vel of the world, which cost some 10 millions, was perishing for the sake of a few hundreds, until Argüelles, in 1842, granted a pittance out of the queen's privy purse, and stayed the immediate ruin. The convent was first stripped of much of its golden ornaments by the French in December 1808; they also did irreparable damage to the exterior, which Ferdinand VII. afterwards did what he could to repair.* In July 1837, when the Carlists, under Zariategui, advanced on Segovia, a hundred of the best pictures were removed to Madrid. The edifice was at once a temple, a palace, a treasury, a tomb-house, and a museum, and for these purposes was it reared by Philip II., el prudente, who is called by the monks "the holy founder," and by others el Escorialense. His object was to carry out the will of his father in constructing a royal burial-place, and at the same time to fulfil a vow made during the battle of St. Quentin, when he implored the aid of San Lorenzo, on whose day (August 10, 1557) it was fought.

San Lorenzo was a native of Huesca. He was broiled by Valentianus, Aug. 12, 261, on a slow fire.

valry, and 1000 English under Lord Pembroke. The French were completely routed, and lost 3000 men, 4000 prisoners, with their colours, baggage, and artillery. Had Philip II. pressed on, he might have captured Paris as easily as the Duke did after Waterloo; but in truth this colossal pile is the only benefit which Spain derived from that important victory. Philip, tired of war's alarms, took to building, for which he was really fitted, being a man of taste and a true patron of artists. As he was of a shy phlegmatic temperament, he, like Tiberius, made the dedication of this temple his excuse to escape from the public city of Madrid: certus ab urbe procul degere (Tac. Ann. iv. 57). One of the fatal effects of the Escorial has been, that it tended to fix the Royal residence at Madrid.

The first stone was laid April 23, 1563, by Juan Bautista de Toledo, whose great pupil, Juan de Herrera, finished the pile, Sept. 13, 1584. Here, on the same day of the same month, in the year 1598, did Philip II. die,* having lived in his vast convent 14 years, half-king, half-monk, and boasting that from the foot of a mountain he governed the world, old and new, with two inches of paper. He loved the place because it was a creation of his own, and one congenial to his sombre temperament.

The victory of St. Quentin, now claimed by the Spaniards for themselves, was, in fact, won by Philibert of Savoy, ably seconded by D'Egmont, with Flemish infantry, German ca- The edifice disappoints at closer *For the Escorial as it was, consult the ex- sight; it has not the prestige of ancellent Historia de la Orden de San Geronymo,' tiquity, the proportions of a pagan by José de Sigüenza (its first prior, and an eye- temple, or the religious sentiment of witness of its building); 4 vols., Madrid, 1st and 2nd parts, 1590; 3rd part, 1605; 4th, by Fran- the Christian Gothic; it has nothing in cisco de los Santos, 1680. Sigüenza also wrote form or colour which is either royal, the Vida de San Geronimo, 4to., Mad. 1595; religious, or ancient, medieval or see also Further Observations,' &c., James national. The clean granite, blue Wadsworth, London, 1630: 'Descripcion . del Escorial,' Fra. de los Santos, fol. Mad. 1657; slates, and leaden roofs, look as if La reali grandezze del Escuriale,' Ilario Maz-built yesterday for an overgrown comzorali de Cremona, 4to., Bologna, 1648; De- monplace barrack or manufactory. The scripcion,' &c., Andres Ximenez, fol. Mad. 1764; windows are too small, but, had they and the interesting Hist. del R. Monasterio de San Lorenzo,' by José Quevedo, 1 vol., Mad. 1849. been planned in proportion to the These works describe its splendid past condition enormous façades, the rooms lighted before the fatal invasion. There is a set of accu- by them would have been too lofty, rate views by Thomas Lope Enguidanos, sold at the Madrid Imprenta real. Herrera published and thus external appearance was himself a list of his original plans and eleva-sacrificed for internal accommodation: tions, 'Sumaria de los Diseños,' a rare duo., Mad. now these windows are spots which 1589. The 13 prints were engraved at Antwerp: some of the original drawings are in the British *See Motley's United Netherlands,' vol. Museum, iv,

cut up breadth and interfere with the sentiment of solidity. The redeeming qualities of the elevation are size, simplicity, and situation. It stands about 2700 feet above the level of the sea, and is part and parcel of the mountain out of which it has been constructed: it is so large that it looks grand even amid the mighty buttresses of nature, which form an appropriate frame to the severe picture. The ashy coloured pile looms like the palace of death, when Eolus sends forth his blasts of consumption, which descend from these pecled Sierras to sweep away human and vegetable life from the desert of Madrid.

and women blown up like balloons, and lords of the bedchamber by the score whirled round and round like dead leaves. The convent is not placed according to the cardinal points," on account of the winds; their violence is disarmed by its being set a little out of the square. The custodians know by rote all the proportions. They repeat that the square of the building covers 500,000 feet; that in the centre is the chapel, surmounted by a dome; that there are 88 fountains, 15 cloisters, 86 staircases, 16 courtyards, and 3000 feet of painted fresco.

