ives character to society, than on the
main-land. Each family has still a crowd of retainers, who perform a
certain amount of service on the estates, and are thenceforth entitled
to support. This custom is the reverse of profitable; but it keeps up an
air of lordship, and is therefore retained. Late in the afternoon, when
the new portion of the Alameda is in shadow, and swept by a delicious
breeze from the sea, it begins to be frequented by the people; but I
noticed that very few of the upper class made their appearance. So grave
and sombre are these latter, that one would fancy them descended from
the conquered Moors, rather than the Spanish conquerors.

M. Laurens is of the opinion that the architecture of Palma cannot be
ascribed to an earlier period than the beginning of the sixteenth
century. I am satisfied, however, either that many fragments of Moorish
sculpture must have been used in the erection of the older buildings, or
that certain peculiarities of Moorish art have been closely imitated.
For instance, that Moorish combination of vast, heavy masses of masonry
with the lightest and airiest style of ornament, which the Gothic
sometimes attempts, but never with the same success, is here found at
every step. I will borrow M. Laurens's words, descriptive of the
superior class of edifices, both because I can find no better of my own,
and because this very characteristic has been noticed by him. "Above the
ground-floor," he says, "there is only one story and a low garret. The
entrance is a semi-circular portal without ornament; but the number and
dimensions of the stones, disposed in long radii, give it a stately
aspect. The grand halls of the main story are lighted by windows
divided by excessively slender columns, which are entirely Arabic in
appearance. This character is so pronounced, that I was obliged to
examine more than twenty houses constructed in the same manner, and to
study all the details of their construction, in order to assure myself
that the windows had not really been taken from those fairy Moresque
palaces, of which the Alhambra is the only remaining specimen. Except in
Majorca, I have nowhere seen columns which, with a height of six feet,
have a diameter of only three inches. The fine grain of the marble of
which they are made, as well as the delicacy of the capitals, led me to
suppose them to be of Saracenic origin."

I was more impressed by the _Lonja_, or Exchange, than any other
building in