36 GRANADA 



is surely better an insight into a piece of truer 

 art to stand outside the eastern kiosk of the 

 Lion's Court and looking through spandril, vesti- 

 bule, and sala, catch the light glinting through 

 the distant opposite windows. That is trans- 

 parency of effect, indeed ! One would like to 

 meet with the architect who thought it out. 



" Some of the irregularities which obtain here 

 seem almost incredible. What could be more 

 satisfactory than this range of exquisite arcading, 

 its slender palm-like stems, its gracefully stilted 

 arches, and the fairy filigree- work of the span- 

 drils ? There seems to be not one single point 

 that can offend the justest eye, and yet there are 

 nearly a dozen different archings, differing in 

 form, or height, or width ; the cloister varies 

 in breadth at every turn ; the upper galleries 

 are uneven ; the doorways are the personification 

 of self-will ; the columns are placed, sometimes 

 singly, sometimes grouped, and the numbers of 

 them on the respective sides in no way corre- 

 spond. . . . And, nevertheless, there is an all- 

 prevailing symmetry and harmony. The whole 

 is a triumph of accurately judged effect." 



In a foot-note Mr. Lomas adds : "As an 

 instance of the careful way in which the architects 

 of these olden days went to work, it may be 

 mentioned that the exact relation between the 

 irregular widths of cloistering on the long and 



