of the republic." "He speaks well," said the alcalde, glancing around.

Load more