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25 June 1870 — Madrid | |
Saturday. 25th [June 1870]. I was tired & breakfasted in bed getting up late & was idle not doing much packing. Abt 2 Mme Riaño came & while talking to her Henry brought me a letter to Lord Clarendon to copy. We had luncheon & at 3 M. Riaño came to fetch her & they took leave. Mr Hunt arrived last night & came in to take Hy’s instructions this morning. His wife does not return till tonight. At 4 we went to the station & waited for the Regent the Dss & family, who were going to La Granja. We went by a special train to Villalba taking an hour to get there wh the ordinary train takes 3 hours to do. At Villalba the carriages were waiting & I went in the 1st carriage with the Dss Conchita & her dog “Kiss” & Miss Paz, a little dumply lady whom the duchess generally takes as a companion. Henry went outside the carriage with 2 of the gentlemen A.D.C’s. We had not gone very far when Kiss who was very restless set up a hideous howling frightening us all for fear he should be going mad as he is subject to fits– No one dared touch him so I seized him & held his head out of the window while the Dss called to the driver to stop & we confided the unhappy animal to the care of a servant. We stopped twice to change our 8 mules & each time the great basket was taken out & Conchita’s great white cat with her 3 white kittens was given some water. We went a great pace over the mountains with lovely views at each turn & when we got near the top through pine forest. Going down hill our pace was terrific & the manager of the expedition D. Manolito Alvarez kept urging the driver to go quicker—so that we went at full gallop round the endless turns & got to La Granja at ½ past 8 nearly an hour before the other carriages. We got out with the Dss at their house wh is called “de los Canonicos” having belonged to the priests. It is in the left wing of the Palace & a pretty comfortable apartment except that being en suite one must go thro’ all the rooms to get to the end– After the Regent had arrived & been received by the troups & the mayor of Segovia &c we were driven to our house wh is 5 min. off & was the house of the Infante D. Francisco. We found Giovanni & the servants had arrived at 7 this morng having left Madrid the previous eveng at 7. However they had got the house a little comfortable & something to eat & as I had a headache from fatigue I went at once to bed. | |
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