62 GRANADA 



that Abu-1-Walid restored the palace in the 

 year 1319. 



The halls of the Generalife are of little interest 

 in themselves, and contain several portraits of 

 doubtful authenticity. Those of Ferdinand and 

 Isabel, of Juana la Loca and her husband, and 

 of the fourth wife of Philip II., are the most 

 important. Among the portraits of the Granada 

 family is one supposed to be that of Ben Hud 

 Al Mutawakil, the rival of Al Ahmar, and ancestor 

 of Sidi Yahya. This seems to be the portrait 

 which English travellers persist in mistaking for 

 that of Boabdil. 



But if the palace is in no way remarkable, 

 the gardens are a veritable bower of beauty and 

 delight. Water bubbles up everywhere and 

 moistens the roots of myrtles, cedars, and tall 

 cypresses, the finest trees in all Spain. The 

 legend of the Abencerrage discovered in dalliance 

 with a Sultana, beneath one of these cypresses, 

 is absolutely destitute of any sort of foundation. 

 The nature of the spot so eminently fitted for 

 love and lovers' trysts may have suggested 

 the story. But the garden is ill-kept, and many 

 of the magnificent trees have been cut down. 



In the city of Granada itself the memorials 

 of the Moorish domination are scanty and fast 



