1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Tlie Vintcujing of Bucellas.

17

their already empty receptacles. In the outsldrbs of Lisbon moi-e bullock-carts were encountered,laden mostly with casks of wine for storage in the numei'ous adegas outside the city limits. We passed the Campo Pequeno—the Champ de Mars of the Portuguese capital, as the Campo Grande, which we afterwards drove through,is its Bois de Boulogne. On certain houses in the suburban villages we noticed a ship figured in coloured tiles or wrought into the ironwork of the balconies,to indicate that they are the property of the Lisbon municipality. As we get more into the country we pass sevei*al handsome-looking quintas with elaborately-carved escutcheons over their entrance-gateways,and vines trained in corridors forming a series of leafyarcades above their boundary walls. Every now and then we meet gangs of peasants bringing their little stores of agricultui-al produce to market, the men in long cloth caps and the women in high, undressed-leather boots, all of them riding sideways on their horses or mules and carrying gay-coloured umbrellas. The road is shaded with trees,and above most ofthe cottage doorways are figures of the Virgin or some patron saint in antique tiles, while let into the wall of a large quinta we observe an elaborate composition representing a bellicose young St. Michael slaying a most infuriate dragon. By-and-by, over the hedges of aloes, we obtain a glimpse of tmdulating country—vineyards, olive- groves,and market gardens, with their archaic Moorish norias raising water from wells in earthenware jars tied round a lai-ge wooden wheel. Then we passthe Quinta da Nova Cintra—a kind of suburban tea-gardens,to whichthe Lisbon folk resort on days of festival. All along the route we are struck by the number of dismantled mansions and dilapidated houses—mementoes of the disastrous civil war of 1826-33. Our way lies through Povoa de Santo Adriao and Loures, past pleasant quintas with Scriptural incidents depicted on antique tiles over the gateways, though occasionally a bust of Pan or a figure of a vine-enwreathed Bacchante takes their place. For a time the country continues quite pastoral-looking, with vines, olives, prickly pears, and canes studding the slopes in every direction; but it gradually