Excerpt from Guide to Spain Portugal: Including the Balearic Islands Although it is not yet four years since the Seventh Edition was issued, O'Shea's Guide to Spain and Portugal has once more been thoroughly revised upon the spot, and from the latest official information. Beyond the extensive and necessary corrections thus made, the chief alterations which I have introduced consist (1) in a recasting of considerable portions of the Introduction, such as the chapters upon Language and Literature, in order to make these short, and it is to be hoped useful, essays really worthy of their purpose, and of a high-class handbook; (2) in the careful revision of the lists of books of reference, and the inclusion therein of the chief literary and scientific works of the last ten years. I have again to record my belief that the Peninsula has a great future before it, not only politically and commercially, but also as one of the favoured European playgrounds. The face of the country is rapidly changing, with the spread of its railway system, its commercial development, and the beneficent influence of a stable Government; and nearly every place or object of interest can now be visited with ease, and in security and comfort. One outcome of this constant change in the direction of improvement is an extreme difficulty in keeping a Guide Book accurate up to date in such details as hotels, routes, conveyances, etc.; and I shall therefore value all information which travellers may be pleased to address to me, under cover to the publishers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.