The cookery at the Seville hotels has been rather unjustly abused. The great rush of British travellers sets towards Seville about the time of the Fair and of Holy Week, and many of my compatriots are dis- appointed not to find a large caravanserai with an Austrian manager, a French chef, a Swedish hall- Spain ' 291 porter, and German waiters, telephones and motor-cars, and all the other conveniences which are gathered together in the monster modern hotel which takes no colour from the country it is in. Seville is Seville; mo one is in a hurry there ; and if the guests do not like what is provided for them, their hosts are genuinely grieved, and that is all. Journeying to Seville just before Fair time, I once met an English couple of my acquaintance who were coming on more leisurely to the same destination. I asked them whether they had secured their rooms, for rooms are at a premium during the two great weeks of the year, and they said that they had not though they had written for them, but that they would be obliged to me if I would insist on the manager keeping for them two good bedrooms, a sitting-room, and a maid’s room. The sitting-room should get the morning sun, the bedrooms must be quite quiet, and the maid’s room must be near that of her mistress. Of course they might as well have asked for the moon and a few stars with which to trim it. I have stayed at both the hotels to which Anglo- Saxons go, the Madrid and the Paris, and have found the feeding very much on an equality, Hotel de Madrid, rather rough, intended to be the Haute Calle de Men- Cuisine Fran^aise, but falling consider- dez Nunez ably short in the attempt. The Hotel de Madrid has a great patio with palms and creepers as its adorn- ments, and this is a pleasant place in which to sit after dinner. All the chefs at the Madrid are, I am told, French. It should always be put to the credit of the kitchen of this hotel that Huevos a la Flamen^a were first cooked there. The feeding at the Hotel de Paris is rather more Spanish than that of its rival, and a national dish frequently makes its appearance on the bill of fare. On the last occasion on which I stayed at the Paris 292 Tdhe Gourmet's Guide to Europe I was given a sleeping-room in the hotel’s annexe, a house in the same little square, and found the interior Hotel de Paris, of the house comparatively quiet, though Plaza del outside the noise of tram bells and mule Pacifico bells anc[ tjle otjler hundred and one sounds of the Sevilian night went on merrily in the square, which must have been named Pacifico as a joke. I am told on very good authority that the cookery at the Hotel Paz is better than that in any other hotel in Seville, and that the Hotel Cecil has a chef who may bring the restaurant into favour.

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The cookery at the Seville hotels has been rather unjustly abused. The great rush of British travellers sets towards Seville about the time of the Fair and of Holy Week, and many of my compatriots are disappointed not to find a large caravanserai with an Austrian manager, a French chef, a Swedish hall- Spain ' 291 porter, and German waiters, telephones and motor-cars, and all the other conveniences which are gathered together in the monster modern hotel which takes no colour from the country it is in. Seville is Seville; no one is in a hurry there ; and if the guests do not like what is provided for them, their hosts are genuinely grieved, and that is all. Journeying to Seville just before Fair time, I once met an English couple of my acquaintance who were coming on more leisurely to the same destination. I asked them whether they had secured their rooms, for rooms are at a premium during the two great weeks of the year, and they said that they had not though they had written for them, but that they would be obliged to me if I would insist on the manager keeping for them two good bedrooms, a sitting-room, and a maid’s room. The sitting-room should get the morning sun, the bedrooms must be quite quiet, and the maid’s room must be near that of her mistress. Of course they might as well have asked for the moon and a few stars with which to trim it. I have stayed at both the hotels to which Anglo- Saxons go, the Madrid and the Paris, and have found the feeding very much on an equality, Hotel de Madrid, rather rough, intended to be the Haute Cuisine Française, but falling considerably short in the attempt. Calle de Mendez Nunez The Hotel de Madrid has a great patio with palms and creepers as its adornments, and this is a pleasant place in which to sit after dinner. All the chefs at the Madrid are, I am told, French. It should always be put to the credit of the kitchen of this hotel that Huevos a la Flamenca were first cooked there. The feeding at the Hotel de Paris is rather more Spanish than that of its rival, and a national dish frequently makes its appearance on the bill of fare. On the last occasion on which I stayed at the Paris 292 The Gourmet's Guide to Europe I was given a sleeping-room in the hotel’s annexe, a house in the same little square, and found the interior Hotel de Paris, of the house comparatively quiet, though Plaza del outside the noise of tram bells and mule Pacifico bells and the other hundred and one sounds of the Sevilian night went on merrily in the square, which must have been named Pacifico as a joke. I am told on very good authority that the cookery at the Hotel Paz is better than that in any other hotel in Seville, and that the Hotel Cecil has a chef who may bring the restaurant into favour.

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