A Stranger in Spain

by H.V. Morton

A handsome re-issue of a travel classic. With his trademark wit and inquisitive eye, H. V. Morton travels through a Spain unspoilt by tourism, revealing a country where the past is very much alive. Interspersed with episodes from Spain's rich history, A Stranger in Spain is a journey of discovery that should appeal to those with a sense of adventure. Morton’s classic travel book on Spain is a delightful travel guide and a striking introduction to Spanish history and culture. "The stranger who wishes to approach Spain with sympathy and appreciation," H. V. Morton wrote, "must do so through its history." Thus, as he takes us on a leisurely tour through a country where the past is very much alive, he reveals a rich tapestry of events, related with his inimitable humor, charm, and sincerity. The Spain of the Christian kings and the caliphs of Córdoba, of Philip II, and the tragic Hapsburgs, the Spain of Columbus, of St Teresa, of Cortés and Pizarro, Velázquez, and Goya, is the thread on which his narrative is strung. Vivid, varied, and enchanting, A Stranger in Spain reflects the pleasures and surprises of travel at its best, and will be enjoyed by all who know the country or intend to visit it, or simply prefer to travel at home.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Spain, History, Rus, British Literature

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Henry Canova Vollam (H.V.) Morton, FRSL, was a journalist and pioneering travel writer from Lancashire, England, best known for his prolific and popular books on Britain and the Holy Land. He first achieved fame in 1923 when, while working for the Daily Express, he scooped the official Times correspondent during the coverage of the opening of the Tomb of Tutankhamon by Howard Carter in Egypt.

In the late 1940s he moved to South Africa, settling near Cape Town in Somerset West and became a South African citizen.

Reviews

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morton’s Spain focuses closely on the medieval and early modern eras and to a history and religious culture dominated by the Caliph, the King, the conquistador and the saint.

Although his approach and style of writing is long out of fashion for the general reader, ‘A Stranger in Spain’ remains a quirky and reverent love song to both the country and the old-style travel narrative.

Read against the grain for additional insights.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a charming and fascinating book about HV Morton’s travels in Spain, written in 1954. As with his other books there are wonderfully evocative descriptions - of Spanish people, cities, villages and countryside. The book is also liberally endowed with generous dollops of history - and marvellous anecdotes and stories about heroes, saints, travellers and royalty. One gets a lovely flavour of Spain in the mid 20th century, and in many instances that could still be the mid 18th or 19th century….so many of the things Morton describes seem utterly timeless.

Aspects of the book that I particularly enjoyed:

* The lovely opening …

The aircraft descended upon a landscape that was just as I had expected it to be. The trees had vanished centuries ago, much of the top soil had gone, and the bones of the land lay stark and bare in various shades of brown……

* His unexpected observations - painting wonderful pictures of the places he visits…

A narrow street led up into the town and there was another vista of old houses and balconies. The surprising arrival of the telephone has covered the slit of sky above these streets with a precarious network of thin wires, and upon some of the balconies are rows of porcelain insulators that look like swallows preparing to migrate.

* His descriptions of various madonnas that were dressed up in material clothing. Some of this clothing went back centuries. He describes a dressing room for the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe…..

“This apartment, called the ‘camarín’, was a typical baroque reconstruction… In many churches this sumptuous little apartment is the Virgin’s dressing-room, where she is clothed for festivals.
The ‘Camarín’ at Guadalupe is obviously associated with the robing of the Virgin, for a door leads from it into her jewel-room. This is furnished with chairs, tables and cabinets, all of the seventeenth century, and the walls are lined with crimson silk. Here is to be seen an amazing collection of jewels and crowns, headdresses and all kinds of valuable objects given at various time to the Virgin….It is a curious form of piety, and indeed it fascinates me and I could watch monks for hours as they lovingly withdraw shelves from presses and point out the beauty of the oddly shaped garments, with an expert eye for embroidery and needlework…. The most spectacular and valuable dresses have names. There is a superb piece of embroidery known as “the One from the Infanta”, which was sent from Flanders by the daughter of Philip II, Doňa Clara Eugenia, in 1629; another is called “the First of the Community”, and a third “the Rich Robe of the Community”, both embroidered and sewn with thousands of pearls by monks in the eighteenth century. What a strange occupation for men who had turned their faces from womankind to sit year after year making these rich and flashing gala dresses for the Queen of Heaven. The monk drew my attention to the coats-of-arms in enamel and gold, with diamonds and pearls in the centre of each crest, which form the border of one robe, and to the great cape sewn with thousands of pearls in such a way that from every direction they spell the words ‘Ave Maria’.
“There is nothing richer in the whole world,” whispered the monk as he closed the press.

