Salamanca contains several old mansions of the nobility, which might well have delighted Prout. However remote may have been the date of their foundation, later restoration has given them for the most part a plateresque or Renaissance aspect. The Casa de las Salinas was built for the Fonseca family in 1538, and was afterwards used as a place of storage for salt. It is considered to be the best example of the plateresque style in the city. The four arches of the principal façade spring from granite columns with very well chiselled capitals. Good also are the busts in medallions between the arches. The second story is pierced by three square windows, supported by splendid masculine figures, emblematic of the victories of Charles V., and in the best style of the period. Hardly inferior to these are the cherubs and grotesques on the columns of the jambs. Angels’ heads appear over the arches of the gallery which crowns the edifice. The beautiful _patio_ is adorned by arches similar to those of the façade. Round the court runs a mean wooden gallery carried on sixteen brackets superbly carved with terminal figures in every sort of posture, and supporting delightfully fantastic monsters. These figures are among the best sculptures in Salamanca, and merit close examination. We find the five lilies of the Maldonados, those old Capulets of the city, displayed over the entrance of the Casa de las Conchas, built for the family in 1512. The house derives its name from the thirteen rows of shells decorating its front. The most interesting features of the building are the windows, each divided by a slender central shaft, and with delicate traceries in the early plateresque style. Quadrado states that the Jesuits, wishing to acquire the site, offered an ounce of gold for each of the shells, but the owners declined to give up the property at any price. The unfinished palace of the counts of Monterey dates from the same epoch (1530). It is a massive building of three low stories, the upper pierced with an elegant gallery, and surmounted by a beautiful balustrade composed of figures and foliage intertwined. Above the general level rise square towers with open galleries, exhibiting some good decorative details. The lower stories of the mansion are devoid of interest. Very suggestive of Salamanca’s fiery, flourishing days is the device over the doorway of an old house in the little Plaza de San Cebrian--‘Quod tibi non vis, alteri non facias.’ Close by in an underground cellar the famous Enrique de Villena is said to have studied magic under a sacristan from a neighbouring church. Not far away, we believe, is a house which we failed to find, called the Casa de las Batallas, where a temporary peace was patched up between the rival factions of the city in 1478--a peace commemorated by a text sculptured above the arch, ‘Ira odium generat, concordia nutrit amorem.’