Cold, Cold
Must The Heart Be Which Can Remain Insensible To The Beauties Of
This Magic Scene, To Do Justice To Which The Pencil Of Claude
Himself Were Barely Equal.
Often have I shed tears of rapture
whilst I beheld it, and listened to the thrush and the nightingale
piping forth their melodious songs in the woods, and inhaled the
breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand orange gardens of
Seville:
"Kennst du das land wo die citronem bluhen?"
The interior of Seville scarcely corresponds with the exterior:
the streets are narrow, badly paved, and full of misery and
beggary. The houses are for the most part built in the Moorish
fashion, with a quadrangular patio or court in the centre, where
stands a marble fountain, constantly distilling limpid water.
These courts, during the time of the summer heats, are covered over
with a canvas awning, and beneath this the family sit during the
greater part of the day. In many, especially those belonging to
the houses of the wealthy, are to be found shrubs, orange trees,
and all kinds of flowers, and perhaps a small aviary, so that no
situation can be conceived more delicious than to lie here in the
shade, hearkening to the song of the birds and the voice of the
fountain.
Nothing is more calculated to interest the stranger as he wanders
through Seville, than a view of these courts obtained from the
streets, through the iron-grated door. Oft have I stopped to
observe them, and as often sighed that my fate did not permit me to
reside in such an Eden for the remainder of my days.
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