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20 May 1870 — Toledo | |
Friday. 20th [May 1870]. We had a message late last night from the Governor of the town to say that in spite of all his efforts & all our letters of recommendation & introduction the Authorities refused to show us the Cathedral Treasures– However this morning after 8 oclock breakfast came another message to say we were to see the treasury at 3. It appears that the Govr was so annoyed that late last night he had telegraphed to Sagasta to get an order from the old Archbishop who is at Madrid & that Sagasta was furious & immediately sent to insist upon having the order & sent it by telegram this morng; it appears that thereupon all the Cannons held a council & after 2 hours gave in & consented to show them. At 9 the gentleman came & we went to the Cathedral to see the chapels but mass being at 8 every thing was closed; however we got the keys & also went into the grating before the high altar so that we could see the beautiful carvings embroideries tombs &c– We left Mrs Burr drawing in the sacristy & Hy & I went on with the rest to S. Juan de la Penitencia where was a nice retablo & some old Spanish pictures & the nuns came & spoke to us at the Cloister door. We went from here to see the remains of the Palace of Don Pedro the Cruel where we saw a very fine Moorish arch still standing & we went on to a garden where I was told I could get some flowers to take home & we were pointed out a Palace belonging to the Empress of the French wh is always kept ready tho’ she never goes there. We found the woman who owns the flowers was in the cathedral patio so we went there & ordered a vine, some Venus’ looking glasses &c to be at the station at 5. I then went in to the Cathedral to find Mrs Burr & sat with her while she was drawing & I scribbled a little myself till Henry came to fetch us to go to luncheon. At 3 we were back at the Cathedral & soon there came some Canons Deans & other priests to show us the Treasury; they were very polite & showed us the custodia wh is certainly very fine about 6 or 7 foot high & inlaid with enamels precious stones &c. tho’ I do not admire it in style so much as the one at Seville. In a glass case was the Virgin’s mantle all embroidered with pearls & some of a good size with all kinds of votive offerings hanging on it, a couple of fine emerald crosses diamond stars & other jewels. The several figures of the Virgin, the infant Christ &c were all laden with crowns bracelets girdles &c of precious stones of lovely setting. The crown of the Virgin & one or two other things were missing having, as the priests explained, been stolen last year & for that reason these things were never shown. But the more interesting things were a fine Benvenuto silver plate & a small wooden statuette of St Francis by Alonso Cano:—the latter however was in such a dark corner it was not easy to see it. It is an exact match to one Mr Bauer has & wh Palmaroli found for him here this winter. Henry regretted exceedingly not having been able to get it himself. After thanking the priests we took our leave & at the door met the Govr & thanked him again & went back to the Inn where we took leave of all these gentlemen & sat quietly reading till it was time for me & Hy to go to the train to return to Madrid. Mrs Burr intending to stay on a few more days. However we took her & Mme Dentoni down to the station but left her to go & sketch the town from the fields. I had my new bird in the cage to take home & just as we arrived at the station he managed in his fright to force himself thro the bars wh being weak easily gave & the bird flew straight into the station house & all the porteros immediately flew at it & knocked it down with their caps– I could not stop to look at it but Henry said that when it was picked up & put into the cage it lay on its side—as if dead—but afterwards to their surprise it got up & recovered– We had 2 immense bouquets to carry also wh had been sent us by the English speaking Maire & a note to say that “owing to desease” he cd not come to take leave of us. We had a very slow journey to Madrid & got there abt 10 & had supper & went to bed– | |
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