CINTRA. 55 



with a pertinacity which reminds one they have had 

 nothing to worry for many a thousand miles, on their 

 course across the ocean. With this trifling exception of 

 situation (which however has its advantages in a sultry 

 clime), the Penha Castle is a pleasant residence : it is built 

 after the Moorish style, with horse-shoe arches, and the 

 walls glitter with bright blue glazed tiles or azulejo ; and 

 it is castellated, turreted, and balconied at every possible 

 point. It is also provided with ramparts, drawbridges, 

 porcullis, and mock defences, and cannon pointing in all 

 directions, to frighten away Moors or other would-be in- 

 vaders, in case they should think it worth while to climb 

 so high. From the Penha turrets conspicuous on one 

 side is a colossal statue of the great discoverer Vasco de 

 Grama, armed with lance and shield, who stands on the 

 very summit of an elevated peak ; and on the other side 

 the ruins of two Moorish towers, which crown other 

 heights, and which must have been impregnable fortresses 

 in troublous times when such elevated positions were of 

 real advantage. Below the Castle are gardens and shrub- 

 beries, admirably laid out and beautifully kept ; and here 

 we strolled without hindrance, for all here is liberally 

 thrown open to the public ; indeed, Dom Fernando is in 

 all respects a liberal, generous man, and much beloved by 

 people of all ranks. 



There are other lions to be visited at Cintra, which are 

 all duly chronicled in the Handbook, and on which I need 

 not enlarge. There is the royal palace, which attracts the 

 eye before you enter the town, and is always a prominent 

 feature in the view, remarkable for its tall, sugar-loaf 

 chimneys, which remind one of glass works, or other facto- 

 ries, rather than of a king's summer residence. There is a 

 large, rambling villa, of no external beauty, but interest- 

 ing as the spot where the famous Convention of Cintra was 

 signed. There is an unpretending quinta, once the humble 



