Byron:--
"We lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess
_six_ houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish
manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the
youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The
freedom of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little;
and in the course of further observation, I find that reserve is not
the characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are, in general, very
handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms. The eldest
honoured your _unworthy_ son with very particular attention, embracing
him with great tenderness at parting (I was there but three days),
after cutting off a lock of his hair, and presenting him with one of
her own, about three feet in length, which I send, and beg you will
retain till my return. Her last words were, 'Adios, tu hermoso! me
gusto mucho.'--'Adieu, you pretty fellow! you please me much.' She
offered me a share of her apartment, which my _virtue_ induced me to
decline; she laughed, and said I had some English "amante" (lover),
and added that she was going to be married to an officer in the
Spanish army."
Among the beauties of Cadiz, his imagination, dazzled by the
attractions of the many, was on the point, it would appear from the
following, of being fixed by _one_:--
"Cadiz, sweet Cadiz, is the most delightful town I ever beheld, very
different from our English cities in every respect except cleanliness
(and it is as clean as London), but still beautiful and full of the
finest women in Spain, the Cadiz belles being the Lancashire witches
of their land.
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