1866.) Teneriffe. 3 
dexterous management of which is quite an accomplishment of 
a lady of fashion. 
The dress of the male peasantry is picturesque: it consists of a 
cloth jacket, a showy waistcoat embroidered at the back, velveteen 
breeches open at the knees, ornamented with a number of buttons ; 
when travelling their jacket is generally dispensed with; their 
well-made legs are covered with long leather gaiters ornamented 
with coloured leather; a straw hat shadows their generally fine 
features: altogether they present models of fine masculine forms 
capable of enduring great fatigue. This pretty and suitable dress 
is, however, spoilt in a great degree by wearing over it, even in the 
hottest day, an English blanket made into a sort of cloak formed 
by a running string round the neck. It is said, that this part of 
their dress was used by the Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of 
the island. 
When I landed at Port Orotava in the begining of July, the 
thermometer in the shade ranged during the day from 73° to 77°, 
a temperature which I found relaxing, therefore I was anxious to 
remove to the romantically situated Villa de Orotava, three miles 
off and 1,141 feet above the port, with a temperature several 
degrees lower. But there was a serious obstacle to my intended 
residence at the Villa, as at that time both hotels and lodgings 
were unknown; however, I obtained a letter of introduction to the 
prior of the Augustine convent there, who possibly might give me 
(although a heretic) the use of a cell in his large, but thinly filled 
convent. Armed with my letter, I called on the worthy prior; on 
presenting it to him, I addressed him a few words in indifferent 
Spanish, but I was soon very agreeably surprised by being seized 
warmly by the hand and answered in a rich Hibernian accent, 
“ How glad I am to see a countryman here.” He kindly offered 
me a choice of cells, but in doing that, he added, “I can only offer 
you the bare walls and the use of our cook as long as you think 
proper to reside among us.” I soon sent up the necessary furniture, 
and passed twelve months most agreeably with the warm-hearted 
prior and his friars. 
The career of the prior was not a common one ; he had passed 
his youth as an officer in the British army, and had served during 
the whole of the Peninsular war; having become tired of the ennui 
of his half-pay inactivity in Ireland, he went to pay a visit to his 
old friends in Spain, where he was persuaded to take the friar’s 
cowl, and afterwards became a prior of the Augustine convent of 
the Villa de Orotava. 
I can testify feelingly to the superiority of the climate of 
Teneriffe to that of any European district for all affections of the 
lungs. When I left England I had all the bad symptoms of pulmonary 
consumption, brought on by a neglected cough, yet in a ss short 
B 
