884 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



that I have yet seen, greatly dis- 

 appointed my expectations. It 

 appears to me an immense collec- 

 tion of littlenesses : the effect pro- 

 duced is sometimes elegant, often 

 beautiful, but nowhere elevated, 

 simple, or sublime. It is certainly 

 pleasing to tread floors once so sa- 

 cred and concealed ; to be in the 

 halls, the baths, the bed-chambers, 

 of a race of monarchs whose very 

 nation has been expelled from Eu- 

 rope: to moralize upon their walls 

 falling to decay, upon their sepul- 

 chres converted into places of 

 abode for the living ; but our eyes 



become fatigued with the incessant 

 repetition of points and stars, and 

 intersecting circles, gilt and sil- 

 vered, and of various hues. We 

 may admire the beauty of the si- 

 tuation, and the prospects; wemay, 

 for a short time, be pleased with 

 the infinity of details ; but at a 

 single view of the aqueduct of Se- 

 govia, of Pompey's pillar standing 

 solitarily at the mouth of the Nile, 

 or a glance upwards at the dome of 

 St. Paul's, to one who has never 

 seen it before, is worth all the 

 beauties of the Alhambra. 



MISCF.LLANF-OUS. 



