86 A SPEING TOUR I^ PORTUGAL. 



length, twenty-two in breadth, and sixty-three in height;* 

 and in the midst of this great hall, placed, not near the 

 wall, but where it is accessible on every side, stands the 

 huge fireplace, twenty-eight feet long by eleven broad ; the 

 chimney of which forms a pyramid or cone, and is sup- 

 ported on eight massive iron columns ; and one could not 

 but think that the fires which would fill that hearth must 

 have scorched the cooks who stood near it. Of similar 

 proportion and of similar solidity were the immense ovens, 

 Avhich were built on one side; then there was the old 

 cbopping-block, of extraordinary thickness, and bearing in 

 its hacked surface undoubted evidence of the cleavers of 

 monastic cooks. Then again there were two massive stone 

 tables, on which the meat was laid preparatory to roasting, 

 each of a single slab some twelve feet in length by eight in 

 breadth, and above a foot in solid thickness. On the 

 opposite side of the kitchen, and occupying its whole 

 length, was a succession of large tanks or reservoirs, each 

 provided with its own fountain ; and, more striking than 

 all, there was positively a clear and rapid stream, or, as 

 our Portuguese companion described it, a river, running 

 right through the kitchen, in at one end and out at the 

 other ; and which, by being simply dammed back at the 

 exit, would soon overflow, and thus wash the whole floor. 

 Here indeed were lordly preparations for a vast banquet, 

 but daily to feed a thousand hungry monks required both 

 space and appliances of gigantic dimensions; and the 

 extreme solidity and vastness of everything which had 

 impressed us throughout the building were especially 

 observable in the cooking department. 



Beyond the kitchen lay the buttery, and immediately 

 beyond that the refectory, but of this last we could see 

 but little beyond the noble size of the room ; for if other 



* Travels in Portugal in 1789. London, 1795. Page 93. 



