and Vandals had in turn been its masters before the Moors
wrested it from the Spaniards in the year 710 A.D. Though the
Spaniards regained possession of it in 1075, it was not for long, as
it soon fell into the hands of the invaders once more. The Spanish
victors only left a Moorish viceroy in charge, who proved too true a
Berber to serve against his countrymen, so he betrayed his trust. In
1236 it was finally recovered by the Spaniards, after five hundred and
twenty-four years of Moorish rule. Since that time the traces of that
epoch of its history have been gradually disappearing, till there only
remain the mutilated mosque, and portions of the ancient palace, or of
saint-houses (as the side-chapel of the Church of St. Miguel), and of
a few dwellings. Since the first train steamed to this ancient city,
in 1859, the railway has probably brought as many pilgrims to the
mosque as ever visited it from other motives in its greatest days.

The industry founded here by the Moors--that of tanning--which has
given its name to a trade in several countries,[27] seems to have gone
with them to Morocco, for though many of the old tan-pits still exist
by the river side, no leather of any repute is now produced here. The
Moorish water-mills are yet at work though, having been repaired and
renewed on the original model. These, as at Granada and other places,
are horizontal wheels worked from a small spout above, directly under
the mill-stone, such as is met with in Fez and Tetuan.

[27: Sp. _cordovan_, Fr. _cordonnier_, Eng. _cordwainer_, etc.]

III. SEVILLE

In the Giralda tower of Seville I expected to find a veritable
Moorish trophy in the best state of preservation, open to that minute
inspection which was impossible in the only complete specimen of such
a tower, the Kutubiya, part of a mosque still in use. Imagine, then,
my regret on arriving at the foot of that venerable monument, to find
it "spick and span," as if just completed, looking new and tawdry
by the side of the cathedral which has replaced the mosque it once
adorned. Instead of the hoary antiquity to which the rich deep colour
of the stone of the sister towers in Morocco bears witness in their
weather-beaten glory, this one, built, above the first few stone
courses, of inch pan-tiles, separated by a like thickness of mortar,
has the appearance of having been newly pointed and rubbed down, while
faded frescoes on the walls testify to the barbarity of the con