The Argosy — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

The Cruse of the Reserve Squadron. 49 No part of the Alhambra is more lovely and refined than this hall, which has been well restored. The decorations of the walls are richly gilded and the interstices pencilled with lapis lazuli and other brilliant colours. The roof, honeycombed and therefore possessing a pecu- liarly chaste and mysterious beauty, is also richly gilded and painted in exquisite tints. The stucco work of the walls was invented at Damascus. It consists of large plates cast in moulds and invisibly joined, and has every appearance of having been cunningly carved and sculptured by hand, at the cost of infinite time, labour and skill. The devices are intermingled with texts from the Koran, and inscrip- tions in Cufic and Arabian characters. The arch opening to the central Hall of Justice is said tobe the A. a;.% a 3 ‘ 2 =F : Al, | - 2 foe i aa 1H i) ; ay: 2 —- i i= ve We owe \ i AN as —— " > \ SS SA “taj okey S> Se A Z - per ov Mie de B A f S2nyy " wha apes st Ci - <p za WON See — SS SS = — Mes 2S Z = A —_ A y Pete ee ’ — = : > oS J one = VYV/v47 / aia aatTl - ; ~—= \ p rir aT RTT i A milf fins Fh bon 4 ‘a | f : | d lf COURT OF LIONS. finest in the palace. The hall itself—on the east side of the court of lions, and possessing seven compartments or divisions—is richly and gorgeously decorated with the loveliest colours, subdued and softened by the semi-gloom, the dim religious light that marks all the halls of the Alhambra. Only at sunrise or towards sunset, when perhaps. the sun shines directly through one or other of the deep, alcoved windows, are the full colours revealed. But the subdued light is one of the charms of these halls, whose loveliness seems too sacred for exposure to the full mid-day glare. The obscurity adds to their refinement, to the feeling of romance and enchantment they throw on mind and memory. A wonderful influence indeed. This Hall of Justice, in days past given up to the stern necessities of the Tribunal, seemed to us to- day, as we looked and loved its beauty and cool fragrance, only VOL, XXXVI. E CORNICLOO (C SS (C(O)