that the Spaniard had nought else to do but go
with his ass to the market and buy the corn of the Moors."

Only once more does Granada's name emerge from the oblivion of
ages,--when the Iron Duke occupied the city during the Peninsular War.
He covered with a kindly hand some of her barrenness, planting English
elms beneath her fortress.

II

In the heart of a crumbling mass of chalky, chrome-colored walls and
vermilion roofs, rises the dome of the Cathedral. Here, as in Seville,
the ground once sanctified to Moslem prayer was cleansed by the
Catholics from the pollution of the Moor, and the Christian edifice was
reared on the foundations of the Mohammedan mosque. As already noted,
one of the first religious acts of the conquerors was the consecration,
in January, 1492, of the ancient mosque, which thereafter was used for
Christian worship under the direction of the wise and tolerant Talavera,
as first Bishop of Granada. The new building was not begun until the
year 1523, an exceedingly late date in cathedral-building,--a time when
the great art was slowly dying down, and, in northern countries,
flickering in its last flamboyancy.

On March 25, 1525, the corner stone was laid of the new Cathedral of
Santa Maria de la Encarnacion. It was planned on a much more elaborate
scale than the previous mosque, which, however, continued to be
independently used as a Christian church until the middle of the
seventeenth century and was not demolished till the beginning of the
eighteenth, to make room for the new sagrario, or parish church, of
Santa Maria de la O.

The old mosque was of the usual type of Moslem house of prayer, its
eleven aisles subdivided by a forest of columns and resembling in
general aspect the far greater mosque of Cordova. Prior to the actual
commencement of the new Cathedral, though not to its design, the Royal
Chapel was erected, between the years 1506 and 1517, and when the
Cathedral was built, it became its southern, lateral termination and by
far the most magnificent and interesting portion of the interior. It was
planned and executed by the original designer of the church, and even
after this was finished, the Royal Chapel remained, like the chapel of
Saint Ferdinand of Seville, an independent church with its own Chapter
and clergy and independent services.

About a dozen master-builders, almost all working under foreign
influence, are known as the architects of the great Spanish cathedrals.
They