20 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



admirers of the Spanish painters, to say nothing of the treas- 

 ures of the ItaHan, Flemish. German, and French schools. It 

 is especially rich in examples of Rubens and Vandyke, while 

 the works of the Spanish painters of the various schools can 

 here be studied as nowhere else in the world. Raphael and 

 Titian are well represented, and the portrait of Cardinal de 

 Paira, by the former, is looked upon as one of the greatest 

 in the world of art. Art critics have done ample justice to 

 this noble gallery, and it would be but repetition to add my 

 words of appreciation. 



Behind the Museo del Prado is the quiet little white Church 

 of San Jeronimo el Real (St. Jerome the Royal), the church 

 in which the sovereigns of Spain are wedded. In fact all this 

 part of Madrid, in the time of Lope de V^ega, was the "mead- 

 ows of St. Jerome," where the fashionables of the Court 

 used to go for recreation. The Church of San Jeronimo and 

 the great promenade of the Prado are all that now recall it. 

 In this church also (up to the year 1833) the members of the 

 Cortes used to come to hear the Mass of the Holy Ghost and 

 to take their oaths at the opening session of Parliament; a 

 custom now observed in the breach rather than in the per- 

 formance. Here, too, the Prince of Asturias (as the heir ap- 

 parent in Spain is called) used to come to take his oath to 

 observe the laws of the kingdom. Now, however, the Church 

 plays no greater historic part than receiving the marriage vows 

 of the sovereign. It was here that King Alfonso and Queen 

 Victoria were married on May 31, 1906, in all the pomp and 

 circumstance of the Spanish Court, only to narrowly escape 

 death a half hour later on the Calle Mayor on their way back 

 to the palace. The bomb, concealed in a huge bouquet of 

 roses, was hurled from the third story of a house by Morral, 

 an anarchist teacher in the Ferrer schools in Madrid, and 

 struck directly in front of the royal carriage, killing the horses 

 and killing and maiming a score of persons. As we entered 

 the quiet, prim-looking church, escorted by a small boy of 

 the neighboring school, we tried to imagine the splendor of 

 that event which so nearly had a tragic ending for the royal 

 bride and groom. Almost across from the church is the severe- 

 looking building of the Spanish Academy, while to the south 

 lies the great Botanical Garden. 



The legislative chambers in Madrid are situated widely 



