PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION ix 



the embarrassment of artistic treasures entirely 

 upset the original purpose of my book. Artists 

 placed their studies at my disposal ; collectors 

 begged me, with irresistible Spanish courtesy, to 

 regard their galleries as my own ; and students 

 directed my attention to little-known publications 

 on the subject. 



Don Mariano Contreras, Conservator of the 

 Alhambra, the son of the gifted Raphael Contreras, 

 who devoted thirty-seven years of his life to the 

 restoration of the Palace gave me the benefit of 

 his knowledge of this unique treasure-house of art ; 

 and I have also laid under contribution the 

 beautiful plates of Owen Jones, who disposed of 

 a Welsh inheritance in order to produce his 

 great work on the Plans, Elevations, Sections, and 

 Details of the Alhambra. Jones's Grammar of 

 Ornament, which has been described as " beauti- 

 ful enough to be the horn-book of the Angels," 

 also contains the result of his researches in the 

 Alhambra, which occupied him for the greater 

 part of eleven years. A selection of these 

 illustrations is here rescued from the obscurity 

 of public libraries and the inaccessible fastnesses 

 of private collections. The inclusion of John F. 

 Lewis's drawings, and the reproduction of a 

 series of pictures by James C. Murphy, who spent 

 seven years in the study of the artistic marvels of 

 the Alhambra, I do not feel called upon to defend. 



