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diff --git a/37944-0.txt b/37944-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c5bb09 --- /dev/null +++ b/37944-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6172 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Southern Spain, by A.F. Calvert + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: Southern Spain + +Author: A.F. Calvert + +Illustrator: Trevor Haddon + +Release Date: November 6, 2011 [eBook #37944] +[Most recently updated: April 6, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOUTHERN SPAIN *** + +[Illustration: image of the book's cover] + + + + +SOUTHERN SPAIN +PAINTED BY TREVOR +HADDON DESCRIBED +BY A. F. CALVERT PUBLISHED +BY A. & C. BLACK +LONDON MCMVIII + +[Illustration: colophon] + +[Illustration: frontispiece] + + + + +PREFACE + + +Few travellers have leisure enough to traverse the wide realm of tawny +Spain in its every part. Those who must confine their attention to a +single province naturally select Andalusia, where all the Northerner's +preconceptions of the South find realization. The wild scenery of +Southern Spain, the gay open-air life of the people, the monuments +attesting the splendour of the extinct civilization of the Moor, the +spell of romance which still holds its cities, makes this land one of +the most interesting and fascinating in Europe to the artist, the +archæologist, and the dreamer. + +The present volume, mainly the embodiment of personal impressions and +observations, is intended partly to supply the place of a guide-book to +this part of the Peninsula, and with that object I have brought together +as much of history, art, and topography as the traveller is likely to +assimilate. Into the descriptive matter I have introduced a little +gossip, which will, I hope, be not found altogether irrelevant, and may +serve to beguile the tedium of a bare recital of facts. + +While I have endeavoured to make the book as useful to travellers as +within the prescribed limits was possible, I have essayed to give it, by +means of the illustrations, a more permanent value. It is on the brush +rather than on the pen that I have relied to convey an idea of the +gorgeous panorama of Southern Spain, and to recall to the returned +traveller his impressions of the land. + +As a _vade-mecum_, then, for the tourist, and as an album and souvenir +of the fairest portion of the realm of the Catholic King, I hope that +the present volume will be of use to the public, despite the +shortcomings it doubtless contains. For rendering these as few as +possible, I have to thank several friends who have looked through the +proofs. To one in particular, Mr. E. B. d'Auvergne, I am indebted for +various scraps of original and entertaining information. + +A. F. CALVERT. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + PAGE + +CADIZ 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +SEVILLE--THE PEARL OF ANDALUSIA 12 + + +CHAPTER III + +CORDOVA 86 + + +CHAPTER IV + +GRANADA 107 + + +CHAPTER V + +MALAGA 163 + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY SOUTH 169 + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE KINGDOM OF MURCIA 174 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN THE OLD KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 186 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +1. Cordova--Fountain in the Patio de los Naranjos _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +2. Ayamonte (The Gateway of Andalusia) 8 + +3. Seville--A Street 12 + +4. Seville--The Aceite Gate 20 + +5. Seville--A Courtyard 24 + +6. Seville--The Torre del Oro and the Cathedral 28 + +7. Seville--The Giralda 30 + +8. Seville--Gardens of the Alcazar 34 + +9. Seville--Gardens of the Alcazar 40 + +10. Seville--Patio de las Banderas 44 + +11. Seville--Gardens of the Alcazar 50 + +12. Seville--Interior of the Cathedral 56 + +13. Seville--Patio de los Naranjos 60 + +14. Seville--Plaza de San Fernando 64 + +15. Seville--Casa de Pilatos 68 + +16. Seville--Casa de Pilatos 72 + +17. Seville--Garden of the Casa de Pilatos 78 + +18. Seville--The Market Place 80 + +19. Cordova--A Courtyard 84 + +20. Cordova--Entrance to the City 86 + +21. Cordova--Calle Cardinal Herrera 88 + +22. Cordova--Moorish Mill 90 + +23. Cordova--Mezquita 92 + +24. Cordova--Patio de los Naranjos 94 + +25. Cordova--Outer Wall of the Mosque 96 + +26. Cordova--A Street Scene 98 + +27. Cordova--A Street 100 + +28. Cordova--The Bridge 102 + +29. Cordova--Courtyard of an Inn 104 + +30. Cordova--Old Houses near the River 106 + +31. Granada--From the Generalife 108 + +32. Granada--Sierra Nevada from the Alhambra Gardens 110 + +33. Granada--Exterior of the Alhambra 112 + +34. Granada--A Street in the Albaicin 114 + +35. Granada--In the Market 116 + +36. Granada--The Alhambra: The Aqueduct 118 + +37. Granada--The Court of the Cypresses 120 + +38. Granada--Villa on the Darro 122 + +39. Granada--The Alhambra from San Miguel 124 + +40. Granada--Towers of the Infantas, Alhambra 126 + +41. Granada--Near the Alhambra 128 + +42. Granada--Puerta del Vino, Alhambra 130 + +43. Granada--The Alhambra: Tower of Comares 132 + +44. Granada--The Court of the Lions: Moonlight 136 + +45. Granada--The Generalife: Patio de la Acequia 138 + +46. Granada--The Generalife: Court of the Cypresses 140 + +47. Granada--Tocador de la Reina 142 + +48. Granada--Torre de las Damas 144 + +49. Granada--The Generalife: Court of the Cypresses 146 + +50. Granada--Casa del Carbon 148 + +51. Granada--Street in the Albaicin 150 + +52. Granada--Interior of a Posada 152 + +53. Granada--Old Houses, Cuesta del Pescado 154 + +54. Granada--Old Ayuntamiento 156 + +55. Granada--Street in the Old Quarter 158 + +56. Granada--The Generalife: Patio de la Acequia 160 + +57. Granada--A Corner in the Old Quarter 162 + +58. Malaga--The Harbour 164 + +59. Malaga--The Guadalmedina 166 + +60. Malaga--A Market 168 + +61. Malaga--Packing Lemons 170 + +62. Ronda--The Tajo 172 + +63. Ronda--Roman Bridges 174 + +64. Ronda--At the Fountain 176 + +65. Ronda--A Moorish Gateway 180 + +66. Ronda--A Street Scene 182 + +67. Ronda--The Market 184 + +68. Orihuela on the River Segura 186 + +69. Elche--A Street 188 + +70. A Fisher Girl (Coast of Malaga) 190 + +71. A Water Carrier 192 + +72. Malaga--A Picador 196 + +73. Valencia--Santa Catalina 198 + +74. An Andalusian Dance 200 + +75. Courting 204 + +_Map at end of Volume_ + +_The Illustrations in this Volume have been engraved and printed in +England by_ THE MENPES PRESS, _London and Watford_ + + + + +SOUTHERN SPAIN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +CADIZ + + +Cadiz was the prettiest of all the towns of Spain, thought Byron. I +would rather say that she was the most beautiful. She rises out of the +sea--the boundless salt ocean that stretches from pole to pole--and the +crests of the waves which lick her feet are not whiter than her walls. +And these by day are bathed in liquid gold, for the sun seems to linger +here ere he says good-night to Europe. By night the city gleams like +washed silver, and her sheen is more magical than that of the dark yet +phosphorescent water. Of sun and sea, light and air, is Cadiz +compounded. She is the Gateway of the West, not sultry and southern, but +salt and windy and dazzling white. It is thus she appears to you, +especially when you come to her over the sea--that sea which hereabouts +has so often been splashed with British blood. How often the pale yellow +cliffs of Spain to the southward, and those of the lovely shore of +Algarve to the north, have reverberated with the booming of the cannon; +how often the strand has been littered with dead men, whose gaping +wounds the kindly ocean had washed clean! Browning's lines recur to the +memory: + + "Nobly, nobly Cape St. Vincent to the north-west died away, + Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay." + +For you can see the lighthouse on Cape Trafalgar, and the Bay of Cadiz +itself has been the scene of some of England's most glorious and +desperate feats of arms. There is little stirring now in the wide +harbour, where the ships ride lazily at anchor, and their crews crowd to +the bulwarks and exchange pleasantries with your boatman as he pulls you +towards the quay. And so you step on shore, and enter the fair city. + +It looks so fresh and fragrant that you would not think it ancient. But +Cadiz is the first-born city of Spain, probably the first foothold of +civilization on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It marks a new and +tremendously important step forward in the world's progress. After +Heaven knows how many attempts and false starts, the Phœnicians dared +what no people of the ancient world had dared before. The Pillars of +Hercules were regarded as the western boundary of the world: beyond was +nothingness. And one day, with the east wind filling his sails and fear +in the hearts of his crew, some forgotten Columbus of Sidon or of Tyre +passed through the strait, and turning northward, beached his little +galley on the peninsula where we stand. Civilization--arts and letters, +commerce and social life, and all that makes life dear to modern +men--had burst the narrow limits of the Middle Sea, and first hoisted +its flag o'er Cadiz. + +The thought is not uninspiring. It is not unreasonable to suppose that +the first keel that ever ploughed the Atlantic grazed this strand. It is +likely enough that the fleets of lost Atlantis, if that mystical isle +possessed a ship, resorted hither, for the copper and precious metals of +Tarshish. What voyages have begun from this port, from the little +Phœnician craft setting forth in quest of the Tin Islands of the far +north, to brave Cervera leading out his squadron to its preordained +doom! + + "It may be that the gulfs shall wash us down, + It may be we shall touch the happy isles." + +And careless of fate, all these dauntless sailors have adventured forth +into the deep. + +In after years, the Phœnicians and Carthaginians had settlements +here, and built great ugly palaces overlooking the sea and the +estuaries. With their curling black beards I seem to see them, robed in +the real Tyrian purple, reclining on their terraces even as their +forefathers are shown in that strange picture in our National Gallery, +"The Eve of the Deluge." + +Their deluge was the Roman Invasion, when, in a good hour for humanity, +Latin superseded Semitic civilization, and the cruel gods of Sidon bowed +before the young and beautiful gods of Rome. Gades or Gaddir--I give it +its two oldest names--did not suffer by its change of masters. Its mart +was crowded, its merchants known from Britain to the Fortunate Isles, +from Lusitania to Arabia. Much wealth engendered luxury. Life in Gades +was feverish and distempered. The people had not forgotten the worship +of Astarte, and the Gaditane dancing-girls proved themselves worthy +daughters of the goddess. When the gods were dethroned the sensual city +pined; and under the austere yoke of Islam it languished and all but +faded away. It is interesting to note that its Moslem inhabitants were +drawn from the old race of Philistines, some of whose gods had probably +been worshipped here in the Punic days. + +When Seville fell, the port continued subject to the Almohade Emir of +Fez. Alfonso the Learned subdued it without difficulty in 1262, and +filled it with colonists from the north coast of Spain, from such places +as Santander and Laredo. But the Philistine taint in two senses was +never eradicated; Cadiz remained ever financial and commercial, and +cared nothing for art. Her brightest and blackest days followed the +discovery of America, when she soon eclipsed Seville as the mart for the +produce of the New Indies. Her wealth, not once but many times, wellnigh +proved her downfall. Threatened again and again by the Barbary corsairs, +she saw a far more terrible foe before her walls in 1587, in the person +of Sir Francis Drake, who inflicted incalculable injury on her shipping. +Worse was to come nine years later, when the English, under the command +of the Earl of Essex, scaled the walls, sacked the city from end to +end, slaughtered the inhabitants, profaned the churches and burnt the +public buildings, and sailed away with enormous booty. Yet so quickly +did Cadiz recover from this terrific catastrophe, that she again tempted +the cupidity of our countrymen in 1625. But this time the Dons were well +prepared and gave our fleet so warm a reception that we were compelled +to retire with heavy loss. + +The city attained its zenith of opulence in the first quarter of the +eighteenth century, when it had become almost the exclusive entrepôt for +the traffic between Southern Europe and the Americas. Numerous royal +privileges and concessions secured it almost a monopoly of the trade. +But no one organ can hope to escape an infection attacking the whole +system. Spain in the eighteenth century was dying from that commonest of +national diseases--dry-rot. Yet as late as 1770 Adam Smith did not +hesitate to say that the merchants of London had not yet the wealth to +compete with those of Cadiz, and a few years later the value of the +bullion landed at its quays was estimated at 125 millions sterling. + +Yet it was this bloated, purse-proud city, strangely enough, that proved +the ark of refuge for Spain when the innumerable hosts of Napoleon +swarmed over the land. Here were preserved the insignia of national +independence, and here, amid the thunder of guns and in the lap of the +ocean, was born the New and Free Spain. Cadiz proved a second +Covadonga. The focus of the constitutional movement, she was savagely +assailed by the Absolutists and their French allies. The defence of +Trocadero, on the other side of the bay, against the forces of the Duc +d'Angoulême popularized the name of the place throughout Europe. The +pages of Balzac abound in allusions to that mischievous and futile +attempt of the Government of the Restoration to rivet on Spaniards +fetters that no Frenchman would wear. Then came a French invasion of +another sort, of the Romanticists--of De Musset and Gautier, and the +long-haired followers of Byron. + +It has often seemed to me that every city belongs to one particular age. +This being a fancy contrary to fact, I will put it this way--that in +every city there is always some one period of human history more readily +recoverable than any other. This may not be the period which has left +its mark most conspicuously on the physiognomy of the place; more +probably it will be determined by your own preconceptions, derived from +study or chance reading. John Addington Symonds observed that an island +near Venice, the name of which I have forgotten, immediately recalled to +him not the great days of the Republic with which it had an historical +connection, but the later and decadent days of bag-wig and hair powder. +At Cadiz I could have wished to think of the Phœnicians, thus hardily +adventuring into the wide ocean; or of Drake and his gentlemen +adventurers, "bound wrist to bar, all for red iniquity"; but instead I +fancied myself back in the 'thirties of last century, and thought of De +Musset and his "Andalouse" and his lovely Spanish girls. Is it possible +that Andalusia in those days of our grandfathers _was_ the Andalusia of +the Romanticists? At Cadiz, I beguiled myself into believing so--why, I +cannot explain. Perhaps it was due to the unexpected appearance of a +native--a distinctively Andalusian--costume in the streets. Nowhere else +in Spain is the mantilla more conspicuous or more gorgeous. A French +writer gives a selection of toilettes worn at a _Corrida de toros_, +which, as I never assisted at one of these functions in Cadiz, I repeat: +"All pink, coral necklace, white lace mantilla, big bunches of +carnations in the hair and corsage; a blond head seen beneath a +transparent mantilla, like a frail spider's web, red corsage and white +gown; coral ear-rings, with bunches of roses; all black, with a white +mantilla; all white, with a black mantilla; pale green gown with a blue +bolero and white roses; shawl draped, brocaded, with a wealth of +carnations in the hair; black dress and mantilla, violets in the hair; +gold coloured shawl, embroidered with red roses, comb like a tiara set +with bright-hued flowers," etc., etc. With confections such as these +dazzling the eyes, it is no wonder that I began to see visions of +gentlemen in black silk tights, dark green frock coats, and snowy white +cravats, stammering Castilian with a Parisian accent. + +It would be hard, too, to keep the mind fixed on remoter and more heroic +ages, for Cadiz is singularly destitute of antiquities. The descendants +of the Philistines could not be expected to respect ancient monuments! +But what they spared our freebooter ancestors burned. The old Cathedral, +built in the thirteenth century, was almost totally consumed by the +flames. When I say that the new building dates from 1720, I fear that +your interest in it will expire. But it is at least imposing; and the +choir stalls are very fine. Then there is the Capuchin Convent, where +Murillo met his death by falling from a scaffolding while painting the +picture of the Espousals of St. Catherine. Another picture by the same +master may be seen in this church--St. Francis receiving the Stigmata. +The little Academia de Bellas Artes contains some admirable specimens of +the work of Zurbaran, brought from the Charterhouse of Jerez. + +These are the only sights in the tourists' agent's acceptation of the +word, and it is likely enough that you will think three hours devoted to +the city amply sufficient. Yet its situation at the end of a narrow spit +like that at the entrance to the Suez Canal--in mid-sea as it were--its +associations, and its brightness and cleanliness, make it for some the +most charming of Spanish towns. Crenellated walls enclose it on all +sides, the space between them and the water's edge being devoted to +quays, promenades, and gardens. There are forts at the extremity of the +peninsula--the Isla de Leon, as it is called. The streets are all +very straight, very narrow, and very clean. Through the _rejas_ across +the doorways you obtain glimpses of trim little patios, bedecked with +flowering plants. Occasionally you come out into a little square, +prettily laid out with gardens, like the Plaza de Mina, where the +loungers asleep on the seats irresistibly recall dear old busy London. + +[Illustration: AYAMONTE (THE GATEWAY OF ANDALUSIA)] + +The charming Parque Genovés, bordering the sea, reminds us of the great +merchant race of Italy who had their warehouses here. It is exquisite to +walk by night along the sea wall, which at some points rises sheer +upwards from the water, and to inhale the breezes blown straight across, +one would like to think, from the West Indies. You will crave for that +cool wind afterwards, in the parched interior of Andalusia. + +From Cadiz you may go to Seville by steamer up the Guadalquivir, but it +is far from being an interesting trip. The river is about as +picturesque, and in the same way, as the Dutch Rhine. However, in these +days of distorted æsthetics--when all that we thought beautiful we are +now told is ugly, and _vice versa_--it is quite possible that some +rapturous travellers will extol the mystical loveliness of the plains of +the Guadalquivir, rating their charms far above the vulgar, blatant +scenery of Switzerland and the Riviera, which is at the disadvantage of +being at once realized by the mere ordinary person. _En passant_ I +cannot refrain from expressing my wonder why superior people of this +sort go abroad. If Rhenish and Italian panoramas are suggestive to them +only of oleographs and Christmas numbers, have we not our Abanas and +Pharpars in England--the Essex marshes, the treeless downs of Sussex, +the odoriferous banks of the Mersey, for instance? + +But I digress--and I counsel you against doing so, but recommend you to +proceed to Seville, if that be your destination, by rail direct. The +journey occupies eight and a half hours, and is not among the most +agreeable experiences of a lifetime. The railway runs right round the +bay of Cadiz, touching several towns of importance. That any of them are +worth a break of journey I doubt. Puerto Santa Maria is said to be much +resorted to by toreros and their admirers. I have never heard what +attracts them there, but indeed my interest in bull-killing was never +more than languid. The country round the bay is marshy. It is traversed +by the river Guadalete, beside which, it seems, Don Roderic was not +slain, and the battle never took place. You must look for the scene of +that epoch-making encounter farther towards the strait near the Rio +Barbate. + +Between Cadiz and Seville you stop at the buffet of Jerez to drink a +glass of sherry in its native place. As most people know, all the good +wine comes to England; but at Jerez I think, in all reason, the price of +the wine might be a little lower and its quality a good deal higher. The +city, of which I only caught a glimpse, looks like an inland Cadiz, +very clean, white, sunny, and bright. + +And so we creep onwards over dreary country--like the South African +veld--to Lebrija, an old Moorish town with a great church on a height, +apparently the only building of note in the place. Further on is Utrera, +renowned for bulls and for possessing one of the thirty deniers for +which Judas sold his Master. It should be an interesting town, with its +Moorish castle and walls still extant. But the same individuality is not +to be expected of the smaller Spanish as of the lesser Italian cities; +for the history of the one country has been a record of steady +centralization; of the other, obstinate decentralization. In Utrera, and +Moron, and Lebrija--even in Cadiz and Granada--there were no independent +princes or ambitious municipalities to foster and to reward native art. +The genius and talent of Spain flocked to great centres like Seville, +Toledo, Valladolid, and Zaragoza, and became ultimately concentrated in +Madrid. We read the same story in our own country; and in fact it is +impossible to resist the dangerous and obvious conclusion that +centralization and unity are good things for nations but bad things for +art. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PEARL OF ANDALUSIA + + + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--A STREET] + +Seville, in the glory of the Andalusian summer, is a city of white and +gold. Her brilliancy dazzles you, as it dazzled those who wrote of her, +a little wildly, as the eighth wonder of the world. Luis Guevara, a poet +born within her walls, declared that she was not the eighth but the +first of those wonders. In our own day, men of genius have felt her +spell. "Seville," says Valdés, "has ever been for me the symbol of +light, the city of love and joy." So much few northerners would feel +justified in saying. To them this must be the city that most closely +corresponds to their preconceived ideas of the sunny and romantic South. +To Seville belong the sweep of lute-strings, the click of the castanets, +the serenade, and above all, the bull-fight. There is something feminine +about the radiant city, compared with the masculine strength of Toledo +and Avila, and the harsh decadence of Granada. You will agree that no +town is prettier, except perhaps Cadiz. So Byron said, and by him and +all the poets of his school--Alfred de Musset for one--the city by the +Guadalquivir was ardently loved. Yet though so conventionally +romantic of aspect, Seville is busy, prosperous, and well peopled, +before all other Andalusian towns. The blood still courses hotly through +her veins--her vitality intoxicates. If you come from Cordova or +Granada, you feel as though you were returning to the world. Here is +life, here is gaiety; yet your driver the next instant takes you into a +narrow, winding street, no broader than an alley, where absolute silence +reigns. The windows are shuttered, no one seems to stir in the patios. +There reigns a Sabbath-like calm. A minute later you are in a broad +plaza, where electric cars boom and whirr, where all is animation and +bustle. Such contrasts are very sharp in this city, where the streets +exist simply for folk to dwell in, the squares and paseos for them to +gather in and do their business. There are notable exceptions, it is +true. There is no want of life in the Sierpes, the narrow street which +is the Strand and Charing Cross of Seville. Here you return again and +again, feeling it is the focus of the city's life. Little better than a +lane is the Sierpes, where no wheeled traffic can pass. It is amazingly +dark in the summer, when awnings are drawn right across it from roof to +roof, and penetrating into it from the sunny plaza, it is a little time +before you can accustom your eyes to the shadow. Here are the best +shops, the banks, and those elegant and ostentatious casinos, where the +aristocracy and leisured class lounge and smoke, and survey at their +ease the unceasing procession of passers by. There are cafés here of a +different sort, some of which are frequented by the bull-fighters and +their admirers. Here too may be seen in all his glory that peculiar type +of Andalusian, the "Majo," a curious blend of the English "masher" the +"sporting man" and the "troubadour"! The people sit in the cafés to see +the others pass, and the others walk down the street to see the people +in the cafés. This is a form of amusement and exercise common on the +Continent, and acclimatized already at our English seaside towns. +Selling lottery tickets is a great industry in the Sierpes, the sale of +tickets for the next _Corrida de toros_ even more so. The boot-blacking +saloons remind the American visitor of his native land. For his +delectation the _New York Herald_ is displayed in the windows of the few +booksellers. There is nothing about this gay little thoroughfare to +remind us of the past. The history of Seville is more easily recoverable +by the fancy, when you are seated by the Guadalquivir, in sight of the +Torre del Oro, on the spot perhaps where George Borrow, in an unwonted +fit of hysteria, wept over the beauty of the scene before him. + +Phœnician, Carthaginian, Roman, Vandal, Goth, and Moor--the city has +known them all and outlived them all. There seems to have been a +settlement of the Turdetani here, before the first Phœnicians came. +The name at all events was bestowed by the Tyrian traders, if it is +really derived from "sephela," a plain. Then came the Carthaginians, +whom the Spaniards accuse of having corrupted the pure and +simple-minded natives. The city became known to the little world of +civilization, and was spoken of by Grecian geographers as "Ispola" and +"Hispalis." The terrible Hamilcar reduced the greater part of Spain to +the Punic yoke. He and his successor Hasdrubal filled Andalusia with +their massive ungainly fortresses. Salambo, the Semitic Venus, was +worshipped on the banks of the Guadalquivir. From time to time, we doubt +not, human sacrifices stained the altars of Baal. One wonders if the +descendants of the Carthaginians became identified with the other great +Semitic people, and passed as Jews. Certainly it is otherwise a little +difficult to account for the presence in Spain of the Israelites in such +numbers at a very early period. + +The Carthaginians fought hard for the province of Bætica, but Punic +force and fraud were alike powerless before the sword of Scipio. The +dominion of the province of Iberia passed to Rome. When the conquering +hero turned his face homewards to claim his triumph, he was mindful of +his warworn veterans. For them the journey back to Italy was too long +and wearisome; they were content to die in the land they had conquered. +Outside Hispalis a place of rest and refreshment was found for them in +the village of Sancios. Scipio laid there the foundation of a colony, +bestowed it on his veterans, and named it Italica, in memory of their +fatherland. And thus was founded the first Latin-speaking settlement +outside Italy. It lies--all that remains of it--on the slopes of the +hills that bound the prospect westwards. + +Hispalis, not overshadowed by its new neighbour, flourished under the +Roman sway. Julius Cæsar besieged the city, which was garrisoned by +Pompey's partisans, and inscribed the date of its capture in the +calendar of the Republic (August 9, B.C. 45). His fleet, they say, lay +in the river between the Torre del Oro and the Palace of San Telmo. The +townsfolk were devoted to him, and he renamed the place Julia Romula. As +a Roman colony the town had a senate and consuls, ediles and censors. +The wall Cæsar built endured intact until the time of Juan II., so that +monarch wrote in his Chronicle. + +While its Punic physiognomy was hard to efface, Seville soon became in +spirit a Latin town. All Andalusia was in course of time thoroughly +Romanized. Seneca, Lucan, the Ælii, as most of us remember, were +Spaniards--if Spaniards could be said, as yet, to have existed. + +Then came the era of persecutions, the establishment of Christianity and +the disappearance of Astarte and Baal from the forum and the temple--to +be worshipped, perhaps, for a little while longer in the recesses of the +mountains, where Islam lingered in after times. Presently came the +Vandals, and their fury having spent itself, they made Seville their +capital, though they did _not_ give their name, as some have thought, to +Andalusia. When they passed over--a whole nation--to Africa, the +barbarous Suevi took possession of their old camping-ground. The Suevian +king, Recchiarus, became a Catholic, at the persuasion of Sabinus, +Bishop of Seville, in the year 448. We next hear of him murdering the +Byzantine ambassador Censorius, in this city, and of being defeated and +slain by the Visigoths in 456. Now comes an interregnum of seventy-five +years. The Suevi were expelled from Seville, but their conquerors did +not occupy the town. It must have been governed by its Catholic bishops, +who are spoken of as miracles of wisdom and sanctity. Under Theudis the +Gothic king, Seville again rose to the rank of a capital--or at any rate +shared the dignity with Toledo. Here Theudis was assassinated, and his +son and successor Theudisel also, a few months later. The latter +sovereign is described as a detestably wicked person. He was of course +an Aryan, and gave a shocking example of his hard-hearted incredulity. +Among the hills where lies Italica is a village called San Juan de +Aznalfarache. Near this in the sixth century was a tank which was +miraculously filled once a year, when the Catholics resorted to it to +baptize their catechumens. Theudisel had the tank, when it was dry, +thoroughly investigated, and, satisfied that it was fed by no spring, +had a lid fastened over it and sealed with his own seal. But next Easter +it was full of water! Not to be baffled, the king dug a ditch to the +depth of twenty-five feet all round the tank, but found no trace of a +spring. He would perhaps have gone on digging for years had not his +nobles rid the world of so sceptical a monarch. + +We come now to the days of good King Leovgild, who consolidated the +Visigothic monarchy and warred successfully against the Greeks and +barbarous Suevi. His son, Ermengild, being sent to govern Seville, was +converted by Leander, the bishop of the city, to the Catholic faith. The +prince thought he could give no better proof of his zeal for his new +creed than by revolting against his father. A bloody war resulted. +Ermengild was worsted and was shut up in Seville, while his father +occupied Italica and pressed him closely. The rebels capitulated and +were treated leniently. The prince afterwards headed a second revolt +against his father, was captured and executed. He has been enrolled +among the saints of the Catholic Church. + +It is quite conceivable that a man of fanatical temperament should feel +himself called upon to effect the conversion of his fellows to what he +believes to be the true faith, even at the cost of his kinsfolk's blood; +but unfortunately for the Visigothic prince, his interests so coincided +with his principles that worldly people not unnaturally suggest that the +desire to wear his father's crown had as much to do with his action as +the desire to convert his father's subjects. + +When Spain from Aryan became Catholic, Seville became the Metropolitan +See, and Leander its Archbishop. He was succeeded in that office by his +brother Isidore, a much better man than he, and renowned as a doctor of +the Church and writer on things generally. But by the end of the seventh +century the primacy had passed to Toledo, and before the next century +was fourteen years old the last of the Visigoths had reigned over Spain. + +After the victory over Roderic near Jerez, Tarik, the Moorish commander, +marched straight upon Toledo. The reduction of Seville he left to his +superior officer, Musa. The citizens offered, it is said, a stout +resistance, and then retired to Beja, on the other side of the Guadiana. +During the absence of the Moorish commander they recovered the city, +only to be dispossessed and finally subjugated by his son, the famous +Abd-el-Aziz, the Abdalasis of Spanish story. Thenceforward for 536 years +Seville was known as Ishbiliyah, one of the fairest cities of Islam. + +When Musa was recalled to Damascus his son remained beside the +Guadalquivir (as the river Bætis had now come to be called). He +espoused, according to tradition, Roderic's widow, Exilona, who, legend +says, had originally been a Moorish princess. For a brief period he +dwelt in splendour in the old Acropolis, near where the Convent of La +Trinidad now stands. But his enemies had been busy far away at the +khalifa's court. While he was in the act of prayer in the mosque he had +built adjacent to his palace, the messenger of death appeared. Exilona +was left a second time a widow, and to the aged Musa was shown, months +later, the lifeless head of his valiant son. Under Abd-el-Aziz's +immediate successors the seat of government of the latest province of +the Moslem Empire was transferred from Seville to Cordova. From all +parts of the East, but especially from Syria, men came flocking to +Andalusia. Quarrels arose as to the partition of the conquered land +between the Berbers, who had composed the hordes of Tarik and Musa, and +the new Saracen settlers. Finally it was decreed that each tribe or +nationality should be allotted that region which bore the most +resemblance to its original place of abode. Under this arrangement +Ishbiliyah was assigned to the people of Homs, the ancient Emesa, a +Syrian town on the Orontes. (We are reminded of the parallel between +Macedon and Monmouth.) But in the course of time the original derivation +of the Spanish Moslems was half forgotten, and the classification was +rather into pure-blooded Arabs and Muwallads or half-breeds. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--THE ACEITE GATE] + +Here at Seville the young Abd-er-Rahman arrived, to restore the empire +of his forefathers, the Umeyyas, and under these walls the horde of the +Abbassides was cut to pieces. Yet despite the prosperity she enjoyed +under the Western Khalifate, the city murmured against Cordova, and more +than once essayed to throw off the yoke. In Abdullah's reign (888-912) a +chief named Ibrahim Ibn Hajjaj assumed semi-regal state at Ishbiliyah. +When he rode forth he was attended by five hundred cavaliers, and he +ventured to wear the tiraz, the official insignia of the amirs. He +was a liberal patron of the arts and letters. "In all the West," +exclaimed a delighted bard, "I found no noble man but Ibrahim, and he +was nobility itself! When you have once lived within his shadow, to live +elsewhere is misery." Such flattery did not delude Ibrahim into too +great a confidence in his own power. He readily submitted to the great +khalifa, Abd-ur-Rahman III., by whom the city was greatly favoured. The +channel of the Guadalquivir was narrowed and deepened, the palm-tree +introduced from Africa, and the city adorned with gardens and fine +edifices. The splendour of the court of Cordova was reflected on +Seville, which became famous as a seat of learning. In those days +flourished Ahmed Ben Abdallah, surnamed "El Beji," or "The Sage," the +author of an Encyclopædia of Sciences which was long esteemed a piece of +marvellous erudition. + +Some strange and unexpected figures about this time flit across the +stage of Andalusian history. The Northmen, or "Majus" as they were +called by the Arabs, appeared in the year 844 off Lisbon. After +spreading dismay through Lusitania they sailed their long ships +southwards to Cadiz, and disembarked. They vanquished the khalifa's +troops in three pitched battles, and penetrating into Seville sacked the +rich city from end to end. Luckily they remained but a day and a night, +and after sustaining several desperate attacks from the inhabitants of +the country, with varying results, they retired overland to Lisbon, +where they re-embarked. They came again fifteen years later, and this +time sailed up the Guadalquivir, burnt the principal mosque, and threw +down the Roman walls. Then they made sail for the eastern coasts of +Spain, where they were attacked and routed by the Saracen fleet. An army +of demons must these strange uncouth pirates have seemed to the +Andalusians, who knew not whence they came nor to what race of men they +belonged. + +On the break-up of the Western Khalifate in 1009, the shrewd and +powerful kadi, Mohammed Ben Abbad, secured the sovereignty of the city +for himself and his descendants. He contrived to give his usurpation the +appearance of legality. He espoused the cause of an impostor who +personated the deposed khalifa, Hisham, and pretended to govern the city +in his name. His power once firmly established, Ben Abbad disposed of +his puppet, and announced that the khalifa was dead and had designated +him his lawful successor. For the second time Seville rose to the rank +of an independent State. + +The dynasty of Abbad, emulous of the glories of Cordova, outshone all +the other rulers of Spain in elegance and culture. The city was adorned +with beautiful gardens and buildings. Learning was held in honour, and +the amir disputed the palm with a swarm of fellow-poets. Walking one day +with his courtiers, on these very banks of the Guadalquivir, the Amir +Mut'adid-billah observed the water lying glassy beneath the waving +light. He improvised a line comparing the surface of the stream to a +cuirass, and called on the poet Aben Amr to complete the verse. This the +laureate found some difficulty in doing, and to his chagrin he was +anticipated by a girl of the people standing by, who contributed these +lines: + + "A strong cuirass, magnificent in combat, + Like water frozen over." + +The amir, far from resenting this intrusion of a bystander into the +royal circle, bade the girl draw nearer and asked her name. She said +that her name was Romikiwa and that she was the slave of Romiya. The +prince then asked if she were married. The maiden replied that she was +not. "It is well," said Mut'adid-billah, "for I propose to buy you and +to marry you." It is to be presumed that Romiya had no objection to +offer to this plan. + +This monarch, the son of the first Abbadite amir, could do other things +than make verses. He was a mighty warrior in Islam, and kept a kind of +garden planted with the skulls of his enemies, in the contemplation of +which he took great delight. With a view to adding to his collection he +made extensive conquests in what are now the provinces of Ciudad Real, +Badajoz, and Alemtejo, and undertook successful expeditions against +Cordova and Ronda. It was the misfortune of his son and successor, +Mote'mid, to be the contemporary of those great and vigorous Castilian +kings, Fernando el Magno and Alfonso VI. Conscious of the weakness of +his little State, the Amir of Ishbiliyah neglected no means of humouring +his powerful neighbour. Fernando sent an armed mission to his court to +demand the body of the holy martyr, Justa. But though Mote'mid eagerly +extended all the assistance in his power, no trace of the relics could +be obtained. The mission would have been obliged to return empty-handed +had not St. Isidore (the brother of St. Leander) appeared in a dream to +one of the Christian envoys and commanded him to convey his remains to +Leon, instead of St. Justa's. The venerable prelate's body was +discovered at Italica and carried off to the north, fragrant with +balsamic odours and wrapped in costly silks. Mote'mid loudly lamented +the loss of the remains. "Oh! venerable brother," he was heard to +exclaim, "dost thou then leave me? Thou knowest what has passed between +me and thee, and the love I bear thee. I pray thee to forget me never." +Very remarkable words indeed, to fall from the lips of a Mohammedan +sovereign in reference to a Catholic saint. