UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME 



THE ESCORIAL 



A HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE 

 SPANISH ROYAL PALACE, MONASTERY AND MAUSO- 

 LEUM. ILLUSTRATED WITH PLANS AND 278 REPRO- 

 DUCTIONS FROM PICTURES AND PHOTOGRAPHS 



THE Royal Palace, Monastery, and Mausoleum of El Escorial, which rears 

 its gaunt, grey walls in one of the bleakest but most imposing districts 

 in the whole of Spain, was erected to commemorate a victory over the 

 French in 1557. It was occupied and pillaged by the French two and 

 a-half centuries later, and twice it has been greatly diminished by fire ; 

 but it remains to-day, not only the incarnate expression of the fanatic religious 

 character and political genius of Philip II., but the greatest mass of wrought 

 granite which exists on earth, the leviathan of architecture, the eighth wonder of 

 the world. 



In the text of this book the author has endeavoured to reconstitute the 

 glories and tragedies of the living past of the Escorial, and to represent the 

 wonders of the stupendous edifice by reproductions of over two hundred and 

 seventy of the finest photographs and pictures obtainable. Both as a review 

 and a pictorial record it is hoped that the work will make a wide appeal among 

 all who are interested in the history, the architecture, and the art of Spain. 



UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME 



TOLEDO 



A HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF 

 THE "CITY OF GENERATIONS," WITH 510 

 ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE origin of Imperial Toledo, " the crown of Spain, the light of the 

 world, free from the time of the mighty Goths," is lost in the impene- 

 trable mists of antiquity. Mighty, unchangeable, invincible, the city 

 has been described by Wormann as " a gigantic open-air museum of the 

 architectural history of early Spain, arranged upon a lofty and con- 

 spicuous table of rock." 



But while some writers have declared that Toledo is a theatre with the 

 actors gone and only the scenery left, the author does not share the opinion. 

 He believes that the power and virility upon which Spain built up her 

 greatness is reasserting itself. The machinery of the theatre of Toledo is 

 rusty, the pulleys are jammed from long disuse, but the curtain is rising steadily 

 if slowly, and already can be heard the tuning-up of fiddles in its ancient 

 orchestra. 



In this belief the author of this volume has not only set forth the story of 

 Toledo's former greatness, but has endeavoured to place before his readers a 

 panorama of the city as it appears to-day, and to show cause for his faith in the 

 greatness of the Toledo of the future 