The Convent is now turned to educational purposes. It is used as a seminary, where 180 youths receive a secular education.

large portal, over which a San Lorenzo, 15 ft. high, is placed, and within it (to the rt.) are hung up two jaw-bones of a whale, caught off Valencia in 1574.

The edifice is a rectangular parallelogram, of some 744 feet from N. to S., and 580 from E. to W.; but let us not measure it, for the sentiment of The Porteria, or porter's hall, is on vastness is independent of actual size; the N. façade, but is seldom used: and all the line-and-rule, clerk-of-the- you proceed therefore to the W. faworks details are to be found in Ma-çade, and enter by a wicket-door in the doz, vii. 527. It is chiefly built in the Doric order. The interior is divided into courts, which the vulgar have believed to represent the bars of the gridiron, in allusion to the martyrdom of St. Lorenzo. The story appears to have been the invention of a later date than its construction: this building does not possess the required similitude, and almost every rectangular building in the world with an advanced portico or construction may be compared to a gridiron. The N. and W. sides, which front the village and mountains, have a fine paved Lonja or platform to the E. and S. terraces look over formal hanging gardens and fishponds. The slopes below are well planted, especially la Herreria and la Fresneda: the elms were brought by Philip II. from England. The W. or grand façade faces the Sierra, for the convent turns its back on Madrid. On the north Lonja is a subterranean gallery, 180 ft. long, 10 high, and 7 broad, tunnelled in 1770 by the monk Pontones, in order to afford a communication with the village during the winter hurricanes: these storms, the guides say, once hoisted an ambassador, coach and all, in the air, to say nothing of the petticoats of monks

The grand central Doric and Ionic portal was formerly opened only to admit royalty, either alive or dead; the monarch, in the latter case, was borne in by 3 nobles and 3 priests. The first patio is called de los Reyes, from the statues of "the Kings" of Judah, connected with the Temple of Jerusalem. They are 17 feet high, and were all cut by Juan Bautista Monegro, out of one granite block, of which enough, so says the inscription, still remains to make up the dozen. The hands and heads are of marble, the crowns of gilt bronze, but the figures are lanky and without merit; the least bad is that of Solomon. The court is 320 feet deep by 230 wide, and is too crowded, being all roof, and having no less than 275 windows; again, the pediment over the entrance into the church is too high and heavy. This court was the last finished. On the south side is the library, and opposite the students' college. Hence by a dark passage to the grand church, el Templo, which was begun in 1563 and completed in 1586; obs, the aɖ

mirable construction of the flat roof, | This glorious work of art, which took over which is the choir or coro alto, so many years to be made, was dewhich, from not being placed in the stroyed in five minutes by the longbody of the church, does not cut up its bearded pioneers of La Houssaye, who size nor conceal its grandeur. The in- broke it, thinking that it was silver terior of the chapel, as seen from under gilt, and, being disappointed, cast it this sombre grotto-like arch, is the away as worthless brass. triumph of architecture: it takes away the breath of the beholder from its On each side of the high altar are majestic simplicity. All is quiet, so-low chambers or oratories of black and lemn, and unadorned; no tinsel statues sombre marble for the royal family, or tawdry gildings mar the perfect while above are placed bronze-gilt proportion of the chaste Christian effigies, who kneel before the King of temple; the religious sentiment per- kings. Al lado del Evangelio are vades the whole of this house of God; Charles V., his wife Isabel, his daugheverything mean and trivial is for-ter Maria, and his sisters Eleonora and

gotten.

Maria. The epitaphs, which are well worth the student's attention, challenge future kings to outdo him, and until then to cede the post of honour. Opposite kneel Philip II., Anna his fourth wife, mother of Philip III.; Isabel his third wife; and Maria his first, at whose side is her son Don Carlos. These statues are portraits, and the costume and heraldic deco

