Mr. Jacob’s Letters from Spain. 
ablutions required by the Mahomedan 
relivion, constituted the most importaut 
part of the royal palace, and no pains 
have been spared to render them mag- 
nificent. The queen’s dressing room is 
decorated fike the other apartinents, but. 
's much more profusely ornamented with 
rilding and porcelain. In one part of 
the floor a perforated marble slab is in- 
serted, through which it is said perfumes 
were conveyed. But Argote, an author 
who has paid great attention to Arabian 
altiquities, thinks that this chamber was 
an oratory, and nota dressing room, 
The number of apartments in this 
palace of enchantment is very consider- 
‘able, and I should be fearful of fatiguing 
you if I attempted to describe them. 
The character of the whole is so remote 
‘frvm all the objects to which we are ac- 
cistomed, that the impressions of wonder 
ad delight which it has excited, will 
#ford me the most pleasing recollections 
‘luring the remainder of my life. This 
i1oble palace, however, is hastening to 
decay, and, without repairs, to which 
the finances of Spain are inadequate, it 
willin a few years be a pile of ruins; 
its voluptuous apartments, its stately co- 
Jumns, and its lofty walls, will be mingled 
together, and no memorial be left in 
Spain of a people who once governed the 
Peninsula. 
The Alhambra was the general resi- 
dence of the Moorish kings; but during 
the intense heat of summer they usually 
‘removed to another palace in a higher 
‘situation, on an opposite hiil catled the 
‘reneraliffe, which I’ have visited. The 
floors of the rooms are of marble, ayd 
ave streams of the clearest water rushing 
hrough them. A garden adjoining jis 
enriched with orange, lenion, and cyprus, 
“trees, and abounds in crystal fountains, 
transparent pools, and shady groves. Of 
late years it has been inhabited by a no- 
bleman, who has added some modern 
comforts to the ancient luxuries; and 
though he no longer resides there, it is 
much frequented by the inhabitants of 
“the city, who repair to it with their pro- 
Visions, and hold their convivial meetings 
“G0 halls which rival in coolness and beauty 
the most voluptuous palaces of Asia. 
THE BRIDGE OF RONDA. 
Among the various things which have 
“attracted my atténtion in Spain, none 
have excited so mucli admiration as the 
“singular situation of this city, the river 
*Guadiaro which encircles it, and the 
bridges which cownect it with “its sus 
, 
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barbs. Itis placed on a rock, with cliffs, 
either perpendicular and abrupt towards 
the river, or with brokén cragss, whose 
jutting prominences, having a little sail, 
have been planted with orange and fig 
trees. A fissure inthis rock, of great 
depth, surrounds the city on three sides, 
and at che bottom of the fissure the river 
rushes along with impetuous rapidity, 
Two bridges are constructed over the 
fissure; the first is a single arch, resting 
on the rocks on the two sides, the heigitt 
of which from the water is. one hundred 
and twenty, feet. The river descends 
from this to the second bridge, whilst 
the rocks on each side as rapidly increase 
in height; so that from this second 
bridge to the water, there is the asto- 
nishing height of two hundred and eighty 
feet. The highest tower in Spain, the 
Giralda in Seville, or the Monument near 
London Bridge, if they were placed on 
the water, might stand under this sto- 
pendous arch, without their tops reaching 
to it. 
The mode of constructing this bridge 
is no less surprising than the situation m 
which it is placed, and its extraordinary 
elevation; itis a single arch of one hun- 
dred and ten feet in diameter; it is sup- 
ported by solid pillars of masonry, built 
from the bottom of the mver, about fife 
teen feet in thickness, which are fixed 
into the solid rock on both sides, and7on 
which the ends of the arch rest; othér 
pillars are buile to support these principal 
ones, which are connected with them b 
other small arches. 
It is impossible to convey an adequate 
idea of it: from below it appears sus- 
pended in the air; and when upon the 
bridge, the river beneath appears no 
longer a mighty torrent, but resemblesia 
rippling brook. When standing on the 
bridge, the optical delusmn is very sin= 
gular: the torrent of water appears to 
run up a bill towards the bridge, and the 
same phenomenon takes place when 
viewed in’ either direction. ' 
SPANISH PEASANTRY. 
Having observed much of the manners 
and character of the Spanish peasantry, 
more especially within the last fourteen 
days, [ feel I should not be doing them 
justice were I to abstain from speaking 
of them according to my impressions. «1 
have given some account of their figures 
and countenances, and though both are 
good, Ido not think them equal to their 
dispositions, There is a civility to strangers, 
and an easy style of behaviour, familiar 
to this class of Spanish society, which 
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