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              GIBRALTAR

  [Illustration: THE ALAMEDA PARADE.]




              GIBRALTAR

                  BY
            Henry M. Field

             _ILLUSTRATED_

    LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited.
                 1889.
        [_All rights reserved._]

                TROW'S
    PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
               NEW YORK.




         To My Friend and Neighbor
          IN THE BERKSHIRE HILLS,
             JOSEPH H. CHOATE,
     WHO FINDS IT A RELIEF NOW AND THEN
   TO TURN FROM THE HARD LABORS OF THE LAW
         TO THE ROMANCE OF TRAVEL:
       I SEND AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT
       A STORY OF FORTRESS AND SIEGE
       THAT MAY BEGUILE A VACANT HOUR
  AS HE SITS BEFORE HIS WINTER EVENING FIRE.




PREFACE.


The common tour in Spain does not include Gibraltar. Indeed it is not
a part of Spain, for, though connected with the Spanish Peninsula, it
belongs to England; and to one who likes to preserve a unity in his
memories of a country and people, this modern fortress, with its English
garrison, is not "in color" with the old picturesque kingdom of the
Goths and Moors. Nor is it on the great lines of travel. It is not
touched by any railroad, and by steamers only at intervals of days, so
that it has come to be known as a place which it is at once difficult
to get to and to get away from. Hence easy-going travellers, who are
content to take circular tickets and follow fixed routes, give Gibraltar
the go-by, though by so doing they miss a place that is unique in the
world--unique in position, in picturesqueness, and in history. That
mighty Rock, "standing out of the water and in the water," (as on the
day when the old world perished;) is one of the Pillars of Hercules,
that once marked the very end of the world; and around its base ancient
and modern history flow together, as the waters of the Atlantic mingle
with those of the Mediterranean. Like Constantinople, it is throned on
two seas and two continents. As Europe at its southeastern corner stands
face to face with Asia; at its southwestern it is face to face with
Africa: and these were the two points of the Moslem invasion. But here
the natural course of history was reversed, as that invasion began in
the West. Hundreds of years before the Turk crossed the Bosphorus, the
Moor crossed the Straits of Gibraltar. His coming was the signal of an
endless war of races and religions, whose lurid flames lighted up
the dark background of the stormy coast. The Rock, which was the
"storm-centre" of all those clouds of war, is surely worth the attention
of the passing traveller. That it has been so long neglected, is the
sufficient reason for an attempt to make it better known.




CONTENTS.


                                                         PAGE
  I.    Entering the Straits,                               1

  II.   Climbing the Rock,                                 12

  III.  The Fortifications,                                18

  IV.   Round the Town,                                    29

  V.    Parade on the Alameda, and Presentation of Colors
          to the South Staffordshire Regiment,             35

  VI.   The Society of Gibraltar,                          48

  VII.  A Chapter of History--The Great Siege,             63

  VIII. Holding a Fortress in a Foreign Country,          110

  IX.   Farewell to Gibraltar--Leaving for Africa,        128




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


  The Alameda Parade,                         _Frontispiece_.

                                                  FACING PAGE
  The Lion Couchant,                                        4

  General View of the Rock,                                12

  The Signal Station,                                      14

  The New Mole and Rosia Bay,                              19

  The Saluting Battery,                                    27

  Walk in the Alameda Gardens,                             62

  Catalan Bay, on the East Side of Gibraltar,              65

  Plan of Gibraltar,                                       71

  "Old Eliott," the Defender of Gibraltar,                108

  Windmill Hill and O'Hara's Tower,                       132

  Europa Point,                                           143




CHAPTER I.

ENTERING THE STRA