The Church has 3 naves, 320 ft. long, 230 wide, and 320 high to the top of the cupola, but the secret of its grandeur is in the conception and proportion. The black and white pavement is serious and decorous. Eight of the compartments of the vaulted roof are all painted in fresco (blue predominating), by Luca Giordano. The Re-rations are very remarkable; they are tablo of the high altar is superb, and is reached by a flight of red-veined steps. The screen, 93 ft. high by 43 wide, employed the artist, Giacomo Trezzo, of Milan, 7 years, and it is composed of the 4 orders. The dividing columns are jasper, with bronze-gilt bases and capitals, and the roof is painted in poor fresco by Luca Cangiagi. The picture in the retablo, of the Adoration and Nativity, and San Lorenzo, by Pelegrino Tibaldi, are very cold. The Saviour at the column and bearing the Cross, and the Assumption of the Virgin, are by Francesco Zuccaro. The bronze medallions, the holy rood, and 15 gilt statues, are by Pompeio Leoni and his son. A wooden tabernacle replaces that of a splendid gilt bronze, 6 ft. high, which, designed by Herrera and executed by Trezzo,* was one of the finest works of art in Spain, or indeed in the world; the older writers talk of it as a "specimen of the altar ornaments of heaven."

* In 1578 he struck a fine medal of Herrera,

and in 1588 another of Zuccaro, with this retablo for the reverse.

inlaid with marbles and precious stones. Philip II. died in a small chamber near the oratory, below his effigy. The minor altars are more than 40 in number; some of them, and the piers, are decorated with magnificent pictures by Juan Fernandez Navarette el Mudo, the Dumb (1526, 1579), but who spoke by his pencil with the bravura of Rubens, without his coarseness, and with a richness of colour often rivalling even Titian, but the light is bad. The pictures represent full-length figures of saints and apostles, and among the finest are San Felipe, San Andrés, and Santiago: observe the way the drapery is painted. San Juan and San Mateo are equal to Tintoretto; Santo Tomás, San Ber. nabé, are very grandiose. Others of the altars are by the Zuccaros, Luca Cangiagi, Alonso Sanchez, Luis de Carabajal, and Pelegrino Tibaldi.

The Relicario is to the rt. of the high altar, in the transept. Philip II. was a relicomaniac; accordingly all who wished to curry favour with him sent him specimens. Philip kept these

precious relics in 515 shrines of Cel- | Antonio Ceroni of Milan; the tawdry lini-like plate, some wrought by Juan chandelier is by Virgilio Franchi of d'Arfe; but La Houssaye took all Genoa; the crucifix is by Pedro Tacca. the bullion, and left the relics on the There are 26 niches hollowed in the floor. Then were stolen more than 8 sides, with black marble sarcophagi 100 sacred vessels of silver and gold, or urns, all exactly alike. The reignbesides the gold and jewelled custodia, ing sovereigns are placed on the rt. of the silver female image called La the altar, and their consorts to the 1. Mecina, because given by the city of The names of the deceased are written Mescina; then disappeared the silver on each urn; the empty ones await full-length statue of San Lorenzo, future kings and queens. None are which weighed 4 cwt., and held in its buried here save kings and queens hand one of the real bars of his grid-regnant, and the mothers of kings; iron, set in gold, which La Houssaye stripped off; but he left the iron for the consolation of the monks. These objects were taken to Madrid in_14 carts for details see Quevedo, 'Descripcion del Escorial.'

Next descend into the Royal tomb, the Panteon. This family vault is placed under the high altar, in order that the celebrant, when he elevates the Host, may do so exactly above the dead. Philip II., although he built the Escorial as a tomb-house for his father, prepared nothing but a plain vault, which, like that of Frederick the Great at Potsdam, thus becomes at once impressive and instructive, from the moral which such a change in such a monarch must suggest. Philip III., his silly son, began the present gorgeous chamber, which Philip IV. completed in 1654, moving in the royal bodies on the 17th of March. The entrance, with its gilt ornaments and variegated Spanish marbles, has nothing in common with the sepulchral sentiment. Read the inscription over the portal, D. O. M. Locus sacer, &c.; it is the epitome of the history of the Escorial. Descending, obs. the portrait of the monk Nicolas, who remedied a land-spring which is heard trickling behind the masonry. Obs. the portal, and read the inscription, Natura occidit, &c. Descending again, and carefully, for the steps are polished and slippery, by a green and yellow coloured jasper-lined staircase, at the bottom is the Panteon, an octagon of 36 ft. in diameter by 38 ft. high. The materials are dark polished marbles and gilt bronze; the Angels are by

for etiquette and precedence in Spain have always hitherto survived the grave. The kings Philip V. and Ferdinand VI. and their queens are not buried here. Philip IV., in 1654, opened the urna of Charles V., whose body was found to be perfectly preserved. After looking a while at the body of his great ancestor, he observed to Don Luis de Haro, "Don Luis, cuerpo honrado :" the Premier replied, "Si Señor, muy honrado" (Sigüenza, iv. 185). In 1869 the ministers of the revolution had the urna of Charles V. opened, and the body was found to be well preserved. A painter who was present, Sr. Palmaroli, took a sketch of it-a photograph of which may be obtained at Laurent's Carrera de San Geronimo, Madrid.

