The Argosy — page 52: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Cruise of the Reserve Squadron. 39 Never, if I live to be a century old (a most improbable possibility), shall I forget that first glimpse and impression as we passed out of the corridor. ‘To begin with, we might have been in a city of the dead. Not a sound disturbed the solemn stillness. Our footsteps echoed mysteriously ; our voices insensibly fell into a murmur; a few bats flew about, with the noiséless, irregular flight that endows them with a reputation that would make of them something more than birds. Turning towards the south end, we gazed upon an enchanted scene. A gallery ran the length of the south side of the court, supported by delicate arches and peristyles that seemed too slender to bear their weight. But the actual supports of the building are cunningly placed out of sight, and thus the fairy-like character of the Alhambra is maintained throughout in an apparently mysterious manner. The dazzling moonlight so marvellously brought out the fretwork of the outside arches, with their arabesque designs, that we appeared to gaze upon an extent of minute ivory carving, too beautiful, too ethereal for human hands to have accomplished. Eight pillars sup- ported the gallery. ‘The moon, throwing the outer portion into vivid relief, only served to cast within the recesses a deep gloom in the highest degree solemn and impressive. Strong, vivid lights and shadows, indeed, met the eye wherever the moonbeams penetrated. The court is 140 feet long, and 74 feet wide. Like all the courts of the Alhambra, it has no roof, and the deep blue sky, to which it is open, only adds to its’charm. It is paved with pure white marble, and, in the centre is a large pond or bath, filled with gold-fish, bordered on each side by a row of myrtle bushes, kept small and well trimmed. A few orange trees were trained against the walls, right and left, and facing each other, were the small arches and slender pillars leading outwards and inwards. At the north end rose the solemn Tower of Comares, its dark reflection upon the water clearly traced in the moonlight. In the days of its glory, the court was richly gilded and painted in many colours, and the arabesque designs of the stucco and fret- work were picked out with wonderful care and skill. ‘The effect must have been gorgeous, yet singularly refined. Now it has faded almost to whiteness; but open to the sky, and exposed to all the elements, one marvels that the very courts themselves have not long since crumbled and disappeared as age after age rolled onwards. These designs consist of leaves and flowers delicately traced; and some of the inner walls of the halls are covered with inscriptions in Cufic and Arabian characters and texts from the Koran, repeated in endless iteration. We passed into the Court of Lions, the principal court of the Alhambra—its centre, as it were, whence open and radiate all other courts, halls, and apartments of the palace. You may catch glimpses of it, and its celebrated fountain supported by its twelve solemn- 9 oking lions, from a hundred different points of view; each point CORnnICOOOKS.cO© mn