yet been my good fortune to meet with any. In the Queen's Palace at La Granja, the whole sides of a boudoir are decorated with "Bueno Retiro' china; and I am convinced that a run through the interior of Spain would repay the bric-à-brac hunter. Of historical swords, the finest collection in the world may be seen in the Armoria at Madrid, many of them having mottoes similar to the one I have quoted in a previous page, indicative of the fine old cavalier spirit which once existed in Spain, and which I am not prepared to say does not still exist.

With all its drawbacks, Madrid during the cool season is by no means an unenjoyable séjour for a brief period, notwithstanding the proofs of a certain disregard of the comforts and decencies of life, laxity of police rule and discipline everywhere distinguished. But these are only "Cosas di Espagna.”

The three faces of the clock over the Home Office at the Puerta del Sol hardly ever agree as to the hour. This phenomenon may be fairly taken as an emblem of the whole political, social, and moral condition of the country. Alas, poor

Spain with all your natural charms, you possess many vices and innumerable humbugs. Should you fall, which is not improbable or impossible— for the glass of your prosperity sinks fast-I trust in the scramble some of your "Bueno Retiro " china may fall into my hands; I will be careful that it is not broken.

Now as regards other portions of this book, the chapter on Madrid was written some years lang syne; since that era, the changes as regards this country--rich and beautiful as made by God, miserable as made by man-have been rapid. Queens have been dethroned; Governments continually upset; railways which connected the capital rapidly with Paris and the sea-boards destroyed; and at the moment I write this the only available means of reaching Madrid appears to be in wretched steamboats over the most dangerous sea in Europe, either from Bayonne or Succoa to Santander, and thence by a miserably slow and uncertain railway to Madrid,—a journey, in fact, of great fatigue and delay, not unattended with danger. I know not for which of my sins, but it has so

occurred during the year past that I have been called on several occasions to the Serano city, and then and there I found out my error as regards bric-a-brac hunting.

It is possible that during the brief time I had previously remained there I had become ill-acquainted with the riches it contained. My eyes

have recently been opened to the fact; but, alas! somewhat too late to take advantage thereof. Whether the civil war has been the cause of pecuniary requirements, I know not; but quantities of Chelsea, Dresden, and other valuable specimens of English china, within the last four years, have found their way into the hands of dealers at Madrid and been bought up at very moderate prices, previous to the railways being destroyed. But, alas! those beaux jours sont passés. Collectors and their agents then crossed the Pyrenees, and now even a broken group of Chelsea or anything worth having is ridiculous as to price. Whether all the treasures which have been sold came from the rural districts or how obtained, I know not, but some still remain for those who have the means to secure them.

Count Valentia, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making, has a splendid collection of early and I may say unequalled “Bueno Retiro.”

And Madame Riano, well known in English society, has first-rate specimens of Chelsea and other English china, and Spanish glass of great antiquity, all collected in Spain.

And the courtesy and kindness of the Count, as also Madame Riano, induces them always to open their collections to lovers of Ceramic art.

There are also numberless fine specimens of partially glazed Moorish plates and dishes; but these, like all else, have quadrupled in price.

Last, certainly not the least interesting in Spanish china, is Alcora, marked with an A, and little known or esteemed, I fancy, in England; nevertheless many of the specimens, particularly figures, are well modelled and painted. Those with a golden A are fine and scarce. This Fabric was established in 1727 by the Count Arauda, once Spanish ambassador in Paris, a great friend of Voltaire's, to whom he made a present of a complete set of this china.

I

CHAPTER VI.

ST. PETERSBURG.

CANNOT that I sat me down on the banks

say

of the Neva and wept. With my pipe in my mouth I reclined in an easy arm-chair on a balcony which overlooked that wide and flowing river, and pictured to my mind what it must be in midwinter, when that blue and rushing expanse of water is converted into a broad and ice-bound high-road; in which state it has been my lot so very many times since to behold it. And here permit me to remark that every chapter of my bric-à-brac wanderings is written in the actual place, often on the very spot of which I speak.

There was a time, which appears but yesterday, so few the years-I might say the months-which have elapsed, when he who desired to visit the city of the Czars had occasion to brace up his nerves and to call alike on his physical powers and his patience; for the journey by land from