22 FORESTRY IN SPAIN. 



A third stage in the development of the school com- 

 menced with the removal of it from Villaviciosa to the 

 Escurial. Of this change Senor Castel writes : 



' At no great distance from the Court, and in this respect 

 not otherwise than in accordance with the text of the decree 

 of 18th November, 1846, there was in possession of the 

 State a valuable jewe[, the bequest of the piety of our 

 kings, and a superb manifestation of the genius of our 

 artists. In this, among its numerous adjuncts, there 

 were buildings abundantly spacious, and in conditions 

 equally adequate to lodge worthily a school, though it 

 should have to come thither from an ancient palace, the 

 property then of the Counts of Chinchon. 



' The first building of the adjuncts to the palace, one 

 erected for the lodgment of attendants on the Royal 

 Court, was the building appropriated in 1869, with neces- 

 sary alterations, as a site for the school which still occupies 

 it. 



' It may be asked what were the considerations deter- 

 mining this arrangement? On the one hand there was 

 the desire to save the money, which, under the head of 

 rent for the palace school and the experiment ground, had 

 annually to be paid to the proprietors; and, on the other, 

 an urgent necessity existing for enlarged accommodation 

 for the museums and cabinets, for more numerous and 

 more valuable objects connected with the instruction given, 

 which had been presented to the institution, than could be 

 procured in the buildings originally assigned to them ; and 

 in fine the appropriate forestral situation of the Royal 

 palace of San Lorenzo, and the facility which existed 

 there for enriching the school with an experimental forest, 

 a garden in which culture might be tried, and spacious 

 grounds for the various forms of practice which the instruc- 

 tion of the students might render desirable. Without 

 materially exceeding the distance from Madrid, and vir- 

 tually diminishing this by the superior facility of communi- 

 cation, the new site prepared for the school fulfilled two 

 important conditions ; it gave to the school a spacious 



