geometrician as the
architect who designed it.

On quitting the Hall of Ambassadors, we arrive at the best part of the
building. Passing through the arcade at the right-hand side, a long
narrow apartment is crossed, which opens on a small court called the
Court of Dolls (Patio de los Mucenas). No description, no painting can
do justice to this exquisite little enclosure. You stand still, gazing
round until your delight changes into astonishment at such an effect
being produced by immoveable walls and a few columns. A space, of about
twenty feet by thirty,--in which ten small pillars, placed at
corresponding but unequal distances, enclose a smaller quadrangle, and
support, over a series of different sized arches, the upper walls,--has
furnished materials to the artist for the attainment of one of the most
successful results in architecture. The Alhambra has nothing equal to
it. Its two large courts surpass, no doubt, in beauty the principal
court of this palace; but, as a whole, this residence, principally from
its being in better preservation and containing more, is superior to
that of Granada, always excepting the advantage derived from the
picturesque site of the latter. The Court of Dolls, at all events, is
unrivalled.

[Illustration: COURT OF DOLLS, ALCAZAR, SEVILLE.[10]]

The architect made here a highly judicious use of some of the best
gleanings from Italica, consisting of a few antique capitals, which,
being separated from their shafts, have been provided with others,
neither made for them, nor even fitted to them. The pillars are small,
and long for their diameter, with the exception of the four which occupy
the angles, which are thicker and all white. The rest are of different
coloured marbles, and all are about six feet in height. The capitals are
of still smaller proportions; so that at the junction they do not cover
the entire top of the shaft. This defect, from what cause it is
difficult to explain, appears to add to their beauty.

The capitals are exquisitely beautiful. One in particular, apparently
Greek, tinged by antiquity with a slight approach to rose colour, is
shaped, as if carelessly, at the will of the sculptor; and derives from
its irregularly rounded volutes and uneven leaves, an inconceivable
grace. The arches are of various shapes, that is, of three different
shapes and dimensions, and whether more care, or better materials were
employed in the tracery of the walls in this court, or for