X
MOORISH DOOR, DETAIL OF CARVING
(Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra, Granada)
I have omitted hitherto all mention of the furnishing of humbler Spanish houses in the olden time. The following passage from the Ordinances of Granada shows us, referring to an inn, an unpretentious lodging of about four hundred years ago:—
“Item. If the innkeeper have a parlour or alcove that fastens with a lock, and therein a bed of the better class, with hangings round about it, and a canopy above, and on the bed a counterpane, friezed blanket, and pillows; also a bench with its strip of carpet or striped benchcloth, a table with its service of tablecloths and all that be needful, besides a lamp of brass or ware, all of the best that he is able to provide—for such a bed and room he may demand twelve maravedis each day; whether the room be taken by one guest, or two, or more.”[21]
Nor was the Spanish inn more comfortable in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries than in the sixteenth. “On entre d'ordinaire dans les Hôtelleries par l'écurie, du moins dans de certaines Provinces; on vous mène dans quelque chambre, où vous trouvez les quatre parois, quelquefois un bois de lit; pour chandelle on allume un grand nombre de petites bougies, qui font assez de lumière pour voir ce que vous mangez; et afin que l'odeur and la fumée de tant de bougies n'incommode pas, on vous apporte, si vous le souhaitez, un brasier de noyaux d'olives en charbon. Quand on monte, on trouve au haut de l'escalier, la Señora de la Casa, qui a eu le tems de prendre ses beaux habits de dimanche pour vous faire honneur et s'en faire à elle-même.” (Alvarez de Colmenar, in 1715.)
It is interesting to compare these passages with Lancelot Addison's account of a Morocco inn towards the middle of the seventeenth century; bearing in mind that fonda, the current Spanish term for hostelry, is common both to Spain and to Morocco:—
“In later years, every town of traffic hath erected a sort of Inns called Alfándach, which affords nothing but House-room for man and beast, the market yielding provision for both. Those that farm these fandáchs cannot exact above a Blankil a night both for man and beast, which is in sterling money about two pence. The horses lodging costing equally with his Rider's.”[22]
Similarly, the keeper of the older Spanish inn was not allowed by law to traffic in provisions. “Nothing but house-room” was available for wayfarers, and the weary visitor, as soon as ever he arrived, must sally forth to do his marketing.
XI
DOOR OF THE SALON DE EMBAJADORES
(Alcázar of Seville)