*A typical HV Morton aside….his description of William Prescott, who wrote the book The Conquest of Mexico in spite of being almost blind…

One of his secretaries has left an account of him at work in a darkened library fitted with screens, which had to be adjusted with almost every cloud that passed across the sky. He wrote on a now obsolete instrument called a noctograph, designed for the blind, which was a frame with lines traced in wires on which words were written with a stylus on carbon paper. How a man so handicapped, who had to use other people’s eyes, who had to have his authorities read to him, and in a foreign language, who worked in America, far from the European sources of his works, how such a man could have slowly and painfully marshalled such an enormous mass of historical detail is a shining example of courage and genius. When he was writing ‘The Conquest of Mexico’ he was limited by his failing sight to one hour’s work a day with his remaining eye, and this hour was divided into two widely separated periods of thirty minutes. How did he find the strength and the courage to plod on at this snail’s pace, year after year, book after book

* His description of Cortéz’s conquest of the Aztec Empire. There is too much blood and guts in this episode in history for me to be able to read a whole book on the subject, but I was hugely fascinated by the chapter or so that Morton devoted to the subject.

* The book is full of delightful anecdotes about Spanish life – this being an example…

“Every year at Corpus Christi choristers in the dress of three centuries ago dance in front of this altear to the sound of castanets; and if I had to choose, I would rather see this Dance of the Seises than the famous ceremonies of Holy Week. The boys wear satin knee-breeches, jackets hanging from one shoulder, buckled shoes, and plumed hates, and they perform a grave and stately measure. It is a unique survival of the religious dancing which was always popular in Spain, thought the Church was more than a little doubtful about it…. Rome was anxious to put a stop to it, and Pope Eugenius IV allowed the dance to continue, so the story goes, only as long as the costumes should last. It is said that, in order to keep up the custom, the dresses have been cunningly patched and re-patched until hardly a shred of the original garments remains.”

* His discussion about the Inquisition… I was particularly interested in the following:

“Even if we judge the Inquisition against its historical background and admit that its tortures were the normal methods in use at the time, it must still appear one of the most monstrous rackets in history. Its immense wealth was derived from the confiscated property of its victims. It had no other source of income. It would have gone bankrupt without prisoners, and the more people it condemned the richer it became. Every time its officers arrested a man, they were accompanied by a notary who made an inventory of the prisoner’s possessions, thus enormous estates often passed into the keeping of the Holy Office

*Morton’s description of the feting of Columbus when he returned from America was fascinating too – he was give a real heroes welcome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This book had one last added attraction for me – a personal attraction. My copy is yellowed and stained, and a lot of the pages are loose. This is because the book is old. It was given by one of my grandmothers to my other grandmother, and a message in the flyleaf reads “Florence from Dorothy. Best wishes for a splendid trip to Spain." Whilst reading this I felt very much that I was sharing it with my grannies, who have both now been dead for many years. I think we are all HV Morton fans, and that’s a nice feeling.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy is a 1965 hardback edition. H.V. Morton has done it again. This time, he really brought back Spain.
A Stranger in Spain opens with "The aircraft descended upon a landscape that was just as I had expected it to be. The trees had vanished centuries ago, much of the top soil had gone, and the bones of the land lay stark and bare in various shades of brown. There was a lonely dignity about it as there is about most wide, uncluttered landscapes, and blue and purple hills rose far off on the edge of the sky."

