1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

In the Port Wine Cowniry.

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imposing escutclieons poised above their doorways,threatening to fall and crush those who pass beneath. Such edifices in so remote,and,at the epoch of their erection,well-nigh inaccessible aregion,with barren granite peaks,which here hem in the Douro, frowning down upon them,and merely a few patches of neigh bouring land under cultivation, come upon us by sui-prise and excite our curiosity, but we seek in vain for their origin or for any information concerning their builders. Passing through Pesqueira,a gateway on the right conducts to the Quinta do Sidro, some couple of miles in circumference, and admirably kept, where we find the vintage still going on. Vines were first planted here sixty years ago,and some of them are fully 1,000 feet above the level of the Douro, which at this part is itself several hundred feet above the level of the sea. The vines of this quinta had only recently been attacked by the phylloxera,and that merely in the low situations. The produce was estimated at 120 pipes, one-third of which was white wine, in lieu of the 150 pipes of good years. Of the hundred hands engaged in the vintage, the women were receiving a fi-action over 5d. per day,together with their food(bread excepted), and