about thirty miles in length, twenty-five in width, and seventy in circumference, guarded like Eden by wall of mountain. The Vega is dappled with villages, with villas; every field has its battle-story, every rivulet its ballad. To the left rise the snowy Alpujarrs, then the distant Sierra of Alhama, then the gorge of Loja in the distance, then the round mountain of Parapanda, bonneted in a purple mist. On my right was the rocky defile of Moclin, and the distant chains of Jaen-a picture more lovely it is scarcely possible to imagine.

rung on the 2d of January, the anniversary of the surrender of Granada, and on that day the Alhambra is visited by vast numbers of the peasantry. Maidens tap the bell en passant, this action insuring a husband, and the greater the sound produced by the tap, the better the man. I am told that this fête is one of the most national and picturesque in Sunny Spain. The under bastions were laid out by Charles V. in hanging gardens, with fountains and statues and unique-cut sculptures in every available space. The cypresses, which flourish

The Torre de la Vela is so called because on its watch- everywhere in the Alhambra, are poetically said to mourn

I stood quaffing the glorious prospect like wine-here hangs a silvertongued bell, which, struck by the warden once every five minutes, from 9 in the evening until 4 A. M., all the year round, gives notice to irrigators below of the hour of the night, thus acting as a primitive watch. On a still night it is heard at Loja, thirty miles away. This bell is also

the Moors. The vines are of the time of Boabdil, and their stems wind round the square pilasters like monster boa constrictors.

Descending to the Plaza de los Algibes, my attention was drawn to an isolated Moorish tower, beside it a most perfect arch; both erected in 1345. Opposite stands the grand palace begun by Charles V., who left it upfinished

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unroofed; yet to raise it he tore down any amount of
Moorish work. This typical "Castle in Spain" was begun
in 1526, and progressed, like the Brooklyn Bridge, at a
snail's pace, until 1633, when the work was abandoned.
It consists of a square of 220 feet, with three elaborate
façades, and was one of the first buildings in Spain of
the Græco-Roman style. The interior is cut up into
Doric and Ionic circular patio, or courtyards. They hoped
to induce the Duke of Wellington to sink some of George
III.'s sovereigns in it, but the Iron Duke didn't see it.
It is now open to any American who has a "crank" for
finishing incomplete buildings. The all-mighty dollar
would work well here. The present entrance lies in an
obscure corner, for Charles V. destroyed the superb
Moorish façade. Its severe, simple, almost forbidding ex-
terior gives no promise of the Aladdin gorgeousness
which once shone within. In common with other Moor-
ish Alcazars, it is built on the crest of a hill, and as a
fortress-palace, was intended to awe the city below with
the forbidding exterior of power, to keep out heat and
enemies, foreign and domestic, and what was a much more
difficult task, to keep in women. The voluptuousness and
splendor of the interior were masked as is the glittering
spar in the coarse pebble. The internal arrangements
were purely Oriental, with its colonnaded walks, the
fountains, the baths, the diaper stucco, the Turkish and
the Azulejo dado, above which hung the rich Artesonado
roof, gilded and starred like a heaven.

I may mention here that the colors employed by the Moors were in all cases the primary—blue, red and yellow, gold-blues predominating, to connect the reds and yellows, and thus preserve the harmony of color. The secondary colors-purple, green and orange-only occur in the dado's of Azulejo, which, being nearer the eye, proved a point of repose for the more brilliant coloring above. Some may now seem green, but this is the change effected by time on the original metallic blue. The Catholic Kings used both green and purple, and their work can be discovered by the commonness of the execution and the want of the harmonious balance of color which the Moors understood so much better.

The walls of this palace are covered with inscriptions, all in the most perfect condition of preservation. I was immensely struck by the palmlike white marble pillars and the exquisite variety of their capitals.

which were contained in iron trunks. A recess in the wall to the right containes a splendid earthen ware vase, enameled in blue, white, and gold; the companion was broken, and the fragments used as flower-pots, until bodily carried away by a knowing French lady. The door formerly leading to the mosque is walled up.

