Byron's Romantic Adventures in Spain
1 BYRON’S ROMANTIC ADVENTURES IN SPAIN RICHARD A. CARDWELL UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM I On the July 2nd 1809, after several delays with the weather, Byron set off from Falmouth on the Lisbon Packet, The Princess Elizabeth , on his Grand Tour of the Mediterranean world not controlled by France. Four and a half days later he landed in Lisbon. From there, across a war-ravaged Portugal and Spain, he headed on horseback to Seville and Cádiz, accompanied by Hobhouse, details recorded in the latter’s diary. But we know little of Byron’s stay in Seville and Cádiz save what he relates in a letter to his mother, Catherine Byron, from Gibraltar dated August 11th 1809. It is ironic that Byron never saw her in life again. The first part of the letter reads as follows: Seville is a beautiful town, though the streets are narrow they are clean, we lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess six houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the youngest pretty but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha, the freedom of woman which is general here astonished me not a little, and in the course of further observation I find that reserve is not the characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are on general very handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms. – The eldest honoured your unworthy son with very particular attention, embracing him with great tenderness at parting (I was there but three days) after cutting off a lock of his hair, & presenting him with one of her own about three feet in length, which I send, and beg you will retain till my return.
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