The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-04-21 00:00:00

WEYMOUTH.

MR. H. HOWARDS, ILP., IN SPAIN.

The following interesting letter has been handed to
us for publication by a friend of our respected member,
Henry Edwards, Foch H.P. ;
Madrid, Wednesday, 15th ApriL
Dear Sir,—Yon may be surprised to hear from me from
this place, but you would not be surprised to know I
had left London for the Foster reopen, after the aloes
attendant* and late hours et St. Stephens. I felt gaits
out of sorts, sitting up three or four nights melt week
until near two in the morning, nod on the grand
division it WU between three and four; and you NM
Picture to yourself upwards of Goo members turning oat
at that time and about six .be in Weeder:los. However,
" all's well that ends wsIL" We bed a large majority
which I hope will beer good frail. I left London last
week for Paris, thinking of going to the south of France,
but the weather in Paris being wretchedly odd, with
wind, hail, and rain, and meeting friends coming to
Spain, I was attraeted hither, never having been to
Madrid. Lnekily, the Northern of Spain Railway ii com-
pleted, so we journeyed with comparative oomfort ; but
on mitering Spain the Ant 100 miles is all up hill, not.
sequently we travelled slowly until we remitted the
gigantic plateau, which forms the principal part of the
Spanish peninsula. ',Whilst passing the Pyrenees the
scenery was very fine. On leaving them we passed
Vittoria and some other scenes of the great Penineular
war. After leaving this portion of our journey I WU
struck with the bonsai appearance and mountainous
character of the country, which one usually believed to
be so fertile • its berrezinews mimes from want of water
and the absece of tress which the Spaniards have no
foolishly destroymi—tbo soil itself being good, and in
Castile, where there Is irrigation, capable of produoing
barge crops. I trust to visit in a dying manner
Andulasis and the fertile parts near the south before
icathe country. Madrid Itself • sort of French
town, porldsod in the middle of the country,
apperently for no pomade obioot, and whose cliondo,

presenting the estivate, of heat and cold, is bad enough,
even at this the most pleasant port of the lest. The o*o
Is not particularly agreeable or intetesting, except for
those who are fond of revolutions and street fights, whtch
take the plum of OUR important divisions, which decides
the fate of Ministries. It contains a one, or I nay
say, the finest gallery of ancient Muter' in Europe,
the tipani4 monarchs having collected them from their
varions possessions in the low countries, Italy, and
Naples. One of those disgraseful scenes in the present
day, "a bull fight," in all its splendour and atrocity,
took place yesterday. Three of the principal matalores
with their picadores and banderilleroe took part in K—
in fact it was considered a bull fight par excellence.
Six bulla were to be killed, four a which quite
sickened me, as 10 hones Were killed end three in,!
nearly lost their lives--one of whom is reported dying.
All this took place in tato presence of an excited
shrieking crowd of about 4.000 People, may of the
Orman sex occupying private boxes, and the whole pre-
sided over by tbe Governor of Madrid. I start to-
morrow southwards, and move rapidly, so as to attend to
my Parliamentary duties towards the end of next week.
I can imagine you will say I shall not he much
benefitted by rest, but the change of scene, although
ncoompanied by some bodily fatigue, is always refresh.
toI• lam writing hurriedly. I should like to send few
moo details, but time wRI not allow of it. Adieu!
—Yours very truly,
If. EDWARDS.