OPOIITO. 127 



Oporto; but hence we can command a view, thoii;)}i 

 limited in extent, up the river, where, shut in by per- 

 pendicular cliffs, and dark and sombre in its shaded 

 channel, the Douro offers a sample of the wild and rocky 

 scenery which characterises the jj^reater part of its navi- 

 gable course, and still more of its infant stream high 

 up amidst the wild mountains beyond the Portuguese 

 frontier, and seldom visited by the most enterprising 

 traveller. As we looked upon it from the Serra convent, 

 and marked its narrow bed confined by cliffs on either 

 hand, we simultaneously exclaimed how close a resem- 

 blance it bore to the Avon just below Bristol, though on 

 the banks of that latter stream we might look in vain for 

 the orange groves, the olive yards, and quintas which 

 surround the villas in the suburbs of Oporto. 



In deference to common English usage, and from a 

 natural repugnance to introduce any alteration whicli may 

 seem pedantic, in the name of a place which has long 

 been so familiar to English ears as Oporto, I have adhered 

 to the customary appellation of that city, as adopted by 

 my countrymen at home. I w^ould here, however, remark 

 that the name so given is altogether arbitrary, and has 

 arisen from a misconception, Porto being the true designa- 

 tion of the place, and the prefix of the definite article as 

 imauthorised as if we were to insist on styling Portugal as 

 Oportugal, and port wine as Oport wine ; or as if the 

 inhabitants of the Peninsula were to represent our Ports- 

 mouth as Theportsmouth. But the English nation has 

 undoubtedly a remarkable knack of altering the names of 

 foreign towns at random, and especially where the British 

 sailor finds pronunciation difficult, he cuts the Gordian 

 knot without compunction by Anglicising what he con- 

 siders a barbarous title, till he has fashioned it to his taste, 

 and till he can pronounce it ore rotunda in downright 

 English, and without any of those lispings and mincings 