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--A COURTYARD] + +In truth the Spanish Moslems of that day were sadly wanting in zeal for +their religion. "In those days," writes an Arab chronicler, "men of +virtue and principle were rare among the people of Mohammed. The +majority scrupled not to drink wine and to give themselves up to every +kind of dissipation. The conquerors of Andalusia disputed about their +slaves and singing girls, passing their time in debauchery and +pleasures, wasting the treasure of the State on amusement, and +oppressing the people with exactions and tributes that they might buy +the friendship of the tyrant Alfonso with costly presents. So things +went on among the quarrelsome Mussulman chiefs, until, the conquerors +and the conquered alike prostrated and the kings and captains having +lost their pristine worth, the warriors became cowards, the people +vegetated in misery and dejection, the whole of society became corrupt, +and the lifeless, soulless body of Islam was only a decaying carcase. +The Moslems who did not bow beneath the yoke of Alfonso consented to pay +him annual tributes, constituting themselves in this manner mere tax +collectors for the Christian king on their own territories. Meanwhile +the affairs of Islam were directed by Jews, who obtained the offices of +wizir, hagib, and khatib, reserved in another age to the most +illustrious of the citizens. The Christians devastated the beautiful +land of Andalusia, and carried off captives and booty, burning villages +and threatening the towns." + +In pursuance of his policy of conciliation, Mote'mid gave his daughter +Zayda in marriage to Alfonso VI., her dowry being all the towns Mut'adid +had conquered in New Castile. Lucas of Tuy says the damsel was taken +"quasi pro uxore ut præmissam est." But this ambiguous union did not +avert a serious rupture between the sovereigns a year or two later. +When the Castilian king sent two ambassadors to Seville to collect his +tribute, one of them, a Jew, conducted himself so haughtily that the +exasperated Moslems stabbed him to death, letting the Christians escape +without serious injury. This outrage meant war. Mote'mid cast about him +for an ally. No help was to be found in Spain, and with inward +misgivings, no doubt, the Abbadite amir called on the Almoravides of +Africa to uphold the cause of Islam. Warned of the danger of this +course, Mote'mid is said to have replied, "Better be a camel driver in +the African desert than a swineherd in Castile." The Almoravides came +and routed the Christians. They returned to Africa, and then came again, +this time reducing all the petty Mussulman States beneath their sway. In +1091 Ishbiliyah became a mere provincial centre, the seat of a Berber +governor. Mote'mid was sent in chains to Africa, where he died four +years later. + +The Almoravide rule was of scant duration. Fifty-five years later all +Andalusia was annexed to the empire of the Almohades. The third +sovereign of the new dynasty dealt what seemed a decisive blow to the +allied Christians at Alarcos in the year 1195. But the conquerors knew +not how to follow up their victory. The Spaniards rallied, and in 1212 +was fought the battle of "Las Navas de Tolosa." The Mussulmans were +totally defeated, and left, it is said, six hundred thousand dead upon +the field. Yet the knell of Ishbiliyah had not yet sounded. The +authority of the Almohade khalifas was nominally recognized in the city +sixteen years longer. In 1228 the last of the race of Abd-ul-Mumin to +rule in Spain was expelled by the famous Ben Hud, who was himself slain +by his rival Al Ahmar, the founder of the Nasrite dynasty of Granada, +ten years later. In their despair the people of Seville turned once more +to the African Almohades. But no new army of Ghazis crossed the strait +to do battle with the Unbeliever. The Andalusians were left to fight +their last fight unassisted. Cordova had fallen before St. Ferdinand, +and the Sevillians provoked his anger by the murder of one of their +chiefs who was devoted to his interests. At the eleventh hour the +defence was entrusted--strangely enough for a Mohammedan community--to a +junta composed of six persons. Their names are worth being recorded: Abu +Faris Ben Hafs, Sakkaf, Ben Shoayb, Yahya Ben Khaldun, Ben Khiyar, and +Abu Bekr Ben Sharih. + +Thus driven to bay, the Moors offered a determined resistance. They were +attacked not only by the Castilians, but by their own co-religionists; +for Al Ahmar, the new Amir of Granada, was serving with his followers +under the banner of Ferdinand. The siege lasted fifteen months. A fleet +was brought round from the shores of Biscay under the command of Admiral +Ramon Bonifaz. The Moorish ships were dispersed and the chain which the +defenders had stretched across the river broken. The besieged were thus +cut off from their magazines in the suburb of Triana. Meanwhile all the +outlying posts had been taken by the Castilians, and the Moors were +driven to take refuge within the walls. Only when threatened with famine +did the garrison ask for terms. They offered to capitulate if they were +allowed to destroy their principal mosque to save it from profanation. +The Infante Alfonso replied that if a single brick was displaced, the +whole population would be put to the sword. The terms finally accorded +the besieged were, for that age, not ungenerous. A limited number of +families were to be allowed to remain in the city, the lives and +property of these and of the rest were to be respected, and the means of +transport to Africa and other parts of the peninsula were to be provided +for those who were to leave. Probably only a few thousand Moors remained +in Seville. Abu Faris, magnanimously declining an honourable post +offered him by the conqueror, retired to Barbary. Thither he was +followed by thousands of his fellow-townsmen, while others accepted Al +Ahmar's invitation to settle at Granada. + +Ferdinand took possession of the city on December 22, 1248. He took up +his residence at the Alcazar, and allotted houses and lands to his +officers, not forgetting even his Moorish auxiliaries. Among his first +cares was the purification of the mosque and its conversion into a +Christian church. It is interesting to note that the first of his +knights to mount the Giralda Tower was a Scotsman named Lawrence Poore. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--THE TORRE DEL ORO AND THE CATHEDRAL] + +Seville had remained in the power of the Mussulmans five hundred +and thirty-six years. We, who see all Spain Spanish and remember it was +so at the beginning, are apt to look on the Moorish occupation as a mere +episode or interlude in the history of the country. It is difficult to +realize that the sway of the Crescent lasted in Seville for as long a +period as has passed with us since the death of King Edward III. + +Yet there are few monuments remaining to-day to commemorate a +civilization which endured five centuries. The Moors have left their +impress, it is true, in a scarcely definable way on the city, the +physiognomy of which is more Oriental than that of Granada, a later seat +of Mohammedan empire. But this is in great part due to the men who lived +under the Christian kings, who had caught the spirit of the Moors and +perpetuated their traditions of art and culture. Here we have no such +mighty memorials of the vanished race as the Mezquita or the Alhambra. +Still, a few memorials of that far-off age there are; and we will go in +search of them. + +Here on the quays of the Guadalquivir rises a polygonal tower of three +storeys, poetically termed the "Torre del Oro." But here we find no +Danaë awaiting a rescuer, but only the harbour master and his +assistants. When the Almohades ruled in Seville a great iron chain was +drawn across the river, and a tower built on either side to support it. +The tower on the Triana side has long since disappeared, but the "Torre +del Oro" remains as it was built in 1220--except, indeed, for the small +turret or superstructure added in the eighteenth century. It is said, +too, that it was once adorned with beautiful glazed tiles, from which +(though this seems unlikely) it derived its name. In the days when it +stood the brunt of the attack from the squadron of Ramon Bonifaz, it was +connected with the Alcazar by a wall, called, in military language, a +curtain. This was not demolished until the year 1821. At the same time +disappeared the main entrance to the Alcazar. + +The Almohades did much to embellish and to improve the city during their +century of sovereignty. The only important Mohammedan work remaining to +us in Seville belongs to that period, and illustrates the victory of the +African or Berber over the Byzantine influences traceable in earlier +Moorish architecture. The new conquerors of Andalusia were a virile, +hardy race, and there is something vigorous and coarse in their +handiwork. They developed an excessive fondness for ornamentation which +mars much of their work, and were too much addicted to the use of +painted stucco and gilding. To them we owe the stalactite roofing, +afterwards developed with such success at the Alhambra. "It is certain," +says Don Pedro de Madrazo, "that the innovations characteristic of +Mussulman architecture in Spain during the eleventh and twelfth +centuries cannot be explained as a natural modification of the Arabic +art of the Khalifate, or as a prelude to the art of Granada, for +there is very little similarity between the style called Secondary or +Mauritanian, and the Arab-Byzantine and Andalusian; while on the other +hand it is evident that the Saracenic monuments of Fez and Morocco, of +the reigns of Yusuf Ben Tashfin, Abdul Ben Ali, Al Mansûr, and Nasr, +partake of the character of the ornamentation introduced by the +Almohades into Spain." + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--THE GIRALDA] + +The most important example of this style is the far-famed Giralda Tower, +at the north-eastern corner of the Cathedral, the most renowned of +minarets and one of the strongest buildings in the world. It was built +in the reign of Yakûb al Mansûr by an architect whose name is variously +written Gabir, Hever, and Yever. Quantities of Roman remains and +statuary were used in making the foundations. The wall at the base is +nine feet in thickness, which increases with the height. The lower part +is of stone, the upper part of brick. For the first fifteen metres the +four faces of the tower are plain; at that height begins a series of +vertical windows, mostly of two lights, some with the horseshoe, others +with the pointed arch; while on either side the masonry is carved into +what seem panels of trellis work. There is much in the details of this +decoration to interest the student of Moorish art, who will recognize in +them the inception of many forms developed (and not always to advantage) +at Granada. + +But the Giralda as we now see it is a third as high again as it was +left by the Almohades. In their time it was crowned by a pinnacle to +which were attached four balls of gilded copper--one of which was so +large, we are told, that the city gate had to be widened that it might +be brought hither. The iron bar supporting the balls weighed about ten +hundredweights, and the whole was cast by a Sicilian Arab named Abu +Leyth at a cost of about fifty thousand pounds of our money. The balls +were thrown down by an earthquake in 1395, when their proportions were +carefully ascertained. + +It was not till 1568 that the upper stage of the fabric, a graceful +Renaissance superstructure, was added by Fernando Ruiz. In the same year +Morel's great statue of Faith, cast in bronze, was placed on the apex to +symbolize the triumph of Christianity over the creed of Islam. It is a +clever piece of workmanship, for though it weighs twenty-five +hundredweights and measures fourteen feet in height, it sways and turns +with every wind. Hence the name applied to the Tower--Giralda, from _que +gira_, "which turns." + +The first thing you will be asked to do by the guides at Seville is to +mount the Giralda, which you do by means of thirty-five inclined planes, +up which a horse might be ridden with ease to the very top. Each stage +of the ascent is named: "El Cuerpo de Campañas," after its fine peal of +bells, one of which weighs eighteen tons; "El Cuerpo del Reloj," after +the clock first set up in 1400--the earliest tower-clock in Spain. Then +there are the prettily-named floors of the Lilies and the Stars. Some of +the rooms are inhabited by the bell-ringers, who may at times be heard +practising not only the chimes but the peculiar guitar-playing of +Andalusia. + +The view from the summit of the tower I think, on the whole, +disappointing. The principal buildings of the city are too closely +grouped below the spectator to give a very fine effect to the panorama, +and the country round is not beautiful. Looking across the arid region +beyond the river, it is hard to believe that in Moorish times it was +renowned for its beauty and fertility and compared by Arabic writers to +the Garden of Eden. Looking down we scan the white city, a labyrinth of +lanes and alleys, only here and there a plaza opening like a lake among +the closely-set roofs. Far away to the north the Sierra Morena limits +the prospect. How often, when from this tower the muezzin proclaimed the +Islamic profession of faith, his eyes must have lingered apprehensively +on those mountains from whose crests the Christian seemed to hurl back +defiance and repudiation. + +For the Giralda was the minaret of the great mosque begun by Yusuf, the +son of Abd-ur-Rahman, in 1171, and completed by his son and successor, +Yakub al Mansûr. The earlier mosque on the same site had been destroyed +by the Normans, but some portions of it seem to appear in the horseshoe +arches of the Puerta del Lagarto and the northern wall of the Patio de +los Naranjos. This latter court, which shuts in the Cathedral on the +north side, contains the fountain at which the devout Moslems performed +their ablutions. The picturesque Puerta del Perdon, through which you +pass on your way into the town, is a Mudejar, not a Moorish, horseshoe +arch, erected by Alfonso XI. to commemorate the victory at the Salado in +the year 1340. The doors with bronze plates, despite their Arabic +inscriptions, also date from that time. The gate was restored in the +sixteenth century and adorned with sculptures. The terra-cotta statues +of St. Peter and St Paul on the outer side are the work of Miguel +Florentin, one of the earliest of the apostles of Renaissance sculpture +to settle in Spain. The relief over the arch, representing the expulsion +of the money-changers from the Temple, is also by him, and commemorates +the substitution of the Lonja or Bourse for this gate as a rendezvous +for merchants. The belfry storey is modern. At the little shrine just +inside, to the left on entering, may be seen a "Christ bearing the +Cross," by Luis de Vargas. The money-changers and brokers have gone, but +this gate remains a favourite haunt of the gossips and loungers of +Seville, and in the cool of the evening is occupied by some pleasant +little family groups from the adjoining houses. The southern side of the +patio is occupied by the Cathedral, the western by the church or chapel +of the Sagrario. The house on the north side inside the old Moorish +wall, to the right of the Giralda gate (on entering), is occupied +by the Biblioteca Colombina, bequeathed by the son of Columbus. The +pulpit from which St. Vincent Ferrer, the "Angel of the Judgment," +thundered forth his terrific fulminations against sinners, Jews, and +heretics, I omitted to notice. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--GARDENS OF THE ALCAZAR] + +Everyone who reaches the Patio de los Naranjos for the first time is +sure to enter the Cathedral, which he should not do until the Alcazar at +least has been visited. Not that the two great buildings of Seville +exhibit any transition of style from the one to the other, but because, +having begun the consideration of Moorish architectural work, we ought +naturally to pass on immediately to the Mauresque work of the first +century of Castilian rule. + +The group of buildings which for greater clearness we will call, with +the Spaniards themselves, the Alcazares lie to the south of the +Cathedral, and are surrounded by an embattled wall built by the Arabs. +This enclosure, it should be understood, includes a great many private +houses and open spaces besides the Alcazar proper. Immediately inside +the wall are two squares called the Patio de las Banderas and Patio de +la Monteria. At the far end of the former is the office of the governor +of the palace, and to the right of this is an entrance whence a +colonnaded passage called the Apeadero leads straight through to the +gardens, or, by turning to the right, to the Patio del Leon. On one side +this latter square communicates with the Patio de la Monteria; on the +other side is the Palace of the Alcazar itself. I hope this will make +the rather puzzling topography of the place a little more intelligible. + +Whether or not the Roman "Arx" stood on this spot, as tradition avers, I +cannot pretend to say. But there is no room for doubt that a palace +stood here in the days of the Abbadite amirs, and that this building was +restored and remodelled by the Almohades. To outward seeming the Alcazar +is as Moorish a monument as the Alhambra. In reality, few traces remain +of the palace raised by the Moslem rulers of either dynasty, and the +present building was mainly the work of the Castilian kings--especially +of Pedro the Cruel. But though built under and for a Christian monarch, +it is practically certain that the architects were Moors and good +Moslems, and that their instructions and intentions were to build a +Moorish palace. Historically, you may say, the Alcazar is a Christian +work; artistically, Mohammedan. + +The actual palace occupies only a small part of the site of the older +structures, and incorporates but a few fragments of their fabrics. Since +Pedro the Cruel's day, so many sovereigns have restored, remodelled, and +added to the building, that it is far from being homogeneous, though we +can hardly agree with Contreras that it is "far from being a monument of +Oriental art." + +Pedro built more than one palace, or, more correctly, two or three wings +of the same palace, in this enclosure. Traces of his Stucco Palace +(Palacio del Yeso) remain. Pedro looms very large in the history of +Seville. He plays as prominent a part here as Harûn-al-Rashid in the +story of Bagdad. He was fond of the Moors, and affected their costumes +and customs. He also favoured the Jews, and was alleged by his enemies +to be the changeling child of a Jewess. His treasurer and trusted +adviser was an Israelite named Simuel Ben Levi. He served the king long +and faithfully, till one day it was whispered that half the wealth that +should fill the royal coffers had been diverted into his own. Ben Levi +was seized without warning and placed on the rack, whereupon he expired, +not of pain, but of sheer indignation. Under his house--so the story +goes--was found a cavern in which were three piles of gold and silver, +twice as high as a man. Pedro on beholding these was much affected. "Had +Simuel surrendered a third of the least of these piles," he exclaimed, +"he should have gone free. Why would he rather die than speak?" + +Stories innumerable are told of this king, a good many, no doubt, being +pure inventions. There is no reason to question the account of his +treatment of Abu Saïd, the Moorish Sultan of Granada. This prince had +usurped the throne, and being solicitous of Pedro's alliance, came to +visit him at the Alcazar with a magnificent retinue. The costliest +presents were offered to the Castilian king, whose heart, however, was +bent on possessing the superb ruby in the regalia of his guest. Before +many hours had passed, the Moors were seized in their apartments and +stripped of their raiment and valuables. Abu Saïd, ridiculously tricked +out, was mounted on a donkey, and with thirty-six of his courtiers, +hurried to a field outside the town, where they were bound to posts. A +train of horsemen appeared, Don Pedro at their head, and transfixed the +helpless men with darts, the king shouting, as he hurled his missiles at +his luckless guest: "This for the treaty you made me conclude with +Aragon! This for the castle you took from me!" The ruby which had been +the cause of the Moor's death was presented by his murderer to the Black +Prince, and now adorns the crown of England. + +Nor did Pedro confine his fury to the sterner sex. Doña Urraca Osorio, +because her son was concerned in Don Enrique's uprising, was burned at +the stake on the Alameda. Her faithful servant, Leonor Dávalos, seeing +that the flames had consumed her mistress's clothing, threw herself into +the pyre to cover her nakedness, and was likewise burnt to ashes. Having +conceived a passion for Doña Maria Coronel, the king caused her husband +to be executed in the Torre del Oro. The widow, far from yielding to his +entreaties and threats, took the veil and destroyed her beauty by means +of vitriol. Pedro at once transferred his attentions to her sister, Doña +Aldonza, and met with more success. If a chronicler is to be believed, +he threw his brother Enrique's young daughter naked to the lions, like +some Christian virgin martyr. The generous (or possibly overfed) brutes +refused the proffered prey, and the whimsical tyrant ever afterwards +treated the maiden kindly. In memory of her experience, she was known as +"Leonor de los Leones." + +The misdeeds and eccentricities of this extraordinary monarch have been +chronicled by Ayala (who was a partisan of Don Enrique), and given a +wider circulation by the pen of Prosper Mérimée. I cannot very well omit +the oft-told tale that gives its name to the curious little street, near +the Casa de los Abades, called Calle Cabeza de Don Pedro. There the +king's head may be seen in effigy high up on the wall at the corner of +the street. Pedro, prowling about the town after dark, had a quarrel +with a passer-by to whom, of course, he was unknown, and whom he +incontinently ran through the body. Thinking there had been no witness +to his crime, he stalked back to his palace. Next day he summoned the +Alcalde of Seville to his presence and asked for news of the town. The +magistrate told him that the body of a man had been found, murdered by +whom no one knew. The king would suffer no laxity on the part of his +officers. If the assassin were not discovered the alcalde must pay the +penalty of the crime with his own life. Luckily for the magistrate, an +old dame had beheld the encounter of the previous night, and now +hastened to him with the surprising news that the man he sought after +was no other than his majesty. She had recognized him beyond all +possibility of doubt, not only by his features, but by the peculiar +clicking of the royal knees. The alcalde hanged the king in effigy and +invited him to the spectacle. "It is well," said the prince, after an +ominous pause, "I am satisfied. Justice has been done." + +I have told the tale rather hurriedly, as it is far from being well +authenticated, and because it will doubtless be familiar in some form or +another to most readers. That Pedro had a sense of humour is shown by +yet another incident. A priest for murdering a shoemaker was condemned +by the ecclesiastical tribune to be suspended from his sacerdotal +functions for the space of twelve months. On hearing this Pedro decreed +that any tradesman who murdered a priest should be punished by being +restrained from the exercise of his trade for the like period. + +But now let us return to the palace of which the sinister king seems the +presiding genius. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--GARDENS OF THE ALCAZAR] + +Crossing the Plaza del Triunfo, which lies between the Cathedral and the +old Moorish walls, we enter the Patio de las Banderas, so called either +because a flag was hoisted here when the royal family was in residence, +or on account of the trophy, composed of the arms of Spain with crossed +flags, displayed over one of the arches. Pedro was accustomed to +administer justice, tempered with ferocity, after the Oriental fashion, +seated on a stone bench in a corner of this square. The surrounding +private houses occupy the site of the old Palace of the Almohades, +and one of the halls--the Sala de Justicia--is still visible. It is +entered from the Patio de la Monteria. Contreras assigns a date to this +room even earlier than the advent of the Almohades. It is square, and +measures nine metres across. The stucco ceiling is adorned with stars +and wreaths, and bordered by a painted frieze. The decorations consist +chiefly of inscriptions in Cufic characters. The right-angled apertures +in the walls were closed either by screens of translucent stucco or by +tapestries, "which must," says Gestoso y Perez, "have made the hall +appear a miracle of wealth and splendour." It was in this hall, often +overlooked by visitors, that Don Pedro overheard four judges discussing +the division of a bribe they had received. The question was abruptly +solved by the division of the disputants' heads and bodies. Thanks to +its isolation, the Sala de Justicia escaped the dreadful "restoration" +effected in the middle of the nineteenth century by the Duc de +Montpensier. The house No. 3, Patio de las Banderas, formed part, in the +opinion of Gestoso y Perez, of the Palacio del Yeso, or Stucco Palace, +of Don Pedro. + +Passing through the colonnaded Apeadero, built by Philip III. in 1607, +and once used as an armoury, we reach the Patio del Leon, where +tournaments used to be held, and stand in front of the Palace of the +Alcazar. The façade is gorgeous yet elegant, of a gaudiness that in this +brilliant city of golden sunshine and white walls is not obtrusive. Yet, +despite the Moorish character of the decoration, the Arabic capitals +and pilasters, and the square entrance "in the Persian style," the front +is not that of an eastern palace; and it is without surprise that we +read over the portal, in quaint Gothic characters, the legend: "The most +high, the most noble, the most powerful, and the most victorious Don +Pedro, commanded these Palaces, these Alcazares, and these entrances to +be made in the year (of Cæsar) 1402" (1364). Elsewhere on the façade are +the oft-repeated Cufic inscriptions: "There is no conqueror but Allah," +"Glory to our lord the Sultan" (Don Pedro), "Eternal glory to Allah," +etc., etc. + +This is a very different entrance from that of the Alhambra, the +building on the model of which the Alcazar was undoubtedly planned. From +the entrance a passage leads from your left to one extremity of the +Patio de las Doncellas, the central and principal court of the palace. +How this patio came to be so named I have never been able to ascertain. +There is an absurd story to the effect that here were collected the +girls fabled to have been sent by way of annual tribute by Mauregato to +the khalifa. Had such a transaction taken place, the tribute would have +been payable, of course, at Cordova, not at Seville. Moreover this court +was among the works executed in the fourteenth century. + +The Alcazar strikes us (if we have come from Granada) as being on a much +smaller scale than the Alhambra. It is very much better preserved, as +it should be, seeing that it is a century younger; and if it vaguely +strikes one as being fitter for the abode of a court favourite than of a +monarch, it impresses one as being fresher, more elegant--in a word, +more artistic--than the older building. + +The Patio de las Doncellas is an oblong, and surrounded by an arcade of +pointed and dentated arches which spring from the capitals of white +marble columns placed in pairs. The middle arch on each side is higher +than the others, and springs from oblong imposts resting on the twin +columns and flanked by the miniature pillars characteristic of the +Granadine architecture. The spandrils are beautifully adorned with +stucco work of the trellis pattern. On the frieze above runs a flowing +scroll with Arabic inscriptions, among them being "Glory to our lord, +the Sultan Don Pedro," and this very remarkable text: "There is but one +God; He is eternal; He was not begotten and has never begotten, and He +has no equal." This inscription, opposed to the tenets of Christianity, +was evidently designed by a Moslem artificer, who relied (and safely +relied) on the ignorance of his employers. The frieze is decorated also, +at intervals, by the escutcheons of Don Pedro and of Ferdinand and +Isabella, and by the well-known devices of Charles V., the Pillars of +Hercules with the motto "Plus Oultre." The inside of the arcade is +ornamented with a high dado of glazed tile mosaic (azulejo), +brilliantly coloured and with the highly-prized metallic glint. The +combinations and variations of the designs are very ingenious and +interesting. This decoration probably dates from Don Pedro's time. +Behind each central arch is a round-arched doorway, flanked by twin +windows. These are framed in rich conventional ornamental work. Through +little oblong windows above the doors light falls and illumines the +ceilings of the apartments opening into the court. The ceiling of the +arcade dates from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, but was restored +in 1856. A deep cornice marks the division of the lower part of the +court from the upper storey, the front of which, with its white marble +arches, columns and balustrades, was the work of Don Luis de Vega, a +sixteenth-century architect. + +Three recesses in the wall to the left of the entrance are pointed out +as the audience closets of King Pedro; but they are much more likely to +be walled-up entrances to formerly existing corridors and chambers +behind. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--PATIO DE LAS BANDERAS] + +The door facing this wall gives access to the Hall of the Ambassadors +(Salon de los Embajadores), the finest apartment in this fairy palace. +The doors are magnificent examples of inlay work, and were, according to +the inscription on them, made by Moorish carpenters from Toledo in the +year 1364. The hall is about thirty-three feet square, and exhibits a +splendid combination of the various styles with the Gothic and +Renaissance. The ornamentation is rich and elaborate almost beyond +the possibility of description. The magnificent "half-orange" ceiling of +carved wood rests on a frieze decorated with the Tower and Lion. Then +come Cufic inscriptions on a blue ground and ugly female heads of the +sixteenth century. Then, below another band of decoration, is a row of +fifty-six busts of the Kings of Spain, from Receswinto the Goth to +Philip III. These date, at earliest, from the sixteenth century. The +wrought-iron balconies were made by Francisco Lopez in 1592. The +decoration of this splendid chamber is completed by a high dado of blue, +white, and green "azulejos." It was in this hall that Abu Saïd is said +to have been received by his treacherous host. + +The Hall of the Ambassadors communicated on each side with the patio and +adjoining halls by entrances composed of three horseshoe arches, +supported by graceful pillars and enclosed in a circular arch. + +Through the arch facing the entrance from the patio we pass into a long +narrow apartment, known as the Comedor, where the late Comtesse de Paris +was born in 1848. To the north of the salon is a small square chamber, +called the "Cuarto del Techo de Felipe Segundo," with a coffered ceiling +dating from the time of that king. North of this room is the exquisite +little Patio de las Muñecas (Court of the Dolls), purely Granadine in +treatment. The rounded arches are separated by cylindrical pillars--I +call them so for want of a better word--which rest on slender columns +of different colours, reminding one of the early or Cordovan style. The +capitals are rich, the pillars they uphold decorated with vertical lines +of Cufic inscriptions, many of which, says Contreras, are placed upside +down. The walls and spandrils are tastefully adorned with stucco work of +the trellis pattern, tiling and mosaic. This court, though still +harmonious and beautiful, suffered rather than benefited by its +restoration in 1843; but the architecture has been not unsuccessfully +reproduced in the upper storey. + +This charming spot is by no means suggestive of deeds of blood and +violence; yet, just as they point out the Salon de los Embajadores as +the scene of the arrest of the Red Sultan by Don Pedro, so here do the +guides place the scene of the murder of Don Fadrique by the truculent +monarch--a fratricide to be avenged by another fratricide at Montiel. +The Master of Santiago, to give the Don his usual title, after a +successful campaign in Murcia, had been graciously received by his +brother the king, and presently went to pay his respects in another part +of the palace to the royal favourite, Maria de Padilla. It is said that +she warned him of his impending fate; perhaps by her manner, if not by +words, she tried to arouse in him a sense of danger, but the soldier +prince returned to the king's presence. With a shout, Pedro gave the +fatal signal. "Kill the Master of Santiago," he cried. Guards fell upon +the prince. His sword was entangled in his scarf, and he was butchered +without mercy. His retainers fled in all directions, pursued by Pedro's +guards. One took refuge in Maria de Padilla's own apartment, and tried +to screen himself by holding her little daughter, Doña Beatriz, before +him. Pedro tore the child away, and despatched the unfortunate man with +his own hand. The murder took place on May 19, 1358. + +To the west of the court is a little room, elegantly decorated, and +named after the Catholic Sovereigns, by whom it was restored. Their +well-known devices appear, together with the Towers and Lions, among the +decorations, which reveal the influence of the plateresque style. The +north side of the patio is occupied by the Cuarto de los Principes, not +to be confounded with a similarly named apartment on the floor above. At +either end of this room is an arch, adorned with stucco work, admitting +to a cabinet or alcove. That to the right has a fine artesonado ceiling, +and that to the left is decorated in a species of Moorish plateresque +style. An inscription states that the frieze was made in the year 1543 +by Juan de Simancas, master carpenter. + +East of the Patio de las Muñecas, and occupying the north side of the +Patio de las Doncellas, is the long room called the Dormitorio de los +Reyes Moros. All the apartments in the Alcazar are fancifully named, but +the designation of none is quite so stupid and misleading as this. The +columns of the twin windows on either side of the door appear to date +from the time of the Khalifate. The doors themselves are richly inlaid +and painted with geometrical patterns. The three horseshoe arches +leading to the _al hami_, or alcove, also seem to belong to the early +period of Spanish-Arabic art. The room is so richly decorated that +scarce a handbreadth of the surface is free from ornament. + +On the opposite side of the central court is the sumptuous Salon de +Carlos V., the ceiling of which was constructed by order of the emperor, +and is adorned with classical heads. The tile and stucco work is the +finest in the palace. There is a legend to the effect that St. Ferdinand +died in this room--on his knees, with a cord round his neck and a taper +in his hand--but it is unlikely that this part of the palace existed in +his time. The guide pointed out the room to the west of this salon as +the chamber of Maria de Padilla, but this again is, to put it mildly, +doubtful. + +The upper chambers of the Alcazar, which are not accessible to the +general public, are very handsome. The floor overlooking the Patio del +Leon is occupied by the Sala del Principe, with its beautiful spring +windows, polychrome tiling, and columns brought from the old Moorish +Palace at Valencia. Adjacent is the Oratory, built by order of Ferdinand +and Isabella in 1504. The tile work is of extraordinary beauty, and +shows that the Moors had not a monopoly of talent in this kind of +decoration. The fine Visitation over the altar is signed by Francesco +Nicoloso, the Italian. On the same floor is the reputed bed-chamber of +Don Pedro. Over the door may be seen four death's-heads, and over +another entrance the curious figure of a man who looks back over his +shoulder at a grinning skull. These gruesome designs commemorate the +summary execution by the king of four judges whom he overheard +discussing the division of a bribe. The royal apartments on this floor +contain some precious works of art; but I abstain from mentioning the +most remarkable of these, as pictures are so often transferred in Spain +from one royal residence to another that such indications are often out +of date before they are printed. + +The Alcazar, I think, disappoints most foreigners. The architectural and +decorative work of the Spanish Moors and their descendants pleases +people quite inexperienced in the arts by its mere prettiness, its +brilliance, its originality, and its colour; and it delights still more +those who are able to appreciate its marvellous combinations of +geometrical forms, its exquisite epigraphy, and all its subtle details. +But the average traveller stands between these two classes of observers. +He looks for grandeur where he should expect only beauty, and his eye is +wearied by the wealth of conventional ornamentation. What I think is +conspicuously lacking in the Alcazar, and to almost the same extent in +the Alhambra, is atmosphere. Memories do not haunt you in these gilded +halls. There is nothing about them to suggest that anything ever +happened here. The legends tell us the contrary; but assuredly no one +was ever less successful in impressing his personality on his abode than +were the founders and inhabitants of the Alcazar. + +The gardens are really the most pleasing spot within the enclosure. They +form a delicious pleasaunce, where the orange and citron diffuse their +fragrance, and magic fountains spring up suddenly beneath the +passenger's feet, sprinkling him with a cooling dew. I noticed some +flower beds shaped like curiously formed crosses, which the gardener +told me were the crosses of the orders of Calatrava, Santiago, +Alcantara, and Montesa. You are also shown the Baths of Maria de +Padilla, which are approached through a gloomy arched entrance. In the +favourite's time they had no other roof than the sky, and no further +protection from prying eyes than that afforded by a screen of orange and +lemon trees. In Mohammedan times the baths were probably used by the +ladies of the harem. + +But if the Alcazar is a disappointment to the majority of visitors, I +cannot conceive the Cathedral being so, despite the unfavourable +criticism to which it has been subjected. The exterior, it is true, is +unimpressive, and the vastness of the pile is largely responsible for +the powerful effect proclaimed by the interior. But when the worst has +been urged, this, the third largest church in Christendom, remains a +grand, a solemn, and a magnificent temple, thoroughly Christian in +atmosphere and details. