s of cathedral choir stalls, there was a wonderful
opportunity for relief work and the play of the fertile imagination and
childlike expressiveness of the middle ages. Curious freaks of fancy,
their extraordinary conceptions of Biblical scenes, the events and
personages of their own day, could all be portrayed and even carved with
wonderful skill. Leonard Williams, in his "Art and Crafts of Older
Spain," tells us that "the silleria consists of two tiers, the _sellia_
or upper seats with high backs and a canopy, intended for the canons,
and the lower seats or _sub-sellia_ of simpler pattern with lower backs,
intended for the _beneficados_. At the head of all is placed the throne,
larger than the other stalls, and covered in many cases by a canopy
surmounted by a tall spire."

Few of the many Gothic stalls are finer than those of Segovia. The
contrast with the work above them, as well as with that which backs onto
them, is doubly distressing. The tremendous organs above are a mass of
gilding and restless Baroque ornamentation, while their rear is covered
by multicolored strips of stone which would have looked vulgar and gaudy
around a Punch and Judy show and here enframe the four Evangelists. The
chapels and high altar are uninteresting, decorated in later days in
offensive taste. Apart from these furnishings, which play but a small
part, it is rare and satisfying to survey an interior in which there has
been so much decorative restraint, in which the constructive and
architectural lines dominate the merely ornamental ones, and where
harmony, severity and excellent proportions go hand in hand. Were it not
for the cupola and a few minor details, there would be added to these
merits, unity of style.

The cloisters are rich and flamboyant, but nevertheless more restrained
than those of Salamanca. They are elaborately subdivided, carved and
festooned, and, in the bosses of the arches, they carry the arms of
their original builder, Bishop Arias Davila. Just inside their entrance
lie three of the old architects, Rodrigo Gil de Hontanon, Campo Aguero,
and Viadero. The old well in the centre is covered with a grapevine, and
nothing could be lovelier than the deep emerald leaves dotted with
purple fruit growing over the white and yellow stonework.

Few Spanish cathedrals can be seen to such advantage as Segovia, its
situation is so unusual and fortunate. In mediaeval towns closely packed
within their city walls, there could be b