It presented a type, though doubtless a
faint one, of the establishment of a Spanish noble in the olden time.
The Spaniards were always grandiose in their notions of style.
Huge palaces; lumbering equipages, laden with footmen and lackeys;
pompous retinues, and useless dependents of all kinds; the dignity
of a noble seemed commensurate with the legions who loitered about his
halls, fed at his expense, and seemed ready to devour him alive. This,
doubtless, originated in the necessity of keeping up hosts of armed
retainers during the wars with the Moors, wars of inroads and
surprises, when a noble was liable to be suddenly assailed in his
castle by a foray of the enemy, or summoned to the field by his
sovereign.
The custom remained after the wars were at an end, and what
originated in necessity was kept up through ostentation. The wealth
which flowed into the country from conquests and discoveries
fostered the passion for princely establishments. According to
magnificent old Spanish usage, in which pride and generosity bore
equal parts, a superannuated servant was never turned off, but
became a charge for the rest of his days; nay, his children, and his
children's children, and often their relatives to the right and
left, became gradually entailed upon the family. Hence the huge
palaces of the Spanish nobility which have such an air of empty
ostentation from the greatness of their size compared with the
mediocrity and scantiness of their furniture, were absolutely required
in the golden days of Spain, by the patriarchal habits of their
possessors.
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