Rimmel, Eugene: Recollections of the Paris exhibition of 1867 (London, 1868)

I98 ' . RECOLLECTIONS OF

and Castells and Sola shawls of a good design. This is about
all we have to notice in the clothing department, if we add
thereto richly embroided ecclesiastical vestments and a series
of costumes of the different Spanish provinces, which are all
stamped with great originality.

Here is a magnificent trophy of Toledo arms, which is
calculated to give too favourable an idea of the present state
of the once celebrated Toledo manufactory, which has now
dwindled down to a poor little shed on the dusty banks of
the Tagus, at the foot of the rock where rises the antique
city of the Goths. The far-famed Cordova leathers seem
to have joined Toledo blades among things of the past, for
we can find no vestige of them.

To replace old industries which are becoming extinct,
here are new ones rising into notice. Some twenty years
ago, Spain still imported all her glass and pottery, but she now
begins to manufacture her own. The coloured glass shown
by Cisnentes, Pola & Co., of Gijon, can almost rival that of
Bohemia, and the porcelain and earthenware sent by Pickman
and Co., of Seville, certainly merited a better reward than
the bronze medal allotted to them.

The essential oils distilled by Robillard from the aromatic
plants which abound in the " Huerta de Valencia " also de-
serve great commendation. His Rose Geranium {Geranium
capitatum) exceeds in sweetness that of Provence and Algeria,
and his verbena [Alopia citriodora), schinus and patchouly
(the first raised in Europe) do him also great credit. We
should like to see turned to the same account the numerous
fragrant plants and flowers which we have observed growing