their width,
as to appear like aqueducts; and are provided at each extremity with
towers, all, with one exception, Moorish in their style. The lower
bridge (lower by position, for it is the higher of the two in actual
elevation) bears the name of San Martin, and is traversed by the road to
Estremadura; the other leads to Aranjuez, and is the puente de
Alcantara. We are now standing on this last, having passed under the
Arab archway of its tower.

Its width is just sufficient for the passage of two vehicles abreast,
and it is covered with flag-paving. The river flows sixty feet below. At
the back of the tower which faces you, at the opposite end of the
bridge, rises a rock, almost isolated from the rest of the cliff, and on
its top the half-ruined towers and walls of a Moorish castle. On the
left hand extends the valley, through which the river approaches in a
broad mass. The road to Aranjuez follows the same direction, after
having first disappeared round the base of the rock just mentioned, and
is bordered with rose-trees, and occasional groups of limes, which
separate it from the portions set apart for pedestrians. On the right
hand the river (still looking from the bridge) is suddenly pressed in
between precipices, becomes narrow, and at the distance of a few hundred
yards, forms a noisy cascade.

[Illustration: VIEW OF TOLEDO]

Still looking in that direction, the left bank--a rocky precipice, as I
mentioned before--curves round and soon hurries it out of sight. The
lower part of the opposite or town bank is ornamented, close to the
cascade, with a picturesque ruin, on which you look down from your
position. This consists of three stories of arches, standing partly in
the water. Above and behind them rise a few larger buildings, almost
perpendicularly over each other, and the summit is crowned with the
colossal quadrangular mass of the Alcazar.

The ruinous arches just mentioned, are the remains of a building erected
by a speculator, who had conceived a plan for raising water to the
Alcazar by means of wheels, furnished with jars, according to the custom
of this part of Spain. The arrangement is simple; the jars, being
attached round a perpendicular wheel, successively fill with water, as
each arrives at the bottom, and empty themselves, on reaching the
summit, into any receptacle placed so as to receive their contents. The
speculator, having to operate on a colossal scale, intended probably to
super-pose whee