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Updated: June 22, 2025
A tall, broad-shouldered, bony man, with high cheeks, a beak-like nose, pointed grey beard, and a complexion the colour of the red hematites on which Bilbao, his native town, is built, and which Bilbao ruthlessly plucks from its very body to exchange for gold in the markets of England and in the deep sockets under the high aggressive forehead prolonged by short iron-grey hair, two eyes like gimlets eagerly watching the world through spectacles which seem to be purposely pointed at the object like microscopes; a fighting expression, but of noble fighting, above the prizes of the passing world, the contempt for which is shown in a peculiar attire whose blackness invades even that little triangle of white which worldly men leave on their breast for the necktie of frivolity and the decorations of vanity, and, blinding it, leaves but the thinnest rim of white collar to emphasize, rather than relieve, the priestly effect of the whole.
So was the story of William Harvey, "the girt big Somersetshire man" and what he did in a fight with Spanish Pilots in the Bilbao River. Of this story, told to me in the broadest Somersetshire dialect by a Somersetshire boatman who was present at the fight, I cannot resist quoting one passage: "They were all dressed in white and fighting with their long knives.
My father had received an appointment to the Geographic and Political Institute. We lived on the Calle Real, just beyond the Glorieta de Bilbao, in a street which is now a prolongation of the Calle de Fuencarral. Opposite our house, there was a piece of high ground, which has not yet been removed, which went by the name of "La Era del Mico," or "The Monkey Field."
Wonderful to relate for it is indeed a marvel that the Germans did not make a special and successful effort to sink her she arrived at her home port, Bilbao, on June 21, 1918, with her whole ship's company complete. She had naturally a great reception, being welcomed with flags, bands, and fireworks. What an adventurous voyage she had had since she last left European waters!
Keep well out from the Spanish coast, at any rate until you are well past Bilbao; after that you can keep close in, if you like, for you will be taken for a fishing boat from one of the small villages. "I shall walk straight back now to the town. No questions are asked at the gates and, if anyone did happen to take notice of me, they would suppose I had been round peddling fish at the farmhouses."
In the cemetery of Mallona, in my native town of Bilbao, there is a tombstone on which this verse is carved: Aunque estamos en polvo convertidos, en Ti, Señor, nuestra esperanza fía, que tornaremos a vivir vestidos con la carne y la piel que nos cubria. "With the same bodies and souls that they had," as the Catechism says.
The east of Spain, with Tarragona for its capital, stood next in order for its settled life and steady produce, including wine, salt fish and sauces, while in the interior the finest steel corresponding to the Bilbao blades of more modern history was tempered in the cold streams of the hills above the sources of the Tagus. From Portugal came cochineal and olives.
Until that coveted steed had been lassoed, stolen, or bought, I must only endeavour to justify my existence that is to say, render value for the money expended on me by picking up "copy" anywhere and everywhere. I was advised to go to Bilbao by sea, but the advice came too late.
The force that he had brought with him from Holland had been landed at Santander, marched to Bilbao, and joined Blake's army, and had shared in the crushing defeat suffered by that general at Espinosa, where most of them were taken prisoners.
The Barber's Shop A Carlist Spy An Old Chum The Alarm A Breach of Neutrality Under Fire Caught in the Toils The Heroic Tomas We Slope A Colleague Advises Me "A Horse! a Horse!" State of Bilbao Don Carlos at Estella Sanchez Bregua Recalled Tolosa Invites Republican Ineptitude Do not Spur a Free Horse Very Ancient Boys Meditations in Bed A Biscay Storm.
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