OLD MADRID.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 72

OLD MADRID.

' Tlie Royal Pal&cs at Madrid was built on tlie site of the historic building destroyed by lire about 170 veal's ago. It is 4701t square and 100 ft high, built of a beautiful white stone resembling marble In the cen+re is an open court — or patio — in which stand tour large statues of lw four Roman Emperors who Aver? ■ii.Uvcs of Spain — Trojan. Adrian, Bononus. a«cl Th&odosius From this court loses the inasriJfli t v nt st.iim.S'e of biack raid whiitc lnii'ble, giuiriled by colossal lions.

Napdeon 1, when he entered Madrid as a. crmqueror ; placed Mi, hand on onrp of these marble beasts, crjinc triumphantly, "At la -it I hold the Spam I've coveted iio long!" llien. turning to Joseph Bonaparl<'., whom he had just noiiunaccd ss Kinr of the subjugated country, he said : "An} us for tl'is palace, mv brother, you will be far bettor lodged here than. I am at the Tuileries."

Thirty salons, gorgeously furnished, opon one from the other: the last and the most sumptuous is xibe Sala del Trono. vrhioh is painted to represent the ''Majesty •of the ' S pains." Ooauiil^s-^ timepiccc& crowd these rooms. King Ferdinand VII had 'a perfect mania for clocks, and collected them from all countries, heedless o>{ pains or expanse. The impossibility of mis king them all keep correct time is said to be the origin of the traditional tinpunctuality of the Spa.nish Court. The various Ambassadors who suffer from this foible of royalty glare around at the vaiious di«!-plates ivifch. ill-cosiosaled disgust.

There are not so very many treasures to I>3 seou in the Palace. The ancient regalia was destroyed in the fire, and the priceless collection of antique sword 3 and cro-wns is lodged in the armoury. Ths great dia mond reckoned airon'g the three mcst precious gems in the world was lost in that fire, and also the pearl known a.s La Huerfana — the Orphan One, — which Wfb isasd to be worth 30,000 ducats, :m •normou« sum for tihat. tirae. TH-ex^s was ri'iso a wonderful fleur-de-lis of gold and gems, and many other marvels.

I'he bpamards have always bad a pas sion for coaches. There ware hundreds of .'.inierb carriages -in the country bsiore there were roads fit fur during upon! The roved collection numbers about 2GU, from the oboriy-ard-gold Fiat* carriage illio masterpiece oi' Dnran. vrhicii cos-t ovc318,000) to ihe mod'C&t modern phaeton rent by Queen "Victoria to the Queen Regent as a Christmas gilt Trhon the present Kins; was a baby in arms

Sljte pp.geants in Sp-iin onido tliDse of any other country in magnificent display When i'lve Sovereign goes in state in attend a religious funsticn tlie procession is a sight -worth seeing The crxrvrd of officials, the armies of servants, the carriages and horses and trappings — 'all Lie wilder the unaccustomed eves ol onlooking foreigners. Neither Vienna nor St. Petersburg can rival the stately pageant.

Noble horsenLMisliiip is srtill a t.est of food birth and breeding in Spain. Perbapo it wiic. tins <?'omiiiion of the Moois throughout the Middle Ages that brought the love for it, just as they brought the beautiful Arab'uw horses \riiich were the progenitors of the present race. The Stale li varies and accoutrements stall show Moorish pattern? 1 , in velvet a«d silkenembroil erirs ard housings: Moorish caddlea and si irriips arc still used in the bull-ring . and "caballeros'" still go prancina: dovii the Akala with left hand gracefully held on hip. looking for all the woild like an cniKstiitm portra.it of Titian or Velasquez.

King Alfonso himself rides most gracefully, as dkl Ms father before him. The present writer remembers eeeiiis: the

Queen's* staghcrands streaming across the broken, heathery ground towards Cassar's Camp aiid Camberley. The deer ha.-l chosen a difficult line, and but few of the ftpld ' lived" with the hounds, towards the end of the run. A young man with a slight, rather stooping figure, splashed from head to foot, came on among the ikst. He was superbly mounted ; but that alone would not for his having kept his honoui-ible place in the field. He knew how to ride the horse that carried him, and he knew the country, for he was one of the Sandhurst cadets, and had ridden it a do;:en times.

An aggressive bough and a snapping cord had°robbed Mm of his hat, his hair was saturated with rain, and the branch had made an ugly mark across ll s s cheek. But ho rode on blithely, boyishly, "as happy as a king." It was the Prince o£ the Asturias, who was then spending sonio of tho days of his exile on England's friendly soil. Queen Isabella, his mother, had been driven from her throne, and her rule had baen so undeniably bad 1 that not one man of position or character could then De found to assert th© righls of her son. So, as many an heir to a throne had done before him; the young Prmee waited with what patience he could find until the Wheel of Fortune turned again, which it did at length, and he found himself a King. The years of his reign w«re few and stormy. * Perhaps roiae of the happiest hours* he ever spf nt were those when Le rodo with "the Queens across the Berkshire heather. In this country Court etiquette of the digressing typo * lms been mostly doce away with, and, except on state occasions, our'le-idin* royalties do not expect io oe approached 0 as though they were divinities. This fi^v>n. however, still prevails at toe Russian court: also, to a lesser degree, amonrf the entourage of the Austnwi Emperor. Tlio young King of Spain, too, is a Sovereign who must play up to tradition, and never lose sight of the fact t.nat lie 'is a crowned Bourbon.— Xodcr n Society.