Tomb in Seville by Norman Lewis

Author:Norman Lewis [Lewis, Norman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-3326-7
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-06-22T19:32:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

THE COUNTRY WALK RECOMMENDED at the hospital had to be put off for a few days, for despite what was generally accepted as the collapse of the revolt, normal life had not been restored. An hour’s stroll in the central streets of the capital was still likely to be disturbed by the sound of distant shots. A suicide squad held out for most of a morning in the working-class suburb of Tetuan. A car rammed into a police station after the driver had leapt to safety and the house of a leading right-wing politician was set on fire.

In discussing the matter of a therapeutic walk the people at the hospital suggested the Toledo road, which in view of the fact that the State of Alarm was still in force was presumed to be clear of its normal volume of traffic. Taxis were not included in restrictions on travel so we hired one to take us to an area recommended for its scenery. Once there, we walked for a hundred yards or so, followed in my case by a short rest in the taxi before recommencing the walk.

The walk turned out to be of great interest and provided an opportunity to analyse that sense of the fantastic which the Spanish landscape seldom failed to produce.

I came to the conclusion that this visual effect originates partly in the dryness of the air which leaves the remotest corners of the plains unsoftened by distance, and in its turn produces an almost eerie feeling of proximity with the very limits of vision. With this went a kind of suppression of irrelevant detail, a directness and evenness of colouring, and something of a stylisation of light and shade in the manner of a travel poster. The hollows and hillocks, and the rare line of poplars, appeared to arrange themselves in rhythmic patterns. The fields reeled away in all directions, forming immaculate designs in pale gold and silver. Summer had long since withered away in a single week, and the sun glittered with chilly brilliance in the dark blue sky.

By turning through a complete circle one could observe every form of agricultural and pastoral activity. In one corner the plains were being ploughed and sown, in another they were winnowing the grain, and in a vineyard they gathered the last of the grapes. Knowing nothing of the southern European agricultural routine, these juxtapositions struck me with surprise.

Villages lay in depressions showing only their rooftops, or capped wide hummocks of grass. They were clean-cut and self-contained, like models in relief maps. Oases of trees marked the spots where there were wells. Each clump concealed a waterwheel where a blindfolded mule turned in circles from morning to night. A herd of black sheep passed across the foreground. My impression was that I could almost have hit one of them with a stone. Yet the illusory distances of Spain had reduced them almost to the size of insects.

A dozen short walks spaced out by lifts in the taxi brought us within sight of the outskirts of Madrid.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.