XERES de la Frontera, so called to distinguish it from a small town of the same name near Antequera. It is the capital of a district of the province of Andalusia, in Spain, about ten miles from the sea-shore at Puerto Santa Maria. The early history of this place is obscure, and the origin of its name a very disputable matter with Spanish antiquaries. It was known to the Romans as Acta Regia in the time of Pliny, but only the name is given. It is chiefly remarkable in history as the place where the great battle between the Moors and the Goths was fought in 714, by which, after a contest of eight days, the former were [7:21:955]conquerors of the whole of the peninsula. The river Guadalette, on whose banks the decisive action took place, is a small stream, about a mile and a half from the city, which at some seasons of the year is nearly dry. It has a stone bridge, about four miles below which are a wharf and storehouses, from which wine and other goods are shipped for Port St Mary’s.

Xeres is situated in the lap of two rounded hillocks, which shelter it to the east and the west; and it covers a considerable extent of ground. The city, properly so called, is embraced by an old crenated Moorish wall, which, though enclosing a labyrinth of narrow, ill-built, and worse drained streets, is of no great circuit, and is so intermixed with the suburbs as to be visible only here and there. The limits of the old town are however well defined by the numerous antique gateways. Some of the buildings are of a unique kind of architecture. It once had ten churches, eleven chapels, four hospitals, twenty-one monasteries and convents. It is doubtful how many of these institutions yet survive the convulsions to which Spain has been subjected for the last quarter of a century. The population is dense, being estimated at 50,000 souls; but the amount is subject to great variations, dependent on the recent or remote occurrence of the last endemic fever generated in its pestiferous gutters and its uncleanly streets and lanes.

The environs of this city afford abundant supplies of corn, especially wheat, of oil, and of cattle. It was long celebrated for its breed of horses, reared by a well-endowed convent of Carthusian monks, now robbed and nearly deserted; but the chief produce is the white wine so generally known by the name of Sherry. This wine is collected by the merchants of the city from the neighbouring vineyards; but some of them are also wine-growers. The quantity annually produced is about 30,000 butts, of 120 gallons each. Of these, rather more than two thirds are sent to England. The remainder is consumed at home, or sent to the United States of America, to the Havannah, to Mexico or Buenos Ayres. There are not less than twenty-five great mercantile houses, chiefly engaged in the trade with England. There is always on hand a large stock of old wines, which are mixed with the new in such a proportion as is suitable for the various markets. The storehouses are above ground, are vast piles of building, having lofty roofs supported on arches, and their walls are pierced with numerous windows, and thus admit a free circulation of air. Some of these storehouses are so large as to be capable of containing 4000 butts. The oldest wines are kept in huge casks, little inferior to the celebrated tun of Heidelberg, and some of them have wine nominally 120 years old; but the quantity withdrawn is every year supplied from casks of a later growth; and when wine is mixed for shipping, a small portion of the oldest is mingled with the new. Much brandy is mixed with all the wine for exportation, and the merchants are commonly the distillers.