Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836
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CONT. 13. SAT
The breaches made during the siege are for the most part repaired or the traces removed, but the hospital & the apartments occupied by the brave old general Chassé remain in status quo. The former which although considered formerly to be bomb proof, it was considered necessary to prop with immense beams disposed latterly & standards of corresponding thickness. But what could avail against a “monstre bomb” – throwing shells of two feet diameter which ploughed up the ground where it fell to a depth of 12 feet. These beams of 12 inches cubic thickness are in places crashed downwards & broken in such a manner as to have caused apprehension to its poor hospital inmates of the whole falling in upon them. Old Chassé’s casemate of 22 ft by 11, which formed his bedroom, parlour, kitchen & all is truly an interesting spot. Quiet & unobtrusive & peaceful is the aspect of this fortress & whether seen from the heights of the cathedral or from its own ramparts there is nothing of formidability apparent.
The bourse took me in idea to the halls of the Alhambra. Spain thou has left behind thee traces of thy presence as well in animate as in inanimate things. –
Churches again. Pulpits of all imaginable sacred subjects, here & at Malines & at Brussells, for my memory confounds them all. The miraculous draught of fishes, St Paul (who looks like a woman) struck down by our Saviour’s “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me” – Adam & Eve driven out of Paradise,
[blank line where planned to put something later but doesn’t]
cum multis aliis, want the fire of Prometheus only to give them liberty to release them from their all but living attitudes. I must see much more of our Grinling Gibbons before I can
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