TOCADOR DE LA REINA—THE QUEEN’S DRESSING-ROOM—
so called by the Spaniards, is about nine feet square. It was,
MOSAIC PAVEMENT IN THE QUEEN’S DRESSING-ROOM (TOCADOR DE LA REINA).
in part, modernised and painted in arabesque by Charles V. In a corner is a marble slab drilled with holes, through which, it is said, perfumes were wafted while the Queen was dressing.
It is not unimportant to locate precisely the dwelling-place of Washington Irving during his sojourn in the Alhambra in 1829. It was in the suite of rooms annexed to the Queen’s Dressing-room that he took up his quarters. The kindly American genius, who regarded Englishmen as his own kith and kin, makes it quite plain. He says: “On taking up my abode in the Alhambra, one end of a suite of empty chambers of modern architecture, intended for the residence of the
“THE QUEEN’S DRESSING-ROOM,” AT THE SUMMIT OF THE MIHRÁB TOWER, WITH DISTANT VIEW OF THE GENERALIFE.
Governor, was fitted up for my reception. It was in front of the Palace.... I was dissatisfied with being lodged in a modern apartment.... I found, in a remote gallery, a door, communicating apparently with an extensive apartment, locked against the public.... I procured the key, however, without
TOWERS AND PROMENADE.
difficulty; the door opened to a range of vacant chambers of European architecture, though built over a Moorish arcade.... This fanciful suite of rooms terminated in an open gallery with balustrades, which ran at right angles with a side of the garden. The whole apartment had a delicacy and elegance in its decorations, and there was something so choice and sequestered in its situation along with this retired little garden, that it awakened an interest in its history. I found, on inquiry, that it was an apartment fitted up at the time when Philip V. and the beautiful Elizabeth of Parma were expected at the Alhambra, and was destined for the Queen and the ladies of her train. One of the loftiest chambers had been her sleeping-room; and a narrow staircase leading from it ... opened to the delightful belvedere, originally a mirador of the Moorish Sultanás, but fitted up as a boudoir for the fair Elizabeth, and which still retains the name of the tocador or toilette of the Queen. The sleeping-room I have mentioned, commanded from one window a prospect of the Generalife and its embowered terraces.... I determined at once to take up my quarters in this apartment. My determination occasioned great surprise ... but I was not diverted from my humour.”