1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

18

Lisbon Wines.

assumes a -wilder character as we catch sight of the turbid Eibiera da Bemposta, dashing between precipitous banks over its rocky bed. After passing the highly-cultivated farm and paper mills of Major Smith,an English settler in these parts, we come upon the first -rineyards of the Bucellas district, with most of its -yines exposed to a favourable southern aspect. The village of BuceUas, which boasts a shabby little pra9a or public square, bordered by a few trees, has straggled from the vaUey half-way up the adjacent hiUs. In front of its church stands a plain stone cross, and olives and poplars seem to gird it round. Our first visit was to Joao Pereira, a favourable type of the Portuguese peasant -wine farmer. "We entered through the low doorway, do-wn a single steep step,into the ordinary living-room of the family, where the o-wner's comely -wife and daughter—^beauty,it may beungallantly noted,is rare among the fair sex in Portugal—were engaged in household affairs. There wasthe usual hugechest of maize—^thePortuguese peasant's staff oflife—^with bits and bridles hung against the walls, and in one corner an old-fashioned gim. We were ushered up a stone staircase into a room above,the bare whitened walls of which were set off -with red stencilled borders,their sole remaining decoration being a little picture of Christ bearing His cross. Beyond the usual plain chairs and table the room contained several articles of handsome old-fashioned furniture, which, doubtless, came from one of the dismantled mansions in the neighbourhood. Our Bucellas -wine-grower was a stalwart, handsome man,with well-chiselled features,jet black hair and beard,and complexion of the colom' of mahogany. He wore blue trousers elaborately patched—harlequin's pants are the rule -with aU below the middle class in Portugal—undressed-leather boots, a crimson sash, and a clean white shirt, evidently put on for the occasion. We accompanied him to his -vineyard, some little distance up the valley, meeting on the way oxen toiling along the heavy road -with vats fuU of grapes gathered up the neigh bouring slopes. There had been much heavy rain lately, and the men -vintagers in high boots and gaiters, and the women.