1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Collarea, Torres Vedras, the Termo, Camarate, ^c. 23

tures. Beyond some grandiose villas and gardensin tlie environs of Lisbon tbe drive offered nothing particularly interesting—the gigantic aqueduct,supplying the city with water,the countless dismantled windmills perched on all the hills for miles,and the i-emains of Mr. Albert Grant's unlucky tramway forming the principal objects of curiosity along the route, which runs for many miles through a purely corn-growing country, varied by •occasional orange groves and orchards. After the little village of PorcaDiota is passed through the road to Cintra branches off to the left, while the main road con tinues to Mafra, famous for its vast palace, the Portuguese Escorial, on the roof of which an aimy of 10,000 men,it is said, could be drilled. Near Mafra the late Queen Doima Maria IL established a model farm, and when some steam-ploughs and threshing-machines imported from England were on their way thither from Lisbon they were attacked by a mob of infuriated peasants, who smashed them to pieces despite the protection afforded by an escort of troops. The mild Hindoo,although equally averse with the Portuguese peasant to have his anti quated system of tiUing the soil interfered with, treats these scientific implements inafar more respectfulfashion. According to Dr. George Birdwood, when a steam-plough was introduced into the Presidency ofBombay it was borne in procession to the fields, wreathed with roses, while all who went to see it were similarly adorned and sprinkled with attar as well. No practical use,however,was made of the implement,but after a time it was placed in the village temple, where it had its great steel share bedaubed red, and was thenceforward worshipped as a God. On branching off beyond Porcalhota we passed near to ■Queluz, a pleasant summer palace of the king's, with gardens modelled after those of Marly, and thence across a hilly country to Eamalhao and the viUage of Sao Pedro, eventually reaching Cintra, which, with its happy combination of Mauresque palace, villas, rocks, woods, glens, sea, plain, and mountain, is, doubt less, deserving of all the encomiums thatLord Byron and others ■have lavished upon it.