House & Garden 
teristic Spanish trees. We are surrounded 
by the elms of an English park ; about us is 
an air of Fontainebleau or Versailles ; and we 
turn eagerly to inquire the history of this 
verdant spot. 
Far back in the fourteenth century, the 
wealthy and illustrious order ot the Santiago, 
under the leadership of Lorenzo Suarez de 
Figueroa, founded here a monastery. Trees 
were planted, the olive and the vine culti- 
Isabella, the possessions of the Order of the 
Santiago were absorbed by the crown, the 
character of Aranjuez was suddenly changed, 
and it became a royal summer residence, fur¬ 
nishing a breathing spot not too distant from 
the capital, to which royalty might retreat 
and escape from the heat and glare of city 
streets, and the oppressive ceremonials of the 
court. Villas replaced cloisters, and gaily 
dressed courtiers and ladies pushed aside the 
STONE BENCHES AND TREATMENT OF GARDEN WALL AT ARANJUEZ 
Specially Measured and Drawn for House and Garden 
vated, and the marshes at the junction of 
the Tagus and Jarama rivers were reclaimed 
and made to yield abundant crops. How 
different its aspect must then have been, 
without its groves, without its palaces, only 
the plain whitewashed ecclesiastical buildings, 
with their brilliantly tiled roofs, contrasting 
strongly with the deep blue of the southern 
sky ! 
When in the reign of Ferdinand and 
cowled monks. The son of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, Charles V, in t 536 made it into a 
shooting villa, in which to while away a 
moment now and then, when he could escape 
from his almost constant wars. H is son, 
Philip II, on his several visits to England, 
admiring the glorious elms of the northern 
island, caused many of them to be carried to 
Aranjuez and planted so as to surround his 
summer palaces, employing the architect 
