170 Portugal Tilustrated. [Aveusr, 
of a dial-plate; and two flanks of impenetrably deep black brushwood, 
extending under either ear, and almost concealing the countenance, to com- 
plete the singular contour of his features. 
“* The lower classes are infinitely superior in dignity of appearance, and in 
manly beauty, to those of the higher order. For instance, turn round and 
look at that finely-formed, athletic, patient, and hard-working water-carrier, 
with his barrel of many devices upon his shoulder ; how nobly and gracefully 
does the honest mountaineer trip along under his burden! Though only half 
clothed, he has more about him of the dignity of human nature, mich as he 
is unjustly despised, than all the classes of those who deal out to him no treat- 
ment but contumely and contempt. By the hard sweat of his brow he is 
enabled, though with difficulty, to earn about sixpence a day, the moiety of 
which serves to procure him his bread, his fried sardinha from a neighbouring 
cook’s stall, and a little light wine, perhaps, on holidays,—water being his’ 
general beverage,—nay, one might almost say, his element. A mat in a large 
upper room, shared between him and several brethren of the same avocation; 
serves him in winter as a place of repose for the night ; but during the sum-= 
mer he frequently sleeps out in the open air, making his filled water-barrel 
his pillow, ready in an instant to start, in case of fire, at the call of the captain 
of his gang, and to perform the only public duty exacted from him.” 
The red noses of the -Portuguese gentry, we apprehend, are of recent 
growth—or inrportation. Certainly, in the course of our own experience 
in this country, we never recollect to have encountered one of them. 
Indeed, the habits of the people, which are temperate and abstemious in 
the extreme, are quite ill-calculated to favour the production of any such 
excrescence. We conclude that they must be imported ; probably from 
the neighbourhoods of Leadenhall-street and Whitechapel, in part pay- 
ment of the port wine consumed in those regions. ‘The chief fault of the 
“ Lisbon dandy’s” dress seems to be; that it is the same which was 
fashionable some years since in this country, and is now so no longer. 
And Mr. Kinsey’s pursuits have probably not led him much into the 
consideration of horse equipment; or he would be aware that the prin- 
ciple of the Portuguese saddle, is the same which—after much obstinacy, 
and exhibition of prejudice, and mischief arising from delay—has been 
adopted in the cavalry furniture of our own country.* The paragraph 
* It is-a singular fact, that with all the excellent horsemanship, and admittedly 
admirable cayalry discipline, which has so long distinguished the English, our horse-har- 
ness was, until within the last ten years, and in many points still is, perhaps the very worst 
in Europe. The ordinary English saddle seems constructed with the especial design of 
affording neither support, nor what is technically termed “seat” to the rider. It is low 
both behind and before ; stuffed to a comfortable rotundity ; and covered with a smooth 
hard leather, which acquires a polish equal to enamel from use ; and the nether garment 
chosen to be placed in contact with this glossy level, is constructed of some soft, pliant, 
material—wash leather, or fine woollen cloth—between which, and such a double varnished 
surface, there can be no more disposition to adherence, than between the feet of an old lady 
in pattens, and a “slide” on the London pavement down hill, in December. The old dtagoon 
saddles, in use (contemporary with the cocked hats) in the beginning of the Peninsular 
war—some remnants of which, we believe, may still be found in the depéts of the artillery 
—were perfect curiosities, considered as machines which men were to sit, and fight upon. 
From constant and arduous friction (in the way of cleaning) with some oily or saponaceous 
compound, they attained the smoothness and lustre of glass ;_ and men would have gained 
just as much assistance from saddles built out of that material. To render the impossi- 
bility of any natural hold the more complete too, the men, in several of the heavy dragoon 
regiments, were dressed in plush [cotton-velvet] small-clothes. The dragoon harness, as 
far as concerns the saddle, now is pretty generally improved among us; and the demi 
pique shape, high before and behind, is introduced, covered with a schabrach of sheep-skin, 
with the wool outwards ; upon which, with a dressing of cloth trowsers, a firm and steady seat 
(without the incessant exertion of muscular strength) can be maintained. The old saddle, 
however, still remains in ordinary use out of the army. And our stirrups continue to be 
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