Generally speaking, when the party of visitors is numerous, each carries a taper, which, by lighting up this chamber of death, injures its impressiveness, and ill accords with the lesson which this finale of pomp and power ought to suggest.

Ascending gladly from the Panteon to the sun and life again, at the first break or descanso in the staircase a door leads to what is called el Panteon de los Infantes, where the Infantes of Spain are buried. By the express desire of the Duke de Montpensier, his daughter, the unfortunate Queen Mercedes, was not buried in this Panteon. Her body is deposited in the third chapel at the gospel side of the altar of the church of the Escorial until the church now in construction near the palace is ready to receive it. Queen Isabella and her

successors have spent very large | tada," every Sept. 29 and Oct. 28, at sums on the tombs of the Spanish | 12 noon precisely, on which occasions princes. This Panteon is commonly the picture is lowered by cords below called el Pudridero, the putrefying the floor, and the Forma is seen in its place. Bermejo (p. 153) gives a list of place. This painting (the masterpiece the deceased, the shortness of whose of Claudio Coello, the last of good Spalives is remarkable. Among them nish painters) is a real relic, and relies the body of the unfortunate Don presents the apotheosis of this wafer Carlos,* son of Philip II., Isabel de as it took place in this very sacristia. Valois and Maria of Portugal, Don The heads are portraits, and have all Juan of Austria (brought from Namur the character of identity and indiin 1579), the Duke of Vendôme viduality. The Prior's is that of (natural son of Louis XIV.), &c. Santos, the historian of the Escorial. Charles II. is represented kneeling in the centre: behind him stand the Dukes of Medinaceli and Pastrana. The receding perspective painting of the priests, monks, courtiers, and dresses is admirable.

Next visit the ante sacristia, with fine Arabesque ceilings, and pass on to

The Sacristia, a noble room 108 ft. long by 23 wide. The Arabesque ceilings are painted by Granello and Fabricio. Above the presses, in which the dresses of the clergy were stowed, once hung the Perla of Raphael, and some of the finest pictures in the world (26 in number), which were removed in 1827 to the Museo in Madrid. Obs. the fine mirrors in this room. At the S. end is the Retablo de la Santa Forma, so called because in it is kept the miraculous wafer which bled at Gorcum (Holland) in 1525, when trampled on by Zuinglian heretics. Rudolph II. of Germany gave it to Philip II., and this event is represented in a bas-relief. Charles II., in 1684, erected the gorgeous altar, which is inscribed, "Eu magni operis miraculum, intra miraculum mundi, cœli miraculum consecratum." When the French soldiers entered the Escorial, the monks hid the wafer in the cellar, so the spoilers, busy with emptying the casks, passed it by: Ferdinand VII. restored it in great pomp, Oct. 28, 1814. The Forma is exhibited for adoration, or "manifes

*All the stories of this prince's love for his

father's wife, and his consequent murder, are fic tions of poets. Raumur has demonstrated that Carlos, weak from his birth in mind and body, was much injured by a fall, May 15, 1562. Subject to fits and fevers, he hated his father, and was at no pains to conceal it. He was very properly arrested, January 18, 1568; but both he and the queen died natural deaths, and not the slightest love affair ever took place between them. Consult Gachard, Philippe II. et Don Carlos,'

·

Observe three fine figures of saints by El Greco (the San Francisco is splendid), and the Descent from the Cross by Ribera, over the entrance doorway.

Behind the altar is the Camarin, erected in 1692 by José del Olmo and Francisco Rizzi. It is a gem of precious marbles, but La Houssaye carried off the lamps, the sacramental services, the splendid viril sobredorado, the gift of Leopold II., and in short everything either of gold or silver, whether displaying the piety or the taste of the Catholic monarchs.

Do not omit to see the splendid embroideries by friars of the Escorial in the sacristy.

Now visit the cloisters or courtyards, and first the two large ones, the upper and under. The claustro principal bajo is a square of 212 feet each side. The walls are painted in raw fresco, with sprawling figures by L. Carabajal, Miguel Barroso, L. Cambiaso, and P. Tibaldi : some are faded by exposure to the damp air, and others were defaced by the French soldiers; that of the San Lorenzo en parrilla has been restored. Vast in size, mediocre in drawing, very little mind animates the mass, and we chiefly carry away the desire never to see them or their like again.

The central Patio de los Evangelistas, a square of 176 ft., with its ponds and