The Yale expositor., 1917-02-01

- RANADA'S impress on the
travellers mind must always
be enchanting, but it is sharp
or when the great home of
the Moors is approached from Almeria
through the grim country southeast of
Granada. Contrast could go no fur
Their. The train on the slow and doubt
full Southern railway, writes Lawrence
Weaver in Country Life, groans labor
iously up the steep track from the
dusty and rather dilapidated port of
Almeria through an arid and noun
famous district. One can see here the
processes of creatiOn-chaOtic seas of
mud contained in a series of basins
by encircling hills, heaving like an an
CRY sea, and then, as it were, frozen as
they chafed into a desolation of yell
lOw-brown waves gigantic and retain
ing the memory of turbulence Only
where rare rivers bring them refresh
ment do olive plantations and vine
yards give livelihood to villages with
khad-colored walls and roofs which
scarcely make themselves seen against
the prevailing tone and desolation.
The sense Of being in a prehistoric
land is heightened by the cave dwell
lngS in the sides of hills Of muddy
rock, often showing no more than a
door and chimney, but sometimes
with typical Spanish bravura--a rough
colonaded portico planted against the
face of the hill. Many of these cave
dwellings are of recent burrowing but
some must be Of immemorial age.
The Approach to Granada.
After the traveller turns west at
GuadiX, a rather sordid little town
with a disappointing cathedral, the
country grows more inviting. Grana-
ola wipes out the remembrance of the
brown desOlatiOn of the southeast The
green groves and canals on the Alham-
bra hill are even more truly the
monument Of Moorish culture than the
great fortress which dominates the
plain and looks across to the encir-
cling heights of the Sierra Nevada.
Before that inglOrious day when Boab-
dill passed out of the Gate of the
Seven Storeys and yielded up his in
heritance to the Catholic sovereigns,
Granada boosted 10000 inhabitants,
and the plain was as richly cultivated
rs the fields of Kent. CASTLE had con-
quered, but could not hold, the riches
of its Moorish inheritance.
Granada sleeps today in the sun
shine of its memories. Some Of its
people may busy themselves with max
Ing sugar, but its real industry is its
history, and the guide and the curio
dealers its merchant princes. Yet it
remains a city of enchantment For
those who are connOisseurs in first inn
pressions, Granada should be entered
at night and the hill of the Albambra
climbed forthwith. 1t is difficult to
exaggerate the witchery Of the view
over the city at midnight from high
balcony. The suffused glow from
street and courtyard-for Spain goes
late to bed and the city is never wholly
dark-the dim outlines of church and
cathedral when the moon is full, the
cool scents from the neighboring gar
dens, the little tinkle of falling waters,
the brOOding Of the spirit of history
over 1t all make a sum of unforget-
table memories. Nor does the morn
ing light bring disappointment. The
cool brown and rich texture of the
tiled roofs, the strong green Of cypress
and myrtle, the warm reds of the
rough Moorish bricks, and the distant
Enclosure of the snow-capped Sierra,
sunshine and cool airs-these things
are at the root Of pleasure. OF the Al !
hambra itself nothing need be writ
ten, for the features Of the second |
Damascus are so familiar, but this |
much must be said. The fortress-pal- /
ace has been greatly over-restored. It /
had suffered much from centuries of |
neglect, during which IL became a
rookery of poor dwellings. 1t was not |
until after Washington Irving had |
made 1t famous that the Spanish gov
eminent recognized the need to set this |
national monument in order. OF late
the renewing has been overdone. An |
excess OF the typical plaster surface
decoration has been applied to old
walls, and the result must be very con-
fusing to the visitor who is inexpert In
such matters.
But this criticism does not npply TO
the .Generalite, which. remaining In