The Alhambra may be likened to an exquisite opera which can only be appreciated to the full when one is under the spell of its magic influence. But as the witchery of an inspired score can be recalled by the sound of an air whistled in the street, so--it is my hope--the pale ghost of this Moorish fairy-land may live again in the memories of travellers through the medium of this pictorial epitome. I desire, however, to submit an explanation--or excuse--for the unusual form in which this volume is issued. At the commencement of my work I experienced no little difficulty in collecting the requisite illustrations, for most of the obtainable photographs were ill-chosen and but carelessly developed, and I was compelled to press my own cameras into the service of my scheme. But when my designs became known, I was inundated with offers of pictures of every description until the embarrassment of artistic treasures entirely upset the original purpose of my book. Artists placed their studies at my disposal; collectors begged me, with irresistible Spanish courtesy, to regard their galleries as my own; and students directed my attention to little known publications on the subject. Don Mariano Contreras, Conservator of the Alhambra, the son of the gifted Raphaël Contreras, who devoted thirty-seven years of his life to the restoration of the Palace--gave me the benefit of his knowledge of this unique treasure-house of art; and I have also laid under contribution the beautiful plates of Owen Jones, who disposed of a Welsh inheritance in order to produce his great work on the _Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra_. Jones’s _Grammar of Ornament_, which has been described as “beautiful enough to be the horn-book of the Angels,” also contains the result of his researches in the Alhambra, which occupied him for the greater part of eleven years. A selection of these illustrations is here rescued from the obscurity of public libraries and the inaccessible recesses of private collections. The inclusion of John F. Lewis’s drawings, and the reproduction of a series of pictures by James C. Murphy, who spent seven years in the study of the artistic marvels of the Alhambra, I do not feel called upon to defend. The photographs, several of which were placed at my disposal by Don Rafaël Garzón, represent the buildings as they appear to-day; the drawings were made before the Palace was damaged by the disastrous fire of September, 1890.