COIMBKA. 107 



So sang the poet; but, be tliat as it may, we matter-of- 

 fact prosaic travellers had no leisure yet for such soaring 

 fancies ; for the railway station lies at the distance of a 

 mile from the town, and we were conveyed to the city in 

 the most rattling of 'busses, and driven round the lower 

 streets, before we were finally deposited at the door of the 

 Hotel de Mondego, or (as it is more usually called, after 

 the name of its proprietor) Hotel Lopez, here pronounced 

 Lops. Taking into consideration the charges made and 

 the accommodation provided, this hotel is certainly the 

 very best and cheapest I ever entered in any country. We 

 were admirably lodged in the cleanest and airiest of bed- 

 rooms, overlooking the gentl3'-flowing Mondego ; amply 

 served at dinner, where the viands were good and the 

 wine excellent ; and provided at breakfast with all we 

 could desire; and for the day's board and lodging, in- 

 cluding lights and service, and every item wherewith land- 

 lords are apt to swell the sum-total of bills, one thousand 

 reis, or four shillings and sixpence, each, was the sum 

 charged. Now, I have had some experience of inexpen- 

 sive accommodation at hostelries, as, for example, in 

 unfrequented parts of Grermany, where a thaler per day 

 covered every charge ; in mountain pensions in Switzer- 

 land, at four francs per diem ; and, above all, in Norway, 

 in the good old days, when no steamers ran from England, 

 and few Englishmen had penetrated its fjelds, and half-a- 

 crown was the utmost that the most extravagant spend- 

 thrift could disburse in a single day. Still, in all these 

 cases, the lodging was rough, and the fare was rougher ; 

 moreover, the prices were accommodated to remote dis- 

 tricts, uninfluenced by the vicinity of large towns or 

 markets. But here we were in the third city of Portugal, 

 a flourishing town and a University, containing about one 



eagerly as their Castilian neighbours. See lldWam's Literature of Europe, 

 vol. i. p. '238, and vol. ii. p. 205. 



