A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “THE ORIGINAL TOURIST IN SPAIN”, 5 May 1967, Last Installment »
Although some passages in his book are dated, they make us realize what hardships The Original Tourist endured in roughing it on horseback across torrid plains and hostile mountains. Much has changed since Ford's day, but among the trifles of which he wrote so well remains unaltered today. "Gatherings from Spain" is more than an extraordinary eye-witness report on Spain in the early 19th century; it is more than a travelogue teeming with adventure and erudition; it is an honest record of a remarkable Englishman's reactions to a country he described as "the most romantic, racy, and peculiar of Europe, which hovers between Europe and Africa, between civilization and barbarity".
A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “THE ORIGINAL TOURIST IN SPAIN”, 5 May 1967, First Installment »
George Borrow: "How the rage for scribbling tempts people to write about lands and nations of which they know nothing! Vaya! It is not from having seen a bullfight at Seville or Madrid, or having spent a handful of ounces at a posada that you are competent to write about such a people as the Spaniards, and to tell the world how they think, how they speak, and how they act." But there was one, an erudite traveler, Englishman Richard Ford, who did justice to the endeavor. Living in southern Spain for three years and traveling across the peninsula on horseback, he wrote "Handbook on Spain" in 1845 and the even more riveting and timeless "Gatherings from Spain" published the following year and proved immensely popular.
GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “SUMMING UP THE SPANIARDS, AN ACCOUNT OF HOW SOME FAMOUS TRAVELLERS HAVE SEEN SPAIN,” 3 OCTOBER 1969 — (3) Food & Culture »
While for Gautier Spain was a stamping ground in which to delight in voluptuous sensibilities, for Ford it was a vast storehouse of culture and customs, a veritable way of life with which to whet his erudition and invigorate his body. Dumas spent his whole trip in Spain trying to palliate his gourmet’s taste.
GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “SUMMING UP THE SPANIARDS, AN ACCOUNT OF HOW SOME FAMOUS TRAVELLERS HAVE SEEN SPAIN,” 3 OCTOBER 1969 — (4) Barbers, Bandits, Bulllfighters & Beautiful Women »
Brenan sees Spain's waiters one of the most striking and representative of the country. They move with the ballet dancer's precision and operatic air. So are the barbers in their own way. A most favorite subject is the bullfight, said by some to be a barbarous and pagan left-over from the days of the Romans. But not Hemingway who finds it complex and compelling. And there are the women. Dumas: "There so many beautiful women along the Prado that only a plain woman is remarkable." As numerous in the travellers' mind are the bandits, thinking Spain is full of them.
