“The horseman on its weather-cock, although a solid body, turns with every wind.
“This to the wise man, reveals many a mystery.
“Indeed, after subsisting a short time, a calamity shall come which shall ruin both the palace and its owner.
“Thus shall Andalus vanish one day!”
The archway-entrance to the Casa del Carbon is very richly decorated, as may be seen by the illustration at p. 443, but the interior has been greatly interfered with and disfigured. Below, is a subterranean passage, said to communicate with the Alhambra; but the Duke d’Abrantes, who owned the Casa, regarded such means of communication as “uncanny,” and blocked up the passage. An inspection of the Arabic title-deeds to this interesting property, which are still extant, would amply repay the pains of conveyancing amateurs.
LA CASA SANCHEZ—THE HOUSE OF SANCHEZ.
La Casa Sanchez, so-called from having been the dwelling of an honest muleteer of that name, was once one of the most picturesque and most Moorish of dwellings. But, alas! in the year 1837, the whole front was “restored” and “beautified,” and an ancient fish-pond, similar to that of the Court of Myrtles, was filled up and converted into a garden by one of the resident officers of the Palace. The ruthless empleado, who caused the Moorish doors of the Hall of the Abencerrages to be sawn asunder, permitted also this outrage by a man of equal
MOSAIC PAVEMENT IN THE DRESSING-ROOM OF THE SULTÁNA.
taste with himself, who ruined the little architectural gem. The ruin yet offers a specimen of minute and beautiful tarkish—stucco-work—that even the lovely examples of the Alhambra itself cannot surpass. An illustration at p. 445, from a drawing of about the year 1830, ’ere the spoiler came, will give an idea of the departed beauty of the jewelled building.