CINTRA. 51 



available position, but alw.aya with this cliief essential of 

 shade prominently in view, there is one which more es- 

 pecially deserves notice, not only as the renowned creation 

 of the luxurious author of ' Vathec ;' but still more as re- 

 built by its present proprietor, and the gardens and grounds 

 laid out anew with consummate taste, it bears away the 

 palm as, in all respects, the most lovely of its compeers. 

 This is the famous Montserrat, and it is indeed a little 

 paradise : perched amid swelling knolls on the hill-side, 

 surrounded by gardens and shrubberies, where oriental 

 palms and Mexican palms vie with one another, where 

 araucarias of many species, Brazilian shrubs of great rarity, 

 and whole groves of tree camellias flourish side by side, 

 and scent the air with the perfume of a thousand flowers. 

 Then it is flanked by groves of orange, lemon, and fig trees, 

 and backed by deep woods of gigantic cork, and olive, and 

 chestnut, and dark fir trees, beneath whose branches reigned 

 so impenetrable a gloom as to defy even the mid-day sun ; 

 while, high up overhead, rose the bare and broken crests of 

 the rocky mountains which formed the shelter on the south; 

 and far away to the west we could see the broad expanse of 

 the Atlantic, never at rest even in the calmest weather, but 

 always breaking on the shore with a surf which whitened 

 the coast-line with a broad fringe, discernible for many a 

 league. Montserrat is in truth exceedingly lovely, and if 

 it might do duty as a sample of all Cintra, then I should 

 think no praise could be too great for its deserts ; but I am 

 bound to add that it stands quite alone, and that no other 

 quinta comes near the perfection of this favoured spot. 

 Moreover, not only is the English proprietor, Mr. Cook, 

 evidently a man of refined taste, but his excellent head 

 gardener, Mr. J3urt, knows how to make the most of the 

 position ; and with sun and shade, and springs of water to 

 any extent at his command, he has so mingled the wild and 

 the cultivated, so arranged the shrubs and plants of both 



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