The New -York Historical Society While at Cordova his eye reveled over a delightful landscape arid he wrote again to the same lady a few weeks later that "every bend of the river presents a new landscape, for it is beset by old Moorish mills of the most picturesque forms; each mill having an embattled tower — a memento of the valiant tenure by which those gallant fellows, the Moors, held this earthly paradise, having to be ready at all times for war, and as it were, to work with one hand and fight with the other. It is impossible to travel about Andalusia and not imbibe a kind feeling for those Moors. They deserved this beautiful country. They won it bravely; they enjoyed it generously and kindly. No lover ever delighted more to cherish and adore a mistress... than did the Moors to embellish, enrich, elevate and defend their beloved Spain. Everywhere I meet traces of their sagacity, courage, urbanity, high poetical feeling, and elegant taste. The noblest institutions in this part of Spain, the best inventions for comfortable and agreeable living... may be traced to the Moors." This strikes a responsive chord, because early in the 1900's it was my good fortune to spend several pleasant months in Southern Spain, living for a time in the hotel at Granada named for Washington Irving, strolling up the boulevard of the same name to the Alhambra, and even painting one of the picturesque Moorish mills he speaks of on the Guadalquivir at Cordova. These mills — to digress a little — built in the seventh and eighth centuries, are still in operation, getting their power from undershot wheels revolved by the river's incoming and outgoing tides, grinding their grist for the good of mankind now for 1200 years. Not far away is the City of Sevilla. The Moors say, "He whom God loves has his house in Sevilla," and many of us remember the Tower of Giralda — reproduced in miniature by Stanford White on old Madison Square Garden — to the top of which each morning went the Moorish Kings on horseback to greet the rising sun. Yes, those Moors were gallant fellows, never thinking to lock a door unless there were Christians around. 12