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[18] the last four centuries been endeavouring to counteract. El cielo y suelo es bueno, el entresuelo malo. Here the tenant for life, and the occupier of the peninsular entresol, have long abused, with incurious apathy, the goods with which the gods have provided him, and have. preserved the country as a terra incognita to naturalists, and every branch of ists and ologists. Those, however, who aspire to the romantic, who wish to revel in the sublime and beautiful, will find subjects enough in wandering with lead-pencil and note-book through this singular country, this land of the green valley and ashy mountain, of the boundless plain and the broken sierra; through Elysian gardens of the vine, the olive, the orange, and the aloe, and trackless, silent, uncultivated wastes, the heritage of the bustard and bittern. Striking, indeed, and sudden is the change, in flying from the polished monotony of England, to the racy freshness of this still original country, where antiquity treads on the heels of to-day; where Paganism disputes the very altar with Christianity; where a want of much that is honest or merciful is blended with the most devoted heroic virtues; where ignorance and erudition stand in violent and striking contrast.

In suggesting lines of routes in Spain, a whole year would not suffice to exhaust the objects of natural history, antiquarian, ecclesiological, and fine art interest. A complete tour—the grand tour—may, however, be made in five months by those to whom time is an important consideration.