52 A SPRING TOUR IN TORTUGAL. 



hemispheres, that as you lie on the soft turf, under the 

 shade of a gifi^antic magnolia, you seem in enchanted ground, 

 so surrounded are you with the most flourishing specimens 

 of a hundred tropical plants and shrubs, never seen before. 

 No wonder that, having obtained permission to wander at 

 pleasure with my gun through its extensive walks and 

 woods and quintas, I spent a considerable part of several 

 days within its precincts; and I always came back to it 

 with fresh appreciation of its beauties, and renewed con- 

 victions that it formed the jewel of Cintra. But my ram- 

 bles extended amongst many other properties, and many a 

 pretty glen and many a charming nook did I stumble on ; 

 and most kind and obliging were the inhabitants, who 

 freely invited me to enter their grounds, and walk where I 

 pleased ; though there was one great drawback to such tres- 

 passing, in the lofty stone walls with which each quintawas 

 surrounded ; so that, once within the ring fence, it was 

 generally imperative on the intruder to return to the gate 

 by which he entered. Now these villas and quintas, sur- 

 rounded each by its own wall, and backed by its own woods, 

 succeed one another all along the slopes of the hills on 

 which Cintra stands ; far below them lies the red, scorched, 

 glowing plain, far above them stand the bare jagged rocks, 

 which seem so strangely distorted, and look so uneven and 

 rouo'l], and whose summits reach two thousand feet above 

 the sea. To me these heiglits were a great attraction, and 

 almost eveiy day I climbed to one and another peak, now 

 wandering out westwards to the point which overhangs the 

 mouth of the Tagus, now ascending to the point crowned by 

 the Penha palace, now choosing some intermediate height 

 fur my mountain scramble. From all, the view was in most 

 respects the same : the rocks themselves the strangest col- 

 lection of boulders, thrown together in huge masses, like 

 an immense stone heap on a gigantic scale. Immediately 

 below lay the town of Cintra, with its long suburbs of villas. 



