1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

16

Lisbon Wines.

building, nearly knocking over a Custom-house officer who- unconsciously barred his passage. The national love of smug gling is so intense that-although no benefit was likely to accrue- to the man,he could not resist lending his aid to so deshable an object as cheating the revenue. At Cadiz we foimd that no steamer to Lisbon was likely to- leave for several days,so we made the journey by rail—through the land of olives and oranges, barbers and bull-fights, guitars, and gitanos, mules and mantillas,fans and fandangos,and sere nades and"serenos," as the watchmen in the south of Sj)ain are- styled from their repeating from one year's end to the other the monotonous intelligence that the night is a serene one. After- fifteen hours'needless delay at Cordova we crossed the grand,, desolate-lookiag Sierra Morena, and then the broad fertile plateau of Estramadura—passing by Merida (the once famous Eoman city of Emerita), with its still-existing Roman bridge of" eighty-one arches, its vast ruined aqueducts and mutilated Circus Maximus and temples of Mars and Diana. Two hours, more and we were at Badajoz, and soon over the Portuguese frontier tothefoidified town of Elvas,where we were immediately- struck -with the marked difference in the people, who are- heavy in build, graceless in movement,and stolid-looking, with none of that happy insouciance and careless grace of manner^ which distinguish their Spanish brethren on the other side oP the river Cayad. Wereached Lisbon soon after daybreak,and the same morning- drove from the Peninsular city of the seven hills to the "vine yards of Bucellas. There was plenty of animation in the streets: numerous well-appointed two-horse cabs threaded their way between the heavily-laden bullock-carts, with wheels of the ancient Roman type, and the droves of cows on their way to be- milked before every house-door. Bawling fisherwomen,balancing tray-like baskets on their heads, sauntered leisurely along,, hustled every now and then by Gallegos carrying barrels of water on their bra-wny shoulders,while their fellows congregated in scores round the chafarizes, or public fountains, to replenisk