Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/23

Rh The next day they started for Burgos, by rail, only stopping for a few minutes on their way to the station to see the ^Albergo dei Poveri,' a hospital * and home for inciu'ables, nursed by the Spanish sisters of charity. They are affiliated to the sisters of St. Vincent do Paul, and follow their rule, but do not wear the ^ white cornette ' of the French sisters.

The railroad in this part of Spain has been carried through most magnificent scenery, which appeared to our travellers like a mixture of Pous- sin and Salvator Bosa. Fine purple mountains, still sprinkled with snow, with rugged and jagged peaks standing out against the clear blue sky, and with waterfalls and beautifid streams rushing down their sides ; an underwood of chesnut and beech-trees ; deep valleys, with little brown vil- lages and bright white convents perched on rising knolls, and picturesque bridges spanning the little streams as they dashed through the gorges ; and then long tracks of bright rose-coloured heather, out of which rose big boulder-stoneg or the wayside cross ; the whole forming, as it were, a succession of beautiful pictures such as would delight the heart of a painter, both as to com- position and colouring. No one can say much for the pace at which the Spanish railways travel ; yet