1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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In the Port Wine Country.

quent Racking—Poi-t kept sparingly in Solei-as—Messrs. Sandemon's gloomy-looking Amarella Stores—The Firm's large stock of Port Wine— TheirCooperage—^Martinez,Gassiot,and Co.'s Lodges—A Rustic Counting- house—Coopers at Work—Gauging, Branding, and Seasoning of New Pipes—PaUing-in of a Lodge Roof—Conservative Spirit observable at Martinez, Gassiot, and Co.'s—Pipes preparing for Shipment—Brandy kept isolated in the Lodge. In returning to Oporto by way of Villa Real it is still neces sary to recross the lofty Serra do Marao,with its cold grey granite peaks,its wild and precipitous slopes, with huge boulders rising outof the russet bracken, its rushing watercourses, green fertile valleys, and little white villages, half-hidden by the embowering chestnut-trees. The day being wet the drivers of the bullock- carts on the Minho side of the mountain wore their palho9as, or long loose great-coats, with large capes,made of dried rushes, which gave to their wearers the appearance of being thatched from head to heels with straw. Bythe time Oporto was reached it was dusk, so that one had no ojiportunity of judging of the aspect of the city on its northern side. Arrive, however,at the Port wine capital from whatever quarter you may,the fii-st view is almost certain to impress you. If you come by sea and disembark at Foz,the Portuense Brighton, with its long rows of canvas bathing-cabins,and its red, green,and yellow houses in their pretty gardens, all under the shadow of an old granite castle built in the days of the Spanish domination—or if you arrive by rail from the south,the instant the city comes in sight, with its compact pile of houses, churches, and public buildings towering one above the other in irregular tiers along the preci pitous cliff which rises fi'om the brink of the river, you cannot fail to be impi-essed by the picturesque coup d'oeil. Some inelegant chm-ch-towers and a few pretentious edifices break up this singular jumble of quaint-looking houses, with their belvederes, pointed projecting roofs, gaily-tinted fa9ades, and endless lines of ornamental balconies. On the high table land to the west—facing a cluster of Villa ITova wine-lodges perched among the trees up the side of a steep hiU—stands the