Identifier: mexicoitsancient01enoc (find matches)
Title: Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development;
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Enock, C. Reginald (Charles Reginald), 1868-1970
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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some twilight lattice what time fromthe street below arose the soft notes of a serenadingguitar. As to the sparkling eyes and the serenadinglover and the balconies, these are not gone ; they areimperishable in Mexico. Here is a description of Mexicoof years ago—the Mexico of the viceroys—which I willtranslate freely from the description of a Mexican writerof to-day, and which in some respects might almostdescribe the city at the present time : Hail, mediaevalcity, redolent of sentimental recollections and romanticimpressions such as well might be the creation offantastic romance ! Clustered with monasteries andconvents, turreted dwellings and sombre monuments,bathed in an atmosphere of orisons and melancholy,threaded by foul and ill-paved alleys, made for crime,intrigue, and mystery; where buried in the profundity ofnight love and wickedness both stalked forth ; strangetemples and niches lit by twinkling lamps before theimages of saints ; recollections of diabolical Inquisitorial
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CITIES AND INSTITUTIONS 191 rites—a romantic and fantastic shroud, dissipated now,torn into shreds by the iron hand of destiny, andbanished or transfigured by the torch of progress ! As has been said, the construction of the housesof Mexico was of solid type, with walls such as mightserve for fortresses rather than dwellings, and when fromnecessity, some old building is demolished it can onlybe performed by the aid of dynamite. So builded theSpaniards, and their work will outlast the more ephemeralstructures of to-day. Indeed, at the beginning of thecolonial period and throughout the sixteenth century,the buildings actually were constructed both as dwellingsand fortresses. At the end of that century a greaterrefinement of architectural art appeared—as a naturaloutcome of corresponding conditions in Spain—in thecolonies. The great cathedral of Mexico was con-structed, due to a mandate of Philip II. It was dedi-cated in 1667, but not concluded until the beginningof the nineteenth

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