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Late in the afternoon we reached Villa Viciosa, a small dirty town, at the distance of eight leagues from Oviedo: it stands beside a creek which communicates with the Bay of Biscay. It is sometimes called La Capital de las Avellanas, or the capital of the Filberts, from the immense quantity of this fruit which is grown in the neighbourhood; and the greatest part of which is exported to England.
The farmers in Kent are the best managers of Filberts, and it is the only place where they are grown with any certainty; which appears to be owing principally to the trees being regularly pruned of the superfluous wood. It is performed in the month of March when the plants are in bloom, and is the only time when the fruit-bearing wood can be distinguished. CRATAEGUS Aria.
They have several sorts of fruits, as apples, lemons, quinces, moulats, sugar canes, citruls, figs, grapes, cucumbers of two sorts, trees, which produce a substance like meal, walnuts, almonds, filberts, pistachios, plumbs, apricots, services, and cocoa nuts, but no store of palms, of which they have only a few about private houses.
The vines that wreathed the low bushes and climbed the trees were loaded with clusters of grapes, but these were yet hard and green; dwarf filberts grew on the dry gravelly sides of the hills, yet the rough prickly calyx that enclosed the nut, filled their fingers with minute thorns, that irritated the skin like the stings of the nettle; but as the kernel when ripe was sweet and good, they did not mind the consequences.
The Duke threw himself into a chair, fixed his eyes on the ground, and spoke without raising them. "I am about to call Jerningham," he said; "but fear nothing it is only for a draught of wine That stuff on the table may be a vehicle of filberts, and walnuts, but not for such communications as yours. Bring me champagne," he said to the attendant who answered to his summons.
After an hour's perilous climbing, we reached, at last, the hospice, and in five minutes were sitting at the supper table, by a good blazing fire, with a lively company, chatting with a gentlemanly abbe, discussing figs and fun, cracking filberts and jokes, and regaling ourselves genially.
Shouts of welcome, bursts of laughter, and the resounding slap of friendly hand on visiting hip or shoulder, the dignified welcome of the chiefs, cries of children, dances and games, myriad details of social amity all presented a picture of unspoiled Polynesia such as is found in the Filberts alone. When I forget it, may I be forgot.
We found Lucallian apples, plums, and filberts, and many kinds of fruits different from ours. Animals there are in very great number, stags, deer, lynx, and other species, which, in the way of the others, they capture with snares and bows, which are their principal arms.
Besides, if you'll take my printed book and be at the trouble of thinking over what it says, and put that with what you've heard me say, and then make those comments and reflections which will be suggested to a mind in so many respects like mine as is your own, excuse my good opinion of myself, It's quite as well to crack your own filberts as to borrow the use of other people's teeth.
The purple shadow of the Mountain rested on our tiny craft but a shadow yet deeper shrouded our hearts. Each of us carried the consciousness of a terrible duty. We ought to leave the Filberts. Broken-heartedly we talked over the situation. "Getting worse," was Whinney's report. "Saw Baahaabaa scratching his leg this morning probably got it." Poor Baahaabaa, how my heart ached for him.
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