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6 October 1871 — Perpignan | |
Friday. 6th October [1871]. At breakfast we met the Bp of G. who is a tall spare man with greyish hair rather bent with age (I should say between 60 & 70) but with a kind pleasant expression of eye. We found that he was going on to Gerona by the same dilligence as we are. Henry & I went out with Giovanni. We went for a moment into the Cathedral where a funeral service was being performed; it seemed to be that of a sister of Charity & with the people, nuns & lights far more picturesque than it was yesterday. We went into the Christ’s Chapel just outside wh is rather a pretty little chapel & rather prettily painted with modern frescoes by a French artist. We then went to the jewellers street where Henry bought me a couple of the little silver wine cups used by the wine merchants to taste wine. I wanted them for my travelling bag. We also bought a Louis XV silver mustard pot & 2 salts to match & a pretty little silver coffee pot & then we went back to the hotel & had some luncheon & at ¼ to 2 we went off to the dilligence office & took our places for Gerona. Hy & I had the coupé & Giovanni & Hill were in the interior where was also the Bp of Gib. We got to the French frontier just abt dark & had our passports examined. Abt ½ hour on we got to the Spanish custom house wh the luggage was examined. An order had been sent not to open ours but thro’ some mistake the order was to seal up our boxes that they might not be opened till we arrived at Madrid. After a deal of arguing Henry succeeded in persuading the Custom House officer of the absurdity of this & he did not seal them. Abt 10 we got to Figueras where we stopped 2 hours. There was a kind of bettermost Posada there & we got some dinner but it was too Spanish to please me. While eating we were entertained with distant sounds of music “Ill Baccio” being sung by a fine Soprano voice. After our food the landlady invited me in to the parlour to see her niece who was singing & there I found a little family party in the midst of wh was a pretty little girl seated at the piano. I pressed her to sing again wh she did. She sang very well indeed & said she had been studying for 2 years at Florence under Romano. Henry & the Bp were called in & after we had all complimented her we withdrew & took our places in the dilly to doze away the time till starting. | |
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