f Valencia, though more reduced in
size, and of a less elegant pattern.

The lack of triforium is to be noted, and its want is felt.

The northern aisle has no chapels let into its exterior wall, but a long
row of sepulchres and sepulchral reliefs to replace them. Some of them
are severe and beautiful. The choir has finely carved stalls, and the
Gothic _retablo_ is the only one of its kind in Galicia, and one of the
best in Spain.

Many more details could be given concerning the worthy cathedral of
Orense, second only in richness of certain elements to that of Santiago.
The additions, both in Romanesque and ogival styles, are better than in
most other cathedrals in Galicia, though, as far as Renaissance is
concerned, Galicia showed but little love for Italia's art. This was due
to the regional Celtic taste of the inhabitants, or else to the marked
signs of art decadence in this part of Spain, when the Renaissance was
introduced into the country.

As regards the cloister,--small and rather compact in its
composition,--it is held by many to be a jewel of the fifteenth century
in the ogival style, handsome in its general outlines, and beautiful in
its wealth of sculptural decoration.

VI

TUY

The last Spanish city on the Mino, the Rhine of Galicia, as beautiful as
its German rival, and as rich in architectural remains, both military
and ecclesiastical, is Tuy, the Castellum Tude of the Romans, lying
half-way on the main road from Braga (Portugal) to Lugo and Astorga in
Spain.

The approach to the city by rail from Orense is simply superb. The
valley of the Mino is broad and luxuriant, with ruins of castles to the
right and to the left, ahead and behind; in the distance, time-old Tuy,
the city of a hundred misfortunes, is seated on an isolated hill, the
summit of which is crowned by a fortress-cathedral of the twelfth
century.

Tuy sits on her hill, and gazes across the river at Valenca do Minho,
the rival fortress opposite, and the first town in Portugal. A handsome
bridge unites the enemies--friends to-day. Nevertheless, the cannons'
mouths of the glaring strongholds are for ever pointed toward each
other, as though wishing to recall those days of the middle ages when
Tuy was the goal of Portuguese ambitions and the last Spanish town in
Galicia.

Before the Romans conquered Iberia, Tuy, which is evidently a Celtic
name, was a most important town. This is easily explained by its
position, a sort of