guest is received, and the extreme simplicity of the entertainment. In
speaking, however, of society in Madrid and other modern towns, it must
be remembered that the old manners and customs are to a great extent
being modified and assimilated with those of the other Continental
cities. A great number of the Spanish nobility spend the season in Paris
or in London as regularly as any of the fashionable people in France or
England. There is no country life in Spain, as we understand the word;
those of the upper ten thousand who have castles or great houses in the
provinces rarely visit them, and still more rarely entertain there. A
hunting or a shooting party at one of these is quite an event; so when
the great people leave Madrid, it is generally to enter into London or
Paris society, and, naturally, when they are at home they to a great
extent retain cosmopolitan customs. At the foreign legations or
ministries also, society loses much of its specially Spanish character.

The word _tertulia_ simply means a circle or group in society; but it
has come to signify a species of "At Home" much more informal than
anything we have in the way of evening entertainment. The _tertulia_ of
a particular lady means the group of friends who are in the habit of
frequenting her drawing-room. The Salon del Prado is the general
meeting-place of all who feel more inclined for _al fresco_
entertainment than for close rooms, and the different groups of friends
meeting there draw their chairs together in small circles, and thus hold
their _tertulia_. The old Countess of Montijo was so much given to
open-handed hospitality, and it was so easy for any English person to
obtain an introduction to her _tertulia_, that her daughter, the Empress
Eugénie, used to call it the _Prado cubierto_--"only the Prado with a
roof on." It is not customary for anything but the very lightest of
refreshments to be offered at the ordinary _tertulia_, and this is one
of its great charms, for little or no expense is incurred, and those who