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breath. The day that I was first introduced to an alcochofa I have ever since considered an era in my life.

Indeed I liked every thing in Cadiz. If all Spanish life resembled it here, I concluded that I had nothing before me but one fiesta, or holiday.

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CHAPTER XVI.

SAN MARIA-XERES--PEDRO DOMECQ'S ESTABLISHMENT-WINES OF XERESJOURNEY TO SEVILLE.

MR. REED proposing to visit Xeres, I seized upon an opportunity to view the place under such good auspices. We took a steamer, and crossed the beautiful bay to El Puerto de Sa. Maria, Port St. Mary-about half an hour's passage. It was a nice pleasant day, and we had a very smooth sea. But sometimes, when the Atlantic is vexed with storms and vents its fury upon this bay, the passage is very dangerous.

El Puerto, or "the Port," as it is called, contains some twenty thousand inhabitants. It is a pleasant, unpretending place, and one of the three towns for the exportation of wine. I found some Amontillado and Mansanilla very choice here; I bought a bottle of the latter for thirty cents, much better than what I have paid three dollars for at the Astor House, much better, and less potent. There are bodegas, or wine-stores, here, that we could not neglect to visit, but for the superior ones at Xeres.

We hired a calesa to Xeres and back for two dollars. It is as necessary to make a bargain with the caleseros as with New York hackmen; or, in either case, you will be shamefully done. The Spaniard, however, is the least unconscionable rogue of the two; not that perhaps he has more conscience, but less im

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pudence. The road from El Puerto to Xeres is not remarkable for its beauty-though at one point-la buena vista, you have a fine view of the Bay of Cadiz, which you do not readily forget. Groves of olives occasionally refreshed the sight, and the banks of the Gaudalete on our right had the appearance of great fertility. It was in the vicinity of this river that Don Roderick, the last Gothic King, lost life and kingdom.

We passed some flocks of sheep en route, white and black-the latter with short wool, while the former had long white fleeces, which more resembled hair than wool. It is unlawful to inclose fields; vineyards and gardens being the sole inclosures. So that as soon as the corn or grain is gathered in, cattle and sheep are allowed to run loose upon any man's grounds. This is of no great advantage to agricultural improvements. The vineyards and gardens are protected generally by hedges of the cactus or prickly-pear, and the aloe; the latter is inferior because it dies when it has flowered, while the former, renewed with occasional fresh plants, will last, perhaps, forever.

I saw some men in a field plowing. The oxen were not yoked, like ours, by the neck, but by the head; the yoke placed immediately behind the horns, and fastened to the forehead of the beasts. Their fathers plowed in this manner, and why should n't they? They are like old Manse Headrigg, opposed to innovations in agriculture-to all "new-fangled machines for dighting the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine Providence by raising wind for one's ain particular use by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or waiting patiently for whatever dispensation of wind Providence was pleased to send." Indeed, but for the fear of starvation, the Spaniard would abandon every thing to Providence.

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The ride to Xeres is but about seven miles, and we accomplished it in an hour. Our horse was not of the fleetest, and carried three; the driver mounted on his back, postillion fashion.

Xeres is a Moorish city of some thirty thousand population. A part of the original walls still remain, and the Alcazar is nearly the same as the Moors left it. Its situation is picturesque, emerging from vine-clad slopes, studded with pleasant farm-houses and country-seats; and, seen from a distance, with its whitewashed towers and walled fortresses, its quaint architecture and vast bodegas impresses the fancy. But its streets are narrow, irregular, and filthy, and its houses and other buildings erected with no regard to harmonious resemblance. Its history is a mystery; legends are its only annals; no solution of its origin being considered other than mythical. "It is so far doting in age," as old Fuller says of the pyramids, "as to have forgotten the very name of its founders." But though

"The Grecian mound, the Roman urn,

Are silent when we call,

Yet still the purple grapes return

And cluster on the wall."

To its vine, and not to its fabulous antiquity or historic incidents, does Xeres owe its fame.

We visited the stupendous bodegas of Domecq. They were said to contain fourteen thousand butts of wine, of every variety of Sherry. Some of the bodegas are three hundred feet long, with rows of butts, filled up on either side one above the other three deep, and containing each on an average three thousand butts, every age and vintage represented. They showed me one butt (Tomelado, I think they called it) which held fifteen hundred gallons. Why, one might set down

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before it longer than the Greeks before Troy, and yet not be able to overcome it! much more likely to be taken himself.

The house of Domecq is the largest in Xeres, and one of the longest established. It is of French extraction, and they introduced from their own country a much more scientific treatment of the vine than had previously prevailed. Ferdinand the Seventh was so much pleased with their wines that he granted them permission to stamp the royal arms on their casks; of which they have ever since availed themselves.

The greater part of the wines imported into England and our country under the name of Sherry are grown in Malaga, brought round to Cadiz, and thence reshipped. The whole quantity of Sherry annually exported from Xeres would not exceed twenty five thousand butts, and in this country alone we drink as much as that. The whole extent of the vineyards of Xeres, which produce wines of any but inferior character, does not reach seven thousand acres. We pay often the highest price for Sherries which have nothing of the wine of Xeres but its stolen name. So it is with Champagne. But what matters it? If we know not the imposition, we are as happy as with the genuine article. What but shams constitute the greater portion of our happiness?

wine from the growers Wine is forbidden by

The exporters purchase the usually when it is a year old. law to be sold for consumption of less than a year old; nor do the best houses in Xeres ship their wines before they have reached the age of two years, i. e., till the bulk of the wine has attained that age. For it is to be understood that they never ship a normal wine; wine, I mean, of any one vintage alone, without qualification from others. If an order is received for wine

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