d English and Spanish won, with the loss
of two English generals. The Iron Duke was rewarded by Spanish Cortes,
with the title of Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, together with the honours of
grandee of Spain, which are still retained by Wellington's descendants.

[Illustration: CUIDAD RODRIGO CATHEDRAL]

The cathedral church of Ciudad Rodrigo is a twelfth-century building, in
which the Romanesque style, similar to those of Zamora and Toro, fights
with the nascent ogival style. Notwithstanding these remarks,
however, the building does not pertain to the Transition period, but
rather to the second or last period of Spanish Romanesque. This is
easily seen by the basilica form of the church, the three-lobed apse,
the lack of an ambulatory walk, and the apparently similar height of
nave and aisles.

The square tower, surmounted by a cupola, at the foot of the church, as
well as the entire western front, dates from the eighteenth century; it
is cold, anti-artistic, utterly unable to appeal to the poetic instincts
of the spectator.

Behind the western front, and leading directly into the body of the
church, is a delightful Romanesque narthex which doubtlessly served as
the western facade prior to the eighteenth-century additions. It is
separated from the principal nave by a door divided into two by a solid
pediment, upon which is encrusted a statue of the Virgin with Child in
her arms. The semicircular arches which surmount the door are finely
executed, and the columns which support them are decorated with handsome
twelfth-century statuettes. There is a great similarity between this
portal and the principal one (del Obispo) in Toro: it almost seems as
though the same hand had chiselled both, or at least traced the plan of
their decoration.

Of the two doors which lead, one on the south and the other on the
north, into the transept, the former is perhaps the more perfect
specimen of the primitive style. Both are richly decorated; unluckily,
in both portals, the rounded arches have been crowned in more recent
times by an ogival arch, which certainly mars the pureness of the style,
though not the harmony of the ensemble.

To the left of these doors, a niche has been carved into the wall to
contain a full-length statue of the Virgin; this is an unusual
arrangement in Spanish churches.

The exterior of the apse retains its primitive _cachet_; the central
chapel, where the high altar is placed, was, however, rebuilt in the
sixteent