The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-27 00:00:00

SPAIN.

CADIZ, MAY 14,-4 went over to Xeres the other day
in order to inspect the wine-cellars in that thriving city,
and was highly gratified with my trip,cnae thing excepted,
namely, the want of good roads between Port St. Mary's
and that place, which is the more surprising because the
constant transit of travellers as well as produce is im-
mense. The wine establishments most deserving the
attention of visitors are those of Monsieur Garvey,
where upwards of 5,000 butts of fine old wines are to be
seen collected within a comparatively small building, and
or M. Domeck, where, independent of as large, if-not
a larger, stock of good wines, the oldest sherry wines
are to be met with in greater abundance. The cellars
belonging to the very ancient house of Hourie, as well
as those of the wealthy M. Pemartin, are likewise on the
first rate of magnitude. The stock of wines perma-
nehtly kept on hand at Xeres may safely be reckoned
worth one million eight hundred thousand pounds ster-
ling, just as it stands, yet when first shipped for foreign
ports, in 1727, the whole quantity which a good average
vintage yielded did not exceed 200 butts ! There is
nothing otherwise remarkable in gr about Xeres, if we
except the recently built most splendid amphitheatre,
for holding the bull-fights in, at an expense of 66,000
dollars, which had much better have been laid out to-
wards making a road, and M. Domeck's celebrated
country house and estate, the produce of the vines on
which is, generally, near 1,300 butts ; there were no
less than 509 men at work on the grounds when I went
over them. Another country house, called the Alameda,
near the (ivadalete river, is well worth being visited.
The city of Port St. Mary's, where you take shipping
for Ciadii on your return from Xeres, stands next in im-
portance, hi cOrbieetion with the sherry wine trade, but
neither arc its cella-I*CW elcepted, on the same scale of
magnificence, or the stocks of old wines anything like so
large as those at XerQsl vet, as a residence, I should prefer
it to the latter. Most a the wines which now glut the
British markets have been, and cont!,e to be, prepared at
Puerto de Santa Maria, where no less two hundred
butts of what they are pleased to call sherry ::".!"e were
offered me at 101. per butt on board. The very extraZ-
dinary, not to call it by a harsher name, decree, in virtue
of ilhich wines, as well as other Spanish prodtide, if re-
imported into Spain, are to be considered as foreign Me'
chandise, will have one good effect, because it will, in a
great measure, deter some of our wine exporters from
sending to -England the wretched stuff they have lately
been in the habit of shipping thither, a good portion of
which has invariably been sent back to this country.
Cadiz, though rapidly declining in its commercial im-
portance, in proportion that Seville, Xeres, and Port St.
Mary's, thrive, will boast, by the 30th instant, of pos-
sessing a new, if not a very elegant amphitheatre, or
Plaza de Toros, which will cost 8,000/. sterling, and the
renowned matador Montes has been engaged to come
down from Madrid, in order to act the very first
part, the bulls excepted, in the first two bull-fights,
for which he is to get 2001., and 260 L for six perfor-
mances at Seville, 130/. for two at Xeres, and 450/. for
three at Pamplona, independent of his regular annual
engagements at Madrid. This man Mentes, contrary to
the usual habits of his colleague bull-fighters, is remark.
ably saving and.steady, and has already put by 8,000/.
sterling, about 5,000/. of which, whether in his name or
that of some friend, he has invested in the English funds.
In order, if possible, though at the eleventh hour, to
do something "for the town, the Cadiz merchants are
forming a company for the purpose of establishing four
steamers to ply between that place and the Island of
Cuba, and a contract is being entered into with Govern-
ment for the conveyance of the mails, which are to be
made up each fortnight instead of monthly, as at present.
Some capitalists have started a manufactory at the
Carthusian Convent, near Seville, for making all sorts of
earthenware, fit for the use of the middling and higher
classes of the people in the southern and other provinces,
but I doubt their succeeding, owing to the unsteady sort
of countenance and support they will have to look for-
ward to from Government.

Such is the perfection, as well as economy in price,
with which upholstery furniture is made here, that quan-
tities of it are every now and then shipped for various
ports of the United States of America.
The contractors who undertook to perform the duties
of the preventive service, finding it a losing concern,
have adopted the expedient of replacing their chief Com-
missioners at the principal ports by new men whom they
have brought from Madrid, but it will not have the effect
of improving the receipts at the Custom-house, because
the fault lies with the general demoralisation of the peo-
ple, more especially so of the public employes.

A very Ingenious carriage has just been intro-
duced, in which a hearse and mourning coach are attached to-
gether, the vehicle being drawn by one or two horses, accord-
ing to the distance. The coffin is introduced into the hearse
at the front of the carriage, the mourning coach being in' the
rear,•and on its arrival at the place of sepulture, the horses
are easily detached. The effect of this new introduction tends
materially to lessen the charge of funerals at a short distance
from town. • .