12 A SPRING TOUE IN PORTUGAL. 



CHAPTER II. 



LISBON : GENERAL VIEW. 



The Handbook had prepared us to expect a fine view of 

 Lisbon as we steamed up the river ; so we were early on 

 deck to witness the entrance of the Tagus, and to mark 

 the first specimens of Portuguese buildings, and rocks, and 

 people which offered themselves to our sight. In every 

 first glance at a new country, and more particularly when 

 it is approached by sea, there is a great deal to interest the 

 traveller ; for every country has its own specialities, and 

 there are certain broad characteristics, even in the general 

 outline, which is all one can gain in passing up the middle 

 of a river, which speak for themselves and impress them- 

 selves indelibly on the mind ; and those first impressions, 

 however corrected by after experience and modified by 

 greater familiarity, are in a certain sense never effaced. 

 At least, that is my own experience, and amidst the recol- 

 lections of many foreign scenes, sharply and prominently 

 stand out in my mind the first view of Belgium, as seen 

 on entering the Schelt ; of France, as seen many years ago 

 at Calais ; of Denmark, from the Baltic ; of Norway, from 

 the fjord of Christiania; of the East, on enteriDg the har- 

 bour of Alexandria; of Syria, on approaching Beyrout. 

 And these sudden impressions seem burnt in on the 

 memory with tenfold distinctness, partly perhaps by reason 

 of the eager expectation and interest with which one 

 naturally approaches a new country, partly too from the 