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--GARDENS OF THE ALCAZAR] + +I like the story of its foundation better than the silly tales about Don +Pedro, or about crucifixes helping jilted damsels. It has, moreover, the +very unusual merit of being true. After the conquest by St. Ferdinand +the old mosque of the Almohades was "purified," and served as the +cathedral till, towards the end of the fourteenth century, it became +practically ruined by earthquakes. The dean and chapter took counsel +together, and at a conclave held in the Court of the Elms, on the south +side of the mosque, it was resolved to build a new church forthwith. +Then uprose a zealous prebendary and cried: "Let us build a church so +great that those who come after us will think us mad to have attempted +it!" The proposal was adopted with acclamation; and the great-hearted +priests bound themselves to contribute from their own stipends as much +money as might be necessary, should the revenue of the See prove unequal +to the cost of the undertaking. They could never hope to see the fruit +of their labours. I do not think the name of any one of them has been +preserved. The architect alike has been forgotten. All concerned sought +only the greater glorification of their faith. Such greatness of spirit +deserved a noble monument.[*] + +[Note *: Instances of this lofty spirit are frequent in the history +of the Spanish peoples. When, after their first uprising against the +mother country, the people of Honduras (Central America) met in Congress +to frame a Constitution, a priest rose and proposed that before anything +else was done, every slave in the country should be set free. And the +measure was carried unanimously and enthusiastically by the Congress, +which must have included many slaveholders. It took the United States +forty years to follow this example.] + +The Cathedral took one hundred and seventeen years to build, the first +stone having been laid in 1402 and the lantern having been finished by +Juan Gil de Hontañon in 1519. Of the mosque certain portions were left: +the Giralda, the Patio de los Naranjos, and the portal called the Puerta +del Lagarto. The latter is named after the wooden model of an alligator +which hangs from the roof. Three or four centuries ago the mummified +form of a real alligator hung there. It was one of the gifts of an +Egyptian khalifa to the daughter of a Castilian king, whom he sought in +marriage. The saurian was accompanied from the banks of the Nile by +various animals peculiar to that fertile region, but these interesting +offerings failed to make any impression on the heart of the Infanta. +Thus the forlorn-looking effigy of the reptile is in reality an +affecting memorial of unrequited love. + +Churches, it has been remarked, were considered in the Middle Ages very +proper repositories for curiosities of all sorts. The cloister of the +Lagarto contains also an elephant's tusk, weighing seventy pounds, and a +horse's bit, said to be that of Babieca, the Cid's charger. + +Very grateful is the sudden cool of the great church when you enter it +from the sun-scorched plaza. Then there comes over you a feeling of +profound reverence, followed very soon by an infinite restfulness. There +is no place in Seville where you more willingly linger. A holy calm +pervades the whole building, and you wonder that it should have +suggested to Théophile Gautier such fantastic comparisons. If it were +not the temple of Christ, I could believe it to be the temple of +Silence. + +The Puerta del Lagarto is the favourite entrance, but when the day comes +for a painstaking examination, you would do well to begin at one of the +entrances in the west front. Of these there are three: the Puerta Mayor, +the Puerta del Bautismo, and the Puerta San Miguel. All are enriched +with good statuary, the graceful and vigorous statues of the side doors +being the work of Pedro Millán, a fifteenth-century sculptor of renown. +Entering, we set foot on the fine marble floor and make out the +stupendous church to be composed of a nave and of two aisles on either +side. The nave, you are told, is one hundred feet high and fifty feet +wide. The noble columns, almost free of adornment, which uphold the +spacious vaults recede in the far distance like trees in an overarching +avenue. The effect, fine as it is, might have been much finer if the +centre of the nave had not been blocked up by the choir. The "Trascoro," +or screen, facing the west entrance, is richly adorned with red columns. +Over the altar is a fourteenth-century picture of the Madonna, and a +painting by Pacheco, the Inquisitor, representing St. Ferdinand +receiving the keys of Seville. Over one of the beautiful little side +altars of the choir is one of the rare examples of good Spanish +sculpture--a Virgin, by Juan Martinez Montañez. On the altar side the +choir is shut off by a sixteenth-century railing, attributed to Sancho +Muñoz. This protects from intrusion their reverences the canons, who +sit in stalls, exquisitely carved between the years 1475 and 1538. The +patterns and coloured inlaid work of the backs reveal Moorish influence. +The lectern was the work of Bartolomé Morel. When the lantern collapsed +in 1888, the choir was severely damaged. The architect who restored the +fabric proposed to move it considerably nearer the high altar, but the +proposal was stupidly rejected. A good opportunity for improving the +appearance of the Cathedral was thus lost. + +The retablo of the high altar is the quintessence of late Gothic +sculpture. It is a marvellous work of extraordinary delicacy and +elaboration. Each of the forty-five compartments into which it is +divided contains a subject from the Bible or from the lives of the +saints, carved, painted, or gilded with the rarest skill. Begun by the +Fleming Dancart, in 1479, this wonderful triumph of the carver's art was +completed by Spanish artists in 1526. The earlier work is in the middle. +Crowning it is a gilt crucifix and the statues of Our Lady and St. John. + +There are some very interesting objects in the Sacristy, as it is +called, between the reredos and the hind wall of the chancel. The +sacristan will show you the reliquary, shaped like a triptych, which +came from Constantinople and was presented to the old cathedral by +Alfonso the Learned. The double folding door is also said to have come +from the Moorish temple. With a glance at the fine terra-cotta statues +by Miguel Florentin, Juan Marin, and others, we pass behind the chancel +wall, and see before us the plateresque Royal Chapel, built by Charles +V. over the remains of certain of his ancestors. Beneath the altar lies +the body of St. Ferdinand in crown and royal robes. He lies here in the +heart of his fairest conquest, even as his descendants, Ferdinand and +Isabella, sleep in the heart of Granada. You may see his sword, the +handle of which was denuded of gems by Pedro the Cruel, lest they should +excite the cupidity of others. That royal humorist also lies here, near +his saintly ancestor and the one woman whom he ever loved, the gentle +Maria de Padilla. Then there is to be seen the Vírgen de los Reyes, an +image presented by St. Louis of France to St. Ferdinand of Castile. +(Strange that when saints filled the thrones of Europe, things went on +no better than they do now!) Another relic highly prized is the Vírgen +de las Batallas, an ivory statuette which St. Ferdinand used to carry at +his saddle-bow. These memorials of the heroic past give you little time +or inclination for an examination of the chapel itself, which has a +lofty dome, and is flanked at the entrance by twelve good statues by +Peter Kempener--whom Spaniards call Campaña. At least (so I read) he +drew them on the wall with charcoal for a ducat each, and they were +executed by Lorenzo del Vao and Campos in 1553. + +This chapel and the reredos of the chancel must be called, I suppose, +the great sights of the Cathedral, though to some its chief treasures +will be the numerous works of Murillo enshrined in its chapels and +dependencies. For myself, I like the building for its own sake, or, to +use a very hard-worked word, for its atmosphere. As you cross the nave, +looking upwards, where the light streams through the tall clerestory +windows, you will be tempted to neglect the dark chapels in the aisles, +and to revel for a while in these exquisite symphonies in coloured +glass. Few of them are of Spanish workmanship. Master Christopher the +German (Micer Cristobal Aleman) began the first--the first stained-glass +window in Seville--in 1504, the work being afterwards carried on by the +German Heinrich, the Flemings Beernaert of Zeeland and Jan Beernaert, +Carel of Bruges, and Arnulf of Flanders. The best windows are those +adorned with the Ascension, St. Mary Magdalen, Lazarus, and the Entry +into Jerusalem, by Arnulf and his brother, and the Resurrection, by +Carel of Bruges. + +In the south transept is a monument, striking in itself and of very +recent erection, which will in the course of time attract more pilgrims +than the soldier saint's shrine. For here are contained the remains of a +man who added not a Moorish city but a continent to the realm of Leon +and Castile. The ashes of Christopher Columbus repose in a coffin which +is borne on the shoulders of four figures of bronze, representing the +kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL] + +These figures are not wanting in majesty and expression. All are crowned +and wear semi-sacerdotal garb. Castile holds an oar, Leon a cross. +Behind them come Aragon and Navarre, sombre of countenance, wearing +shirts of mail. On the bosom of each is displayed the national +escutcheon: the Towers of Castile, the Lions of Leon, the Bats of +Aragon, and the Chains of Navarre. The pall bears words traced by +Isabella herself: + + "A Castilla y Leon, + Nuevo mundo dió Colon," + +and round the pedestal is an inscription which relates how the body of +the immortal Admiral of the Indies was brought here when the "ungrateful +America" revolted from the Spanish yoke. But however much the Spain of +to-day may honour Columbus dead, it is hardly for her to reproach any +land with ingratitude towards him. + +Half-way between the main entrance and the choir, the Great Navigator's +son is buried. An inscription on a slab invites the reader to pray for +the soul of Don Fernando Colon, who, as Ford very truly says, would have +been considered a great man if he had been the son of a less great +father. He rendered important services to literature, and left behind +him a library of 15,000 volumes, including some manuscripts of extreme +rarity. It was ultimately acquired by the Crown, and constitutes the +basis of the Biblioteca Columbina, housed in the Patio de los Naranjos. + +The Royal Chapel is flanked by two little chapels, one of which, +dedicated to St. Peter, contains some Zurbarans, impossible to +distinguish in the dim light; while in the other (Capilla de la +Concepcion grande) is a fine monument of Cardinal Cienfuegos and a +crucifix attributed to Alonso Cano. Opening on to the north side are the +chapels del Pilar, de las Evangelistas, de las Doncellas, de San +Francisco, de Santiago, de las Escales, and del Bautisterio. In the +latter is one of Murillo's most famous works, "The Vision of St. Anthony +of Padua." Of Cano's works there is a specimen, the "Virgin and Child," +over the altar of Belen, adjacent to the Puerta de los Naranjos. Valdés +Leal and Juan de las Roelas are represented in the chapel of Santiago, +and Herrera the younger by an ambitious "Apotheosis of St. Francis" in +the chapel of that saint. In the Capilla de las Escalas are two works of +Luca Giordano, strong in drawing, colour, and character. The same chapel +contains the fine tomb of Bishop Baltasar del Rio, dating from about +1500. + +In the south aisle are the chapels of the Mariscal, San Andres, las +Dolores, la Antigua, San Hermenegildo, San José, Santa Ana, and Santa +Laureana. These chapels are richer in sculpture than in painting. +Kempener designed the beautiful altar-piece in the Capilla del Mariscal, +and Montañez the grand statue of St. Hermenegildo in his chapel. On the +west side of the Puerta de San Cristobal, over a small altar, is the +"Generacion" of Luis de Vargas--the much praised "leg" picture which +has given its name to the chapel. The fresco of St. Christopher that +faces it is remarkable only for its size. You find such pictures of the +saint at the entrances to many Spanish churches, the old belief having +been that those who gazed upon it would not die unpreparedly that day. A +much more ancient and interesting mural painting in the Byzantine style +is to be seen in the large chapel of the "Antigua," where it was placed +in 1578. The retablo of St. Anne's Chapel is also very old, and comes +from the former cathedral. The next chapel, San José, is adorned by +Valdés Leal's "Espousals of the Virgin." The Cathedral does not contain +any fine ancient tombs. One of the best is that of Archbishop Mendoza, +by Miguel Florentin, in the Antigua Chapel. + +As every visitor to Seville professes a special devotion to Murillo, he +will probably overlook the fine "Nativity" by Luis de Vargas to the +right, on entering, of the Puerta del Nacimiento, and hurry at once to +the more famous master's "Guardian Angel," between Puerta Mayor and +Puerta del Bautismo. His "St. Leander" and "St. Isidore" are to be seen +in the great Sacristy, where they are eclipsed by Kempener's beautiful +"Descent from the Cross," before which Murillo himself used to stand for +hours in rapt contemplation. The French cut this priceless work into +five pieces, intending to remove it, and although their design was +frustrated, the subsequent restoration was badly effected. The +Sacristia de los Calices is a storehouse of art treasures. Here you may +see Goya's "Saint Justa and Saint Rufina," a "Trinity" by "El Greco," +the "Angel de la Guarda" and "St. Dorothy" of Murillo, the "Death of a +Saint" by Zurbaran, and the superb crucifix of Montañez. A "Conception" +by Murillo is in the Chapter House, a splendid hall in the Renaissance +style. + +In the great Sacristy is preserved the "treasury" of the Cathedral. It +includes a wonderful monstrance by that prince of goldsmiths, Juan de +Arfe; and something more interesting in the shape of keys presented to +St. Ferdinand on the surrender of the city. The key presented by the +Jews is iron-gilt and bears the inscription in Hebrew: "The King of +Kings will open, the King of all earth will enter." The key offered by +the Moors is silver-gilt, and the Arabic inscription reads: "May Allah +render eternal the dominion of Islam in this city." + +Attached to many (if not to all) Spanish cathedrals, one finds large +chapels which are the official parish churches of the cities--the +parochial clergy being distinct from the diocesan chapter. At Seville, +as at Granada, this chapel is called the "Sagrario," and is built at the +west end of the Patio de los Naranjos and entered from a door in the +north aisle of the Cathedral, near the Capilla del Bautisterio. Built +between 1618 and 1662 by Miguel Zumarraga and Fernando de Iglesias, +the church is in the Baroque style, and roofed with a single and very +daring arch. The rich statues that adorn the interior are by Dayne and +Jose de Arce. There is a notable retablo by Pedro Roldán that came from +a Franciscan convent now suppressed. In one of the side chapels is a +fine "Virgin" by Montañez. Beneath this church the Archbishops of +Seville are now buried. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--PATIO DE LOS NARANJOS] + +As we emerge from this vast temple, we remain for a few seconds dazzled +by the sunlight. Then as we turn to the left we notice a rectangular, +classic-looking building, standing between the Cathedral and the walls +of the Alcazar. This is one of the numerous deserted Lonjas or Exchanges +of Spain. The Patio de los Naranjos was formerly infested by the +merchants and brokers of the city, to the great scandal of the devout. +Archbishop de Rojas prevailed upon Philip II. to erect an Exchange or +Casa de Contratacion, as Sir Thomas Gresham had just done in London. The +building was begun in 1598, at precisely the moment when the commerce of +Seville began to decline. It reflects the spirit of Philip II. and of +his architect, Herrera--stern, sober, simple. There is a fine inner +court, with Doric and Ionic columns. Here the South American archives +are deposited, a rich mine for some future historian who shall have the +patience to examine them. As an exchange, the Lonja soon proved a +failure. It was early deserted by business men, and is best remembered +as the seat of Murillo's Academy of Painters. + +The spacious days of Charles V. and Philip II. were productive of +innumerable public buildings, mostly in a quasi-Roman style and all very +pompous and oppressive. The Town-hall or Ayuntamiento of Seville is an +extremely ornate structure, in what is called the plateresque or Spanish +Renaissance style. It stands in the Plaza de la Constitucion, where the +electric cars perform intricate evolutions. Its effect is lost through +its being placed on the ground level, without terrace, steps, or +approach, or even railings to prevent inquisitive urchins staring in at +the windows. The building is long and remarkably narrow, and of two +storeys. I have seldom seen a public building more elaborately adorned +or more badly placed. The interior is more satisfactory. The lower +council chamber is a magnificent hall, worthy, as a Spanish writer +remarks, of the Senate of a great republic. A noble staircase, with a +fine ceiling, leads to the upper council chamber, which has some +splendid artesonado work. Opposite--that is, on the east side of--this +building is the Audiencia or Court-house, where I whiled away a hot +afternoon by assisting at a Spanish trial. The case was of no particular +interest, but the differences in the procedure and constitution of the +court from our own were worth noting. There were three judges, who wore +black silk gowns, without wigs or bands. Over their heads was the arms +of Spain, and on the desk, facing the president, a large crucifix. The +jury sat on chairs on each side of the judges. A desk was reserved for +the public prosecutor, another for the prisoner's advocate. The judges +took far less part in the proceedings than they do in France. The case +seemed to be left entirely to the public prosecutor, who, it is just to +say, allowed the accused to make long rambling statements, without the +least attempt to interrupt or confuse him. The public at the rear of the +court appeared to take far more interest in the proceedings than any +immediately concerned in them. + +The Plaza de la Constitucion, outside the court, is the place of +execution. But the death penalty is very rarely inflicted in Spain. Two +or three years ago the Crown could find no pretext for pardoning two +particularly atrocious murderers, who were accordingly put to death by +the garrote in this square. The people of Seville, not being accustomed +like the more enlightened Britons to some two dozen executions a year, +showed their sense of the awful occurrence and of the disgrace to their +city by donning the deepest mourning. + +But the stranger does not come to Seville to visit courts or to hear +about public executions--unless these happened two or three centuries +ago, when as Sir W. S. Gilbert somewhere observes, they are looked at +through the glamour of romance. The searcher for the beautiful is +usually rewarded here by finding it in unexpected corners of the +monotonous labyrinth of lanes and alleys. Plunging into the maze of +white-walled dwellings in the north-eastern quarter of the city, a +minaret only less beautiful than the Giralda seems to beckon us from +afar. It appears and reappears, and we lose our way a dozen times before +we stand at its foot. It is a beautiful tower in the purest Almohade or +Mauritanian style, without any features borrowed from Christian +architecture. The highest edifice, this, in Seville, except the Giralda. +From its summit Cervantes used to scan the streets below, at certain +hours of the day, for the form of a local beauty of whom he was +enamoured. Here, of course, stood a mosque in Mussulman days, on the +site of the adjacent church of San Marcos. The portal is very fine, but +the Moorish features are the work of Mudejar and not Almohade artisans. + +We wander on, and are presently surprised by the superb frontal of the +convent church of Santa Paula. It is faced with white and blue azulejos, +the work of Francesco of Pisa and Pedro Millán. Over the arch are +disposed seven medallions illustrating the birth of Christ and the life +of St. Paul, the figures white on a blue ground. On the tympanum of the +arch is displayed the Spanish coat of arms in white marble, flanked by +the escutcheons of the inevitable and ubiquitous Ferdinand and Isabella. +Having seen this, it is hardly worth our while to enter the church, +which contains the tombs of the founders, Dom Joao de Henriquez, +Constable of Portugal, and his wife Donha Isabel. In the same quarter of +the city, though some distance away, is a monument of some +interest--the church of Omnium Sanctorum, built in 1356 on the site of a +Roman temple. Here again there is a tower graceful enough, in its lower +storey recalling the Giralda. The church exhibits a rather happy +combination of the Moorish and Gothic styles. On one of the doors is the +coat of arms of Portugal, commemorating the pious generosity of Diniz, +king of that country. This must have belonged to the earlier structure. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--PLAZA DE SAN FERNANDO] + +Finding your way back to the Sierpes, you may inspect the interesting +Church of the University. Here repose the members of the illustrious +Ribera family, which looms very large in the history of Seville. Their +remains were brought hither on the suppression of the Cartuja, outside +the town. The oldest tomb is that of the eldest Ribera, who died in +1423, aged 105. He thus lived through the reigns of Alfonso XI., Pedro +the Cruel, Enrique II., Juan I., Enrique III., and Juan II., yet, as is +usually the case with centenarians, he failed to engrave his name as +deeply on history as did some of his shorter lived descendants. + +The famous Duke of Alcalá, the owner of the Casa de Pilatos, is +commemorated by a fine bronze effigy--one of the few sepulchral +monuments of this kind in Spain. At the feet of Don Lorenzo Figueroa a +dog is sculptured, most probably the symbol of fidelity, but some say, +his favourite. Over the altar are three good pictures by Roelas, one of +the ablest interpreters of the Andalusian spirit. Here, too, are a +couple of works by Alonso Cano, "St. John the Baptist" and "St. John the +Divine." The statue of St. Ignatius Loyola by Montañez is said to be a +faithful likeness of the saint. It was coloured by Pacheco the +Inquisitor. + +The adjacent University was originally a Jesuit college, and was built +in the middle of the sixteenth century, after designs by Herrera. It is +not very well attended to-day, and from the outside would be taken for +an inconsiderable college. It seems to have been much more flourishing a +hundred years ago, when our countryman Blanco White attended its +courses. The original university was founded by Canon Rodrigo de +Santuella in 1472, in the Colegio Maese Rodrigo, near the Cathedral. + +From the last resting-place of the Riberas in the centre of the town it +is not far to their old home, the Casa de Pilatos, though Dædalus +himself might easily get lost in this labyrinth of streets resembling +each other as closely as those of an American city. The names of some of +these thoroughfares--Francos, Gallegos, Genovés--remind us of the days +of St. Ferdinand, when the room of the banished Moors was filled by +settlers, not only from all parts of Spain, but from the rest of Europe. +It was the same with all the towns resumed by the Spaniards. These +foreign colonies had their own laws and customs, and yet they were +entirely absorbed by the natives and left no trace or influence behind +them. The Spaniards possessed, in those days at any rate, the same +wonderful capacity for the absorption of other races displayed by the +Anglo-Saxons in America. There was nothing new in this; for they had +absorbed the Visigoths, just as they had absorbed the Romans before +them. The Castilian tongue is indeed Latin, but I fancy that the people +of Spain are as much the children of the soil--_autochthones_--as the +Athenians themselves. + +Reflections like these--which I do not expect will profoundly influence +ethnologists--occupied me as I pursued my tortuous course to the Casa de +Pilatos. When I at last found it, I was struck by the plain and +dignified exterior. To the left of the door I observed a plain cross of +jasper. The story goes that in October, 1521, the Marquis de Tarifa, on +his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, placed this cross against the +wall and counted thence the fourteen stations of the Cross, according to +their order in the Holy City. The last fortuitously coincided with the +Cruz del Campo, raised near the Caños de Carmona in 1482. I doubt if the +marquis had any such thought when he raised this jasper cross, for the +distance from the Prætorium at Jerusalem to the chapel in the Church of +the Holy Sepulchre that marks the site of Calvary is greatly less than +the distance between the two points mentioned here in Seville. But why +the house was called after Pilate is not easy to determine. It was begun +in 1500 and finished thirty-three years after by Don Per Afan de +Ribera, first Duke of Alcalá, and sometime Viceroy of Naples. This great +nobleman was the Mæcenas of his generation. Not only did he enrich his +house with priceless works of art and a fine library--since removed to +Madrid--but he made it the rendezvous of all the art and talent of +Andalusia. Hither came Gongora, the poet, to converse, it is said, with +Cervantes. Here Pacheco, the artist-inquisitor, discussed the mission of +art with Herrera. Here came Rioja, Cespedes, Jauregui, and others of +less note. The example set by the Medici was followed by many of the +great grandees of Spain at this time. The Velascos presided over a +coterie of literati at Burgos; the Duke of Villahermosa, at Zaragoza, +affected to delight in the company of the brilliant and learned. Even so +small a place as Plasencia had its own patron of the arts in Don Luis de +Avila, and in Madrid there was "the feast of reason and the flow of +soul" at the mansion of Don Antonio Perez. But for all its associations, +like the Alcazar, the Casa de Pilatos remains very much like a museum. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--CASA DE PILATOS] + +The building illustrates the fashion of the Mudejar and Renaissance +styles, almost to the effacement of the former. In the architecture of +this epoch we usually find an Arabic groundwork nearly concealed by +ornament of the newer style. The geometrical designs remain, but the +flowing inscriptions, so important a feature of Moorish decoration, have +gone. A thousand details would show the veriest tyro that this was +not the work of Moors, yet the central court bears a general +resemblance to the Alcazar. Pedro de Madrazo directs attention to the +harmonious variety of the arches and windows, and compares it to the +admired disorder of the forest and plantation. I imagine the architect +had the Court of the Lions, at Granada, in his mind. Here dolphins +uphold the upper basin of the fountain, and noble statues of the deities +of Greece and Rome--the gift of Pope Pius V.--stand in the angles of the +court. Hence you pass into the so-called Prætorium, with its splendid +coffered ceiling and beautiful tiling, where you may distinguish the +Spanish azulejos of the best moulds by the designs stamped on them of +fanciful monsters, grotesques, and escutcheons. Then there is the superb +staircase with its "half-orange" ceiling, and the chapel with its mixed +Gothic and Mudejar features. What grandee in Europe has a finer home +than this? And yet, I am told the owner, His Grace of Medinaceli, comes +here but seldom. + +There are many old mansions in Seville worth a walk on a cool day--and a +glimpse. They are not great sights, such as those we have already seen +in the city, or such as are more numerous in Paris and Rome, Brussels +and Venice. But those visitors who are really interested in Seville, and +are capable of appreciating Moorish and plateresque art in their various +imitations and combinations, will enjoy these little excursions. There +is an interesting old house at No. 6, Abades. It is now a +boarding-house, and you may live there in princely fashion for six +francs a day. No one knows how old it is. It belonged at the beginning +of the fifteenth century to a family of Genoese merchants called Pinelo. +In 1407 the Infante Fadrique, uncle of Juan II., lodged there. What was +the occasion of his visit to Seville I forget. Afterwards it became the +property of the "abbés" or "abades" of the Cathedral. Many of these +reverend gentlemen still patronize the establishment, and may be seen +puffing their "Puros" in the court, which is said to be a fine example +of the Sevillian Renaissance style. That style I conceive to have been +compounded of all pre-existing styles. Digby Wyatt, however, considered +the house to be much more Italian than Spanish. It is a vast place, +where dark corridors seem to lead indefinitely into space. + +There is rather less to reward your curiosity at the Palacio de las +Dueñas, a vast mansion belonging to the Duke of Alba. Once it boasted +eleven "patios," with nine fountains and one hundred columns of marble. +A fine court, surrounded by a graceful arcade, remains. The staircase +recalls that of the Casa de Pilatos. Our countryman Lord Holland stayed +here a hundred years ago. He was a great admirer of Spanish literature +at a time when it was hardly as much a matter of interest to foreigners +as it is at present. + +Then there is the Casa de Bustos Tavera, where, according to Lope de +Vega, Sancho the Brave used to visit the "Star of Seville"; and the +Casa Olea, in the Calle Guzman el Bueno, with a hall of Mudejar +workmanship dating from the days of Don Pedro. + +It is the romantic aspect of Seville that has impressed some visitors +much more than its historical or archæological side. Over the poets and +dramatists of the Romantic school the city exercised a strange +fascination. Byron and Alfred de Musset found the atmosphere of the +place most congenial. Through their rose-coloured spectacles every girl +they met in these narrow white streets seemed "preternaturally pretty." +The principal business of the inhabitants in the 'twenties and 'thirties +of last century, to judge by the French poet's descriptions, was +love-making, strumming the guitar, and duelling. That Spain was ever a +romantic country in the vulgarly accepted sense of the term, I doubt. +Roman Catholic customs and institutions forbid that free intermingling +of the sexes from which result the thousand and one emotions, +complications, situations, and catastrophes that are the ingredients of +romance. In countries like Spain, where the canon law obtained, there +could be, for instance, no runaway matches, no desperate flights in a +post-chaise to a church (say) over the Portuguese border, with an irate +father in pursuit. There could not have been, and cannot be at the +present time, any walks with the beloved down the moonlit grove, any +trysts by the stile or the ruined keep, any rendezvous among the +rose-bushes. If a Spanish girl did any of these things, she would +indeed, in French parlance, have thrown her cap over the mill. The +affair would no longer have the complexion of a romance but of a sordid +intrigue. This being so, I was delighted to hear that occasionally +clandestine marriages are resorted to in Spain, and that fond lovers +find a means of uniting in defiance of stern parents, even in Andalusia. +The couple, accompanied by a few friends, contrive to sit next to each +other in church, as far out of sight of the rest of the worshippers as +possible. Their troths are plighted in an undertone just loud enough for +the witnesses to hear, the ring slipped on under cover of the mantilla, +and the hands joined at the precise moment the all-unconscious celebrant +turns towards the congregation at the end of the mass and pronounces the +benediction. In the eyes of the Church the two are married as +irrevocably as if the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Toledo had performed +the ceremony. The vows have been exchanged before witnesses in a sacred +edifice, and an anointed priest has simultaneously blessed the +contracting parties from the altar. What can parents do? The Don may +rage, the Doña may upbraid, but when the Church makes itself an +accomplice of lovers, even in Spain the law must acquiesce. And there is +no divorce! + +That genuine romance tinges the lives of Spanish men and women, few who +know them can doubt. But the Andalusia of musical comedy, the creation +of which is largely due to the poets of the Romantic school, does not +exist. Seville never was a glorified Cremorne; and persons of a +Byronic turn would find adventures suitable to their mood more readily +by the banks of the Thames and the Hudson than by those of the +Guadalquivir. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--CASA DE PILATOS] + +For all that, some romantic stories are told about old Seville, and one +of these has some foundation of truth. About the middle of the +seventeenth century, the city re-echoed with reports of the wild and +desperate doings of a certain wealthy gallant, Don Miguel de Marana by +name. By some he is called De Mañara. Marriage with the heiress of the +Mendoza family did not sober him, though an alliance with so solemn a +thing as money generally brings the most hot-headed Latin youth to his +senses. Like many other wicked persons, our gallant had a nice taste in +art, and is said to have encouraged Murillo. Now comes the remarkable +and the improving part of the story. It is not safe to vouch for the +accuracy of the details of any part of it. One morning Seville woke up +to find--no doubt to her unspeakable consolation--the wicked De Marana a +changed man. He became a saint--an ascetic in the seventeenth-century +acceptation of the word. The wine-bibber forswore even chocolate as too +strong a beverage. + +What had happened to produce so edifying a change? Accounts vary. The +most picturesque explanation is that the Don, prowling about the streets +one night, perceived a funeral procession approaching. Curiosity +impelled him to look at the face of the corpse, which was uncovered, and +lo! it was his own. + +If you doubt the sincerity of Don Miguel's conversion, you have only to +visit the Church of La Caridad, which, together with the adjoining +hospital, he founded and wherein he was buried. I do not think you will +share the opinion of Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell that this is the most +elegant church in Seville, but you will be rewarded for the visit by +seeing some very remarkable works of art. Near the entrance are the two +extraordinary pictures which proclaim the artist, Valdés Leal, to have +been a master of realism. One of these exhibits a corpse at which, +Murillo declared, you must look with your nostrils shut. The church +contains six canvases by Murillo himself--"Moses Striking the Rock," +"The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," "The Charity of St. Juan de +Dios," "The Annunciation," "The Infant Jesus," and "St. John." The third +is really the finest of these pictures, though the first, commonly +called "La Sed" (Thirst), is the most generally preferred. The figures +are, as usual in this master's compositions, ordinary Seville types. +Over the altar is another great work, "The Descent from the Cross," by +Pedro Roldán. + +The "Caridad" has indeed the most important collection of pictures in +southern Spain, next to the Museo, as the old Convent of La Merced is +now called. There, of course, some of the greatest works of art by +Spanish masters are to be seen. There you may see the "St. Thomas of +Villanueva" giving alms, Murillo's favourite picture; his beautiful +"St. Felix of Cantalicio," and "St. Leander and St. Buenaventura," and +his famous "Vírgen de la Servilleta" which was _not_ painted on a +serviette. On the south wall hangs his "Saints Justa and Rufina" +(holding the Giralda), exquisitely coloured, and on the north wall the +admirable "St. Anthony de Padua." But one grows a little weary of +Murillo in Seville. Zurbaran, the great painter of monks, is well +represented by the wonderful "St. Hugh in the Refectory," and +"Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas." This last picture, I am told, was +carried off by Soult, and recovered by Wellington at Waterloo. The older +Herrera's "St. Hermenegild" is good, but by no means Andalusian. The +native temper finds more truthful expression in the works of Roelas, +Valdés Leal, Cespedes and Frutet, which may be studied to the best +advantage here. Curiously enough, the gallery contains not a single work +by Velazquez, who was born in Seville; nor any paintings by Alonso Cano +or Luis de Vargas. Spanish sculpture, of which one sees so little, is +not unworthily represented by a beautiful St. Bruno by Montañez, and by +some busts and crucifixes of less importance. The students of Andalusian +art must also visit the Hospital de la Sangre, near the Macarena Gate, +for some splendid works by Zurbaran and by his less-known forerunner +Roelas. The three pictures ascribed to the last named are, however, very +awkwardly placed and difficult to see. + +Murillo's house is still standing in the Plaza de Alfaro in the old +Ghetto. Here he died on April 3, 1682, after his fall from the +scaffolding at Cadiz. His studio is shown filled with several undoubted +works of his brush. The house belongs to the executors of the late Dean +Cepero. + +The Duke de Montpensier has a fine collection of pictures at his ugly +Palace of St. Telmo, near the Torre del Oro. Among them is included a +sketch by our late Queen, when she was still a princess. The palace +looks on a parade which is much resorted to by the Sevillanos in the +summer months. Here you see the boys playing at the inevitable +bull-fight. One who takes the part of toro has a real bull's horns with +which he "gores" his comrades with great ferocity. The insistence on +this brutal "sport" among the Andalusians has taken the form of acute +monomania. Exasperated strangers have been heard to declare that in +southern Spain you hear of but two things--Toros y Moros. In another +corner of the promenade, you will come upon a party of little girls +going through the peculiar and stately dances, or rather measures, of +their country, to the accompaniment of a low chant and a clapping of +hands, in which the boys, looking on from a distance, will join. Boys +and girls, unless they are quite babies, are seldom seen together. You +pass on and find a group of citizens seated at the little tables round a +kiosk, refreshing themselves with lemonade and being entertained by a +conjuror--a fine-looking man--who sends round the hat after every two +or three tricks. In the ordinary way you are asked for alms more often +than in Granada, but not, of course, to anything like the same extent as +in London. English travellers are given to commenting on the mendicity +in foreign cities, but I must confess that nowhere have I met with so +many beggars as in our own capital. In Spain the fraternity chiefly +haunt the steps of churches, the one spot in our happy country that they +seem to avoid. + +We reach the beginning of the Delicias Gardens, which extend two or +three miles southward along the river bank. All the rank and fashion of +Seville--and a great deal besides--turns out in summer evenings to drive +in the Delicias. The concourse of vehicles is immense, but reminded me +rather of the return from the Derby than of Rotten Row. The great +ambition of the Spaniard is to possess a conveyance, and he seems to +care little how dilapidated or ancient it may be, so long as it goes on +wheels. Side by side with the handsome equipages of the Sevillian +aristocracy, you will see a wretched Rosinante painfully dragging what I +took to be the original "one-hoss shay," or the carriage in which Lord +Ferrers was driven to the scaffold. It is impossible to restrain a +smile, but after all a conveyance is a real necessity in a climate like +this, and if a man cannot afford a good carriage, he must needs put up +with a bad one. The traffic is well regulated by mounted police. The +foot-paths are also crowded, and when night falls, everyone adjourns to +the numerous open-air cafés and kiosks to drink light beer and lemonade. +Sober, steady Spain! How certain of our reformers at home would love +you, if they but knew you! Where in the world (except in the East) are +men more abstemious or women more staid and demure? + +If you wish (as of course, being a modern traveller, you are sure to do) +to study the life of the people, you had better betake yourself to the +other end of the city--to the Alameda de Hercules, so called after two +columns which the natives believe were presented by that muscular +demigod. Here a perpetual fair seems in progress. There are the usual +booths, with fat ladies, boneless wonders, and dwarfs, and more +questionable exhibitions. On a platform sat three depressed and underfed +wretches, who, I thought, were to be immediately garrotted. Suddenly one +sprang up and gave a very clever rendering of the arrival and departure +of a train at a country station. He was vociferously applauded, and, +thus encouraged, danced a sort of "cellar-flap" with great animation to +the indispensable accompaniment of hand-clapping. In a popular assembly +of Andalusian town and country folk, the modern observer ought, I am +well aware, to find many extraordinary and significant phases of +humanity, exhibiting the striking individuality of the people, their +race-consciousness, their psychological import, their evolutional +significance, and so forth. I blush to confess that in the crowds +applauding the ventriloquist or gaping at the fat lady, I saw only a +collection of good-humoured ordinary people, enjoying themselves much +after the fashion of ordinary people in England. