294 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



The plate opposite represents the front of the 

 same building. It is composed of two structm*es 

 entirely different from each other, one of which 

 forms a sort of wing to the principal edifice, and 

 has at the end the facade before presente^. The 

 whole length is two hundred and twenty-eight feet, 

 and the depth of the principal structure is one hun- 

 dred and twelve feet. The only portion containing 

 interior chambers is that which I have called the 

 wing. This has two doorways opening into cham- 

 bers twenty-six feet long and eight feet deep, behind 

 each of which is another of corresponding dimen- 

 sions, now filled up several feet with mortar and 

 stones, and appearing to have been originally filled up 

 solid to the ceiUng, making again casas cerradas, or 

 closed houses. The whole number of chambers in 

 this wing is nine, and these are all the apartments on 

 the ground floor. The great structure to which the 

 wing adjoins is apparently a solid mass of masonry, 

 erected only to hold up the two ranges of buildings 

 upon it. A grand staircase fifty-six feet wide, the 

 largest we saw in the country, rises to the top. On 

 one side of the staircase a huge breach, twenty or 

 thirty feet deep, has been made by the proprietor, 

 for the purpose of getting out building stone, which 

 discloses only solid masonry. The grand staircase 

 is thirty-two feet high, and has thirty-nine steps. 

 On the top of the structure stands a range of build- 

 ings, with a platform of fourteen feet in front ex- 

 tending all round. 



