124 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



iron, painted or gilt, and some of bronze. 

 The stories are very lofty, the apartments 

 being from fifteen to twenty feet in height. 

 The first or ground-floor is entered by a pair 

 of large folding gates, ornamented with 

 bronze, often thirty feet in height. These 

 lead into the court-yard, surrounded by the 

 house, filled with trees and flowers, producing 

 a very pleasing effect, and having a gallery 

 to each floor, offering so many separate pro- 

 menades under shelter from the sun and rain. 

 The lower apartments are generally occupied 

 by the porter and other servants ; the floor 

 above is often let off ; but the highest, which 

 is the principal, is occupied by the family 

 themselves, having a separate stone staircase 

 of great magnificence leading to it. Nothing 

 can be better calculated than these residences 

 for the delightful climate of a country where 

 change of temperature is scarcely known, 

 where perennial spring for ever reigns, where 



