COR 



208 



r n tt 



Cordova. Separated from the rest of rho »«AM'»i toy a square 

 building, is the chapel in which the Moors preserved 



the book of the law. It is adorned with fine marbles, 

 and the entablature is supported by 12 columns placed 

 upon the shafts f other 12. It has also a handsome 

 dome. This building is succeeded by another square 

 one, which has a cupola supported by 84 columns of 

 fine marble, and 8 windows with sky lights in alabaster. 

 This building leads to a magnificent octagon, 1 3 feet 

 in height and width, and ornamented with marbles 

 like the other buildings. In 1528, the cathedral was 

 formed into a cross, by building a chapel in the middle, 

 forming as it were a second church. This venerable 

 building, of which we are able only to give an imper- 

 fect account, was visited by the Moors from Africa, 

 even after it had fallen into the hands of the Castilians. 

 The church of the Martyrs, which belongs to the 

 Dominican convent, is a handsome and ancient build- 

 ing, and contains several fine paintings, with a beauti- 

 ful marble monument of Ambrosio Moralez. The 

 church of the Capuchins, and that of St Francis also, 

 contain several paintings of great merit. The royal 

 palace, which resembles a citadel, is a large and hand- 

 some building, encircled with walls, and situated at 

 one of the extremities of the town. A great number 

 of horses used to be kept in the stables for the king of 

 Spain ; and in 1792, there were no fewer than 600 of 

 all ages. 



The Episcopal palace, M'hieh was occupied by the 

 Inquisition, is a large building, with a noble marble 

 staircase. It has a spacious garden, and a little wood 

 of orange trees. It contains a number of good paint- 

 ings, and one of the halls is filled with a long series of 

 paintings of the bishops of Cordova. 



The college of St Paul, which belongs to the Domi- 

 nicans, is reckoned one of the finest edifices in Cor- 

 dova. Its front is of marble, and it has also a magni- 

 ficent marble staircase. The cloister is particularly fine, 

 consisting of two ranges of porticoes one above the 

 other, and Supported by 80 marble columns. The li- 

 brary contains many choice books, and the church some 

 good pictures. 



A school for drawing, in which a number of young 

 people without fortune are supported, was established 

 by Bishop Don Antonio Cavalleros, and in 1801, it 

 was under the direction of a painter, a sculptor, and an 

 architect. 



Cordova was a commercial town in the time of the 

 Romans. Under the Moors, and also under the Cas- 

 tilians, it carried on a very brisk trade, and could then 

 boast of several celebrated manufactures of silk and 

 gold lace, which are now gone to decay. The princi- 

 pal trade and manufactures which are now carried on, 

 are those of ribbands, lace, hats, and baize. Gold and 

 silver articles are still manufactured here and sent to 

 the fairs. Then store-houses are rich, but their work 

 is neither delicate nor elegant; and although the art of 

 softening leather and giving it a fine polish was invent- 

 ed at Cordova, yet the town possesses few tan-yards. 



One of the principal places in the environs of Cor- 

 dova is the bishop's country house, which is a mile and 

 a half from the town ; its gardens and walks are truly 

 magnificent, and the collection of exotic medicinal 

 plants is large and valuable. Though the surrounding 

 mountains are craggy, yet they are covered with gar- 

 dens, vineyards, and forests of olive and fruit trees. 

 The air is perfumed with the^flowers of the orange and 

 the citron tree ; and the oranges and citrons are sold 



for almost nothing in the market, and towards the end Corduroy, 

 of autumn are used for manure. ' •"■"»"'*■ 



In the time of the Moors, Cordova is said to have 

 contained a population of 300,000. When the Moors 

 were expelled by Ferdinand, that prince and his suc- 

 cessors endeavoured in vain to recruit the population 

 of Cordova ; so that about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century, it had decreased to 60,000. When this town 

 was visited by Bourgoanne, the population did not 

 exceed 35,000. See Laborde's View of Spain, vol. ii. 

 p. 29; Bourgoanne's Tableau de I'Espagne ; Semple's 

 Second Journey in Spain ; Dillon's Travels through 

 Spain; and Fischer's Travels through Spain in 1797 

 and 179«- (» 



CORDUROY, {Cord du Roi, or King's Cord), ori- 

 ginally a stout manufacture of silken cloth, but now imi- 

 tated in cotton goods, which are manufactured to an im- 

 mense extent in Lancashire, Cheshire, and the western 

 district of Yorkshire. In whatever part of Europe this 

 manufacture was first exercised, it is evident from the 

 name that we derived it from the French ; and as it is 

 composed entirely of cotton, its introduction into Bri- 

 tain must be very recent, probably not exceeding 40 or 

 50 years at the utmost. There are immense varieties 

 of this article manufactured, bvit the chief are those 

 distinguished by the names corduroy, thicksett, velve- 

 rett, and velveteen, all of which are merely varieties 

 of pattern in imitation of the Italian and French vel- 

 vets. In the general article Cloth Manufacture, a 

 few remarks are introduced relative to the general prin- 

 ciples of their fabrication, and a section of them to 

 shew the nature and geometrical principle of the tex- 

 ture, is given in Plate CXCIII. Fig. 10. attached to that Plate 

 article. As an article of common consumption, these CXCIII, 

 goods are found so effectually to combine the desirable Fl £° 1S> 

 requisites of cheapness and durability, as to have 

 brought them into almost universal use with the great 

 body of the people, both at home and abroad, in so 

 far as their exportation is not either prevented or limit- 

 ed by the effects of the war. As the combination of 

 the greatest possible quantity of stuff within the small- 

 est compass is considered as the chief excellence of these 

 goods, they are not paid by any fixed measure of 

 length, but in proportion to the weight by which the 

 cloth when woven exceeds that of the warp when de- 

 livered to the weaver, or, in other words, in proportion 

 to the quantity of woof which the weaver is able to in- 

 terweave with his warp. Thus the weaver is stimula- 

 ted by his own interest to make the fabric as thick as 

 possible, and this is found to be the best practical plafl 

 for procuring goods of this kind sufficiently dense in 

 the fabric. It is, besides, a conclusive proof, that no 

 excess can possibly be apprehended. The ground-work 

 of the fabric is sometimes of plain and sometimes of 

 tweeled cloth. The former being produced somewhat 

 cheaper, is sometimes, although very injudiciously, 

 preferred by poor people ; for, from its superiority of 

 strength, the best tweeled fabrics or backs, as they are 

 called, are by very far the cheapest ultimately. The 

 pile being raised in the same way as velvet, is also cut 

 after the web has been taken from the weaver, when 

 the subsequent operations of dyeing and dressing hav- 

 ing also been performed, the cloth is ready for the mar- 

 ket. 



In order to enable those who have not had opportu- 

 nities of seeing the process of this manufacture, but 

 who may be sufficiently conversant with the practice of 

 weaving other stuffs as to be acquainted with the na*- 