I now paid my respects to the great tower of Comares, its ante-gallery being one of the most exquisitely proportioned apartments I have ever seen. In this ante-room I perceived the honeycomb and usual stalactical pattern in the ceiling. Passing up a staircase to the left, and which led to the Mezquita or mosque, I leant over the low railing and gazed into the Patio, which is a perfect picture. The flat alabaster columns and beams of the roof are the finest specimens in the Alhambra. A barbarous Spanish gallery destroys one side, and the door of the mosque was stripped of its bronze facings by the daughters of Governor Bucarelli, who sold the copper. The roof of the Mezquita was repainted by Ferdinand and Isabella. In an exquisite niche in the doorway the Koran was deposited. Charles V. converted the mosque into a chapel. Incongruous additions destroy the beauty of this interior, while a raised gallery recalls the "beautifying and repairing" with a vengeance.

Reascending to the ante-room of the Hall of the Ambassadors, I observed the recesses in which the slippers of the faithful were deposited. The Reception Room of State occupies the whole interior of the Comares Tower, which is a square of thirty-seven feet, by seventy-five feet high to the centre of the dome. The existing ceiling, an artesonado dome of wood, ornamented by ribs intersecting each other in various patterns, with ornaments in gold painted on grounds of blue and red in the interstices, is black with age. The enormous thickness of the walls may be estimated by the windows, which are so deeply recessed as to look like cabinets Below the hall are vaulted rooms, with any number of subterranean intercommunications, constructed to afford means of escape for the Sultan and his harem in times of outbreak. Here also were the state prisons, and from the window looking down on the Darro it is said that Ayeshah, fearful of her rival, Zoraya, let down her son, Boabdil, in a basket, as James I. was lowered from the Castle of Edinburgh.

The Royal Dressing-room is about nine feet square, and ornamented with pictures. The walls are scribbled over with the names of visitors in a manner that speaks volumes in favor of the ingenuity and daring of some of the pilgrims to the Alhambra.

Coming to the surface again, and turning to the right, a heavy gallery, built by Charles V., leads to the Tocador de The honeycomb stalactical pendentives are all con- la Reina, or dining-room of the Queen. The chilly Flemstructed on mathematical principles, and the conical ceiling, Charles, blocked up the elegant Moorish colonnade. ings in the Alhambra attest the wonderful power and effect obtained by the repetition of the most simple elements; nearly five thousand pieces enter into the construction of the ceiling of Las dos Hermanas; and although they are of plaster, strengthened here and there with pieces of reed, they are in most wonderfulnay, perfect, preservation. The Artesonado ceilings, the shutter and door Marqueterie works, resemble those in the Alcazar of Seville. To the left is the quarter allotted to the governor's residence; to the right, a door leading into the circular patio of Charles V.'s unfinished palace. This court, which is about one hundred and fifty feet long by eighty feet wide, is called De la Alberca, or the "Fish-pond." To the right is an elegant double corridor, the upper portion being the only specimen of its kind in the Alhambra. Here was the grand entrance of the Moors, which, with the whole western quarter, was pulled down by Charles V. The salons to the right of the patio were once most gorgeous; they belonged to the monarch's wife, and hence are still called El Cuarto de la Sullana.

On the opposite side I entered a small room which was fitted up, by Ferdinand the Catholic, for the archives,

From the ante-room of the Comares, a passage protected by iron gratings, leads to the Moorish baths. They consist of El Baño del Rey and Ei Baño del Principe. The Moorish caldron and leaden pipes were sold by the five thrifty young ladies who called Governor Bucarelli papa. The vapor bath is lighted from above by small lumbreras, or "louvres." The bathers undressed in the entrance saloon, and underwent, in the vapor bath, the usual shampoonings, musicians, in the meanwhile, discoursing in a gallery overhead. I had now to retrace my steps through the Patio de la Alberca, passing by an anteroom altered by Ferdinand and Isabella, and again doctored by Philip V. into the celebrated Court of the Lions. This patio is an hypethral quadrilateral oblong, of some 116 feet by 66; 128 pillars of white marble, 11 feet high, support a peristyle. or portico on each side. At each end two elegant pavilions project into the court. The columns are placed