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--GARDEN OF THE CASA DE PILATOS] + +Perhaps the Sevillano is more his real self on these occasions than when +disporting himself at the world-famous fair, which begins on the Monday +after Easter and attracts strangers from all parts of Europe. Though a +somewhat overrated festival, I think it more distinctive and original in +certain of its aspects than the gorgeous religious ceremonies by which +it is preceded. The wealthier families of Seville rig up for themselves +on the fair-ground "casetas," or temporary residences of wood or canvas, +with two or more apartments. A great deal of expense is lavished on the +upholstering and decoration of these pavilions, and those of the four +principal clubs are fitted up in the most luxurious fashion. In the +evening the _jeunesse dorée_ of the city drive out to the fair in smart +traps drawn by dashing little horses with jangling little bells, and +visits are exchanged at the casetas, where as the evening becomes +cooler, dancing takes place, to the sound of the piano, the guitar, and +the castanet. The pretty señoritas of Seville have no objection to going +through the graceful measures of the South in full view of an uninvited +audience who crowd round the opening of the tent and from time to time +give vent to admiring "Olés!" and bursts of hand-clapping. Dancing will +be interrupted at 8.30, when everyone comes out to look at the firework +display. Then of course there are the usual popular amusements--the +inevitable bioscope, the gramophone, and all sorts of shows. Peasantry +and aristocracy alike dress their very best on this occasion. The +smartest toilettes and the most picturesque of native costumes are seen +side by side, the latest confections of Worth and Paquin and costly +heirlooms handed down from the days of Boabdil and Gonsalvo de Cordova. + +Whether such an intermingling of all classes, of the richest and the +poorest, could take place with mutual enjoyment and comfort in any +country but Spain, is a matter open to doubt. + +The object of the fair is, I believe, the sale of cattle, and about +eighty thousand beasts are to be seen on the Prado de San Sebastian. To +say that the most sanguinary bull-fights complete the festivities is +perhaps superfluous. The most skilful and renowned toreros are engaged +on this occasion, and the arenas literally smoke with the blood of bulls +and disembowelled horses. Smithfield and Deptford can show nothing in +comparison. + +[Illustration: SEVILLE--THE MARKET PLACE] + +The religious ceremonies, of which travellers talk so much, are not for +the most part peculiar to Seville, as it ought to be unnecessary to +remind them. The tableaux in the processions struck me as theatrical, +but as being on the whole as well represented as similar show-pieces in +our pageants. The famous Dance of the Seises is reserved for the +octaves of the Immaculate Conception and Corpus Christi. It has been +described over and over again. There is nothing irreverent about the +performance, which is in itself graceful and quaint; only carried out +before the high altar it strikes one as rather meaningless. So, I +suppose, most such functions impress those who are unprepared for them +by temperament and education. There cannot be much doubt that the +ceremony originated in an attempt to attract the ungodly to church--an +early and respectable precedent for the methods of the Salvation Army. + +Others have it that the dance is a survival of some pagan +ceremony--which will remind us that we have so far neglected the +monuments of the Romans which were bequeathed to Seville. These are not +very numerous or interesting. Only a fragment remains, at the north-east +angle of the city, of the massive wall which Cæsar built, and which +completely girdled Seville as late as the reign of Juan II. It was +strengthened, tradition tells us, by 166 towers, which were freely used +as prisons by later rulers. The Cordoba Gate marks the site of the +dungeon of the canonized Hermenegild. Close to it is the Capuchin +Convent, built upon the foundations of the palace of the Roman governor, +Diogenianus, and afterwards associated with Murillo. A noble aqueduct +built by the Romans, and known to-day as the Caños de Carmona, still +brings water from Alcala de Guadaira to Seville. Everyone who visits +Seville is expected to make an excursion to the ruins of Italica, a few +miles on the other side of the Guadalquivir. There is remarkably little +to see when you get there, and not much is known about the place. There +were few, if any, private dwellings here, and it existed rather as the +place of meeting and distributing centre for the colonists scattered +over the district. It was indeed raised to the dignity of a municipality +by Augustus, but petitioned to be restored to its old rank of a Roman +colony. It did not prove unworthy of its connection with the great +capital. Hence sprang the illustrious line of the Ælii, and many of the +eminent Roman Spaniards who conferred such lustre on the early empire +are believed to have been natives. The town was embellished in those +palmy days with temples, palaces, amphitheatres, and baths, quite out of +proportion to its population. + +Its downfall, like its earlier history, is mysterious. Here Leovigild +placed his headquarters when besieging Seville. Then came the Arabs, who +dismantled it and carried off columns and blocks of masonry on which are +founded the Giralda and other important buildings in the neighbouring +city. Italica disappeared from history; and all you can see of it to-day +is a few remains of walls and earthbanks outlining the amphitheatre. + +It might not be worth the journey were it not that it can be included in +an excursion to the villages of Santi Ponce, Castilleja la Cuesta, and +the Cartuja. The parish church of the first named wretched village is +remarkable as the last resting-place of the illustrious Guzman el Bueno, +that Spaniard of the Roman mould who refused to save the life of his son +at the cost of the fortress of Tarifa, which he held for his king. The +hero's kneeling effigy dates, as the inscription beneath informs us, +from the year 1609, the three hundredth anniversary of his death. The +modern traveller, whose sympathies are usually more with the æsthetic +than the heroic, will be more interested in the lifelike St. Jerome, one +of the finest works of Montañez, to be seen over the high altar. The +saint, regarding a crucifix devoutly, beats his breast with a stone. On +either side are beautiful bas-reliefs of the Nativity and the Adoration +of the Magi. + +The convent was inhabited first by the Cistercians, next by the Hermits +of St. Jerome. It presents rather the appearance of a fortified abbey of +the middle ages. The church is divided into two naves, each of which was +a distinct church--one, I suspect, belonging to the monastery, the other +to the parish; a not uncommon medieval arrangement. I almost forgot to +add that it contains the ashes (literally) of Doña Urraca Osorio, a lady +burnt to death, as I have said, by Pedro the Cruel. + +At Castilleja la Cuesta--a village on the height--is the house where +Hernando Cortes died in 1547. The house has been converted by the Duc de +Montpensier into a sort of museum. The Conquistador's bones repose in +the land which, with so much intrepidity and ruthlessness, he won for +Spain. + +The old Charterhouse or Cartuja is now occupied by the porcelain factory +of Pickman & Co. It lies on the west bank of the Guadalquivir, a few +minutes' walk from the railway bridge. It was founded in the first +decade of the fifteenth century by Archbishop de Mena, and was the +burial-place of the Riberas, till their remains were transferred to the +University Church. There is little to see except some stalls carved, if +I remember aright, by Duque Cornejo, in the little chapel. + +You may return to the city through the transpontine quarter of Triana, a +collection of whitewashed houses inhabited chiefly by gipsies. To +distinguish these no longer nomadic Bohemians from the lower-class +Andalusians around them is not an easy task. As at Granada, gipsy dances +are got up by the guides and hotel people, and here, I am told, they +possess the merit which a Frenchman denies to those of the other +city--impropriety. The patron saints of Seville, Saints Justa and +Rufina, were potters in this quarter. In their time the Carthaginian +goddess, Astarte or Salambo, was much venerated in the Roman city. The +commemoration of the death of Adonis took place in the month of July, +when the image of the goddess was borne in triumph through the streets, +while the people following with cries and lamentations deplored the +untimely end of her beloved. A strange survival, this, on soil so +far to the west, of the hideous Punic rites! The two maidens, newly +converted to the religion of the Crucified, refused to do reverence to +the image as it was carried past, and were haled before the governor, +Diogenianus, in his palace by the Cordova Gate. They were put to death +in due course, and have received more honour since from architects, +sculptors, and painters, than Venus-Astarte in all her glory received +from her devotees. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--A COURTYARD] + +Before leaving Triana, visit the Church of Santa Ana, to see the +exquisite Madonna of Alejo Fernandez, whom Lord Leighton considered the +most conspicuous among the Gothic painters. There is a regard for beauty +in the figures, not by any means obtrusive in most of the paintings of +the period, though the awkward pose of some of the angels shows that the +artist had not quite emancipated himself from Byzantine influence. And +the thought occurred to me as I made my way back to the Delicias +Gardens, where the people were driving out to take the air, and knots +were collecting round musicians and mountebanks--when the whole city was +yielding itself up to the sensuous charm of the summer night--that the +art of Fernandez was expressive of Seville: of a people in whom the +sense of beauty and the joy of living cannot be extinguished, though at +the call of religion they reluctantly keep their faces half turned +towards sad facts and yet more sombre unrealities. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CORDOVA + + "They say the Lion and the Lizard keep + The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep." + + +The sands of Asia are strewn with the ruins of cities once the gorgeous +capitals of mighty empires. Here in Spain the followers of the Prophet +raised a metropolis as splendid as any of the new Babylons of the East; +and its fall has been wellnigh as great as theirs. We need not credit +all the assertions of the Arabian writers (for the scribes of that +nation, as Cervantes remarks, are not a little addicted to fiction). We +can hardly believe that Cordova in its prime contained 300,000 +inhabitants, 600 mosques, 50 hospitals, 800 public schools, 900 baths, +600 inns, and a library of 600,000 volumes; but there is evidence enough +to satisfy us that this was in the tenth century the most magnificent +and populous city in Europe, Byzantium alone excepted. Now it is a small +provincial capital, bright, white, and coquettish, utterly without the +solemnity and majesty which should invest the seats of vanished empires. +Here greatness has been swallowed up in insignificance, not in +desolation. The Court of the Khalifas, the Western Mecca, does not lie +in lordly ruin like a fallen Colossus, but has sunk into mere pettiness. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--ENTRANCE TO THE CITY] + +Victor Hugo draws, as only he knew how, in a couple of lines, a +picturesque sketch of Cordova, but this hardly corresponds to the +impressions of the modern traveller. The houses may be old (some of them +certainly are), but in their coats of dazzling whitewash they look +brand-new. Gautier very sensibly remarks that, thanks to whitewash, the +wall which was erected a century ago cannot be distinguished from that +which was erected yesterday. Its general application "imparts a uniform +tint to all buildings, fills up the architectural lines, effaces all +their delicate ornamentation, and does not allow you to read their age." +Cordova, which was formerly a centre of Arabian civilization, is now +nothing more than a confused mass of small white houses, above which +rise a few mangrove trees, with their metallic green foliage, or some +palm trees with their branches spread out like the claws of a crab; +while the whole town is divided by narrow passages into a number of +separate blocks, where it would be difficult for two mules to pass +abreast. Such is Cordova to-day, and I doubt very much if its external +aspect was a whit more splendid or by any means as pleasing in the days +of its glory. Some authors write as if they imagined the Mohammedans +built their capitals on the lines of Paris and Washington. A visit to +Constantinople or to Cairo would remove that impression. Imagine +Cordova covering three or four times its present area, its windows +obscured with lattices, its walls less white, its streets filled with a +noisy mob of beshawled and beturbaned men--black, brown, and white--with +noble mosques and elegant minarets here and there, and you will have a +fair picture of the capital of the Western Khalifate. + +Of its outward seeming only. Its culture and refined social life merited +for Cordova the title of the Athens of the West. When all Europe was +sunk in barbarism, medicine and chemistry, the natural sciences, the +arts and philosophy, all found a refuge here. Culture was diffused +through all classes of the population, if only very superficially, to an +extent never perhaps equalled elsewhere. And though there was little +initiative or originality about the scholars at Cordova, their labours +contributed to keep alive a taste for the humanities which otherwise +would never have revived in Europe. The comforts and amenities of life +were carefully studied in the Western Khalifate. All the products which +minister to luxury were at that time the almost exclusive property of +the Moslem world, and to the bazaars of Cordova were brought the +choicest spoils of Egypt, Persia, Arabia, and Hindostan. And at the head +of this urbane and flourishing commonwealth sat the great Umeyyad +khalifa, emulous of the glories of Bagdad and Cairo, and eager to +surpass them in elegance and splendour. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--CALLE CARDINAL HERRERA] + +Of those great days all that remains is the Mezquita--and that is much. +Next to St. Peter's it is the largest of Christian temples, and +certainly among the most ancient. As a Mohammedan place of worship, it +ranked in sanctity with the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, immediately +after Mecca, which it was indeed designed to eclipse. It was +Abd-ur-Rahman's ambition to focus all the interests of Islam at this +point within his own dominions. Spanish Moslems were taught that a +pilgrimage to the "Zeka" of Cordova was in all respects equivalent to a +pilgrimage to Mecca. Hence Sancho Panza's saying, "Andar de Zeca en +Mecca." That the Umeyyad khalifa succeeded in diverting the Faithful +from the old shrine to the new is doubtful, but he and his successors +spared no pains to render their mosque one of the wonders of the world. +In the year 786, seized, it is said, by a sudden inspiration, +Abd-ur-Rahman convoked his council and declared his intention of raising +a temple to Allah on the site of a Christian church. The Moslems had +already appropriated half of the Basilica of San Vicente to their use, +suffering the Christians to perform their rites in the adjoining +portion. The khattib was commanded to approach the unbelievers to +negotiate the purchase of the whole edifice. The Christians stood out +for a high price, and got it. They received a sum equal to £400,000 of +our money, and permission, moreover, to rebuild all their churches in +the city that had existed at the time of the Conquest. When we remember +the violent seizure and "purification" of the Church of St. Sophia by +the Turks, seven hundred years later, we can see how little Islam had +learnt of toleration in the meantime. + +The old basilica was accordingly demolished and the mosque begun. The +khalifa set apart a portion of his revenues for the work, and laboured +himself upon it for an hour each day. Thus encouraged, his subjects of +all ranks made it a point of honour to contribute either their personal +labour or their money to the great work. Though most of the columns came +from the marble quarries of the neighbouring town of Cabra, as many as +possible were brought from the most distant parts of the Mohammedan +empire, from the works of civilizations which Islam had subdued. The +mosque was to be a monument to the triumph of the Crescent. Its +dimensions as projected by the founder were four times less than those +of the existing building. + +The successors of Abd-ur-Rahman obtained the assistance of Byzantine +craftsmen, and embellished the mosque with rich mosaics. Almost a +quarter of the actual building was added by Al Hakem II., and the +eastern half by Al Mansûr. To effect this last expansion, a cottage +beneath a palm tree had to be acquired. The old lady to whom it belonged +refused to budge till an exactly similar abode was found for her. This +was done at last, after a diligent search, and a liberal donation made +to her to boot. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--MOORISH MILL] + +Thus was reared this mighty temple of Islam on European soil, at a time +when the state of the Christian world went far to justify the exultant +words of the khalifa: "Let us build the Kaaba of the West upon the +site of a Christian temple, which we will destroy, so that we may set +forth how the Cross shall fall and become abased before the True +Prophet. Allah will never place the world beneath the feet of those who +make themselves the slaves of drink and sensuality, while they preach +penitence and the joys of chastity, and while extolling poverty, enrich +themselves to the loss of their neighbours. For these, the sad and +silent cloister; for us, the crystalline fountain and the shady grove; +for them, the rude and unsocial life of dungeon-like strongholds; for +us, the charm of social life and culture; for them, intolerance and +tyranny; for us, a ruler who is our father; for them, the darkness of +ignorance; for us, letters and instruction widespread as our creed; for +them, the wilderness, celibacy, and the doom of the false martyr; for +us, plenty, love, brotherhood and eternal joy." + +The face of the world has changed somewhat in ten centuries. + +It must, I think, be admitted that the Mezquita, to European eyes, is +fantastic and interesting rather than beautiful. It may be compared to a +forest of columns or to a seemingly endless series of parallel aisles +spanned by low horseshoe arches. It does in truth remind one, as one +writer observes, of a gigantic crypt. The additions of Al Mansûr, may be +distinguished by the pointed arches. Otherwise there is little of the +variety insured in Christian churches by the distribution of the parts. +It is only in the columns themselves that we find any relief from the +prevailing uniformity. There are interesting differences in their +capitals, and in their bases also, which are, however, buried +underground. In the ruder carving is seen an attempt on the part of the +Moorish masons to copy the work of the more skilled craftsmen of Rome +and Byzantium. The mean vaulting overhead is modern. It is gradually +being taken down and replaced by the beautiful carved ceiling of white +larchwood which Murphy described a hundred years ago. He says: "Above +the first arch is placed a second, considerably narrower and connecting +it with the square pillars that support the timber work of the roof, +which is not less curious in its execution than are the other parts of +the building. It was put together in the time of Abd-ur-Rahman I., and +subsists to this day unimpaired, though partially concealed by the +plaster-work of the modern arches. The beams contain many thousands of +cubic feet; the bottoms and side of the cross beams have been carved and +painted with different figures; the rafters also are painted red. Such +parts as retain the paint are untouched by worms: the other parts, where +the paint no longer remains, are so little affected that the decay of a +thousand years is scarcely perceptible; and, what is rarely to be seen +in an edifice of such antiquity, no cobwebs whatever are to be traced +here. The timber work of the roof is further covered with lead; and +the whole has been executed with such precision and taste, that it may +justly be pronounced a _chef-d'œuvre_ of art, both with respect to +the arrangement of the different parts, as well as to the extent and +solidity of the whole." + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--MEZQUITA] + +But what must have lent so much of beauty to the building originally was +that, instead of being enclosed with walls as it is at present, its long +arcades opened into the groves of orange trees without, which were +simply their natural continuation--a graceful and symmetrical plan which +one would like to see attempted in modern times. Though, too, every +Mohammedan temple is necessarily simple in plan and can never approach +the Christian churches in elaboration and gorgeousness, here Moslem art +exhausted its ingenuity on the embellishment of those more sacred parts +of the building such as the Sanctuary and the Maksurrah. + +The Sanctuary or Zeka has been spared to us. It is a little heptagonal +recess, paved with white marble and roofed with a shell-like cupola of +marble of a single block. The sides are formed by dentated horseshoe +arches which interlace and enclose each other in a beautiful +complication. Here in the southern wall is the recess which indicated +the direction of Mecca, and towards which the worshippers turned; it is +adorned with exquisite mosaic work and with inscriptions from the Koran +and the names of the architects. In the Sanctuary was preserved for +several centuries after the Reconquest the superb "mimbar" or pulpit of +Al Hakem II. "It was of marble," says Señor de Madrazo, "and of the most +precious woods, such as ebony, red sandal-wood, bakam, Julian aloe, +etc.; it cost 35,000 dineros and 3 adirames. It had nine steps." We are +told that it was composed of 36,000 pieces of wood, joined with pins of +silver and gold, and encrusted with precious stones. Its construction +lasted seven years, eight artificers being employed upon it daily. This +tribune was reserved for the khalifa, and in it was deposited the +principal object of the veneration of the Moslems of Andalusia and Al +Moghreb--a copy of the Koran supposed to have been written by Othman and +stained with his precious blood. This treasure was preserved in a +binding of cloth-of-gold sewn with pearls and rubies, covered with the +richest red silk, and placed on a lectern of aloe-wood with nails of +gold. Its weight was extraordinary, and two men could carry it only with +difficulty. It was placed in the mimbar, when the imam read from it the +prayer of the Azulah, and was then placed in the treasury with the gold +and silver vessels used in the ceremonies of the "Ramadan." + +The Maksurrah is now transformed into the chapel of Villa Viciosa. Here +sat the khalifa when not officiating as imam. Little is visible of the +original decoration, except the cupola, similar to that of the +Sanctuary. Adjacent to this chapel another has been discovered which it +is thought will prove to be the treasury to which Madrazo refers. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--PATIO DE LOS NARANJOS] + +When Cordova was taken by St. Ferdinand in 1236, the mosque was +reconsecrated as a Christian cathedral, but little alteration was made +in the original structure. It was in 1523 that the unfortunate idea +possessed the bishop, Don Alfonso Manrique, to build a new church in the +middle of the Mohammedan temple. So proud were the Cordovans of their +great monument, that the municipality threatened the innovators with +death if they ventured to carry the project into execution. However, +this decree was overridden by an order from Charles V., who knew so +little what he was about that on visiting Cordova a few years later, he +bitterly expressed his regret at having allowed the mosque to be +interfered with. Two hundred columns had been swept away to make room +for the existing chancel, choir, and lateral chapels. Though we resent +their appearance here, these parts of the church are not wanting in +taste and richness. The reredos of jasper and bronze is painted by +Antonio Palomino, and flanks a sumptuous and beautifully moulded +tabernacle. Not so much praise can be bestowed on the choir, where, +however, the stalls by Pedro Duque Cornejo reveal skilful workmanship. +Lope de Rueda, the Spanish Molière, is entombed here. In the Cathedral +is also buried the poet Gongora, whose style is aptly compared by Mme. +Dieulafoy to that of Churriguera in architecture. A more interesting +grave is that of Doña Maria de Guzman de Paredes, a lady celebrated for +her wit and wisdom in the days of Philip II., and who won every degree +it was in the power of the University of Alcalá to confer. Duque Cornejo +is also buried here. + +In the Sacristy is a fine monstrance by Juan de Arfe. The chapels do not +call for particular examination. + +If the Mezquita is strange within, it is eminently picturesque without. +The massive walls are crenellated and supported by stout square +buttresses. Between these are horseshoe arches, richly decorated, and +forming originally sixteen entrances, most of which are now blocked up. +The Puerta del Perdon has been adorned with the arms of Castile and +Leon, and is secured by bronze doors of an interesting type. An +inscription upon it runs:--"On the 2nd day of the month of March of the +era of Cæsar 1415 (1577 A.D.), in the reign of the Most High and Mighty +Don Enrique, King of Castile." + +Of the minaret, once equal to the Giralda and, like it, once surmounted +by great metal globes, only the lowest storey remains, an earthquake +having thrown down the superstructure in the sixteenth century. And the +famous Court of the Orange Trees, on to which the aisles at one time +opened, has lost much of its charm. The trees are stunted and withered, +and the soil covered with coarse grass and weeds. On three sides the +court is surrounded by a gallery, on the fourth by the buildings of the +chapter. The basin was placed here in 945 by Abd-ur-Rahman, and might +with advantage be used for its original purpose by some of the +habitués of the patio. Two Roman columns at the entrance to the +Cathedral announce the distance to Gades (114 miles) from the Temple of +Janus, which stood on this site. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--OUTER WALL OF THE MOSQUE] + +On the whole the far-famed Mezquita may be pronounced disappointing. It +must always be so with the simply planned temples of Islam, when they +are stripped of the innumerable lamps, the rich carpets and handsome +furniture, still to be seen in them at Cairo, Constantinople, and +Smyrna. + +Of the magnificent Palace of the Khalifas, the wonderful domain of Az +Zahara, no trace remains. It was built by a Byzantine architect on the +flanks of a hill, three miles north-east of Cordova, which the khalifa +at one time thought of levelling. Arab writers declare this to have been +the largest palace, as of course it was the most magnificent, ever +raised by the hand of man. The harem (_credat Judæus_) could accommodate +6,000 women, 3,790 eunuchs, and 1,500 guards. Marble appears to have +been freely used in the construction, from which it would seem that the +building bore little resemblance to the Alcazar of a later day. There +were, of course, thousands--tens of thousands--of columns brought from +Rome and Tunis, and probably from Carthage, and fine fragments of +terra-cotta are still unearthed on the site. Aqueducts conducted sweet +waters to every chamber in the palace, and fountains cooled the air in +the luxuriantly planted gardens. We are told of the Hall of Ceremonial, +with its brilliant mosaics and its ceiling of scented wood, in the +centre of which was set an immense pearl, the gift of the Emperor +Constantinos Porphyrogenitos. And we hear in addition of basins filled +with quicksilver for the amusement of the odalisques. + +This gorgeous pile owes its existence to a favourite of the Khalifa An +Nasir, who at her death directed that her immense wealth should be +employed in ransoming Moslem prisoners in the clutch of the Christian. +The bereaved potentate sent east, west, north and south in order to +execute this pious request, only to find to his joy that no such thing +as a Moslem captive was anywhere to be found. The happy thought then +came to him to expend the money on the erection of a palace to be named +after a new favourite, Zahara, whose name it should perpetuate, and in +whose society he might hope to forget the deceased. This seems to us a +somewhat queer application of the legacy. The work occupied ten thousand +men daily for many years, and cost during An Nasir's reign alone seven +and a half millions of dineros or pieces of gold. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--A STREET SCENE] + +The palace seems to have excited, as well it might, the cupidity of +neighbouring monarchs. Alfonso VI., the conqueror of Toledo, demanded it +of the Amir Al Mutamed, as a residence for his queen, Doña Constancia, +whose accouchement he suggested might take place in the mosque. It was +the Moor's rejection of this original proposal that led to hostilities, +and threw the Spanish Moslems into the arms of the terrible +Almorávides. Those fierce sectaries seem to have entirely neglected Az +Zahara, and under the puritanical Almohades we can easily imagine it +would be suffered to decay. How little was left of it when Ferdinand +took the place is shown by his referring to it merely as Cordova la +Vieja (Old Cordova). + +Men who lived in such comfort and luxury might be supposed to have +regarded their less fortunate fellows with easy good nature and +tolerance, and according to most historians the khalifas of Cordova were +benevolent despots, even towards their Christian subjects. Some Spanish +writers, however, paint the lot of these last in gloomy colours, though, +if we accept their accounts _in toto_, without the least reservation, +there can be no question that the lot of the Christian under the Moor +was very much better than the lot of the Moor under the Christian. But +that standpoint would not be that of the historians in question. They +are frankly partisans. The Mohammedans, they would argue, deserved what +they got, because they worshipped the false Prophet; the Christians were +in the right. It is more difficult to understand their vehement +condemnation of the Bishop Recafred, because he forbade his flock to +seek voluntary martyrdom by publicly cursing Mohammed. To curse the +Arabian Prophet or anyone else is nowhere laid down as a Christian's +duty, and on merely prudential grounds the prelate was surely justified +in dissuading his people from pursuing a course which must finally have +resulted in their complete extermination. Probably in disgust at the +ingratitude and imbecility of his flock, Recafred embraced the creed of +Islam, and died cursed and abominated by the people whose utter +extinction he had averted. The history of the martyrs of Cordova is a +curious chapter in the annals of religion. + +It was recently remarked of Italy that there was not enough faith to +generate a heresy, and by a parity of reasoning the lamp of faith must +have burnt very brightly in the Christian community of Cordova. The +Saracen authorities were bewildered by the multitude of sects and +factions which claimed to represent the Church of Christ, and to +administer its temporalities. Councils of the Christian prelates were +frequently convoked by the khalifas, but by the defeated side their +decisions were always branded as schismatical or heretical. Religious +debate is the favourite occupation of a decaying State, and the +Mohammedans themselves had their divisions. The doctors of the law, who +congregated in a special quarter of the capital, constituted themselves +the critics of their rulers and of public morals. They considered +culture and luxury incompatible with morality, and preached the creed of +the Uncomfortable and the Unlovely with the zest of an English Puritan. +One day there arose a sovereign (Hakem) more sensitive of censure than +his predecessors. He burnt out the Puritan quarter and forced the +zealots to take refuge in distant parts where their peculiar talents +were more in demand. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--A STREET] + +The more human side of Islam found an embodiment in the illustrious +Ziryab, the favourite of Abd-ur-Rahman II. In his case, I suppose, as in +all else, it is necessary to discount by fifty per cent. all the +appreciations of Arabic writers; yet through all the cobwebs of +exaggeration and tradition, we can discern the outlines of a very +remarkable personality. Ziryab was the Admirable Crichton of his age. He +combined the attributes of Leonardo da Vinci and Beau Nash. He alone +could decide on the proper method of eating asparagus and on the +planning of a city. He could pronounce with finality on the wisdom of a +move at chess and a far-reaching treaty of state. He had views on the +organization of armies and aviaries; he was listened to with equal +respect by statesmen and scullery-maids. And (wonderful to relate) this +authority on everybody's business was loved by everyone! + +The history of Cordova, like that of most capitals, belongs to the +nation at large, and cannot be more than touched upon here. Memorials of +ancient days are the picturesque Moorish walls with their flanking +towers and the grand old bridge of sixteen arches, built by the +khalifas. It marked the limit of navigation in Roman days, whereas now +no boat can ascend the Guadalquivir above Seville. The bridge is +defended on the south side by a very picturesque _tête du pont_ called +Calahorra, a fine specimen of the medieval barbican. Here a strange +scene was witnessed in the year 1394, when the prototype of Don +Quixote, Don Martin de la Barbuda, Grand Master of Calatrava, appeared +at the head of a few knights and a fanatical rabble on his way to fight +the Moors of Granada. His enterprise was directly counter to the king's +orders; the two countries were at peace. The royal officers assembled on +the bridge expostulated and threatened the crusaders in vain. The Grand +Master was accompanied by a hermit, who exhorted him to proceed and +promised him that his victory should be purchased without the loss of a +single Christian life. The officials were swept aside, and the wild +cavalcade went on its way to destruction. None of the knights ever +returned alive across the bridge of Cordova. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--THE BRIDGE] + +During the four centuries following the Reconquest, the city boasted +that it was the home of the finest flower of the European aristocracy. +Their old mansions have for the most part disappeared, but the name of +the most distinguished member of the order is treasured in Cordova and +honoured far beyond the limits of Spain. Gonzalo Hernandez de Aguilar y +de Cordova, "the Great Captain," is the hero of the city. The principal +street is named after him, as indeed one might suppose the town to have +been, from the reverence in which he is held. On the whole, he was the +greatest soldier this country has produced. With forces hardly superior +to those with which Cortes and Pizarro conquered a savage foe, he +vanquished the best equipped troops in Christendom and matched his +strength successfully against the most brilliant warriors of his day. +His reward, it is hardly necessary to say of the servant of a +fifteenth-century king, was ingratitude and neglect. When the odious +Ferdinand V. demanded from him a statement of his military expenditure, +he responded with the famous "Cuentas del Gran Capitan," which silenced +even the venal monarch. The statement ran: + + "200,736 ducats and 9 reals paid to the clergy and the poor who + prayed for the victory of the arms of Spain. + + "100 millions in pikes, bullets, and entrenching tools; 100,000 in + powder and cannon-balls, 10,000 ducats in scented gloves to + preserve the troops from the odour of the enemies' dead left on the + battlefield; 100,000 ducats spent in the repair of the bells + completely worn out by every day announcing fresh victories gained + over our enemies; 50,000 ducats in 'aguardiente' for the troops, on + the eve of battle. A million and a half for the safeguarding + prisoners and wounded. + + "One million for Masses of Thanksgiving, 700,494 ducats for secret + service, etc. + + "And one hundred millions for the patience with which I have + listened to the King, who demands an account from the man who has + presented him with a kingdom"! + +This singular balance-sheet sufficiently shows the temper of the +grandees of Spain even in the days of the New Monarchy. Cordova has +reason to be proud of her eponymous hero. She has not been very fruitful +in great men. She has produced no painters of eminence, unless Pablo de +Cespedes may be classed among such; but Mme. Dieulafoy reminds us that +to Juan de Mena, a native of the place and a courtier of Juan II., +Spanish poetry is deeply indebted: + + "His great work, 'The Labyrinth,' may in a measure be compared with + that part of the 'Divina Commedia' where the Florentine places + himself under the protection of Beatrice. Accompanied by a + beautiful young woman personifying Providence, the poet witnesses + the apparition of the worthies of History and Legend, and amuses + himself in sketching their portraits. At times the style becomes + heavy and pedantic, at others the touches of the pencil have a + vigour and simplicity altogether Dantesque. Before Juan de Mena, + the Castilian muse had never taken so daring a flight; and in spite + of the defects of the general scheme, the untasteful phraseology, + and the measure, 'The Labyrinth' abounds in conceptions and + episodes where energy blended with beauty reveals a genius of the + first order." + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--COURTYARD OF AN INN] + +From poetry to leather the transition may seem abrupt, but it is to be +feared that our city has derived more renown from the latter than the +former. The stamped and gilded leather of Cordova was highly esteemed +all over the civilized world from the fifteenth century to the +eighteenth. Whether the industry was introduced by the Moors it is idle +to inquire; long after their departure it formed the principal business +and source of revenue of the Spaniards of the city. A powerful guild +laid down strict rules as to apprenticeship, and regulated the quality +and quantity of the manufacture. Terrible penalties were enforced +against the tanner who made use of the hides of animals that had died of +disease. The kings of Spain considered trunks or other objects +bound in Cordova leather gifts very suitable for their fellow-princes. +The Catholic kings, absurdly enough, forbade its exportation to the New +World, not wishing to deprive the mother-country of goods of such price. +With protection on this scale, we are not surprised to learn that the +industry began to decline. Cordova was at length surpassed in its own +line by Venice and other cities. The rich specimens of its work which +adorned the mansions of its old noblesse were sold and dispersed all +over the world, upon the general impoverishment of the kingdom in the +eighteenth century. Then came the sack of the city, a hundred years ago, +by the army of Dupont. Time has spared the famous race of Cordovan +horses, and many a poor hidalgo rides into the town on a steed which if +sold in London might redeem his shattered fortunes. + +I have said a great deal about Cordova and its titles to remembrance; +but it must be confessed that there is little enough to see in it. The +churches present no features of interest, except the Colegiata de San +Hipolito, modernized in 1729, which contains the tombs of Ferdinand IV. +and Alfonso XI. Nor is walking through the city an exercise altogether +pleasing, as the streets which were the first paved in Europe, in 850, +might also claim to be the worst paved in the world. The stones are so +sharp and pointed that in parts you have to skip from one to the other, +like a bear dancing on hot iron--an original but ungraceful method of +locomotion. A drive in the surrounding country is productive of more +pleasure. The neighbourhood is a Paradise of fertility, and sets one +wondering what becomes of all the money that this must bring in and +represent. Spain and Greece are very poor countries, but I do not think +that Spaniards and Greeks are, for the most part, very poor. + +[Illustration: CORDOVA--OLD HOUSES NEAR THE RIVER] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GRANADA + + +Over two thousand feet above the sea stands the ancient city of Granada, +once the teeming centre of the kingdom of the Moors and now a town of +memories eloquent of the grandeur of older days. The province bearing +its name is bounded on the north by sterile ranges, while close to the +southern seaboard stretch the huge shoulders and serrated peaks of the +noble Sierra Nevada, rivalling in height the chief summits of the +Pyrenees. Between these ranges spread fertile vegas, or plains, rising +here and there to over a thousand feet, a district of vineyards and +olive groves, and semi-tropical plants find a favourable habitat. + +Granada, though on the verge of an arid territory, is in a strip of +great fertility, watered by the Genil and the Darro, the latter--the +Hadarro of the Moors--a stream that is heavily taxed by the farmers for +purposes of irrigation. Théophile Gautier praised the river of Granada +for its beauty, but since his day the stream has shrunk, and nowadays +the volume of water is insignificant, especially during a dry summer. + +The waters of the Darro have a reputation for their healing qualities, +and cattle that drink from it are said to recover quickly from diseases. +Hence, in the ancient speech, the river had the title of "The Salutary +Bath of Sheep." Under the Moors the environs of Granada were in the +highest state of cultivation, and they are still very productive. The +land yields plenteous wine and oil. The chief crops are grains of +various sorts. Hemp and flax flourish, and oranges, lemons, and figs are +a source of income to the agriculturists. Granada is also famed for its +mulberry trees, whose leaves provide food for the silk caterpillar, +though the silk trade is in a state of sad decay. + +The soil around the city never rests. There is no waste of land. Oranges +and pomegranates grow profusely. The cactus is cultivated for the +production of the cochineal insect. Clovers yield several cuttings each +year in this fecund territory. + +In the neighbouring mountains there are rich veins of marble, and jasper +and amethyst are found. Yet the mining industry in the Sierra Nevada +remains to be developed. The Granadines are hardly a commercial +population, though numerous crafts are practised in their city. +Factories for the production of sugar from beetroot have been erected in +recent years, and it is hoped that this industry will increase. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--FROM THE GENERALIFE] + +The life of Granada in its lighter aspects can be well studied on the +promenade of the Salón, one of the most beautiful parades in +Europe. Here, under the shade of luxuriant trees, amid handsome +fountains, and by parterres decked richly with many flowers, the people +of the city stroll upon summer evenings after the great heat of the day. +From the Salón you gain a superb view of the purple Sierra Nevada, which +at sunset wears a wealth of changing hues. + +A walk along the promenade precedes the evening gathering in the patios +of the houses of the upper and middle classes, when to the sound of +guitar and the rattle of castanets, young and old dance together. At +these tertulia, or evening parties, singing alternates with dancing the +bolero and the jota. And later, when the lights are dim, and the +watchman tramps slowly through the streets, you see the lovers, the +"novios" waiting beneath the windows of the adored fair ones, or lightly +strumming serenades on their guitars. + +At festival times the city is all animation. The anniversary of the +taking of Granada is celebrated on January 2, when a procession is +formed and proceeds to the Cathedral. Corpus Christi is another feast +day, and there are two fairs during the year, one in June and the other +in September. + +But it is Granada of the past rather than of the present that holds us +during a sojourn in the city of hills and vistas. It is the scene of +dreams, a city of meditation. You court serenity rather than hilarity +amid these haunted streets and silent ruins. The Arabs had a saying, +referring to one who was sad, "He is thinking of Granada." It is this +spirit, perhaps, which prevails in the patios of the Alhambra and amid +the orange trees of the Generalife Gardens. And yet it is not true +depression. It is a sense of the glory that has been, a meditativeness +which is induced by the somnolence of the scene, and fostered by the +languorous atmosphere of the South. + +An ancient legend, often rehearsed by chroniclers, ascribed the founding +of the city to certain descendants of Noah. It stated that Tubal settled +in Spain and populated the country. There is some evidence that the +province of Granada was the first district in Spain peopled by aliens. +The founder of a town on the site of modern Granada is alleged to have +been the mythical Iberus, who built Illiberis, which has been referred +to as the original city. At any rate Illiberis existed in the Roman +days, for it was a municipium under the rule of Augustus. The town was +also the scene of an ecclesiastical council in the fourth century. + +Plundered by the Vandals, and won by the Visigoths, Illiberis was in +decay at the time of the coming of the Moors to the Iberian Peninsula. +With the conquest of Andalusia, the town of Granada first came into +existence. + +At this period the Berbers overran the territory, though the Moorish +authors relate that settlers from Damascus were the first Eastern +colonizers of Granada. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--SIERRA NEVADA FROM THE ALHAMBRA GARDENS] + +The greatest obscurity shrouds the history of the city. It is strange +that the writers of medieval times so rarely allude to Granada. About +the year 860, a war raged over Andalusia between the native Moslems and +their foreign rulers, the chief leader of the former being Omar Ben +Hafsûn. Under his lieutenant, Nabil, an attack was made on Granada, and +we read that some exultant verses written by the belligerents were +attached to an arrow and propelled over the city wall. In these verses +the words _Kalat-al-hamra_ ("the Red Castle") appear. This first +reference to Al-Hamra suggests that an edifice for defence stood on the +hill now occupied by the Alhambra. + +In 886 Omar Ben Hafsûn appears to have wrested Granada from the Khalifa +of Cordova. A few years later Omar was conquered, and retiring to the +Castle of Bobastro, he embraced the Christian faith, in which he died. + +Zawi Ben Ziri, a Berber, first established Granada as a kingdom in 1013. +Gayangos, the Spanish historian, states that Illiberis--or Elvira, as it +was called at this time--was a dwindling city and that Habus Ibn +Makesen, nephew to Zawi Ben Ziri, founded a new town and capital. + +Habus was a builder as well as a warrior. He is the putative founder of +the old Kasba, or citadel, in the Albaicin quarter, which was added to +by his heir, Badis, who succeeded him in rule. The king is also said to +have built the Casa del Gallo de Viento, in the same quarter, where he +probably resided. Badis proved an ambitious and warlike monarch, for he +enlarged his dominions widely, and even subdued the resolute hillfolk of +the Alpujarras. He conquered Malaga, and made plans to besiege Seville. +But his force was routed at Cabra by the famous Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz +de Bivar, the ally of the sultan of that city. To Badis is attributed a +persecution of the Jews, who numbered several thousands in Elvira, and a +terrible slaughter decimated their ranks. + +At the advent of the Almoravides, a fierce sect of Northern Africa, +Granada was captured (1090) by Abd-ul-Aziz. The city now rose in +importance. Soon after the Almoravide settlement, the followers of Islam +in Granada attacked the Christians of the city and destroyed their +church by fire. The unfortunate Christians appealed for help to Alfonso +of Aragon, and the king came to their relief at the head of a strong +army. In the combat at Anzul the Almoravides were worsted. Alfonso +before retiring laid waste the fertile plain, and left the Christians to +make the best of their position. His action had little effect upon the +Almoravides, for in 1126 numbers of Christians were banished to Barbary +and the rest bitterly oppressed. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--EXTERIOR OF THE ALHAMBRA] + +The doom of the Almoravides came in 1148. A mightier host, the rapacious +and fanatical Almohades, surged over the city. The Moorish inhabitants, +strengthening their forces with the aid of Christians and Jews, invited +Ibrahim Ibn Humushk to lead them to the expulsion of the new sectaries. +The invaders took refuge in the Kasba, and sought relief from +Africa, whence an army was despatched. This force was beaten by Humushk, +and the Granadines secured the assistance of the Sultan of Murcia and +Valencia, whose troops attacked the Kasba, which was held by the +Almohades. On the arrival of a second army, they made a sally and +inflicted severe losses upon the soldiers of the sultan and his +Christian allies. After this success, the Almohades endeavoured to +pacify the unruly among their neighbours. Their governor, Sidi Abu +Abrahim Ishak, was a tactful and benevolent leader. He improved the +city, built a palace for himself, and made the Kasba a stronger +fortress. The power of the Almohades was, however, insecure. Ben Hud, a +potent chieftain, who had gained a strip of territory on the coast, now +discerned that the hour was ripe for an assault upon Cordova, Jaen, and +Granada. His domination was not permanent. Mohammed al Ahmar, uniting +with the foes of Ben Hud, held Seville for a brief space, and then drove +his rival to Almeria, where he was murdered in 1237. + +Granada now came under the sway of Al Ahmar, and in the hour of his +triumph he was proclaimed monarch of a large part of southern Spain. For +two hundred and fifty years the State founded by him resisted the +Christian hosts. Granada rose to the zenith of power and prosperity. Its +first sultan was a man of high character, courteous, dignified, and +astute. He reigned long, and spent himself in affairs of government and +in military enterprises, though he used every means to maintain peace. + +Al Ahmar's last expedition was undertaken against the Spanish forces and +the governors of Guadix and Malaga (their allies) when he was eighty +years of age, and failing in strength through illness. A fall from his +horse brought him to his end. He expired in the arms of his ally, the +Infante Don Felipe, and under cover of darkness his body was borne to +Granada, where it was entombed in the burial ground of Assabica. + +The sovereignty now descended to Al Ahmar's son, named Mohammed II., who +ascended the throne in 1273. He was renowned for his wisdom in the law, +and during his reign of twenty-nine years he proved a worthy son of a +great father. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--A STREET IN THE ALBAICIN] + +During his negotiations with Alfonso X. at Seville, Mohammed was the +victim of an artifice of Queen Violante. Upon being asked by the queen a +favour, he yielded in accordance with the chivalric notions of the time, +but his chagrin was deep when he learned that he had agreed to a year's +truce to the rebels within his dominion. Smarting under this device, he +made plans for the annihilation of his foes. Now the friend of the +Spaniards against the African, now the ally of his own co-religionists, +Mohammed's career was one of strife. He died in 1302, able to boast that +he had not lost a particle of the soil bequeathed to him by his father. +Mohammed III. was, like his father, a forceful sovereign. He +applied himself rigorously to the government of his territory, often +spending the whole twenty-four hours in affairs of State. In 1306 he +seized Ceuta, and brought a number of the conquered to Granada. But +reverses came when the governor of Almeria rebelled and joined hands +with the King of Aragon. Meanwhile the Castilians attacked Algeciras, +and Mohammed, between two foes, was brought to bay. He extricated +himself from danger by yielding four fortresses and paying a heavy sum. +But his troubles were not at an end. Returning to Granada, he was +surrounded by conspirators in his palace, and forced to yield the throne +to his brother, Abu-l-Juyyush Muley Nasr. Humiliated and defeated, +Mohammed retired to Almuñecar, where he lived in seclusion. + +Nasr's first coup after seizing the throne was a successful attack upon +Don Jaime at Almeria. Unfortunately a conspiracy was fomented by his +nephew Abu-l-Walid. Nasr, who seems to have had a fit of apoplexy, was +thought to be dead when Mohammed III. was brought back to Granada. He +was, however, alive upon the return of the lawful sovereign; and on the +authority of some historians he ordered that his rival should be put to +death, while other writers assert that Mohammed was again banished to +Almuñecar. + +Soon after, Nasr was assailed by the followers of Abu-l-Walid, and +forced to yield. As a solatium he was allowed to rule over the town of +Guadix, whither he retired. Al Khattib relates that Nasr was a +philosopher, and versed in the sciences of astronomy and mathematics. + +Abu-l-Walid was an implacable foe of the Christians. His assault on +Gibraltar was frustrated; but he gained a signal victory over the +Castilians in 1319, when the princes Pedro and Juan were killed. +Following up this success, he marched upon the towns of Martos and Baza, +and ravaged the country. It was at the latter town that artillery was +first used in Spain. + +Hailed with joy, the victorious Abu-l-Walid returned to Granada bearing +the spoils of war. Among the captives was a maiden of unusual beauty, +whom he had wrested from an inferior officer. This act so incensed the +chieftain that three days after he stabbed his ruler outside the +Alhambra. Dying from the wound, Abu-l-Walid exacted an oath of fealty +from the eminent and powerful to his eldest son, Mulai Mohammed Ben +Ismaïl. This command was fulfilled before the sultan's minister +disclosed the death of his royal master. + +The boy king, Mohammed IV., was soon busy quelling factions in his +State, and repelling the African army, which took in turn Marbella, +Algeciras, and Ronda. He also defeated the Castilians in several +desperate encounters, but lost the day at Gibraltar. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--IN THE MARKET] + +Mohammed IV., who was assassinated at Gibraltar by his allies the +Moroccans, was succeeded in 1333 by his brother Yusuf I. This king +was a hater of warfare; he sought the peaceful reform of the community +rather than the expansion of his kingdom. Under his rule Granada +prospered and the condition of the people was bettered. Yusuf I. was +disturbed in the tranquillity of his noble palace at Malaga by the +appeals of the African potentates for his aid in reconquering Spain. +Compelled to join the invaders, he sustained a severe disaster at the +Salado, and was forced to acquire peace at the cost of yielding +Algeciras. He was murdered by a madman in 1358. + +Mohammed V. was the next sovereign. He was a worthy son of his +high-principled father, Yusuf; but fate decreed that his reign should +not prove peaceful, for soon after his accession, his younger brother +Ismaïl conspired with certain officers of state and made an attempt to +gain the throne. Upon a night in August, 1360, about one hundred +conspirators climbed the walls of the Kasba and after killing the wizir, +proclaimed Ismaïl as sultan. Mohammed, who was without the palace at the +time, essayed to enter; but he was received with a flight of arrows, and +mounting a horse he galloped away to Guadix. Here he was welcomed, and +from this town he sped to Marbella, thence to Africa, where he received +the aid of Abu-l-Hasan. With troops lent to him he returned to Spain, +hoping to crush the usurper. But Abu-l-Hasan capriciously ordered the +return of his soldiers, and Mohammed retreated to Ronda with a few +adherents. + +Dissension had arisen meanwhile between Ismaïl and Abu Saïd, one of the +chief conspirators, who was burning to take the reins of government in +his own hands. Ismaïl was besieged by Abu Saïd, and upon venturing out +of his palace was slain. + +Fresh trouble arose in Granada, for Pedro of Castile came to the +assistance of the lawful ruler. But Mohammed, witnessing the ravage of +the district by the Christian army, was far from receiving the invader +with open arms. "For no empire in the world would I sacrifice my +country," cried the sultan. Thereupon the King of Castile retired, and +Abu Saïd, mistaking the reason of his return to Seville, went thither to +beg his alliance. The story of the sultan's murder, at the instigation +of Pedro the Cruel, has often been told. Abu Saïd was done to death at +Seville, and the resplendent ruby which was taken from him was presented +to the Black Prince of England, and is still preserved among the regalia +of England. + +Mohammed then returned to his capital. With the exception of a rebellion +under Ali Ben Nasr, he passed twenty years of peace. Granada became a +more thriving city, and under the sultan's clement administration, it +was the resort of traders of all nations and the centre of culture in +the south. According to Mendoza, the inhabitants of Granada numbered +about 420,000 in the reign of Mohammed V., but it is probable that the +number was wildly over-estimated. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE ALHAMBRA: THE AQUEDUCT] + +Yusuf II. followed Mohammed V. He was suspected of favouring the +Christians. He certainly released all the captives of that faith, and +restored them to their own country. This act appears to have incited his +son Mohammed to rise against the throne. Yusuf was at first disposed to +relinquish his sovereignty, for he was a lover of peace; but on the +advice of an ambassador from Morocco he raised an army and advanced on +Murcia. + +At this period the King of Castile was Enrique III., an incapable +monarch in defiance of whose orders Don Martin de la Barbuda, the Master +of Calatrava, headed an advance into the kingdom of Yusuf. The force +was, however, entirely routed by the Moors. Soon after (1395) Yusuf, the +pacific sovereign, was dead--the victim, it is said, of a poisoned +potion, in the form of a tonic sent him by the Sultan of Fez. + +The first exploit of Yusuf's son Mohammed was a visit to Toledo, with +twenty-five mounted attendants, where he appeared before Enrique III. +and besought a renewal of the truce. The armistice was disregarded by +the governor of Andalusia, who invaded the Moorish dominions, till +Mohammed, in reprisal, seized the citadel of Ayamonte. At Jijena he was +defeated, and was forced to plead for peace. He was at the point of +death, when the idea seized him to secure the government of Granada for +his son by the assassination of his brother. The governor of Salobreña +was commanded to put to death the prince whom he had in his keeping. +The doomed man asked leave to finish the game of chess in which he was +engaged, and before either player could cry "Checkmate," the news came +that the prince's brother was dead and that he had been declared sultan. +Yusuf III. was faced with difficulties immediately upon his accession. +Antequera fell into the hands of the Castilians, led by the Infante +Fernando. The defenders were slain, and only about two thousand of the +townsmen outlived the rigours of the siege. The survivors were allowed +to settle in Granada, and they gave the name of Antequeruela to the +suburb. + +When the natives of Gibraltar revolted, and declared allegiance to Fez, +the sultan of that State sent his brother Abu Saïd to secure the town. +Abu Saïd, being left to the mercy of the enemy, was seized and brought +to Granada, where he was shown a letter from the ruler of Fez desiring +that he might be despatched. With this request the generous Yusuf +refused to comply. He released his captive and furnished him with money +and troops with which he left for Africa. The brother who had planned +his death was hurled from the throne, and till Abu Saïd's death Granada +did not want an ally. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE COURT OF THE CYPRESSES] + +In rapid succession sultans now flit across the lurid page of Granada's +history. It is a gloomy tale of incessant civil strife and of +unsuccessful warfare with the Christians. Rulers are expelled from their +thrones by pretenders who themselves fall victims to the poignards +of their partisans. Sovereigns purchase their disputed crowns by selling +the honour and independence of their country to the foreigner. To trace +the miserable vicissitudes of the careers--we cannot call them +reigns--of Mohammed VII., Mohammed VIII., Yusuf IV., and Saïd Ben +Ismaïl, would be to weary and disgust you with a nation whose stubborn +fight against overwhelming odds should command our respect. + +The last act in the protracted drama began with the accession of Mulai +Hasan in the year 1465. With his famous reply to the Castilian +ambassadors who demanded tribute, "Here we manufacture only iron +spear-heads for our enemies," the final campaign began. Every incident +of that war has been made familiar to us Anglo-Saxons by the pen of +Prescott. In his pages long ago most of us read of the taking of Zahara +by the Moors and of the brilliant surprise of the fortress of Alhama by +the gallant Marquis of Cadiz. We have not forgotten the wailing of the +Moors, "Ay de mi, Alhama!" nor the domestic revolution that followed +when the old sultan was hurled from his throne by his son Boabdil. Poor +Boabdil, on whom the blame of all his country's disasters has been laid +by historians, Christian and Arab! Weak or foolhardy, the "Little King" +fought like a Trojan against Ferdinand and Isabella for his country, and +against his father and his uncle for his crown, at one and the same +time. He was taken prisoner by Ferdinand and is said to have signed a +treaty surrendering his dominions to the Catholic Sovereigns. This is +rendered improbable by his comparatively generous treatment at the end +of the war, when he had resisted the Spaniards to the uttermost, and +fought them many times after his release from captivity. Desperate deeds +of valour were done on both sides, though the strategy of the Spanish +commanders does not appear to have been of a very high order, since, +with the whole of Spain at their back, it took them eleven years to +conquer a small kingdom distracted by three rival rulers. The old sultan +retired from the contest, as finally did his brother, the brave Zaghal. +When the Christians were preparing a final assault on the doomed city, +Boabdil rode out from the Alhambra, for the last time, on the morning of +the memorable 2nd of January, 1492. Ferdinand with a brilliant cavalcade +awaited him on the banks of the Genil. The keys were handed over, a +hurried exchange of formal courtesies, and the last ruler of the Spanish +Moors passed away into exile and obscurity. The rays of the wintry sun +glinted on the great silver cross which was hoisted on the Torre de la +Vela in token that the reign of Mohammed was for ever at an end in +Spain. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--VILLA ON THE DARRO] + +Yes, at an end. On that morning, Ferdinand and Isabella accomplished the +task begun by Pelayo at Covadonga, seven hundred and seventy-four years +before. The Moorish dominion in Spain had endured little short of eight +centuries. It was as if the descendants of Harold Godwin were to +arise and overthrow the existing English monarchy. But what is most +remarkable is that the petty State of Granada had survived the break-up +of the great Moorish empire in the west by two hundred and fifty years. +Such a race deserved a manlier if not a more beautiful monument than the +Alhambra. + +What followed the extinction of the Nasrid monarchy is not pleasant +reading. The rights and privileges guaranteed the conquered were soon +swept aside. The mild Archbishop de Talavera, the humane Tendilla, were +superseded in the government of the city by fanatics more after +Isabella's heart. Systematic persecution of the luckless Moslems ensued. +They revolted, and their revolt was quenched with their own blood. They +were intimidated, browbeaten, imprisoned, condemned, and burned. Their +language, costume, and creed were banned. They were ordered to embrace +Christianity under pain of death, and forbidden to quit the country. +They appealed to Egypt, but it is a long way from the banks of the Genil +to those of the Nile. Finally (and one hears of it with relief) they +were all expelled from the country. As a race they perished utterly. The +art, the civilization, which they had learnt on Spanish soil, they left +buried in Spanish ground, and it was a long time before it was +disinterred. + +The price Spain paid for national unity was a heavy one, but it was +worth it. When we turn to Turkey, can anyone say that a united Spain +would have been possible, with the fairest of her provinces and cities +and the whole of her southern seaboard in possession of a people alien +in race, tongue and creed? + +With Oriental people, the history of the palace is the history of the +State. At Granada every traveller turns instinctively towards the +Alhambra as the point of supreme interest. The famous pile is to the +city what the Mezquita is to Cordova--not quite, perhaps, since Granada +contains more than one building of intrinsic interest. + +The Alhambra has been so often described (by the present writer among +others) that it is not easy to say anything new in regard to it, or even +to avoid identity of language with other writers in the description of +certain of its parts. Yet it would be impossible to give any account of +Granada without some notice of this famous building. To begin with, I +must impress on those about to visit it for the first time that the +Alhambra is not a single palace, but properly speaking is the name given +to a fortified eminence lying to the south-east of the city, and +including two palaces, a citadel, and a multitude of private residences. +In its nature it may be compared with the Acropolis of Athens and the +far-distant Castle of Bamborough. The name, as most people are aware, is +derived from _Kalat al hamra_--"the Red Castle," to adopt a translation +which I have never seen disputed. (While not pretending to rank as an +Arabist, I have not failed to notice that an infinite number of +words put forward as Arabic by writers on the Spanish Moors are +unintelligible to Syrian and Egyptian Arabs, and, which is more to the +point, to many Hindu students of Arabic.) In shape the hill has been +cleverly compared by Ford to a grand piano. Rearward it abuts on the +Cerro del Sol ("the Mountain of the Sun"), to which Washington Irving +alludes so often. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE ALHAMBRA FROM SAN MIGUEL] + +To the south of the Alhambra hill lies another and a narrower spur, +which is crowned near the town end by the Vermilion Towers, or Torres +Bermejas; on the north-east rises the hill of the Generalife, laid out +in gardens. The townward extremity of the Alhambra is washed at the foot +by the river Darro, and is crowned by the Torre de la Vela, of which +more anon. + +To reach the Alhambra you ascend from the Plaza Nueva in the heart of +the town by the steep and narrow Calle Gomeres. This street is laid out +to attract and cater for tourists, who are greeted here with a civility +and cordiality not always conspicuous in the rest of the town. Half-way +up the toilsome ascent you will probably be waylaid by a +theatrically-attired personage who will accost you in bad French with +the information that he is the chief of the gipsies. The costume he +wears was given to his father or grandfather by Fortuny--one of the rare +examples of artists condescending to manufacture the picturesque. The +chief will endeavour to engage you in conversation, and will offer you +his photograph at fifty centimes a copy. If you have a camera he will +allow you to take his portrait for a consideration. It seems incredible +that a human being could be so much of a nuisance and yet remain in good +health and spirits. + +The dragon having been successfully circumvented, you enter the +Hesperides, or in other words, the charming Alamedas of the Alhambra. +These groves occupy the deep depression between the famous hill and the +Vermilion Towers. They are planted with magnificent elms, sent hither, I +believe, from England by the Duke of Wellington. They have thriven well +in Spanish soil, and harbour a colony of nightingales and other +singing-birds, unusually numerous for this land of passion, where wines +are rich and birds are rare. The "bulbul," as certain writers love to +call it, sings very sweetly in these leafy retreats, a statement some +travellers who persist in coming at the wrong season will not hesitate +to contradict. I must admit that the bird is as elusive as the +"alpengluh," or as the hunter's moon at Tintern. It is always cool here +on the slope of the Alhambra. Even the fierce rays of the Andalusian sun +cannot penetrate the thick leafage. Rills bubbling forth from the red +sides of the hill, or tumbling over its edge, keep the roots of the +trees perennially moist and feed a dense under-growth. On summer +afternoons this is the only spot in Granada where you may sit in +comfort. Meanwhile, up and down in quick succession pass the sandalled +water-carriers hurrying to fill their skins with the precious fluid +and to dispense it in the scorched, thirsty town below. "Agua-a-ah!" +Their prolonged nasal drawling cry comes back to me as I write, and I +seem to hear the rapid patter of their feet and to see the light cutting +chequers on the shadow of the trees. A great man is the water-carrier, +loved and respected by all the people of southern Spain. We who live in +the humid sea-girt North can little understand the longing for clear, +cool water, the reverence for its dispensers, that must ever be felt in +the South. How constantly wells are referred to in the Bible: "As the +hart panteth after the water brooks," "With joy shall ye draw waters +from the wells of salvation." How significant are these beautiful +passages for those that have journeyed to the South! + +[Illustration: GRANADA--TOWERS OF THE INFANTAS, ALHAMBRA] + +Reluctantly withdrawing from this delightful spot, you must climb the +hill to the right of the entrance--there is a winding path to the +summit. Here you find the Torres Bermejas--a group of exceedingly +ancient and not very dilapidated towers, used as a military prison. They +date, it is believed, from the days before the Zirite dynasty, but you +will not be tempted to examine them attentively, for the purlieus are of +the most uninviting description. The adjoining cottages are peopled by +rascally-looking men and slatternly women, who would be better, one +would think, inside than just outside a gaol. + +In ancient days an embattled wall connected these towers with the +opposite point of the Alhambra, closing the mouth of the valley, which +was not then the pleasaunce it is now, but an arid ravine used as the +burial ground of the fortress. The entrance to the valley is now through +the Puerta de las Granadas, built by order of Charles V. Taking the path +to the left, we soon reach the fountain in the Renaissance style, +erected in 1545 by Pedro Machuca, by order of the Conde de Tendilla. It +is ornamented with the imperial shield and the heads of the three +river-gods, Genil, Darro, and Beiro. The medallions represent Alexander +the Great, Hercules slaying the hydra, Phryxus and Helle, and Daphne +pursued by Apollo. The laurels growing out of the distressed damsel's +head give her the appearance of a Sioux brave. A few steps beyond we +reach the famous Puerta de la Justicia, so called because within it the +Moorish sultans or their kadis administered justice--or it may have been +merely law. This entrance is formed by two towers of reddish brick, +placed back to back, and united by an upper storey. We look at once for +the hand and key so often referred to by Irving, and distinguish them +with difficulty--the first over the outermost horseshoe arch, the latter +over the middle arch. Opinion is divided as to the meaning of these +symbols. The key is supposed by some to signify the power of God to +unlock the gate of Heaven to the true believer, while the hand appears +to have been regarded as a talisman against the evil eye. A winding +corridor leads through the gate into the citadel, past an +inscription celebrating the Conquest in 1492, and an altar now enclosed +within a sort of cupboard. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--NEAR THE ALHAMBRA] + +This gate is placed at right angles to the wall which girdles the hill +and runs along its edge, following all its inequalities of level. It is +in fairly good preservation, but the rampart walk has disappeared here +and there. Of the square mural towers a great many remain--some +hopelessly ruinous, others inhabited by the guardians of the domain or +their widows and relations. The towers on the south-west side, as far as +I could judge, were better adapted for defence than those on the +north-east, where the width of the windows would have greatly +embarrassed the defence. The area enclosed by the outer wall was +divided, it seems, by two cross walls into what, in the medieval +parlance, we would call the outer, middle and inner wards. To the last +corresponded the citadel proper or Kasba (Alcazaba, the Spaniards call +it), whose massive walls rise to your left on emerging from the Puerta +de la Justicia. This is the oldest part of the fortress. It occupies the +extremity of the plateau, which is marked by the tall, square Torre de +la Vela, or watch tower, whereon a silver cross was planted by the +"Tercer Rey," Cardinal Mendoza, to announce the occupation of the +Alhambra by the Spaniards. Here also is a bell which can be heard as far +off as Loja, and which, if struck with sufficient force by a maiden, is +said to have the faculty of procuring her a husband. The view from the +platform is noble. The dazzling white city is spread out beneath, in +front stretches the Vega, to the south the eyes rest lovingly on the +white streaks of the Sierra Nevada. + +Upon this tower I met a French entomologist, who announced that he +should not trouble to visit any other part of the Alhambra, and was, in +fact, surprised to learn that there was anything more to see. His +horizon was bounded by the Lepidoptera, on one side, and the Coleoptera +(I think that is the word) on the other. After all, archæologists take +no more interest in black beetles than entomologists do in buildings. +Incidentally, I should think Granada an admirable place for the intimate +study of insects. + +From the Torre de las Armas, a road led from the citadel down the +declivity to the town, crossing the Darro by the ruined Puente del Cadi. +On the inner side the citadel is strengthened by the picturesque Torre +del Homenage--a name often given to towers in Spain. The open space +before it, where the water-carriers gather round the well, was a +comparatively deep ravine in Moorish times, and was not levelled up till +after the fall of Boabdil. On the opposite side--facing the Torre del +Homenage--it was bounded by what I will call the wall of the middle +ward, which ran across from the Torre de las Gallinas to near the Puerta +de la Justicia, and of which only the gatehouse, the beautiful Puerta +del Vino, remains. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--PUERTA DEL VINO, ALHAMBRA] + +This admitted to the area which contained the palaces and also the +little town of the Alhambra--inhabited by persons attached to the +court, the ulema, chiefs of such powerful tribes as the Beni Serraj and +the Beni Theghri, discarded sultanas, ex-favourites, soldiers of +fortune, plenipotentiaries and envoys, and a crowd of parasites and +hangers-on. To-day the population is limited chiefly to one little +street, composed of pensions, photographers' shops and estancos. The +plan of the whole fortress no doubt varied from age to age, but in the +main agreed with that according to which most European strongholds were +constructed. There was the outer wall with its mural towers and +gatehouses; a strong inner ward, in place of a keep shut off by a ditch +or ravine; and two or more other enclosures, each defended by a wall +with a fortified entrance. It does not seem that the portcullis and +drawbridge were used by the Moorish engineers. + +While the Kasba is generally attributed to an earlier dynasty, the outer +wall and the other Moorish buildings are almost unanimously ascribed to +Al Ahmar and his successors of the Nasrid dynasty. To reach the Alhambra +Palace, called pre-eminently by foreigners the Alhambra and by the +Spaniards the Alcazar, or Palacio Arabe, you pass across the plaza, +leaving the unfinished Palace of Charles V. to your right. Behind it you +find not an imposing and gorgeous structure, but what appears to be a +collection of tile-roofed sheds. A mean, characterless entrance admits +you to the far-famed palace. + +The building belongs to the last stage of Spanish-Arabic art, when the +seed of Mohammedan ideas and culture had long since taken root in the +soil and produced a style purely local in many of its features. Some +authorities trace the first principles of Arabic architecture back to +the Copts; the Spaniards argue that their style is derived from +Byzantine works they found before them in Andalusia. The germs of Arabic +art are certainly not, if travellers' tales be true, to be found in +Arabia. The Saracen conquerors were warriors, not artists, and their +ideas of form and ornament were undoubtedly borrowed--like their vaunted +culture--from the more civilized nations with which they came in +contact. With Morocco just across the strait, it is not safe to claim +too much of native genius and refinement for the Moor. Whatever may have +been the primitive models of Andalusian architecture, as time went by it +lost much of the dignity and simplicity of its earliest examples--such +as the Giralda and the Mezquita. The Moors of Granada had wearied of the +fanaticism and austerity of Islam. If not precisely decadent, they had +lost the fire and enthusiasm of youth, and wanted to enjoy a comfortable +old age. If the palace we are about to enter seems in parts more like +the bower of an odalisque than the seat of royalty, we must remember +that the sultans wanted to enjoy life here, and had no fancy for the +stern, military-looking palaces of their Christian rivals. Your +Oriental, like the cat, values luxury very highly, and yet, from +our point of view, does not seem to secure it. A European would have +found himself hopelessly uncomfortable at the court of Al Ahmar and +Mohammed V. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE ALHAMBRA: TOWER OF COMARES] + +Architecturally the Alhambra Palace has little merit. It is impossible +to trace any order in the distribution of its parts, which ought not of +course to be expected in a building repeatedly added to in the course of +two and a half centuries. Moreover, a portion was demolished to make +room for the Palace of Charles V. The Moorish builders were fond of +conceits which our taste condemns. They liked to conceal the supports of +a heavy tower, and to leave it seemingly suspended in the air. There is +nothing imposing about the edifice, nothing stately. Its great charm +consists in its decoration, which is wonderful and, in its own line, +beyond all praise. It is based on the strictest geometrical plan, and +every design and pattern may be resolved into a symmetrical arrangement +of lines and curves at regular distances. The intersection of lines at +various angles is the secret of the system. All these lines flow from a +parent stem, and nothing accidental or extraneous is permitted. The same +adhesion to sharply-defined principles is conspicuous in the +colour-scheme. On the stucco only the primary colours are used; the +secondary tints being reserved for the dados of mosaic or tile work. The +green seen on the groundwork was originally blue. To-day, when the white +parts have assumed the tint of old ivory and time has subdued the vivid +colouring, the effect is more harmonious than it could have been +originally. + +Epigraphy, or long flowing inscriptions, proclaiming the merits of the +sultans or of the chambers themselves, enters largely into the +decoration. Those who can read these at a glance must find the halls +less monotonous than most people are likely to do. The beauty of the +ornamentation consists in its exquisite symmetry, and this is not +apparent to every comer, who may fail to realize with Mr. Lomas "that +the exact relation between the irregular widths of cloistering on the +long and short sides of the court [of the Lions] is that of the squares +upon the sides of a right-angled triangle"! + +The inscription that most frequently recurs in the decoration is the +famous "There is no conqueror but God"--the words used by Al Ahmar on +his return from the siege of Seville, in deprecation of the acclamations +of his subjects. The newer parts are readily recognizable by the yoke +and sheaf of arrows, the favourite devices of Ferdinand and Isabella, +whose initials, F and Y, are also seen; and by the Pillars of Hercules +and the motto "Plus Oultre," denoting work executed by order of Charles +V. + +The oldest part of the building--by which I mean that which appears to +have been the least altered--is round about the Patio de la Mezquita, +more properly named "del Mexuar," after the divan or "meshwâr" that held +its sittings here. The southern façade of this small court reminds one +very much of the front of the Alcazar at Seville. From this you enter +the disused chapel, an uninteresting apartment consecrated in 1629. The +Moorish decoration has almost completely disappeared, but much of the +work in the little apartment adjacent, called the Sultan's Oratory, +seems to be original. There never was a mosque here, but there may have +been a private praying-place. Yusuf I. is supposed to have been stabbed +here. The tragic deed was more probably done at the great mosque outside +the palace where the Alhambra parish church now stands. From the Patio +del Mexuar a tunnel called the Viaducto leads to the Patio de la Reja, +the Baths, and the Garden of Daraxa. + +The Court of the Myrtles (Patio de las Arrayanes, or de la Alberca) is +the first entered by the visitor. It is an oblong space, the middle of +which is occupied by a tank of bright green water. This is bordered by +trimly kept hedges of myrtle. The side walls are modern, and do not +deserve attention. The front to the right on entering is very beautiful. +It is composed of two arcaded galleries, one above the other, with a +smaller closed gallery--a sort of triforium--interposed. The arches +spring from marble columns, with variously decorated capitals. The +central arch of the lowest gallery rises nearly to the cornice, and is +decorated in a style which Contreras thought suggestive of Indian +architecture. Fine lattice work closes the seven windows of the +triforium. The upper gallery is equally graceful, but looks in imminent +danger of collapse. Above a similar but single arcade at the opposite +end of the court rises the square massive upper storey of the Tower of +Comares, with its crenellated summit. To reach its interior we cross the +gallery beneath a little dome painted with stars on a blue ground, and a +long parallel apartment (Sala de la Barca) gutted by fire in 1890, and +enter the spacious Hall of the Ambassadors (Sala de los Embajadores), +the largest hall in the Alhambra. Here was held the final council which +decided the fate of Islam in Spain. Looking upwards we behold the +glorious airy dome of larch-wood with painted stars. The decoration is +magnificent--mostly in red and black--and may be divided into four +zones: (1) a dado of mosaic tiles or azulejos; (2) stucco work in eight +horizontal bands, each of a different design; (3) a row of five windows +once filled with stained glass on each side; (4) a carved wooden +cornice, supporting the roof. On three sides of the hall are alcoves, +each with a window, the one opposite the entrance having been near the +Sultan's throne. + +The Hall of the Ambassadors probably never looked very different from +what it is now. It was never a private apartment. We can imagine it +occupied, when no function was proceeding, by a few slaves dozing on +mats or reclining dog-like on the richly carpeted floor, ready, however, +to spring up and make the lowest of salaams as some bearded dignity +entered. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE COURT OF THE LIONS: MOONLIGHT] + +This splendid hall and the other apartments adjacent to the Court of the +Myrtles are supposed (I know not on what authority) to have +constituted the official or public part of the royal residence, together +with the apartments demolished to make room for the Palace of Charles V. +The rest of the building, on this supposition, was the private or harem +quarter. A narrow passage leads from the Court of the Myrtles to the +Court of the Lions. "There is no part of the edifice that gives us a +more complete idea of its original beauty and magnificence than this," +says Washington Irving, "for none has suffered so little from the +ravages of time. In the centre stands the fountain famous in song and +story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; and the +twelve lions which support them cast forth their crystal streams as in +the days of Boabdil. [The fountain nowadays plays only once a year.] The +architecture, like that of all other parts of the palace, is +characterized by elegance rather than grandeur; bespeaking a delicate +and a graceful taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one +looks upon the fairy tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently +fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much +has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, +the violence of war, and the quiet though no less baneful pilferings of +the tasteful traveller; it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular +tradition that the whole is protected by a magic charm." + +I fancy that the gifted American was himself responsible for that +tradition, for the Spaniards, as Lady Louisa Tenison observed sixty odd +years ago, are not an imaginative race, and whatever legends or +traditions are current relate almost exclusively to the Virgin and +saints. Spanish folk-lore knows nothing of fairies and goblins. The +palace which Irving tells us the people regarded as enchanted had been +used by them for years as a factory, as store-rooms, as a laundry, as a +caravanserai. This hardly suggests that it was looked upon with +superstitious awe. The truth is that the palace had enchanted Washington +Irving, as it has done many others--not natives--since. + +The Court of the Lions is an oblong, surrounded by a gallery formed by +124 marble columns, eleven feet in height and placed irregularly, some +in pairs, some single. The arches exhibit a similar variety of curve, +and the capitals are of various designs. The tile roofing of the +galleries rather mars the effect, but the stucco work within them is of +the richest and finest description. In the centre of the short sides are +two charming little pavilions, with "half-orange" domes and basins in +their marble flooring. The court is gravelled, and derives its name from +the twelve marble animals that support the basin of the central +fountain. These creatures are called lions, but why I am at a loss to +understand. They look more like poodles than any other living +quadrupeds. Ford humorously remarks: "Their faces are barbecued, and +their manes cut like the scales of a griffin, and their legs like +bedposts, while water-pipes stuck in their mouths do not add to their +dignity." An Arabic inscription reminds us that nothing need be +feared from them, as life is wanting to enable them to show their fury. +That fury would no doubt have been directed in the first instance at the +sculptor who had made of the unfortunate creatures such grotesque +caricatures. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE GENERALIFE: PATIO DE LA ACEQUIA] + +The court is surrounded by four splendid rooms--the halls of the +Mocarabes, the Abencerrages, the Two Sisters, and of Justice. The second +and third resemble each other, and are covered with the most marvellous +specimens of the artesonado or carved wood ceiling. The stalactites or +pendants, though in reality following a strict geometrical plan, exhibit +complications and varieties that it is impossible for the eye to follow. +The style may well have been suggested by the honey-comb. It is +confusing, beautiful, glorious--certainly the most remarkable +achievement of the art of the Spanish Moor. The walls are covered with +lace-work in stucco of the most exquisite pattern, with mosaic dados, +and friezes decorated with inscriptions in praise of Mohammed V. At the +sides of the rooms are the alcoves characteristic of Oriental domestic +architecture. + +The Hall of the Two Sisters is so called from a couple of slabs of +marble let into the flooring. The other chamber derives its name from +the thirty-six chiefs of the Beni Serraj tribe, fabled to have been +decapitated within it by order of Boabdil. The story was a pure +invention of a Ginés Perez de Hita, a writer who lived in the sixteenth +century. It has now spread through all lands, thanks to the version of +Chateaubriand. The tribe is supposed in this story to have espoused the +"Little King's" cause against his father, Mulai Hasan. Later on their +chief, Hamet, was suspected of intriguing with the Castilians; and, what +was still more criminal in the eyes of a Moslem, of carrying on a love +affair with one of the sultanas. A cypress in the gardens of the +Generalife is pointed out as the lovers' trysting-place. The sultan +resolved to make an end of this pestilent brood, but Hamet himself, +warned at the eleventh hour, escaped the fate of his kinsmen. The frail +sultana would have shared their fate, had not four champions presented +themselves and vindicated her reputation against all comers in the +lists. Thus the affair ended happily--except for the thirty-six chiefs. +Thus the story. I hope it will stimulate your imagination. For myself, +there is an utter absence of the personal and human note about these +gorgeous Moorish halls. It is certainly easier to believe that they +sprang into existence at the bidding of an enchanter than that they were +ever the scenes of men's loves and hates, hopes and fears. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE GENERALIFE: COURT OF THE CYPRESSES] + +The Hall of Justice (Sala de la Justicia), at the far side of the Court +of Lions, is a long apartment, divided into alcoves specially remarkable +for the paintings on its ceiling. These have been the subject of endless +controversy. To begin with, it was doubted if a Mohammedan could have +painted them, since the representation of living objects is contrary to +the injunctions of the Koran. I have it on the authority of a very +learned Moslem friend, a recognized authority on Mohammedan law, that +the plastic arts are not forbidden by the Prophet, but merely pointed +out as a possible snare and stumbling-block in the way of the believer. +Painting has been a recognized art in Persia for centuries, and I have +seen some pictures from that country which reveal no mean degree of +skill. There is therefore no good reason to doubt that these curious +works were executed by Moorish artists at the end of the fourteenth +century. They are done on leather prepared with gypsum and nailed to the +wooden ceiling. The colours (red, green, gold, etc.) are still vivid, +but mildew is covering them in parts, and in places the gypsum is +peeling off. These valuable specimens of Moorish art ought to have been +taken down and placed under glass long ago. The first of the three +represents ten bearded, robed, and turbaned personages, who may with +some degree of probability be identified with the first sultans of the +Nasrid dynasty. According to Oliver, the Moor in the green costume +occupying the middle of one side is Al Ahmar, the founder of the race. +Then, counting from his right, come Mohammed II., Nasr Abu-l-Juyyush, +Mohammed IV., Saïd Ismaïl, Mohammed V. (in the red robe), Yusuf II., +Yusuf I., Abu-l-Walid, and Mohammed III. The family likeness between +these potentates is striking, and the red beards suggest a liberal use +of the dye still largely used by the Oriental man of middle age. The +other pictures are more interesting. The first represents hunting +scenes. Moors are seen chasing the wild boar, while Spanish knights are +in pursuit of the lion and the bear. In another part of the composition +the huntsmen are seen returning and offering the spoils of the chase to +their ladies. The Moor greets his sultana with a benign and +condescending air, the Christian on his knees offers his prize to his +lady. In the next picture is another hunting scene, with a page, with +sword and shield, leaning against a tree, awaiting his master's return. +In another quarter of the picture his master (presumably) is rescuing a +distressed damsel from a wild-looking creature who is quite undismayed +by the tame lion accompanying his captive. Further on, the same knight +is unhorsed and overthrown by a Moorish huntsman, two ladies from a +castle in the background most ungratefully applauding the Christian's +discomfiture. The pictures evidently were intended to record the +incidents of a border warfare not dissimilar to those commemorated in +our ballad of Chevy Chase. + +In this hall a temporary chapel was set up, and mass was celebrated, on +the taking of the city by the Spaniards. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--TOCADOR DE LA REINA] + +Crossing the Hall of the Two Sisters, we enter the beautiful Mirador de +"Lindaraja," the most charming and elegant of all the apartments in the +palace. Through three tall windows, once filled with coloured crystals, +we look down into the pretty Patio de Daraxa, which, like the chamber, +does not derive its name from an imaginary sultana, but from a word +meaning "vestibule." It is a delightful garden, where shade is always to +be obtained between the closely planted cypresses, orange, and peach +trees, rising between twin hedges of box and bushes of rose and myrtle. +In the centre is a seventeenth-century fountain. Here you will always +find some artist committing to canvas his impressions of one of the +fairest gardens men have fashioned for themselves. + +The rooms on the other side of the patio were built by Charles V., and +include the Tocador de la Reina, or Queen's Boudoir, a prettily +decorated belvedere affording an entrancing view. It was in this room +that Washington Irving took up his quarters. Théophile Gautier slept +sometimes in the hall of the Abencerrages, sometimes in that of the Two +Sisters, and was impressed by the eerieness of the palace at night. Yet +there is not a manor-house in England or a château in France that is not +more suggestive of the spectral and uncanny than these gilded halls and +open courts. However, everyone has his own preconceptions of the weird +and the picturesque. + +From the Patio de Daraxa we enter the very interesting Baths, ably +restored by the late Don Rafael Contreras. The Sala de las Camas, or +chamber of repose, is among the most brilliantly decorated rooms in the +palace, yet, as elsewhere in this neglected pile, the gilding is being +suffered to fade and the tiling in the niches, I noticed, is loosening +and breaking up. From a gallery running round the chamber, the music of +the odalisques was wafted down to the sultan reclining in one of the +divans below. He must have been in no hurry to leave this spot, where he +dreamily puffed at his hubble-bubble and watched the play of the +fountain. The light came from apertures in the superb artesonado +ceiling. Without, on a stone seat, the eunuchs mounted guard and +preserved their lord's repose from interruption. The actual baths are +contained in two adjacent chambers. A staircase ascended to the Hall of +the Two Sisters above, for the use, not improbably, of the ladies of the +harem. On leaving the baths you may follow the tunnel across the +uninteresting Patio de la Reja and beneath the Tower of Comares, to the +Patio del Mexuar. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--TORRE DE LAS DAMAS] + +No visitor to the Alhambra must omit to walk round the outer wall or +enceinte, and to inspect the towers. The Torre de las Damas, a fortified +tower dating from the time of Yusuf I., was inhabited by Ismaïl, the +brother of Mohammed V., and marked the palace limits on this side. It +contains a tastefully decorated hall. Adjacent to it is a beautiful if +gaudy little Mohammedan mihrab or oratory, approached through a private +garden. Here was the house of Anastasio de Bracamonte, the esquire of +the Conde de Tendilla, to whom was assigned the custody of the Alhambra +at the Reconquest. The Puerta de Hierro, a little further on, was +restored at the same time, and faces the gate and path leading to the +Generalife. Passing the Torre de los Picos, we reach the Torre de +la Cautiva, which contains a beautiful chamber, over which a lovely rosy +tint is diffused by the tiles and stucco. The Torre de las Infantas, +built by Mohammed VII., is a perfect example of an Oriental +dwelling-house. Through the usual zigzag vestibule you reach a hall with +a fountain in the centre and alcoves in three of the sides. The +decoration is perhaps over elaborate. The towers on the other side of +the enceinte were, as I have said, intended mainly for defence. Near the +ruinous Torre del Agua, at the south-east extremity, a viaduct crosses +the ravine from the Generalife, and some of the water precipitates +itself over the brow of the hill in a mass of vivid living greenery. +Further on, towards the Gate of Justice, is the Torre de los Siete +Suelos, through which Boabdil is said to have made his last exit. It is +supposed to extend far underground, and to contain much buried treasure. +So at least Irving was told by the inhabitants, or possibly told them! +Hence issues the Belludo, the spectral pack, which traverses the streets +of Granada by night--also according to legend. This story of the Wild +Huntsman crops up, in one form or another, in every part of Europe. +There are the Dandy Dogs in Cornwall, the Wild Huntsman in Germany, +Thibaut le Tricheur in the valley of the Loire, the Chasseur Noir of +Fontainebleau, and so on. Folk-lore of this sort is easily fabricated. +Foreigners in search of the picturesque ask the natives of such a place +as this if ghosts do not haunt the ruins. The guide, anxious to please, +says "Doubtless!" The foreigner goes on to tell him of spectres that +affect this particular class of building at home; and the guide readily +devises a local version of the yarn for the benefit of the next +stranger. I have found that the peasantry in most European countries +hear of their local traditions and folk-lore first through the medium of +books. And these remarks apply with especial force to the people of +Latin countries, whom, contrary to the received opinion, I know to be +less imaginative and less superstitious than northerners. It is natural +that the gloomy forests of Germany and Sweden, rather than the sunlit +plains of Andalusia, should generate dark fancies. + +Strictly speaking the Generalife, the Trianon of the Moorish kings, is a +more beautiful place than the Alhambra, though it has no architectural +merit. It became the property at the Reconquest of a Christianized Moor, +Don Pedro de Granada, who claimed to be descended from the famous Ben +Hud, and from whose family it passed into the possession of the +Marquises of Campotejar. The approach lies along a magnificent avenue of +cypresses and tall shrubs. Arrived at the entrance you are admitted by a +very comely damsel, and allowed to wander about the lovely gardens by +yourself and to stay there all day if you like. At the far end of the +first court is a poor collection of portraits, among which is one--No. +11--absurdly supposed to be a portrait of Ben Hud (died about 1237), +though the person is dressed in the costume of the fifteenth century. +This is the portrait which English travellers, and even the usually +correct Baedeker, persist in mistaking for Boabdil's. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE GENERALIFE: COURT OF THE CYPRESSES] + +The gardens of the Generalife are beyond all praise. Water bubbles up +everywhere, and moistens the roots of gorgeous oleanders, myrtles, +orange trees, cedars, and cypresses--the tallest trees in Spain. Beneath +one of these--that to the right as you reach the head of the first +flight of steps--the sultana is alleged to have kept her tryst with +Hamet, the Abencerrage. Not a bad place, this, for a lovers' meeting. +You rise from one flower-laden terrace to another till you reach the +ugly belvedere--scribbled all over with idiots' names--whence you obtain +a ravishing view of the Alhambra, the city, the Vega, and the mountains. +The hours spent in the Generalife Gardens will be remembered as among +the pleasantest of one's lifetime. + +It may be, as a French writer states, impossible to tickle the surface +of Granada without discovering Moorish remains, but certainly, outside +the Alhambra, very few are to be seen above ground. The most conspicuous +of them in the lower town is, on the whole, the Casa del Carbon, a +dilapidated structure with a bold horseshoe archway which confronts you +as you cross the Reyes Catolicos near the Post Office. The house is now +used as a coal depot, but beneath the thick coating of grime you may +discern the traces of graceful decorative work. The building is said to +have been a corn exchange in Moorish days. More interesting are the +vestiges of the ancient walls that girdled the oldest quarter, _el +viejo Albaicin_. They were built in great part by Christian +captives--perhaps by those whose chains are hung up on the walls of San +Juan de los Reyes at Toledo. The Moors of Granada grew embittered by +their reverses, and treated their Christian subjects harshly. The +martyrs whom the monument on the Alhambra hill commemorates are not +merely the creatures of pious imagination. There is an ugly story, too, +of an unfortunate monk accused of heretical doctrines, who took refuge +at Granada and was burnt at the stake by the Moslems. + +Two of the old gatehouses on this side of the city are still standing. +They are massive crenellated towers, pierced with round-headed archways. +I do not consider them entrancingly picturesque; they form the northern +entrances to the Albaicin quarter, which is now a perplexing congeries +of squalid houses, formless convents, and churches tottering to their +fall. Whatever interest its antiquity may excite is lost in disgust at +its wretchedness. On the outskirts dwell the gipsies--mostly in +semi-underground burrows, and left very much to themselves by the local +authority. These are the poor creatures who are dragged out to bore +visitors with their wearisome dances, the fee charged for which goes +almost entirely into the pockets of the guides. The gipsies of Spain are +not nomadic. There are people in Granada who wish they were. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--CASA DEL CARBON] + +In the Albaicin the Zirite sultans had their palaces, one of which was +called the House of the Weathercock, from the bronze figure of a +horseman that surmounted it and served as a vane. Washington Irving has +written a story about it. Fragments of all these ancient buildings are +incorporated with modern houses, and may be identified by those who care +to take the trouble. Romantic legends (of the precise nature of which I +am ignorant) cluster round the Casa de las Tres Estrellas, possibly +because it affords ingress to a subterranean passage leading no man +knows whither. But I do not think you will be tempted to linger long in +this odoriferous, wormeaten quarter. You may be said to have escaped +from it when you reach the picturesque Carrera de Darro, the embankment +of that narrow stream facing the Alhambra. Here may be seen a Moorish +bath at one of the private houses, and--much more delightful to the +artist--a broken Moorish bridge, the Puente del Cadi, to which a path +led down from the Torre de las Armas. Against the little church near +this point you will notice a white corner house with a handsome doorway +in the Renaissance style. At the angle of the house is a balcony, +bearing the odd inscription, "Esperandola del Cielo" ("Waiting for it +from Heaven"). The words are accounted for by the following story: The +house was built by Hernando de Zafra, the astute secretary of Ferdinand +and Isabella, and the negotiator of the capitulation of Granada. He +suspected his daughter of a love affair with an unknown cavalier. To +satisfy his doubts he surprised her one day, and found his page +assisting the lover to escape by the window. Baulked of his prey the +enraged father turned upon the lad. "Mercy," implored the page. "Look +for it in Heaven!" answered the Don, as he hurled his daughter's +accomplice after her lover into the street below. There are those who +say that De Zafra had no daughter, and that he has been libelled in this +matter. But the episode is more probable than the foreign-made yarns +about the Alhambra. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--STREET IN THE ALBAICIN] + +The rivers of Granada are more spoken of than seen. At the foot of the +Alhambra the Darro disappears, its channel through the town having been +roofed over at different epochs. Till the middle of the last century the +houses of the Zacatin looked at the back upon the stream, as may be seen +from a picture by Roberts in the South Kensington Galleries. There was a +local proverb which said "Ugly as the back of the Zacatin," an evidence +of the persistent confusion of the ugly and the picturesque. This part +of the stream is now covered by the Reyes Catolicos Street. The famous +Zacatin--a lane-like thoroughfare, like those we have seen in +Seville--was once the principal street in Granada, and seems to have +been full of animation in Gautier's time. That brilliant Frenchman +speaks of meeting there parties of students from Salamanca, playing as +they went on the guitar, triangles, and castanets--truly a singular mode +of taking one's walks abroad, such as even the Spaniards of the +'thirties and 'forties must have marvelled at exceedingly. Are we +to understand by this remarkable passage that the alumni of Salamanca +formed processions like those of the Salvation Army, whenever they met +by chance in the public street, or that, like the fine lady of Banbury +Cross, they were determined to move nowhere without a musical +accompaniment? At all events, the Zacatin is quiet enough nowadays. It +still contains some of the best shops in the town and is one of the few +comparatively shady walks outside the precincts of the Alhambra. It +leads you to the far-famed Plaza de Bibarrambla, with the name of which +we have been familiarized by Byron's rendering of the Spanish ballad, +"Ay de mi, Alhama!" The square, like so much else in Granada, has been +so completely modernized that nothing remains to recall the days when +the sultans here assisted at pageants and tournaments, wherein +Christians often took part. It is edifying to learn that Spanish +knights, forbidden in their own country to cut each other's throats, +often resorted hither to do so, by gracious permission of his Moorish +Majesty. + +We are now in the neighbourhood of the second great sight of +Granada--the Cathedral with its adjoining buildings. The church called +the Sagrario is an eighteenth-century structure immediately adjoining +the west front of the Cathedral, on the south side, which served for a +time as the metropolitan church of Granada. The interior is sombre, +heavy, and Churrigueresque--a style which, it always strikes me, might +have been devised by an undertaker accustomed to a high-class business. +One of the chapels, however, is interesting. It contains the bones of +"the magnificent cavalier, Fernando del Pulgar, Lord of El Salar," as +the inscription records. This gallant knight, during the last siege of +Granada, penetrated into the city with fifteen horsemen, and nailed a +paper bearing the Ave Maria on the door of the mosque. This brave +exploit earned for him and his descendants the right of remaining +covered in the Cathedral and before the king. In Philip II.'s time the +Marqués del Salar, the representative of the family, was fined for +appearing covered before the High Court of Granada. He appealed to the +king, invoking the privilege conferred on his ancestor. "Not so," +replied Philip; "you may wear your bonnet in the presence of the king, +but not in the sacred presence of Justice." With the fine was built the +staircase in the Audiencia in the Plaza Nueva. + +Behind the Sagrario is the mausoleum of Ferdinand and Isabella--the +Capilla Real--a temple peculiarly sacred in the eyes of all good +Spaniards. The two great sovereigns lie here in the heart of the city +which they recovered for Christendom, even as many great soldiers have +caused their remains to be buried on the sites of their greatest +victories. The chapel, founded in 1504 and completed in 1517, is a noble +example of late Gothic. The exterior is very simple, the decoration +consisting mainly of two highly ornate balustrades, surmounting each of +the two stages. The well-known devices and monograms of the +founders are interwoven with the decoration. Through a portal flanked by +the figures of heralds we enter the chapel--plain, bright, and airy. The +chancel is railed off by a magnificent grille of gilt ironwork, wrought +by Maestre Bartolomé of Jaen, in 1522. Between this and the altar are +the superb tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of their daughter Joanna +and her husband, Philip I. The former is ascribed to a Florentine +sculptor, Domenico Fancelli. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--INTERIOR OF A POSADA] + +The recumbent effigies of the Reyes Catolicos are full of expression and +majesty. Both wear their crowns, and Ferdinand is in full armour. At the +angles of the tomb are seated figures, and the sides are sculptured with +medallions and escutcheons and the figures of angels and saints. The +figures of the unhappy Joanna and her Flemish consort are less lifelike, +and the decoration is much more florid. It must be admitted that the +Renaissance character of these sepulchral monuments contrasts rather +oddly with the Gothic surroundings. The kneeling statues of the founders +at the sides of the altar are believed to be actual likenesses. The +reliefs on the retablo, by Vigarni, represent the surrender of Granada +and the subsequent baptism of the Moors. In the former, both the +sovereigns are shown, in the company of Cardinal Mendoza, receiving the +keys from Boabdil; in the latter, we note that the candidates for +baptism are so many that the rite is being administered by means of a +syringe. + +Beneath the tombs is the vault containing all that was mortal of the +makers of Modern Spain. The sacristan thrusts a lighted taper forward +into the gloomy abode of death, and you are able to distinguish five +coffins--those of Ferdinand and Isabella, Philip, Joanna, and the +Infante Miguel. Philip's coffin, it will be remembered, was carried +about by his lovesick widow till she had to be parted from it by force. +The coffins are rude, bulging, and almost shapeless. One only, that of +Ferdinand, can be identified, and this only by the simple letter F upon +it. Might not this stand as well for Felipe? + +The sacristan next shows you the treasury of the chapel. Among the +relics are the crown, sceptre, and mirror of Isabella, her missal +beautifully illuminated, and the standard embroidered by her that +floated over the city. A casket is shown which was filled with jewels +which she pawned to procure funds for Columbus's first voyage of +discovery. Few investments have proved more profitable, as far as +material wealth is concerned. You may also see Ferdinand's sword, rather +interesting to those curious in ancient weapons. + +The Royal Chapel is quite independent of the immediately adjacent +Cathedral. The chaplains have a right of way across the Cathedral +transept to the Puerta del Perdon, a privilege deeply resented by the +chapter. Once when the Archbishop wished to visit the chapel, his +attendant canons were refused admission. The irate prelate caused the +chaplains to be arrested for this affront, and a long lawsuit +followed. But all this happened a long time ago, and it is to be hoped +that the two bodies of clergy now live upon good terms with each other. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--OLD HOUSES, CUESTA DEL PESCADO] + +A very beautiful arch, richly and tastefully adorned with statues, +admits to the Cathedral. This church, described by Fergusson as one of +the finest in Europe, was begun by Diego de Siloe, about 1525, and not +completed till 1703. The exterior is far from corresponding to the +majesty of the interior, though the Puerto del Perdon, already referred +to, on the north side, is a beautiful piece of work. The impression +produced on entering the Cathedral is rather similar to that experienced +on entering St. Peter's. There is an atmosphere of loftiness, luxury, +and cold purity--like that clinging to the finest classical works. This +is certainly the triumph of Spanish Renaissance architecture. The effect +is, of course, utterly different from that of the grand old Gothic fane +of Seville. Like all Renaissance churches, as it seems to me, it lacks +the devotional atmosphere. The nave, as usual, is obstructed by the +choir--where, by the way, Alonso Cano was buried. The dome above the +chancel is sublime, the daring of the arches wonderful. The altar is +completely insulated by the ambulatory. + +Before it are the grand sculptured heads of Adam and Eve by Cano. His +also are seven of the frescoes decorating the upper part of the dome. +The others are by his pupils. The Cathedral contains much of this +irascible and wayward artist's best work. In the chapel of San Miguel is +a "Virgen de la Soledad," in whose human beauty and pathos his genius +finds its highest expression. In the chapel of Jesus Nazareno, Cano's +"Via Crucis" does not suffer by comparison with three works of Ribera +and a "St. Francis" by El Greco. The artist's studio may be seen in one +of the towers flanking the west front of the Cathedral. He was a native +of Granada, and a lay canon of the chapter. He died in poverty at his +house in the Albaicin quarter, aged 66 years, on October 5, 1667. He was +a man of hasty but not ungenerous temper, and in some of his phases of +character recalls Fuseli. Justice has hardly been done to his great +talent, of which he himself seems to have entertained an exaggerated +estimate. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--OLD AYUNTAMIENTO] + +The minor churches of Granada are not of very great interest. The church +of San Geronimo was built by the Great Captain as a mausoleum for +himself and his wife, but such of his remains as escaped the ghoulish +spoliation of the French have been transported to Madrid. The church is +no longer used as a place of worship. The retablo is remarkable, and in +it may be traced the dawning of Siloe's ambition to create a true +Spanish Renaissance style. The church of San Juan de Dios, not far off, +is filled with tawdry rubbish, petticoated crucifixes, etc. Here is +buried the titular saint, a Portuguese, Joao de Robles, who in the +seventeenth century devoted himself with so much energy to the sick +and suffering that his contemporaries esteemed him mad. You may see the +cage in which he was confined at the hospital founded by Isabella the +Catholic on the arid, ugly Plaza de Triunfo, near the Bull Ring. A +column in the middle of the square marks the spot where Doña Mariana +Pineda was publicly garrotted in 1831. This lady is the great heroine of +Granada. She perished a victim to the reactionary tendencies then +prevalent in Spain. Spaniards were then crying "Hurrah for our chains!" +and Doña Mariana's house was known to be a rendezvous of the Liberals of +Granada. On raiding her house the police discovered a tricolour flag. +This was evidence enough, and in the thirty-first year of her age this +beautiful and accomplished woman suffered a shameful death. A few years +later, when the nation had recovered its sanity, the magistrate who had +condemned her was shot, and her remains were transported with great pomp +to the Cathedral, where they have been interred close to Alonso Cano's. +A monument has also been raised to her memory in the Campillo Square. + +There is another story connected with the Triunfo worth telling, though +it is not very well authenticated. The remains of royal personages on +their way to the Capilla Real were here identified by the officers of +the court. The Duke of Gandia was present on such an occasion, and was +so impressed by the evidences of mortality when the coffin was opened +that he vowed he would never again serve an earthly master. He entered +the Society of Jesus, and after his death was canonized under the name +of St. Francis Borgia. The story is a curious and suggestive one, as +also is that of the duke praying that his wife might die if it were for +his soul's good. St. Francis Borgia has always seemed to me an extreme +example of other-worldliness. + +A dusty road through most uninviting surroundings leads to the Cartuja, +or Charterhouse, founded in 1516 by the Great Captain. The cloisters are +painted with scenes of the martyrdom of the Carthusian monks in London +by the minions of Henry VIII. + +The church is an extraordinary edifice. Its style is damnable, but it is +gorgeous and dazzling to a degree which compels admiration. The doors of +the choir are exquisitely inlaid with ebony, cedar, mother-of-pearl, and +tortoiseshell. The statue of Bruno is by Cano. In the sanctuary behind +the altar coloured marbles, twisted and fluted, are combined in +extravagant magnificence. Some of the slabs are richly veined with +agate, and the hand of nature has traced some semblances of human and +animal forms. In the adjoining sacristy are some wonderful inlaid doors +and presses. They must surely be the finest works of their kind in the +world. It is strange that so much genius for detail and so much costly +material should have been combined to produce so tasteless a building. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--STREET IN THE OLD QUARTER] + +Outside this church there are not many places in the vicinity of Granada +worth a visit. The church of Sacramonte looms rather prominently in the +landscape, and you are to some extent rewarded for the trouble of a +pilgrimage thither by the fine view of the city. The hill contains some +caves in which, in the year 1594, one Hernandez professed to have +discovered certain books written in Arabic characters on sheets of lead. +The find was reported to the archbishop, Don Pedro Vaca de Castro, who +examined the books and declared them to contain the acts of the martyrs, +Mesito and Hiscius, Tesiphus and Cecilius, put to death by the Romans +and buried in the caves. His grace's pronouncement was not considered +final, and theological opinion was sharply divided on the subject for +many years. At last the continuance of the controversy was forbidden by +Papal decree. It seems that doubt is now thrown even on the existence of +the martyrs. The church built over the place of their supposed sepulchre +was for a time famous as a shrine of pilgrims. The usual rock worn away +by the kisses of the devout is shown. There is a superstition that a +person kissing the stone for the first time will be married within the +year, if single, and released from the conjugal tie if already married. +As divorce does not exist in Spain it is to be hoped that few +discontented Benedicts have recourse to this stone. + +St. Cecilius, at all events, was known to fame before the alleged +discovery of his grave; for in the Antequeruela quarter an oratory +dedicated to him existed throughout the Moorish domination, and was the +only Christian place of worship within the city. I do not think that +any trace of it is to be detected now. In that part of the city is the +Casa de los Tiros, where you must apply for tickets for the Generalife; +it is worth seeing on its own account, and it is the repository of the +sword of Boabdil, which seems to have more claims to authenticity than +most of the relics of the Little King. Descending towards the Puerta +Real we pass the Cuarto de Santo Domingo, a private villa in which is +incorporated all that remains of an Almohade palace. Near by, against +the church of Santo Domingo, is an exceedingly picturesque little +archway where one can fancy a bravo waiting, stiletto in hand. The +Campillo, in the centre of which rises the statue of Mariana Pineda, is +a quiet little square enough, referred to (as the Rondilla) by Cervantes +as a resort of adventurers and desperadoes. These gentry are now more +likely to be found in the immediately adjacent Alameda, outside the +hotel of the same name, where the cafés and tables spread in front of +them seem exceedingly well patronized. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--THE GENERALIFE: PATIO DE LA ACEQUIA] + +Following the Genil, and leaving the unimpressive monument of Columbus +and Isabella to the left, you reach, after a walk overpoweringly +fatiguing in summer, the little Ermita de San Sebastian. This was a +Moorish oratory in old days, and outside it took place the surrender of +the keys by Boabdil on the memorable 2nd of January, 1492. If you go +farther on--and I doubt if you will be tempted to--you will come to a +very old Moorish palace called the Alcazar Genil, now the property +of the Duke of Gor. Here, says Simonet, were lodged the Christian +princes and knights who so often found an asylum at the court of +Granada. In the gardens are tanks once used, it is believed, for mimic +naval fights. In the same direction, I understand, is Zubia. Here +Isabella the Catholic, reconnoitring the city during the siege, narrowly +escaped capture by a Moorish patrol. She concealed herself behind a +laurel bush, which is still pointed out. Another instance of the small +chances that determine the fate of kingdoms! To commemorate her escape +the queen built near by a convent, which has long since disappeared. + +You may return to the city by the Puerta Verde, near the Bab-en-Neshti +or Puerta de los Molinos, through which the Spaniards entered after +Boabdil's submission. + +Apart from the Alhambra and the Cathedral buildings, it will have been +seen that Granada has not many claims on the stranger's interest. +Considering the expectations formed of it after reading Prescott and +Irving, most English people will pronounce it to be a disappointment. +From certain points of view it remains the pleasantest place for a +protracted stay in Andalusia during the summer. It is only when you come +to it from Seville or Cordova or Cadiz, that you realize how cool, in +comparison, is this city on the plateau between the snow-clad mountains. +Even before the sun has gone down, you can dine very pleasantly in the +open, hearkening to the splash of the fountains, and inhaling the +fragrance of the rose. There is no need here, as at Seville, to shut +yourself, till nightfall, within walls three feet thick. By night we +stroll across the Plaza of the Alhambra, and see the white city gleaming +with a shimmer reflected in the luminous sky above. Granada resumes her +aspect of an Oriental city beneath the crescent moon riding triumphant +over Andalusia. + +[Illustration: GRANADA--A CORNER IN THE OLD QUARTER] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MALAGA + + +Second in size among Andalusian cities, Malaga is the least interesting. +Were it not for the sea, its position would be one of singular +remoteness. On the extreme verge of Europe, the mighty Sierra Nevada +rises behind it, and cuts it off from the rest of Spain. Yet as a +flourishing port it is one of the towns in the Peninsula best known +among Englishmen. It is beloved by our sailors. From the odd phases of +life to be seen in and around the harbour, they derive their notions of +the people and the country. With that utter absence of curiosity +noticeable in their kind, they never penetrate inland, or even into the +outskirts of the town. But nothing can dispel Jack's conviction that his +knowledge of Spain and the Spaniards is intimate and profound. + +Malaga is not, as its appearance suggests, a city of purely modern +growth. It was known to the Phœnicians and the Romans, and before it +became subject to the Almoravides was an independent principality under +the Hammudiya dynasty. Later it shared the fortunes of the Sultanate of +Granada, and its siege and capture by Ferdinand and Isabella contributed +to bring about the fall of the capital. This part of its history is +dealt with in great detail by Prescott. Among the numerous incidents of +the siege was a determined attempt on the part of a Moor named Ibrahim +al Gherbi to assassinate the Spanish sovereign. The defence was +conducted by the indomitable Hemet el Zegri, who yielded to famine +rather than to the arms of the besiegers. The treatment of the fallen +city leaves an indelible blot on the fame of the conquerors. The +population, with the exception of a few hundreds, were sold into +slavery, presents of the fairest maidens being made to the various +courts of Europe. A worse fate was reserved for the Jews and renegades, +who were committed to the flames. + +The old Moorish fortress of Gibralfaro still frowns down on the lively +city to remind us of those days. Some of the walls and towers are +believed to be of Phœnician origin. The stronghold has undergone +repeated restorations and adaptations to military requirements, but a +great deal of Moorish work may still be detected. A horseshoe arch +behind the Paseo de la Alameda serves to identify the Moslems' dockyard +or Atarazanas, and to indicate how far the sea has receded in the wake +of the banished race southwards towards Africa. + +[Illustration: MALAGA--THE HARBOUR] + +The Cathedral towers high above all the other buildings of the +city. It is in the Classical style, and though designed by Diego de +Siloe in 1528, was built for the most part in the early eighteenth +century. It must be confessed that it looks better at a distance than +near. The interior is solemn and cold. It is worth visiting for some +specimens of Cano's art which it contains, and for Mena's magnificent +carving in the choir. As at Granada, the edifice is adjoined by a +smaller church called the Sagrario, founded by the Catholic Sovereigns +in 1488 as the cathedral of the conquered city. + +But it is not for its monuments or historical associations that Malaga +is to be visited. Its interest is of to-day. And in truth it needed not +the hand of man to embellish a spot where Nature has been so lavish of +her choicest gifts. The gardens round Malaga abound in the finest +specimens of tropical flora. Tall india-rubber plants, gigantic +eucalyptus, great bamboos, the rarest exotics, such as the _Pritchardia +folifera_, the araucaria, and the _Scaforthia elegans_, flourish on this +favoured shore. The villas of the wealthier classes stand each in a +veritable Paradise. And everywhere the white flower of the orange, the +oleander, the vine, and tree-high ferns! + +This luxuriant vegetation is the less to be expected since want of water +is the great drawback to the prosperity of the district. Through the +middle of the town runs the Guadalmedina--a broad channel, without a +drain of water! The new and magnificent promenade, planted with palms, +sweeps round the sea-front, as fine as anything on the Riviera. To drive +along it in the sensuous southern night is to drink a deep draught of +the joy of life. At one point the drive descends into the bed of the +river, along which you may proceed for a mile or more. And yet at times +the Guadalmedina becomes a roaring torrent, bursting its banks and +sweeping away farmsteads and stock. It is difficult to say whether flood +or drought has done most damage to the province. + +As at Seville, you find life here focussing in lane-like streets, closed +to vehicles, and lined with cafés and casinos, among the finest I have +seen in Spain. Here to an early hour of the morning the men of the city +gossip in garrulous, intimate groups of nine and ten, all, as it seemed +to me, talking together. The number of cigarettes smoked during the +progress of these tremendous conversations must be stupendous. As you +will see the same group meeting night after night, you wonder what there +can be in the outwardly uneventful round of life of Malaga to supply +topics for conversation. To an Englishman there is a mystery about this +ability to talk for five or six hours about nothing at all. You will see +the same thing in the dullest provincial towns in France and Italy--the +same groups of stout, bald-headed citizens talking with frantic +animation every evening. Their newspapers afford the slenderest mental +pabulum--their contents could be dismissed in ten minutes--and the +respectable gentlemen in question are never seen to read books. How +then do they recruit their stock of ideas and find an inexhaustible +stock of topics for conversation? + +[Illustration: MALAGA--THE GUADALMEDINA] + +Women are, of course, conspicuous by their absence. Here we have another +illustration of the utterly false ideas Englishmen usually entertain +concerning Latins. To judge from novels written fifty or even thirty +years ago, John Bull appears to have regarded the foreigner with pitying +contempt as a mere philanderer, always running after a petticoat; yet no +one can be in Spain a fortnight without noticing the Spaniard's +disinclination for female society, or at any rate how perfectly content +he is without it. + +I do not fancy the ladies of Malaga care very much for society either, +in our acceptation of the word. Looking out of the window appears to be +their favourite recreation. They do not inherit the habit from the +Moors, for that people, as I have said, were nearly all expelled at the +Reconquest, and the town was resettled. All the Andalusian towns were +wholly or in part emptied of their Mohammedan population when taken by +the Christians, and repeopled with Castilians and others from Northern +Spain. This fact is forgotten by those who recognize in every trait of +the Andalusian a heritage from the Moor. We might as well think we +derive our chief national characteristics from the Britons or the +Normans. + +East of Malaga lie several coast towns of importance, within whose gates +the traveller rarely sets foot. Motril, Adra, Almeria--what is there in +them to reward the fatigue of a journey in a diligence along the parched +shore, or in some crazy coasting craft, with timbers straining and +creaking before the lightest breeze? Almeria is now connected directly +by rail with Madrid and Granada. The prosperity of the whole district is +bound to be greatly increased by the construction of the line so long +promised from Guadix to Baza. This short link in the railway system +would save the traveller from Malaga to Valencia nearly 180 miles, or +its alternative--a long and exhausting diligence journey. It would also +bring the southern parts of Andalusia into direct communication with the +great commercial centres of eastern Spain and with Marseilles. It would +supply us with a new route to Gibraltar, moreover. This, with a line +from Jaca across the Pyrenees into France, and another from Huelva to +connect with the Portuguese system Villa Real de São Antonio, are links +of which Spain stands vitally in need. + +[Illustration: MALAGA--A MARKET] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WAY SOUTH + + +At Bobadilla--the Clapham Junction of Andalusia--the Spanish railway +system is joined by the line of that purely British undertaking, the +Algeciras Railway Company. A Spaniard told me that this line would never +have been built by one of his countrymen, as no one in Spain had any +desire to facilitate Gibraltar's communication with England, and the +country it traversed had been sufficiently opened up. I do not think it +would be difficult to demonstrate that the line may prove of very +substantial benefit to Spain, but I will confine myself to thanking the +promoters for having rendered accessible certainly the most beautiful +part of Andalusia, and in my opinion one of the most wildly picturesque +regions of Europe. The country between Ronda and Algeciras is the +Andalusia dreamt of by the romancers. It is a savage, silent country, of +warmer browns and greens than the rest of Spain. Here the train takes +you no longer across the scorched sky-rimmed plains, but along the very +edge of dizzy ravines, at the foot of which, hundreds of feet below, +angry white torrents foam and froth. Now you are climbing with obvious +effort the steep shoulder of a mountain, now you are racing headlong +down into a valley which seems to lie almost vertically beneath you. Now +you plunge into the bowels of the Sierra and emerge with a shriek of +triumph in a cauldron-shaped valley, from which Nature has provided no +egress. There is no want of verdure; the cork-woods, vineyards, and +olives dot the lower slopes of the tawny hills. And far up against the +sky-line loom shattered towers and crumbling castles, whence you seem to +see trains of steel-clad knights issuing forth to do battle with the +Moor. + +The country is reminiscent essentially of the days of chivalry. Perhaps +the ruined strongholds and the dark gorges are still haunted by the +knights, who have driven away all other ghosts and will not let us think +of anyone but them. The Romans were once here, and at Munda, as every +schoolboy knows, Cæsar defeated with great slaughter the army led by the +sons of Pompey. That town has now been identified with Ronda, the +romantic capital of this most romantic region. Here the people have not +forgotten Rome. They will show you a cave where in the semi-darkness you +descry awful forms in stone, seeming like a ghostly and gigantic choir +of monks. These are the Roman priests turned to stone upon the downfall +of their gods, those of the people who cherish tradition will tell you. + +[Illustration: MALAGA--PACKING LEMONS] + +The town itself you will not find very interesting, though the +escutcheons displayed over every second or third house in one quarter +will evoke some reflections on departed glory and the fall of the +mighty. In some such _solar_ our novelists Seton Merriman and Mr. Mason +have laid the scenes of leading episodes in their two charming romances. +Ronda has had a stirring past. She shared in all the vicissitudes of +Granada, and towards the end of the long agony of the Reconquest was the +scene of constant and ferocious border warfare. + +It was here that Mohammed V. received the head of his rival Abu Saïd, +who had been put to death at Seville by Pedro the Cruel. The town was +taken by the army of Ferdinand and Isabella on May 22, 1485. The people +of the surrounding mountains were deeply attached to the creed of Islam, +and rose in revolt in 1501 against their Christian oppressors. Before +they were crushed they inflicted a severe blow on their adversaries, +completely wiping out a force under Don Alonso de Aguilar. Westward, on +the other side of the high mountains, lies Zahara, the capture of which +one December night by Mulai Hasan was the signal for the last crusade +against the Spanish Moors of Granada. + +But it is to its striking situation that Ronda owes its interest. Fitted +rather to be the eyrie of eagles than the abode of men, it looks down +from the verge of precipitous cliffs nearly three thousand feet above +sea level. Midway, town and rocky hill are cleft asunder by the Tajo, +an awful gorge, two hundred feet across, and twice as much in depth. +Gazing down into the abyss, you realize with something of a shudder that +a pebble dropped over the edge of the precipice would fall sheer and +plumb, without rebound or ricochet, into the river Guadalevin, which +rushes below, filling the chasm with foam and spray. The ravine is +spanned by a bridge built in the eighteenth century, a wonderful +construction, from which when it was near completion its architect fell +headlong. Access to the river may be obtained by a flight of 365 steps +called the Mina, hewn through the rock. This singular work was executed +by the Moors, who thus ensured themselves a supply of water against the +dangers of a siege. Numerous subterranean chambers are also ascribed to +them, or rather to their Christian captives. + +But the most delightful spot in Ronda is the little Alameda laid out on +the edge of a perpendicular cliff. Leaning on the railing you may drink +in the beauty and grandeur of a prospect hardly surpassed in Europe. The +fair fertile country below is shut in by an amphitheatre of mountains +which soar upwards to heights of five and six thousand feet. The eye +seeks in vain for an outlet from the valley, till it discerns the white, +dusty high-road winding, doubling, and finally disappearing over a dip +between the ranges. The river, a thousand feet below, swirls and gurgles +among the rocks, glad to have escaped from the dark gorge to which it +has so long been confined. + +[Illustration: RONDA--THE TAJO] + +In the evenings the air is keen at Ronda, and in summer you may often +hear English spoken by officers of the garrison of Gibraltar and their +families, who come here to escape the torrid heat of the Rock. With a +little capital and energy the place might be developed into a +flourishing health resort. + +But now the way lies south and seaward. Ever downwards slowly travels +the train. The night gathers over the castled crags and the mysterious +forests. We detect by their gleam the rivers over which we pass. But now +a bright starlike light is seen to the southward. It flashes and is +gone, to reappear the next instant. We are nearing the strait, and the +searchlight tells us that Britannia watches here with unsleeping eyes +over the fortunes of her children in two seas and two continents. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE KINGDOM OF MURCIA + + + +[Illustration: RONDA--ROMAN BRIDGES] + +The province of Murcia resembles the home of the Arab race more closely +than does any other part of Europe. It is a wild, fierce region, hot and +tawny like a lion's hide, furrowed by deep winding ravines, intersected +by serrated mountains, on whose flanks, for the heat of the sun, no +green thing can grow. Much of the land is occupied by plateaux, bare and +rocky like great altars on which all that lives is offered to and +consumed by the sun. From these uplands you survey vast expanses of +sheer desert--fulvid, rocky, and scorching. Your gaze may travel far +before you descry any fitting resting-place for man. The mountains +afford no shade, even in the deepest cañons the streams are often +traceable only by a narrow path of sand and pebbles, yet here and there +has man successfully wrested from harsh Nature a secure foothold, an +oasis kept ever green by some more constant rivulet. The waters of the +Segura and the Sangonera are the life-blood of the province. Wayward and +Arethusa-like, the rivers have with infinite pains been coaxed into +conformity with the needs of man. To the science of irrigation the +province owes its existence. Water here is above all things prized and +sold like treasure to the highest bidder. Mr. Jean Brunhés in a lately +published work gives some most curious and interesting particulars +relating to the system of irrigation in force in Murcia and the +adjoining province of Alicante. The volume of the Monegre is divided +into old water and new water, the former belonging of right to the +ancient riparian proprietors, the latter to the owners of the locks and +reservoirs. A very vicious system prevails at Lorca. There a private +company is the owner of all the water of the Guadalentin, subject to the +condition of supplying the old proprietors of the adjoining lands with +500 litres per second every day. In consequence, in times of drought the +company is mistress of the situation and can force up prices to a figure +absolutely ruinous to the cultivators. Only in this way can it make good +the losses incurred in rainy seasons. The precious fluid being sold, +too, by public auction, the rich farmer is in a position to deprive his +poorer rivals of their means of subsistence. To palliate this evil to +some extent, the rule now obtains that the bidder who has bought the +first lot can buy as many of the lots following as he may desire at the +same figure. The price therefore is not forced up too rapidly. Moreover, +if the company's barrage at a certain point is swept away or broken +through by the current, the water which thus escapes becomes public +property. This accident occurs five or six times a year, and the +company is not allowed to make the barrage any stronger when it is +rebuilt. Notwithstanding these concessions, it seems that the principle +of private enterprise has been pushed too far in this part of the world. + +Mr. Brunhés described the sale of water at Lorca in the following words: + +"The sale takes place in a badly-lit hall with naked walls, on a level +with the street, with which it communicates by an immense door almost +its own breadth. This door remains open during the sale and the crowd of +bidders stand partly in the street. The hall has no floor--you stand on +the bare ground. Opposite the door at the end of the hall is a +railed-off dais entered by a side door, and without any direct +communication with the public side. On the dais the secretaries are +seated at a large table covered by a threadbare green cloth. Behind the +table are five arm-chairs. In one is seated the presiding officer (a +civil engineer who must own no land in the 'Vega'). On a stool is +stationed the crier. + +"At eight o'clock in the morning, at a sign from the presiding officer, +the crier pronounces these words in a singing monotonous voice and +without any pause between the two phrases: 'In honour of the Holy +Sacrament of the altar, who buys the first lot of Sotellana?' +Immediately shouts go up 'Eight, nine, ten reals!' One voice overpowers +the other, wide-open mouths vociferate loudly, necks are strained, +muscles grow tense with excitement. The bidders press and crush +each other against the iron railing, for the one nearest has the best +chance of being heard. The presiding officer listens, and follows the +frantic shouting with sovereign calm. Suddenly, with a quick gesture, he +designates the highest bidder. At once the clamour ceases. Amid absolute +silence the man indicated calls out his name, which the clerks write +down. + +"The men are hatless. Some wear black or dark-coloured handkerchiefs +bound round their heads, but all hold their broad-brimmed hats in their +hands. No one smokes or talks till the bidding recommences, and even +those in the street are silent and bare-headed. It is easy to see that +all are peasants. Heads are closely cropped; here are no beards or +moustaches, no one wears a collar, and most carry a cloak other than the +aristocratic 'Capa' on the shoulders or arm. It is a curious and +impressive sight enough, these bronzed physiognomies animated by one +desire to obtain possession as cheaply as may be of the supreme good, +water." + +[Illustration: RONDA--AT THE FOUNTAIN] + +Before the industry of man had harnessed the wayward streams this hot +land must have been little better than an arid wilderness, yet it has +been inhabited from the remotest times, and its possession was keenly +contested between the great powers of antiquity. The natives were known +to the ancients as the Mastiani, and are credited with the virtues which +were so long supposed to have been characteristic of primitive man. This +simple, blameless race fell an easy victim to the wily Phœnicians, +who scented the precious metals within these barren hills. Elche, +Guadix, and Jijona betray in their etymology a Semitic origin. Next came +the Greek Vikings from Samos and Rhodes and Phokaia, establishing +themselves at many points along the eastern shore of the Iberian land. +The rivalry between the Phœnician and Hellenic colonies precipitated +a contest between their respective allies, the Carthaginians and the +Romans. Hasdrubal founded the port of New Carthage, the name of which is +still preserved in Cartagena, whence, with a host of 90,000 foot and +12,000 horse, Hannibal started on his famous march to Rome. The fall of +the city, which was bravely defended by Mago against Scipio, entailed +the destruction of the Punic power in Spain. + +Under the Roman yoke Carthago Nova became the capital of the vast +province of Tarraconensis, and the adjoining district in consequence +felt the full force of all the attacks made by rebels and barbarians on +the tottering empire. Under the Visigoths it was erected into a duchy by +the name of Aurariola. The Duke Theodomir, unlike most of his peers, +offered a strenuous resistance to the Moslem arms, and when defeated in +battle and besieged in Orihuela, succeeded by a stratagem in preserving +his territory. By disguising all the women as warriors and parading them +on the walls, he so deceived the Moors as to the strength of the +garrison as to obtain from them a recognition of the independence of the +duchy, subject to the suzerainty of the khalifa. + +The province became known after its chief by the name of Todmir. It +endured as an autonomous state for some sixty-eight years, its final +absorption in the Moslem empire being brought about by the last dukes +espousing the cause of Charlemagne or his Moorish allies. Arabic +colonists poured in and soon out-numbered the Christian inhabitants. The +last province of Spain to bow before the Crescent became rapidly the +most Moorish of any. + +Cartagena and Orihuela, the old Visigothic centres, declined, and +Murcia, practically a Mohammedan foundation, took their place. The city +rivalled Toledo and Cordova as a manufactory of arms and munitions of +war. It underwent the usual vicissitudes of Moorish states, forming now +part of one kingdom, now of another, at times independent, more often +subject to Valencia, Granada, or Cordova. Finally, in 1243, Abu Bekr, +the titular amir of Murcia, acknowledged the suzerainty of Castile, only +to repudiate it in 1252. The war lasted some time, but the desertion of +Al Ahmar of Granada left Abu Bekr at the mercy of the Christians. Murcia +was taken in 1266 by Don Jaime of Aragon, who immediately handed over +his conquest to his son-in-law, Alfonso of Castile. The step, though +probably not dictated by motives of policy, was a wise one, for it left +a sort of buffer state between Aragon and Granada, and preserved the +frontiers of the former kingdom from molestation by the Moors for the +next two centuries. + +The town of Murcia has completely rid itself of all outward evidences of +its erstwhile subjection to Islam. Gone is the Alcazar, where the amirs +mimicked the state of Cordova and Toledo, gone is the wall which kept +the Christian out, gone is the mosque wherein thousands of turbaned +heads were bowed daily towards Mecca. Yet in the narrow dark streets +like the Sierpes of Seville, across which awnings are stretched, we +might recognize something of the East, were not such thoroughfares +equally characteristic of the Christian South. The Calles de la Traperia +and de la Plateria, however, irresistibly recall Smyrna. They lead into +one of those dazzling white, dusty squares which every Southern and +Eastern city boasts, and which is always named in Spain after the +Constitution, in Italy after Victor Emmanuel, and in France after the +Republic. Murcia is hotter than Seville, and the passage of this plaza +between eleven in the forenoon and five in the afternoon requires the +courage of a Mutius Scævola. In the evening you may join the citizens in +their promenade upon the Malecon, which affords a charming view of the +rich "huerta" or vale of the Segura. This is described by Mr. Brunhés as +"an admirable zone of model agricultural establishments. The soil is +levelled and prepared for irrigation with geometrical precision. To each +particular crop corresponds a design with little shelving beds of +special forms." Not an inch of ground is wasted; on the summit of the +slopes, for instance, sweet potatoes are planted at regular +intervals. The cereals and vegetables are tended with special care, +almost individually. The melons are protected by coverings. No one can +visit the environs of Murcia without being impressed by the +extraordinary industry and thriftiness of its people. And field labour +in this climate must be arduous in the extreme. But no doubt the +mythical "dolce far niente" Spaniard will continue for many years to +haunt the back streets of literature in company with the big-toothed +English girl, her red-whiskered parent, and other creations of ignorance +and prejudice. + +[Illustration: RONDA--A MOORISH GATEWAY] + +Murcia cannot be called an interesting town. It has only one +"sight"--and that not of first-class interest--the Cathedral. This +occupies, as usual, the site of the mosque, and dates in its oldest part +from 1368. The west front was restored in the seventeenth century, +fortunately before the decay of Spanish art had become too conspicuous. +The interior produces a good effect, though robbed of much of its +interest by a fire some sixty years ago. The choir stalls are good, as +they generally are in this country of clever wood-carvers, and came from +a suppressed monastery in the neighbourhood. The reredos is modern and +poor. With a glance at the urn containing the internal organs of Alfonso +the Learned, we pass on to the beautiful and interesting Junteron +Chapel. This was founded in 1515 by the Archdeacon of Lorca, Don Gil +Junteron, and is in the most exuberant Renaissance style. It is +astonishing that where the figures and designs are so numerous, so +intermingled, and so complicated, each should be sculptured with such +exquisite skill and correctness. The Velez Chapel is a little earlier, +and was evidently modelled on the Constable's Chapel at Burgos. The +style, as might be expected, reminds one also of the Chapel Royal at +Granada. Parts of it, says Don Rodrigo Amador de los Rios, evidence the +painful caprices and aberrations which announce the death agony of a +powerful art in its decline. It would be dangerous to express such an +opinion in Murcia, where the chapel is accounted the eighth and greatest +wonder of the world. In somewhat more restrained terms the sacristan +will call your attention to the panelling and lockers in the Sacristy, +which occupies the centre of the graceful steeple, and certainly +deserves the epithet of sumptuous, so liberally bestowed in Spain. + +Much older than Murcia, Cartagena has preserved even fewer monuments of +antiquity, though it has not lost the military character first impressed +upon it by its founder Hasdrubal. For this is the first arsenal of +Spain, and perhaps its strongest fortress. Its splendid sheltered +harbour is defended by powerful forts and formidable batteries. Their +fire has not always been directed upon the enemies of Spain. For many +months in the year 1873 over them waved the red flag of the +"Intransigentes," the extreme communistic republicans, who, +simultaneously with the Carlists of the north, threatened ruin to +Castelar's government at Madrid. The acquisition of the great national +arsenal without firing a shot was, of course, of the utmost +advantage to these determined revolutionaries. They disposed of 583 +pieces of ordnance, including twenty-eight Krupp guns, with 180,000 +shells and 4,332 quintals of powder. In addition they were supported by +the ironclad frigates Numancia, Vittoria, Tetuan, and Mendez Nuñez. The +garrison, in addition to the enthusiastic population, included several +revolted battalions of regular troops under the command of General +Contreras. The communist Junta was presided over by Don Antonio Gálvez. + +[Illustration: RONDA--A STREET SCENE] + +Against this terrible stronghold of the revolution, General Martinez +Campos advanced with an army from Madrid with orders to reduce the place +with the utmost despatch. This was easier said than done. Supplies were +lacking; the advantage in artillery lay entirely with the besieged. The +Carlists effected diversions in favour of the Intransigentes--an odd +coalition. Meantime, three of the revolutionary vessels were seized by +the Prussian squadron as pirates--an utterly unjustifiable interference +with the domestic affairs of another State. We might as reasonably have +seized the vessels of the Confederate States in 1864. The Prussians and +Italians exacted, moreover, a war indemnity of 50,000 pesetas from the +Cantonal Junta, which body became a prey to internal dissensions. One of +its members was assassinated. Taking advantage of these embarrassments +of the besieged, the republican troops redoubled their efforts. Señor +Castelar came down from Madrid to assume the supreme command, and +Martinez Campos was superseded by General Lopéz Dominguez. An incessant +bombardment was kept up, the besieged responding shell by shell. In +January the frigate Tetuan was burnt to the water's edge, and a day or +two later the explosion of the gun park destroyed hundreds of the +garrison. The end was near. The city had for half a year defied almost +the whole kingdom, and withstood the covert attacks of foreign Powers. +Among the revolutionaries were men who burned to emulate the Numantians, +and to make of themselves, the whole population, and the city, one vast +blazing hecatomb. Before this desperate resolution could be executed, +the Government troops forced their way into wretched, blood-drenched +Cartagena. Gálvez, Contreras, and the leaders of the cantonal movement +escaped by sea in the ironclad Numancia, which far exceeded the +Government vessels in speed, and took refuge in Algeria. Thus collapsed +a movement which was, after the Commune of Paris, the most determined +organized attempt ever made to subvert the existing constitution of +European society. + +I have given at some length this chapter in the history of Cartagena, +partly because the town has little interest in itself, and partly +because these events, though so recent and so significant, are never so +much as alluded to by most writers of travel books. Out of so much evil +good came at last, for these wellnigh fatal disorders opened the eyes of +the Spaniards to the instability of the Madrid Government, and +formed the prelude to the reign of peace inaugurated by the accession to +the throne of King Alfonso XII. + +[Illustration: RONDA--THE MARKET] + +Apart from its historical associations, Murcia repays the attention of +the traveller less than any other province of Spain. Fortunately, almost +the only places of interest it contains--the ones I have mentioned--lie +on or close to the direct route from Granada into the old kingdom of +Valencia. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN THE OLD KINGDOM OF VALENCIA + + +The southernmost position of the ancient kingdom of Valencia belongs +geographically and historically to Murcia. The huerta in which Orihuela +stands is a continuation of the huerta of Murcia, and in the town itself +we recognize the Aurariola which was the capital of the latter kingdom. +I did not stop at Orihuela, but I understand that it remains distinct +from all other towns in Valencia, in that its people speak pure +Castilian. For that variety of the Romance tongue which I may denominate +Catalan is spoken with local modifications all along the eastern coast +of Spain, from the mouth of the Segura to the frontier of Rousillon. It +is not, of course, a mere dialect of Castilian. It is a distinct +language, believed by most authorities to have been the language of +those Romanized Spaniards who were driven north of the Pyrenees by the +Arabic invasion, and who reintroduced it on their reconquest of this +portion of their old territory. Before Valencia was recovered by James +I. of Aragon--Jaime lo Conqueridor--the Christians of the province +probably spoke Castilian or a tongue akin to it. Catalan was simply +the language of the new rulers, which the people soon acquired. In the +province of Aragon itself Catalan, or Limousin as some call it, was +never spoken. This circumstance no doubt powerfully contributed to the +adoption of Castilian, in preference to the sister tongue, upon the +unification of the two kingdoms. But for some reason unknown to +us--unless it was merely the proximity of Murcia--Orihuela resisted the +Catalanizing influence of its conqueror. + +[Illustration: ORIHUELA--ON THE RIVER SEGURA] + +Elche, our first stopping-place, famous in its way, is very often +described and compared to half-a-dozen localities in Asia and Africa. I +also will venture on a comparison, and say that from certain points of +view it reminded me of Ismailia. It is completely surrounded by +magnificent date-palms, the number of which a French author estimates at +80,000. In the shade of the avenues formed by these majestic trees +flourish the laurel, the rose, and the geranium; beyond extend crops of +lucerne and wheat, watered by the carefully regulated Vinalapó. For all +the shade dispersed by the palms, Elche merits its sobriquet, "the +frying-pan"! The temperature completes the resemblance with Africa. From +the summit of the hill on which it is built, the town is seen to be +situated in a real oasis. Beyond the outer ring of cultivation extends a +desert as white and as saline as that which borders the Suez Canal. The +eye rests lovingly on the not far distant sea. + +Elche makes an agreeable impression on most travellers. Gustave Doré +has left us his impressions of it--over-imaginative as usual. Mr. Frank +Barrett, that entertaining novelist, introduces the town into English +fiction. In Spain it is not more celebrated for its palms (which are +exported for religious uses) than for its Passion or Mystery Play, the +only one of the kind in the kingdom. This institution is explained by +the following legend. On the night of December 29, 1370, a mounted +coastguard named Francisco Cantó, while patrolling the shore, +encountered a man seated on a huge coffer. This stranger entreated the +guard to carry his burden to Elche, and to deposit it at the first house +where he saw a light, and having obtained his reluctant consent, +abruptly disappeared. Cantó, in accordance with the mysterious man's +instructions, left the chest at the Hermitage of San Sebastian. On +opening it, it was found to contain an image of the Virgin and the words +and music of the play as now performed. The image was regarded as +miraculous, and resisted all attempts to remove it from the hermitage. +It was not my good fortune to see the play, which takes place every year +in the Iglesia Mayor, transformed for the purpose into a theatre. The +representation lasts two days, the subject being the Assumption of the +Virgin. The words, in the old Valencian dialect, are wedded to old +Gregorian music. I understand that with a naïveté characteristic of +medieval institutions, the Supreme Being Himself is personified on the +stage. + +[Illustration: ELCHE--A STREET] + +A spectacle equally curious but not so picturesque is the daily sale of +water, which takes place here as at Lorca, but with official calm and +with none of the excitement to be remarked at the latter place. + +From this sweltering climate we hasten to the sea-shore, where at rare +intervals a refreshing breeze may be felt. Alicante, the second town in +the kingdom of Valencia, is modern, commercial, and thriving. The +land-locked harbour is bordered by broad white quays, glistering in the +sun's rays, with heaps of tarry cordage, and canvas distilling +characteristically marine odours. Trains of mules pass by dragging +enormous loads of oranges. In the harbour women are busy loading an +English craft which flies the Blue Peter; they swarm up and down the +side like ants, or rather like the colliers so familiar to passengers +through the Suez Canal. The background to this scene of light and +animation is formed by the enormous rock, comparable to Gibraltar, which +is crowned by the ancient castle of Santa Barbara--so called after the +saint on whose festival, in the year 1248, it was taken by the +Castilians. Four years later it was stormed by the Aragonese, King +Alfonso the Battler being the third to enter the fortress. The Castilian +governor, with his sword in one hand and his keys in the other, fell +pierced with wounds at the conqueror's feet. The possession of the town, +as of Orihuela, was afterwards confirmed to Aragon by treaty. + +Alicante is resorted to for sea-bathing during the summer. The water, I +am told, is then lukewarm--hot enough, according to one account, to +shave with! The thought of the place in August makes the Northerner +reach for a cooling drink. But I am assured that the heat is tempered by +refreshing breezes from the sea, and that in the long shadow of the +castle rock delicious evenings may be enjoyed. + +So we journey northward. The country reveals the results of the most +systematic and intensive culture. We are told that the Valencians are +lazy, but if so it must be because the most cleverly devised schemes of +irrigation and cultivation have set them free of labour. + +The province of Alicante--the southernmost of the three into which the +ancient kingdom is divided--contains several important towns. There is +the beautifully-named Villajoyosa, Benidorm--so Provençal in sound--and +Alcoy, a busy, industrial centre, situated in a blooming orchard +country. Here is celebrated every April the festival of St. George, when +a sort of sham fight takes place between peasants arrayed respectively +as Moors and Christians. From Alcoy a short line runs to Gandía on the +coast, the cradle of the famous house of Borgia. + +[Illustration: A FISHER GIRL (COAST OF MALAGA)] + +Every town and village in this thickly peopled region has its historical +memories. Villena recalls the famous family to which it gave the title +of marquis; Jativa, a desperate struggle during the War of the Spanish +Succession, in which much English blood was spilled. This latter town +was the birthplace of Ribera, and, as some say, of Alexander +Borgia. It is situated in a country which might be described as a +veritable Mahomet's paradise. The cottages in the neighbourhood are +almost suffocated by the palm and orange trees. Beneath the golden fruit +we find our way to the castle, or rather castles--the new and the +old--built side by side upon a hill. Part of the fabric dates from the +time of the Moors. Later, the stronghold served as a state prison. +Within its walls languished and died the unhappy Count of Urgel, a +pretender to the throne of Aragon, and here passed a ten years' +captivity (1512-22) the Duke of Calabria, the rightful heir to the +throne of Naples, to leave his prison on his appointment to the +viceroyalty of the fair province he surveyed from its windows! + +The custodian of the castle shows the usual underground chambers, which +may have been, as he alleges, dungeons, but were quite as likely (as +they generally were with us) store-rooms and wine cellars. + +At Alcira we cross the Jucár, after the Ebro the most important Spanish +river running into the Mediterranean Sea. It rises within a few miles of +the source of the Tagus, in the Montes Universales, on the borders of +Aragon and New Castile, and flows south through the plains of La Mancha +till it enters the province of Albacete, when it takes an easterly +course. In the same province of Valencia it has excavated some +magnificent gorges. It is indeed a strong, impetuous stream, bursting +its banks again and again and levying a heavy tribute on the +surrounding country. Each time it makes for itself a new channel, +sweeping away whole villages. The village of Alcocer stood on its banks, +near its confluence with the Albaida. After countless harvests had been +devastated and inestimable damage to some extent repaired, the two +streams swelled with fury and in one day reduced a vast extent of +country to a flat stretch of mud. Then, by another shifting of its bed, +the terrible Jucár laid bare the foundations of the homes it had ruined. +There is no security of tenure within its valley! Where your house +stands to-day, ships may ride to-morrow. Yet here as everywhere else +along the prolific shore, the waters form the great source of wealth, +fertilizing vast rice-fields and heavy-laden orchards. The marshy and +unhealthy lagoon of the Albufera, from which one of Napoleon's marshals +took his title, is being gradually filled up by the débris brought down +from the mountains by the rivers, and will ultimately form a "huerta" of +untold fertility. Meanwhile every effort is made to encourage the +afforesting of the rugged hill-sides, in order to check the violence of +the floods and the denuding of the arid, desiccated soil. As a result of +these wise measures, the kingdom of Valencia will within a short period +become one of the two or three richest agricultural districts in all +Europe. + +[Illustration: A WATER CARRIER] + +The history of the land is that of its capital. Valencia is first +mentioned as having been granted by the consul Junius Brutus to the +warriors of Viriathus upon the death of their chief, and their +consequent surrender. The history of few Roman colonies, as it has +reached us, is of interest. The province had the usual martyrs under the +persecutions of Diocletian and Decius, and was the place of banishment +of the zealot Ermengild. It remained under the Moorish yoke for over +five hundred years, at one time forming part of the khalifate, at other +times constituting one or more petty kingdoms. + +Don Téodoro Llorente speaks of "The slave kings" of Valencia, and thus +describes the rulers of uncertain and various origin who, like the +Janissaries of Turkey, had begun as slaves in the palace of the khalifa +and won power for themselves with their swords. One of these princes +added the Balearic Isles to his realms, and unsuccessfully attempted the +conquest of Sardinia. + +The kingdom thus founded by military adventurers was overthrown by the +most famous of that warlike brood. + +The history of the events which brought about the conquest of Valencia +by the Cid is extremely complex. The king or amir, Kadir, was the puppet +of the rival powers which aspired to the possession of his dominions, +and was alternately upheld on his tottering throne by one and the other. +Weary of this dishonourable tutelage, the people arose under the +leadership of Ibn Jahhaf. Kadir fled disguised as a woman, but was +detected and beheaded. That strange anomaly, a Mohammedan republic, was +formed. In other words, Valencia was governed by an assembly of +notables called the Al Jama, of which Ibn Jahhaf was the president. + +The people which arrogates the right to choose its ruler has ever been +considered a sort of pirate among the nations, and fair game for more +powerful states. Kadir at the moment of his deposition had been +nominally under the protection of the Cid. That redoubtable warrior, +under the pretext of avenging his protégé's death, advanced on Valencia. +The Almoravides came to his assistance, but precipitately retired. +Distrusting these allies almost as much as the Christians, Ibn Jahhaf +amused the Cid with negotiations, but meanwhile made preparations for +defence. He became the special object of the famous warrior's hatred, +and when the city fell, was burnt to death at the stake before the eyes +of his horrified countrymen. The Cid now ruled Valencia as absolute lord +and despot till his death, five years later, in 1097. The legend need +not be related here, how his wife defended the city for two years after +his death, and finally, setting his corpse fully armed upon his +warhorse, won a victory over the terrified Moors and thus took him to +his last resting-place at Cardeña. + +Valencia was not finally wrested from the yoke of Islam till the +memorable 28th of September, 1238, when the standard of the victorious +Jaime I. of Aragon was hoisted over the tower of Ali Bufat. In the +history of Aragon the conquest ranks with the taking of Seville in the +history of Castile. Granada was the joint conquest of both kingdoms. It +is curious to compare the ready submission of the Moors, and their +surrender of whole kingdoms to the Christians, sometimes as the result +of a single battle, with the tenacious resistance offered by their +descendants in Algeria in modern times. Enervated by the climate of +Spain, the Mussulmans of that country were absolutely incapable of +maintaining a prolonged guerrilla warfare. If a fortified capital was +taken they at once handed over the whole kingdom to the conqueror. They +were not, of course, peculiar in this respect. The sentiment of +nationality and physical courage are characteristic far more of the +modern than of the ancient world. We have only to compare the resistance +of the Anglo-Saxons to the Normans with that of the Boers to the +British, of the French in the Hundred Years' War with that of their +descendants in 1871, to realize how much more of manliness and endurance +we possess than did our ancestors. We must go back to the days of +Leonidas and Regulus to find parallels for the exploits of our own +Indian army; to Numantia and Saguntum for parallels to Saragossa and +Gerona. National and individual self-respect withered under feudalism, +and revived only on the introduction of free institutions. + +Valencia to-day, as befits the capital of a rich, prosperous province, +is a handsome, modern progressive city. There is little or nothing about +to remind one of its erstwhile masters, the Moors, and it has not +retained more monuments of its past than most other cities. Interesting +it is not from the sightseer's point of view, nor convenient from a +stranger's, since indications of the names of the streets are few and +far between. New avenues are being formed, and in these magnificent +houses are arising, all happily in different styles, original and +individual, forming a contrast to the dull uniformity of most +Continental town perspectives. At two points the town is entered by +massive gates of the castellated type--the Torres de Serranos and de +Cuarte. The former date from the fourteenth century, and have two +octagonal towers with heavy machicolations at two-thirds of their +height; the machicolation is continued across the connecting storey, +which is richly panelled above the narrow archway. The Torres de Cuarte +are drum towers, similarly flanking a gateway; in this case the parapet +is itself borne on corbels and machicolated. The work dates from the +fifteenth century. These towers add much to the picturesqueness of their +respective quarters. The Citadel, in another part of the town, replaces +the old temple built in 1238 by the Knights Templars on the spot where +the Aragonese planted their cross on entering Valencia. It contains the +chapel where St. Vicente Ferrer, "the Angel of the Judgment," took the +habit of St. Dominic. + +[Illustration: MALAGA--A PICADOR] + +A glance at the Cathedral and the Lonja, and we shall have "done" +Valencia in the tourist's sense. The former building was founded in the +year 1262 on the site of the principal mosque. In it the Kings of +Aragon took the oath as Kings of Valencia. Repeatedly restored, and +"modernized" in 1750, it presents a dreadful jumble of styles, and is +far behind the cathedrals of Andalusia in beauty and interest. The +Micalet Tower, however, rising at the end of the Calle de Zaragoza, +presents a striking appearance. It is the great landmark of the +district, and the Valencians refer to exile as "losing sight of the +Micalet." The view from the summit is very fine. The main entrance to +the Cathedral is poor, but the north door, called the Puerta de los +Apostoles, richly sculptured and delicately moulded, exhibits the skill +and imagery of the fourteenth century at its best. + +Above the interesting semicircular Puerta del Palau are seen on +medallions the heads of seven men and seven women--these representing +the seven knights of the Conquest and the seven ladies (some say of +Valencia, and others of Lerida) whom they married. From these alliances +sprang the nobility of the province. This doorway was evidently +constructed by the architect who designed the Puerta dels Infants at +Lerida. + +The interior has also suffered by restoration. The pointed arches have +been rounded, the Gothic columns almost concealed by Corinthian +pilasters, the walls covered with marbles. The effect is rich ("La Rica" +is the surname which particularly distinguishes this Cathedral), but +much of the religious antique air of the place has gone for ever. The +plan is, as usual with Spanish churches, cruciform. The chancel was +reconstructed in 1682, but the altar was melted down by the French in +1809. Fortunately the fine panel-shutters made for its protection in the +sixteenth century have been preserved. They were carved by a carpenter +named Carles, and are painted with scenes from the lives of Christ and +the Virgin. These works are ascribed by some to Francisco Pagano and +Pablo de San Leocadio, by others to Leonardo da Vinci himself. Hanging +to one of the pillars on the Gospel side may be seen the spurs and +bridle of Jaime lo Conqueridor, presented by him, on the day he took the +city, to his master of the horse, Juan de Perthusa. + +Over the crossing rises the fine octagonal lantern, built in 1404 and +restored in 1731. The trophies which once adorned it have long since +been carried off, among them the flags taken from the Genoese by Ramon +Corveran, a famous sea-dog of Valencia. + +The pulpit, over which is displayed a picture of St. Vicente Ferrer, was +the one from which that zealous missionary actually preached. It can, +however, hardly be regarded as a curiosity, as the saint must have +preached in nearly every church in the Peninsula, France, and Flanders. + +[Illustration: VALENCIA--SANTA CATALINA] + +The choir is modern, except the rear portion or "trascoro," which dates +from the end of the fifteenth century; and the chapels contain little +that is of interest. Tomás de Villanueva, the holy Archbishop of +Valencia, is entombed in the chapel dedicated to him. The chapel of +another Valencian saint, St. Francis Borgia, is remarkable for a curious +picture representing his conversion of a dying man. The penitent is +depicted almost nude, and attended by comically fantastic monsters. +Another painting shows the saint, as Duke of Gandía, taking leave of his +relatives when about to embrace the religious state. + +Leaving the Cathedral, we visit the noble Gothic Lonja, or Silk +Exchange, built between the years 1482 and 1498 by Pedro Compte. Though +not in the purest style, the result is imposing and dignified. A French +writer (M. Paul Jousset), not addicted to laudatory language, admits +that this building is worth a visit to Valencia to see. Its square +tower, its crenellated chimneys, open galleries, and high windows, +recall the palace-like châteaux of the Loire. Within is a noble hall +divided into three by rows of spirally-fluted columns. The roof is +studded with stars, and round the frieze runs the inscription: "He only +that shall not have deceived nor done usury, shall be worthy of eternal +life." For the commercial integrity of Valencia it is to be hoped that +the business men frequenting this exchange keep their eyes fixed on the +text. Another public building worthy of attention is the Audiencia, in +good Renaissance style, with grand halls adorned by portraits of eminent +natives of the province. In the Salon de Cortes, the old provincial +States assembled till the middle of the eighteenth century. + +The minor churches of Valencia are hardly worth a visit--the less so +that in this climate the stranger is generally well content to "laze" +his time away. He may do this very pleasantly on the Paseo de la +Glorieta or Plaza Principe Alfonso, two charming shady spots, where +numerous trees are reflected in the waters of the cool basins. Further +off, across the parched Turia, you reach the Alameda, a leafy avenue +where fountains diffuse a refreshing dew. And if you should chance to +doze on one of the benches, you need not fear interruption. This +charming promenade, for some occult reason, is neglected by the +citizens. + +The picture gallery of Valencia is important. It contains fine specimens +of contemporary Spanish art, including works by Sorolla and Benlliure. +Ribalta may be studied here, and also the less-known masters of the +Valencian school, such as Orrente, March, Espinosa, and Juanes. There +used to be several fine private collections in Valencia, but these have +all been dispersed. + +The country round Valencia is far more interesting than the city. In no +other part of Spain, says Mr. Brunhés, has man more successfully +combated and reduced natural aridity by irrigation and cultivation; so +successfully indeed, that from Gandía to Valencia, for instance, a +stretch of 100 kilometres, the gardens succeed each other so closely +that it is easy to forget--in spite of the naked slopes on the +horizon--that these oases occupy a naturally arid soil. This is, in +short, the best cultivated province in the kingdom. + +[Illustration: AN ANDALUSIAN DANCE] + +The numberless canals and watercourses which intersect the land in all +directions are fed for the most part by the Jucár and Turia--the latter +the local stream of Valencia--but every possible source is turned to +account. Here the water supply, comprised in the Canal of Moncada and +the Seven Canals, belongs to the community, by whom is indirectly +elected the famous tribunal which meets every Thursday morning at the +Apostles' Gate of the Cathedral. + +The sittings of this singular court are the most interesting sight in +Valencia. In the plaza a crowd of countryfolk are collected, furiously +discussing their affairs and pleading their cases in advance, after the +manner of litigants all the world over. Meanwhile the alguazil of the +tribunal has disposed an ancient sofa in the shadow of the great Gothic +portal and marked off a space before it with a railing. Presently the +seven judges arrive--one for each canal. They have the air of well-to-do +peasants, and such they are--grave, stoutly-built men, with tanned faces +and close-cropped hair. They wear black, the colour beloved by the +comfortably-situated working man all the world over; but they have not +discarded the native handkerchief round their polished brows or the +_espadrilla_, or Valencian shoe. Each is known by the name of the canal +which he represents--Mislata, Cuarte, and so forth. These +peasant-magistrates having taken their seats, the oldest pronounces the +words "Se obri el tribunal" (The tribunal is open). For a moment +absolute silence reigns. Then those who have the right to be heard first +are introduced within the railing and plead their cause bare-headed +before the court. Woe to the insolent wight that dare stand covered in +its presence! The alguazil will tear the handkerchief off his head, and +he will be mulcted, moreover, in a fine. Anyone who speaks before his +turn is fined. The discipline is severe. Each must wait till the +president indicates with his foot that it is his turn to be heard. +Notwithstanding, the fiery Valencians find it hard to restrain their +feelings. At every moment there is an explosion of wrath or indignation, +a heated expostulation from one or the other of the parties. The fines +thus accumulated must represent a considerable sum. The procedure is +entirely verbal; even the judgments are not recorded. But no court +exercises more absolute power than the Tribunal de las Aguas of +Valencia. + +Life in the fertile huerta of Valencia is beautifully described by the +great novelist, Blasco Ibañez, a native of the city. The following +roughly translated passages, though they convey little idea of the +forceful and elegant style of the original, will at least enable the +reader to picture a summer in the South: + +"When the vast plain awakes in the bluish light of dawn, the last of the +nightingales that have sang through the night breaks off abruptly in his +final trill, as though he had been stricken by the steely shaft of day. +Sparrows in whole coveys burst forth from the thatched roofs, and +beneath this aerial rabble preening their wings, the trees shake and +nod. + +"One by one the murmurs of the night subside--the trickling of +watercourses, the sighing of the reeds, the barking of the watchful +dogs. Other sounds belonging to the day grow louder and fill the huerta. +The crow of the cock is heard from every farm; the village bells re-echo +the call to prayer borne across from the towers of Valencia, which are +yet misty in the distance; from the farmyards arises a discordant animal +concert--the neighing of horses, the bellowing of oxen, the clucking of +hens, the bleating of lambs, the grunting of swine--the sounds produced +by beasts that scent the keen odour of vegetation in the morning breeze +and are hungry for the fields. + +"The sky is suffused with light, and with light, life inundates the +plain and penetrates to the interior of human and animal abodes. Doors +open creaking. In the porches white figures appear, their hands clasped +behind their necks, scanning the horizon. From the stables issue towards +the city, milch cows, flocks of goats, manure carts. Bells tinkle +between the dwarf trees bordering the high road, and every now and again +is heard the sharp '_Arre, Aca!_' of the drivers. + +"On the thresholds of the cottages those bound for the town exchange +greetings with those that stay in the fields: '_Bon dia nos done Deu!_' +(May God give us a good day!) '_Bon dia._' + +"Immense is the energy, the explosion of life, at midsummer, the best +season of the year, the time of harvest and abundance. Space throbs with +light and heat. The African sun rains torrents of fire on the land +already cracked and wrinkled by its burning caresses, and its golden +beams pierce the dense foliage, beneath which are hidden the canals and +trenches to save them from the all-powerful vivifying heat. + +"The branches of the trees are heavy with fruit. They bend beneath the +weight of yellow grapes covered with glazed leaves. Like the pink cheeks +of a child glow the apricots amid the verdure. Children greedily eye the +luscious burden of the fig trees. From the gardens is wafted the scent +of the jasmin, and the magnolias dispense their incense in the burning +air laden with the perfume of the cereals. + +"The gleaming scythe has already sheared the land, levelling the golden +fields of wheat and the tall corn stalks, which bowed beneath their +heavy load of life. The hay forms yellow hills which reflect the colour +of the sun. The wheat is winnowed in a whirlwind of dust; in the naked +fields among the stubble, sparrows hop from spot to spot in search of +stray gleanings. Everywhere are happiness and joyous labour. Waggons go +groaning down the road; children frolic in the fields and among the +sheaves, thinking of the wheaten cakes in prospect and of the lazy, +pleasant life which begins for the farmer when his barn is filled. Even +the old horses stride along more gaily, cheered by the smell of the +golden grain which will flow steadily into their mangers as the year +rolls on. + +[Illustration: COURTING] + +"When the harvest has levelled the panorama and cleared the great +stretches of wheat sprinkled with poppies, the plain seems vast, almost +illimitable. Farther than the eye can reach stretch its great squares of +red soil marked off by paths and trenches. The Sunday's rest is +rigorously observed over the whole countryside. Not a man is seen +toiling in the fields, not a beast at work on the road. Down the paths +pass old women with their mantillas drawn over their eyes and their +little chairs hanging to their arms. In the distance resound, like the +tearing of linen, the shots fired at the swallows, which fly hither and +thither in circles. A noise seems to be produced by their wings ruffling +the crystal firmament. From the canals rises the murmur of clouds of +almost invisible flies. In a farm all painted blue under an ancient +arbour there is a whirlwind of gaily coloured shawls and petticoats, +while the guitars with their drowsy rhythm and the strident cornets +accompany the measures of the Valencian Jota. + +"In the village the little plaza is thronged with the field folk. The +men are in their shirt sleeves, with black sashes and gorgeous +handkerchiefs arranged mitre-like on their heads. The old men lean on +their big Liria sticks. The young men, with sleeves turned up, display +their red nervous arms and carry mere sprigs of ash between their huge +knotted fingers. + +"In the afternoon, towards the fountain, along the road bordered with +poplars which shake their silvered foliage, go groups of girls with +their pitchers on their heads. Their rhythmical movements and their +grace recall the Athenian canephoræ. This procession to the well lends +to the huerta of Valencia something of a biblical character. The Fontana +de la Reina is the pride of the huerta, condemned to drink the water of +wells and the red and dirty liquid of the canals. It is esteemed as an +ancient and valuable work. It has a square basin with walls of reddish +stone. The water is below the soil. You reach the bottom by means of six +green and slippery steps. Opposite the steps is a defaced bas-relief, +probably a Virgin attended by angels--no doubt an ex-voto of the time of +the Conquest. Laughter and chatter are not wanting round the well. The +girls cluster round, eager to fill their pitchers but in no hurry to +depart. They jostle each other on the steps, their petticoats gathered +in between their legs, the better to lean forward and to plunge their +vessels into the basin. The surface of the water is unceasingly troubled +by the bubbles rising from the sandy bed, which is covered with weeds +waving in the current." + + + + +INDEX + + +Abades, No. 6, 70 + +Abbad, Mohammed Ben, 22 + +Abdallah, Ahmed Ben, 21 + +Abd-el-Aziz, 19 + +Abd-ur-Rahman, 89 + +Abd-ur-Rahman III., 21 + +Abu-l-Walid, 115 + +Adra, 168 + +Ælii, 16 + +Ahmar, Mohammed al, 27, 113 + +Alarcos, 26 + +Albaicin, 148 + +Alcazaba, 129 + +Alcazares, 35 + +Alcazar Genil, 161 + +Alcoy, 190 + +Alfonso VI., 24, 25, 98 + +Alfonso X., 114 + +Alfonso the Battler, King, 189 + +Alfonso the Learned, 4, 181 + +Al Hakem II., 90 + +Alhama, 121 + +Alhambra, The, 124 + +Alicante, 189 + +Al Mansûr, 90 + +Almeria, 168 + +Almohades, 26, 30, 112 + +Almoravides, 26, 112, 194 + +Aragon, Don Jaime of, 179 + +Arfe, Juan de, 60, 96 + +Aurariola, 178 + +Az Zahara, 97 + + +Barbuda, Don Martin de la, 102, 119 + +Baths, 143 + +Bekr, Abu, 179 + +Belludo, 145 + +Ben Hud, 27, 113 + +Biblioteca Colombina, 35 + +Boabdil, 121 + + +Cadiz, 1 + +Cadiz, Marquis of, 121 + +Cæsar, Julius, 16 + +Campaña--_See_ Kempener + +Campillo, 160 + +Cano, Alonso, 66, 75, 155, 165 + +Caños de Carmona, 81 + +Capilla Real, 152 + +Cartagena, 182 + +Carthaginians, 3, 14, 15 + +Cartuja, 84, 158 + +Casa de Bustos Tavera, 70 + +Casa del Carbon, 147 + +Casa de los Tiros, 160 + +Casa de Pilatos, 66 + +Cathedral, 50, 151, 155, 165, 196 + +Cespedes, Pablo de, 75, 103 + +Charles V., 95 + +Cid Campeador, Ruy Diaz de Bivar, 112, 193 + +Colon, Fernando, 57 + +Columbus, Christopher, 56, 160 + +Cordova, 86 + +Cornejo, Duque, 95, 96 + +Coronel, Doña Maria, 38 + +Cortes, Hernando, 83 + +Court of the Lions, 137 + +Cuarto de Santo Domingo, 160 + + +Dance of the Seises, 81 + +Dávalos, Leonor, 38 + +Delicias Gardens, 77 + +Dios, San Juan de, 156 + +Drake, Sir Francis, 4 + + +Elche, 187 + +El Greco, 60 + +Enrique III., 119 + +Ermengild, 18, 193 + +Ermita de San Sebastian, 160 + +"Esperandola del Cielo," 149 + +Essex, Earl of, 5 + +Exilona, 19 + + +Fadrique, Don, 46 + +Fair of Seville, 79 + +Ferdinand and Isabella, 121 + +Fernandez, Alejo, 85 + +Fernando el Magno, 24 + +Ferrer, St. Vincent, 35 + +Frutet, 75 + + +Gandía, 190 + +Gandia, Duke of, 157 + +Generalife, The, 146 + +Gibralfaro, 164 + +Gibraltar, 173 + +Giordano, Luca, 58 + +Gipsies, 84 + +Giralda Tower, 31 + +Gongora, 95 + +Goya, 60 + +Granada, 107 + +Great Captain, 102, 156 + +Guadalquivir, The, 9 + +Guzman el Bueno, 83 + + +Hajjaj, Ibrahim Ibn, 20 + +Hall of the Two Sisters, 139 + +Halls of the Abencerrages, 139 + +Hasan, Mulai, 121 + +Hernandez (Gonzalo), de Aguilar y de Cordova, + "the Great Captain," 102, 156 + +Herrera, 58, 61, 66 + +Herrera, The Older, 75 + + +Illiberis, 111 + +"Intransigentes," 182 + +Irrigation, 175, 200 + +Isidore, St., 19 + +Ismaïl, Saïd Ben, 121 + +Italica, 15, 17, 18, 82 + + +Jaime lo Conqueridor, 186, 194, 198 + +Jativa, 190 + +Jerez, 10 + +Juan II., 16 + +Jucár, 191 + +Junteron, Don Gil, 181 + + +Kadir, 193 + +Kempener, Peter, 55, 58, 59 + + +La Caridad, 74 + +"Las Navas de Tolosa," 26 + +La Trinidad, 19 + +Leal, Valdés, 58, 59, 74, 75 + +Leander, 18 + +Lebrija, 11 + +Leovgild, 18 + +Levi, Simuel Ben, 37 + +Lonja, 196, 199 + +Lorca, 175 + +Lucan, 16 + + +Majus, 21 + +Malaga, 163 + +Malecon, 180 + +Marana, Miguel de, 73 + +Mena, Juan de, 104 + +Mezquita, 88 + +Mihrab, 144 + +Mirador de "Lindaraja," 142 + +Mohammed II., 114 + +Mohammed III., 114 + +Mohammed IV., 116 + +Mohammed V., 117, 171 + +Mohammed VI., 119 + +Mohammed VII., 121 + +Mohammed VIII., 121 + +Mohammedan Paintings, 140 + +Montañez, 58, 60, 66, 75, 83 + +Mote'mid, 23 + +Motril, 168 + +Munda, 170 + +Murcia, 174, 179, 180 + +Murillo, 8, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61, 73, 74, 75, 76 + +Musa, 19 + +Museo of Seville, 74 + +Musset, Alfred de, 7, 12, 71 + +Mut'adid-billah, Amir, 22 + +Muwallads, 20 + + +Nasr, Abu-l-Juyyush Muley, 115 + +Northmen, 21 + + +Omnium Sanctorum, 65 + +Oratory, 144 + +Orihuela, 178, 186 + +Osorio, Doña Urraca, 38 + + +Padilla, Maria de, 46 + +Palace of Charles V., 131 + +Palace of St. Telmo, 76 + +Palacio de las Dueñas, 70 + +Palomino, 95 + +Paredes, Doña Maria de Guzman, 95 + +Patio de Daraxa, 142 + +Patio de la Alberca, 135 + +Patio de las Arrayanes, 135 + +Patio de las Muñecas, 45 + +Patio de los Naranjos, 34 + +Patio "del Mexuar," 134 + +Pedro the Cruel, 36 + +Phœnicians, The, 2, 14 + +Pineda, Doña Mariana, 157 + +Plaza de Bibarrambla, 151 + +Poore, Lawrence, 28 + +Puerta de Hierro, 144 + +Puerta de la Justicia, 128 + +Puerta del Lagarto, 53 + +Puerta del Perdon, 34 + +Puerta del Vino, 130 + +Puerto Santa Maria, 10 + +Pulgar, Fernando del, Lord of El Salar, 152 + + +Ramon Bonifaz, 27 + +Recchiarus, 17 + +Ribera, 190 + +Robles, Joao de, 156 + +Roelas, Juan de las, 58, 65, 75 + +Roldán, Pedro, 61 + +Romanticists, 6, 7 + +Ronda, 170 + +Rueda, Lope de, 95 + + +Sacromonte, 158 + +Saïd, Abu, 37, 118, 171 + +St. Ferdinand, 27, 55, 95 + +St. Isidore, 24 + +St. Justa, 84 + +St. Rufina, 84 + +St. Vicente Ferrer, 196, 198 + +Sala de la Justicia, 140 + +Sala de los Embajadores, 136 + +Salambo, 15, 84 + +Salon de los Embajadores, 44 + +San Geronimo, 156 + +Santa Ana, 85 + +Santa Paula, 64 + +Santo Domingo, 160 + +Scipio, 15 + +Seneca, 16 + +Seville, 12 + +Siloe, Diego de, 156, 165 + +Suevi, 17 + + +Talavera, Archbishop de, 123 + +Tarik, 19 + +Tarshish, 3 + +Tendilla, Count of, 123 + +Theodomir, 178 + +Theudis, 17 + +Theudisel, 17 + +Tocador de la Reina, 143 + +Todmir, 179 + +Torre de Cuarte, 196 + +Torre de Serranos, 196 + +Torre del Agua, 145 + +Torre del Homenage, 130 + +"Torre del Oro," 29 + +Torre de la Cautiva, 145 + +Torre de la Vela, 129 + +Torre de las Damas, 144 + +Torre de las Infantas, 145 + +Torre de los Picos, 144 + +Torre de los Siete Suelos, 145 + +Torres Bermejas, 127 + +Tower of Comares, 136 + +Triana, 84 + +Tribunal de las Aguas, 201 + +Turdetani, 14 + + +University Church, Seville, 65 + +Utrera, 11 + + +Valdes, 75 + +Valencia, 192, 195 + +Vandals, 16 + +Vargas, Luis de, 34, 58, 59, 75 + +Velazquez, 75 + +Velez Chapel, 182 + +Vermilion Towers, 125 + +Vigarni, 153 + +Visigoths, 17 + + +Yusuf I., 117 + +Yusuf II., 119 + +Yusuf III., 120 + +Yusuf IV., 121 + + +Zacatin, 150 + +Zaghal, 122 + +Zahara, 121, 171 + +Zayda, 25 + +Zegri, Hamet el, 164 + +Ziryab, 101 + +Zurbaran, 58, 60, 75 + +[Illustration: MAP ACCOMPANYING "SOUTHERN SPAIN" BY TREVOR HADDEN AND A. +F. 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