The soil was everywhere irrigated by the aid of streams and rivers where they were available and elsewhere by the digging of wells and the construction of

nórias.

After the conquest of Toledo by the Christians in 1085, its prosperity declined. The conquerors broke faith with the Moors. The terms of capitulation were violated. The mosques were turned into churches. The property of the Moors which had been secured to them by treaty was taken from them. At length they were glad to escape from a city which, though

dear to them as their birthplace, was now embittered by injustice and cruelty. After a considerable lapse of time, Toledo again rose from its ruins, and became a most flourishing commercial and manufacturing city. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it had a population of not fewer than two hundred thousand souls. It was the Sheffield and the Birmingham of the Middle Ages. A "Toledo blade" was famous throughout Europe and was scarcely inferior to one of Damascus. At a time of great depression its in habitants petitioned for a redress of grievances, and to illustrate their fallen

TOLEDO.

condition protested that there no longer remained in the city more than thirty thousand artisans. At present the entire population of Toledo does not exceed fifteen thousand, and it displays no tendency to increase. The streets are silent and deserted. The houses are falling into decay. Its manufactures are almost extinct. Even the world-famous fabric de armas offers but a shadow of its former greatness and prosperity. This condition of decay is partly due to the departure or the banishment of the Moors, partly to the bloody persecutions of the Jews and their descendants, who had professed Christianity in order to save their property, their liberty, and their lives. They were amongst the most industrious and the richest of the inhabitants. To this fact perhaps they were especially indebted for the suspicions and the solicitude of the Holy Office which enriched itself by their plunder. The loss of its liberties and privileges under Charles V., and the enslavement of the whole nation under his successors, accelerated and completed the downfall of Toledo, the decline of which in industry and wealth is even more remarkable than in any other part of Spain.

There is great diversity of judgment respecting the cathedral. Critics of a severe and simple taste find it too florid and ornate. They complain, too, of its mixed and irregular character, and of the intrusion of an enormous coro-large even for Spain-into the body of the church, obstructing the view, and marring the general effect. The truth of these criticisms may be admitted. And yet it is a most noble edifice. The general effect is gorgeous beyond description-the more gorgeous on account of the Moorish element which manifests itself everywhere. "A practised eye," says Mr. Fergusson, in his Handbook of Architecture, "will detect on every side a tendency to depart from the sober constructive rules of the pure Gothic, and to give rein to an Oriental exuberance of fancy which is so typical of the style. The cathedral of Toledo is even more remarkable for the richness of its furniture than for that of its architecture. The altars, the screens of its tombs, the candelabra, the paintings on glass and canvas, make up a mass of ornament to which no parallel is to be found in France or England. Many cathedrals in these countries may once have possessed furniture equally rich; but spoliation and neglect, and, worse than either, the so-called spirit of restoration, have swept most of this away, and it is in Spain only that we are carried into the bodily presence of a medieval church. Even Toledo has been sadly disfigured with whitewash; and neglect and poverty are fast fulfilling the destructive mission of the age. Still enough remains to enable the architect to understand and re-create the glorious vision of a cathedral as it appeared in ancient days."

The once splendid convent called San Fuan de los Reyes, though gutted of its treasures by the French, and now closed and falling into ruins, deserves a visit. It stands finely on an eminence looking down upon the Tagus, which flows far down in the valley below. An immense number of fetters and manacles are suspended over the entrance of the church and round its sides, placed there as

votive offerings by captives who had escaped from slavery amongst the Moors. Many other churches in central and southern Spain have similar records of the cruelties inflicted by the Moslem on their captives. This fact should be remembered when we judge the Spanish conquerors severely for the hard measure dealt out to the Moors after their defeat. For eight hundred years a bitter and ceaseless warfare had been waged between the two peoples. The Spaniards of the days of Ferdinand and Isabella inherited the hatred and revenge accumulated during long centuries of pitiless warfare. The gospel enjoins forgiveness of injuries, bids us, when smitten on the one cheek, to turn the other, and lays down the golden rule to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. But, however much we regret, we cannot greatly wonder that these pacific precepts should be forgotten in the moment of victory closing a struggle so protracted and so fierce.

Near the Museum is the Juderia or Jews' quarter. It has been already stated that the Jews at one time were very numerous and influential in Toledo. Many archæologists and historians, indeed, believe that the city was originally a Jewish settlement.* Two synagogues, now turned into churches, yet remain. They are Oriental in style, and though rich in arabesque work, are more simple and severe in taste than are most Moorish edifices. One built in the ninth century is called the Church of Santa Maria la Blanca. The French degraded it to a store-house and cavalry stable, and it is now unused. The ceiling is said to be constructed from the cedars of Lebanon, and the soil to have been brought from Mount Zion. The other synagogue was built by Samuel Levy, treasurer to Don Pedro the Cruel, in 1357. The ornamentation of the ceiling and walls is delicate and beautiful. The eighty-fourth Psalm, in very elegant Hebrew letters, runs as a cornice round the building. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God."

Space will only permit the mention of one more out of the innumerable places of profound interest in this most picturesque old city-the Alcazar. It was built soon after the Moorish occupation of Spain on the site of the Roman

* The shrewd and well-informed author of A Year in Spain, so highly commended by Ford in the Quarterly Review, as a book of unusual merit, and betraying a rare knowledge of the country, says: "It was in the neighbourhood of Toledo that Taric the Moslem general, at the time of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs, found that precious table adorned with hyacinths and emeralds, which Gelif Alexis, in his description of Spain, calls the table of Solomon bar David. This table is supposed to have been saved by the captive Jews, with other precious and sacred vessels, from the pillage of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and brought with them into Spain. It was probably the same table of shew-bread spoken of in the Book of Kings and by Josephus. There can be little doubt that this was the original table of shew-bread made by Solomon, and that it was secreted by the Jews when the treasures of the temple were carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon." We may hesitate to accept this conclusion, notwithstanding the arguments by which the writer proceeds to support it. But that so competent a writer should give credence to the legend may illustrate the high position held by the Jews at Toledo.