St. Pablo not St. Paul 



From the foundations we ascended to the summit of the 

 pile, at least as high as could be reached, which was only 

 the gallery round the dome : this, however, commanded a 

 view of the gridiron-shaped building below, and the sur- 

 rounding country, vast and grand, but not particularly 

 beautiful ; a dark, frowning range of mountains on the one 

 hand, and the boundless plains of Castille on the other. 



Our blind Cornelio pointed out different places in the 

 horizon. He had shown a wonderful memory in conducting 

 us through the labyrinth of narrow passages in the walls, 

 and corkscrew staircases, telling us about each statue, as he 

 came to its pedestal, when we emerged on the gallery within 

 the dome. This is ornamented with great gilt statues of 

 the Apostles, and he specially informed us that this St. Pablo 

 was not the St. Paul of London, which he chuckled over as a 

 most excellent joke for heretics of the Anglican persuasion. 

 In the picture-galleries, however, where he had no corners 

 and angles to guide himself by, and had to guess his dis- 

 tances, he usually pointed to one picture, and described the 

 next. 



In the church there are a great number of gigantic 

 music-books, said to be written and illuminated by one 

 monk. They are about four feet by three, each containing 

 sixty or seventy leaves of vellum richly illuminated. One 

 would not have thought a single individual's lifetime could 

 have sufficed for such voluminously velluminous works. 

 We also saw the library, where they showed us a manuscript 

 Alcoran on vellum : and many other things we saw, which, 

 if they were written in a book, it might be set up on a 

 shelf of the Escorial library, and remain till called for. The 

 fact is, we were weary of this great magnificently-ugly 

 place before we had half done it, and were very glad when 

 we were allowed by our guides to go away. 



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