OrORTO. 119 



111 11 at a furious pace, crossed tlie suspension bridc^e slowly 

 under wholesome dread of peniilty, and rattled through 

 the narrowest of streets, with tall houses nearly meeting 

 overhead, till we pulled up at the hotel, universally known 

 as Hotel Mary Castro, after the name of the excellent 

 Lmdlady, who has presided over it for many years, and is 

 an Englishwoman by birth ; and though the hotel un- 

 doubtedly is distinguished by a regular name, I am quite 

 unable to record it, having never heard it otherwise 

 desicrnated than as the Hotel Castro. Our rooms looked 

 out upon the Douro, which is a river of good size and 

 depth, and considerable velocity : and though the entrance 

 to our hotel was in the darkest and dingiest and dirtiest of 

 streets, and aroused unfavourable prejudices in the newly 

 arrived traveller, we found the accommodation very satis- 

 factory in every respect, and the Hotel Castro became our 

 head-quarters, both during our stay in Oporto and whilst 

 we made excursions in the neighbourhood. 



We reached the northern capital of Portugal on Satur- 

 day evening, and scarcely had ensconced ourselves in our 

 rooms, before we were startled by the firing of guns, the 

 rapid discharge of rockets, and a constant succession of 

 fireworks on the river. It did not, however, portend a 

 second sack of Oporto, the fearful particulars of which, 

 during the Peninsular War, by Soult and his lieutenants 

 (the cruel Loison and the cowardly Foy), we had just been 

 reading. Nor was it the beginning of a second siege, such 

 as that memorable one it experienced in 1832 and 1833, 

 when Dom Miouel sat down before the town to which Dom 

 Pedro had retired with his brave little army, and besieged 

 it without success; of which startling event in the lives of 

 peaceful citizens we heard many interesting particulars 

 from those who shared in the danger and the glory. The 

 noise of gunpowder now, however, which saluted us on our 

 arrival was but the harmless amusement of a gentle people, 



