George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[236] world with half the present means, as in fact it was in 1705, 1728, and 1782, when half the means did not exist; and as I went through the famous galleries, it seemed to me almost as if men were useless there, and as if the Rock could defend itself. . . . . The town is very pleasant, for English industry and wealth have made it so in defiance of nature. I have seen few towns of the same size more neat or more comfortable, and, what is yet more extraordinary, still fewer that have so many or so fine gardens. Indeed, a genuine horticulture has been carried so far under the present excellent governor, that, instead of depending on the neighboring villages, Gibraltar exports to them different kinds of vegetables through the whole year. Notwithstanding this, however, everything has, as it ought to have, a military character and tone. The houses are painted dark, so as to mask them from an enemy; the walks are esplanades and batteries; the squares made for reviews; and even the hospitable dinner-table of the governor is made of planks from one of the bomb-ships engaged in the siege of 1782, and the candlesticks in his drawing-room are made of some of the brass ordnance of the famous floating batteries. . . . .

The road from Gibraltar to Cadiz is dreary, passing almost always through a good soil, but one much neglected, unpeopled, and uncultivated. . . . .

I remained [at Cadiz] two days, but saw no one monument of architecture, other than military, to attract my notice; almost nothing in painting, for the few collections there were are scattered, and nothing in letters, except the fine Spanish library of the Hanseatic Consul, Bohl von Faber.¹ The few persons I knew, especially the women, answered well to the character for grace, lightness, and gayety they have had, from the time of Martial to that of Lord Byron; but, as all have admitted, there are few people here that attract a solid esteem for their cultivation. . . .