"The afternoon sun shot in and took possession when, after a struggle with one of the webbing bands unknown in less sunny climes, I lifted the wooden shutters a yard or two and revealed what lay beyond. I saw a low huddle of roofs beautifully covered with mulberry-coloured tiles, long and semi-circular in shape, of the kind seen on Byzantine churches all over Greece."

Chapter 6 covers a range of subjects. A bullfight is described with the journalists eye for detail. I don't think I would want to sit through a bullfight. Then Columbus, this has me wanting a H.V. Morton biography of Columbus. Then, further on, the strange mystery of Goya's missing skull.

[Jason Pryde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I’d read this book as part of my preparation to walk the Camino de Santiago. It would have given me a much better grounding on the areas that I had visited and the differences, historically and culturally, between the different regions of Spain.
I rated this book highly because the author shares an incredible depth of knowledge about every city he visits and does so in a conversational format. He uses his knowledge to enter into meaningful conversations with local people to learn current activities and gain access to events that most casual tourists would not even know about.
Even though the book was written 65 years ago, the architecture, culture, foods, etc go back over a thousand years so I feel like I could follow his path today and share his appreciation of Spain. In deed, while reading the book, I stopped frequently to look up places and events that he describes in Wikipedia, Google Maps, and sometimes the website for the topic itself.
For instance, I listened to traditional Sardana dance music on YouTube being played on the same original instruments that he describes. (He actually recommends the reader buying a Gramaphone record to listen to it at home. )
The only negative I have about this book is that at times the author obsesses over Spain - English historical relations and their intertwined royalty with a critical view boardering on eugenics. I suppose the means of international politics in the Middle Ages was far more primitive that the European Union today.
Excellent read and worthy of your time if you are considering traveling to Spain as a stranger to that interesting land.
(Also, checkout the extensive bibliography at the end.)
-jgp

[John Ollerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book and a fitting book to start the new year. Thoroughly enjoyed this journey through the lands and history of Spain and was delighted to hear of the connection Edmund of Langley and Isabel buried in Kings Langley, Lancaster and Capel Earl of Essex at Cassiobury Park.

[John Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I'd known more about H. V. Morton then I wouldn't have read this book. Read Gerald Brenan instead.

[Marilena Turquoise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still wonder why this book hasn't become a bestseller. I really enjoyed the story plus it gave me teavel vibes - yes, the ones I truly miss...

[Nastia S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Отличная книга, очень хорошо написанная, которую приятно читать длинными зимними вечерами. Всем любителям Испании понравится, позволит познакомиться с Испанией, которой больше нет.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent account of the authors travels through Spain in 1955 with lots of great History mixed in. Would recommend to any fellow Iberian enthusiasts.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A travel classic, Morton travels to Madrid, El Escorial, Toledo, Seville, Cordoba, Segovia, Avila, San Sebastien, Santiago and Salamanca, among others, giving an overview of many of the great sites of the country. He invariably has interesting stories to tell on the history of the places he visits and the people he meets. Admittedly, his historical viewpoint is often skewed towards his background and the impact of English history on Spain, but that's surely no drawback for a visitor from the Anglophone world and only makes the historical stories even more interesting.

No visit to Spain is complete without first reading this book.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enchanted and delightful journey through a Spain I could never visit. Morton wrote the book in about 1954, so no doubt much has changed. He travels far beyond the 1950s, however, pursuing the history and ancient tales of this extraordinary country in all its diverse parts and spinning it all with eloquence.

[Ola Muscat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true gem of a book. Morton's use of the language is superb. The descriptions of art, royalties, everday life and Spain in general is fabulous. Of course a lot of it is dated but still a treasure trove.

[Catherine Cleary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming book, just as H.V.Morten other books are , i have read several other of his writings such as ,A Travler in Rome, In the Steps of St. Paul.

[Donna Boultwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. A little too much history for me, and I like history! Descriptions on the Spanish culture and people are still true today.