Page:Impressions of Spain in 1866.djvu/279

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SALAMANCA.
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college here; and Cervantes lived for a long time in a house still pointed out as his in the CaUe de los Moros. The palaces in Salamanca are very beautiful, especially the Casa de las Conchas, so called from the pecten shells pro- jecting out of each stone; the Casa de las Salinas, with its overhanging roof and gaUery and richly ornamented windows ; and the Palacio del Conde de Monterey, with its turrets and an upper gallery of arcaded windows, which look like the rich lace fringe of the solid building below. After lionising the whole morning, one of the party went to call on the bishop, a man universally esteemed and beloved in Salamanca, who received his visitor with fatherly kindness, and at once volimteered to walk with her and show her the diflferent conventual establishments, which she had obtained Papal permission to see. The lady soon found, however, that walking with the bishop, though a great honour, was a mat- ter of some difficulty. No sooner did his broad green-tasselled hat and emerald cross appear at the comer of any street, than every human being, old and young, rich and poor, gentle and simple, rushed out of their houses, or across the road, to kneel and kiss his hand and re- ceive his apostolical benediction, their faces all Digitized by Google