nt of time, to the florid
Burgundian style of the Low Countries, with which there was much
intercourse at the probable date of its construction--the close of the
fifteenth century. It stands almost opposite the great Church of the
Gesuitas, some of the columns of an unfinished porch or portico of which
may be seen upon the left hand side of the sketch. No doubt this fine
mansion does not possess its original roofing, as testified by the
comparatively modern windows of a portion of the top storey, but with
that exception it is fairly complete, both externally and internally.

The little projections on the masonry looking like nail heads are,
really, as will be seen by the details given in Plates XVII. and XIX.,
representations of shells, the heraldic badge of the owner of the house,
from which, rather than from his name, the cognomen by which the house
is known, has been derived. It is difficult now to divine in what way
the top storey was originally constructed, but judging by analogy with
what was usual in such houses elsewhere in Spain at the time, it
appears probable that it may have consisted of a light open arcading,
serving as a "look out"--"mirador"--and place for exercising for the
ladies of the household, at times when the streets may have been neither
safe nor agreeable.

[Illustration: PLATE 15

SALAMANCA, CASA DE LAS CONCHAS

MDW 1869]

PLATE XV.

_SALAMANCA._

PATIO OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS.

THE Patio of this house is yet more perfect than its facade, and, a rare
circumstance in Spain, I found it both clean and well kept. It is not
upon a large scale, and did not, perhaps, look the less elegant on that
account. The upper arcade produces a far better effect than the lower,
since in the latter the principle of the arch seems fantastically and
heedlessly lost sight of. With the exception in the upper arcade of the
way in which the wreaths and escutcheons are placed, as though to
conceal a confusion in the lines of the archivolt, which the architect
(or mason) did not seem quite to know how to bring together comfortably
over the capitals, the whole effect is quiet and pretty. The open work
parapet at the top is the only _motif_ in the design which appears to be
borrowed from the architecture of the Moors.

[Illustration: PLATE 16

CASA DE LAS CONCHAS

MDW 1869]

PLATE XVI.

_SALAMANCA._

STAIRCASE OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS.

ON the side of the Patio, opposite to the ent