Toledo and Madrid : their Records and Romances. By Leonard
Williams. With 65 Full-page Illustrations. (Cassell and Co. 12s. 6d.)—This is a sumptuous volume, liberally illustrated with beautiful photogravures of architecture, scenery, and paintings. The letterpress is hardly equal in merit to the pictures. But perhaps it is the right sort of thing for a Christmas gift-book,—a mingling of romance and reverie with archaeological gossip and some modern local colour. The author explains that his book was intended to be a good deal shorter, and that the respon- sibility for its being as long as it is "is principally Toledo's," the charm of this venerable ex-capital of Spain being so great "that thirty illustrations have nearly doubled, and that a couple of short chapters have ripened into thrice as many long ones. Madrid is less alluring. Her records, to be sure, are full of interest; but foreign usages imported by the Bourbon Kings are tending more and more to strip her of her quaintest and most national characteristics." Mr. Williams finds the two cities typical of opposite attitudes towards modern progress. The motto of Toledo is defiance, that of Madrid subservience to
it. "There are positively Madrilenos who deem it no disgrace to ride in motor-cars or play football Toledo, on the other hand, is constant to the Roman, the Visigoth, and the Moslem." Too solid and ponderous to be a convenient travelling companion, the book is one to buy on one's return from a tour in Spain, and look through at leisure.
Previous page
