Diligence - traveling from Perpignan to Barcelona in 1820s

 Salvete Omnes,

Christmas is two weeks away, so we have got time to do a little time  travel with a certain young American to Spain in 1820s.

this young gentleman,  Alexander Slidell Mackenzie (1803-1848),  began his trip to Spain by taking a public transport aka  the stagecoach known also as a diligence (and  una  diligencia o  carruaje in Spain) from a southern French town of Perpignan , crossed into Spain and arrived at Barcelona.

in the volume I Mackenzie wrote the following about the French diligence horses and their traveling - they traveled at a 'slow and easy pace', the horses were 'heavy-headed' and 'thick-legged.'

Alexander S. Mackenzie published his travel books in London 1831 and in New York 1836. Nota bene Alexander was a father of Ronald Mackenzie, Civil War general and later a commanding cavalry officer in the Indian Wars.

More  equestrian  topics from  ''A Year in Spain" in the future.

Valete