Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-05
European Correspondence.
Letter from, Orrihe d. Baker in Spain
VALLADoLID, SPAIN,
Dec 3h tSf0

VALLADoLID, SPAIN,
Dec. 26, 1869
1t is only three days since l sent off my
last epistle, but l am going to start an
other eagle. / left you, or rather my
self, at Bordeaux, Wednesday night.
Well, the next morning | went abroad to
see the city. l found a museum of paint
ings, which is certainly fine tor a place like
Bordeaux, and contains some rich speci-
mems of the Italian school, including Paul
Veronese, Correggio, and noble specimen
of Titan and Andrea del Sarto, several
excellent Murillos Spanish schooD and a
fine Nelasquez (also Spanish). There was
also room devoted to the French school,
but these l never admire excessively, for
they deal too much in gaudy whites, and
their colors want entirely that softness
and harmony which characterize the old
masters, and which, | suppose, must be
classed with the lost arts Yet this is the
gallery which Harper, with his usual ac-
curacy, sets down as a museum containing
some very indifferent paintings.
After spending some hour or two in
these, | went to the Cathedral which is
not very remarkable, and then to the old
Roman amphtheatre, whose noble gate
way, with its arches four deep, and part
of whose walls are still standing, and,
though worn with time, are almost as per-
feet as in their proudest days. They in
dicate at once the permanence of Roman
deed was well known to the Romans under
| the name of Bordigala. Then went into
the famous wine cellars of Barton and
Guestier, who were my bankers there
Bordeaux is the centre of one of the three
great wine districts of France, and is per-
haps the most important of any of them
The two others are the Champagne near
Rheims, and the Burgundy near Dion
Their cellars are sunk to the depth of two
floors and are of immense extent, contain
ing some 200O hogsheads and 800, 900
bottles besides. 1t may be kept barreled
four or five years, and then must be bot
tied, when it continues to improve up to
ten years, and may be kept even twenty.
Almost all the best wines of France are
exported except the Burgundy, which is
consumed at home. The quality differs
as much in wines of the same name as in
those of different, and you may have
Champagne and yet have a much poorer
,f
France. These general names such as
Champagne embrace wide district, and
many subdivisions. The quality of the
wine depends on the soil which NAV pro-
duce good wine and poor one within
twenty feet of each other. They always
have their first. second. third and even
fourth quality, and each vineyard is known
to produce a certain quality which usually
is called after the name of the vineyard
This quality, again, of course, varies with
different years. All the soils which bear
these wines are thin, arid and sandy. The
vine simply grows upright and very low,
never higher than a mans head, usually
less. They are planted in rows like beans,
each with an upright pole, which, when |
was passing through, they were just tax
ing up and laying in bundles, each bundle
in the crotch Of two forked poles at regu-
lar intervals These wines are all light
and contain only some twelve per cent
of alcohol, while our American stuff. /
suppose, has sometimes, eighty and ninety.
Everybody drinks, but never saw any
body intoxicated except the lower classes.
1t is frequent sight to see them too heav
lily loaded, especially Sunday night, in the
streets. They are always singing and
shouting, but it is a noticeable thing that
they never do the slightest harm, being
| always either too happy or too stupid.
The police never pay the slightest atten-
ton to them, and though they are noisy,
they don't compete with the French stu
dents who come home from the theatres
and cafes from twelve to three at night.
Noise is one of the prerogatives OF Paris
at night, and that though in other respects
it is q marvel of order. But the compara-
them of that fatal excitement, which is
the mother of crime,-so that intemperance
is question of morals here instead of
government as in England and America.
That same noon | left for Bayonne at
? l2. Met two English ladies on the
cars, who had courier, 1. e., one who
takes charge of everything, interprets for
them, and is factotum. They went to
Pau, famous summer and winter resort
near Bayonne. They were very pleasant.
There were ten or twelve other English
on the train going the same way, none to
Spain. BY the way, they talk about Amer
leans travelling. l always meet five Eng
lish to one American, except perhaps in
Paris, and there l was thrown, of course,
into American society. But the English
are eyerywhere and fairly cucumber the