1828.] Poriugal Illustrated. 171 
that follows is singularly unlucky in both its facts and inferences. 
For the “ superior dignity” of the lower classes of the Portuguese, it 
happens unluckily that the Gallegos referred to for the proof, are all 
Spaniards, from the province of Galicia ; indeed, the author himself states 
this fact, we believe, in the ensuing page. For the “ gracefulness with 
which they /rip under their burthens,’ we confess it is a circumstance 
that had escaped us ; it may be that we were less alive to the beauties 
of form and movement than our author. But at all events we have 
great pleasure in assuring him that it is an exceeding error to imagine 
that these poor people “ earn with difficulty about sixpence a day ;” on 
the contrary, like most irregular artizans im capital cities, they gain a 
very competent livelihood: and if ever Mr. Kinsey had occasion to 
employ one of them for half an hour, we can hardly understand how he 
has fallen into such a mistake. 
The following description of a dinner entertainment in Portugal, 
affords another instance of the haste with which our author jumps to 
conclusions ; as well as (we think) of the infelicity of his efforts to be 
piquant or satirical :— 
“ A Portuguese economist appears to have attained to the valuable art of 
feeding the largest given proportion of human beings with the smallest con- 
ceivable quantity of sustentatious matter. 
“Tn fact,’ says the Rambler, ‘the habits of life among the two people’ 
(speaking of Portuguese and English society) ‘ are so different, that the 
intrusion of a stranger would perhaps involve a greater disturbance of the 
usual routine of existence, than it is fair to expect they should incur upon the 
claim of a common letter of recommendation.’ A dish of yellow-looking 
bacalhao, the worst supposable specimen of our saltings in Newfoundland ; a 
platter of compact, black, greasy, dirty-looking rice; a pound, if so much, of 
poor half-fed meat; a certain proportion of hard-boiled beef, that has never 
seen the salting-pan, having already yielded all its nutritious qualities to a 
Swinging tureen of Spartan soup, and now requiring the accompaniment of a 
satellite tongue, or friendly slice of Lamego bacon, to impart a small relish to 
it ; potatoes of leaden continuity ; dumplings of adamantine contexture, that 
Carthaginian vinegar itself might fail to dissolve ; with offensive vegetables, 
and a something in a round shape, said to be imported from Holland, and 
called cheese, but more like the unyielding rock of flint in the tenacity of its 
impenetrable substance ; a small quantity of very small wine ; abundance of 
water ; and an awful army of red ants, probably imported from the Brasils in 
the wood of which the chairs and tables are made, hurrying across the cloth 
with characteristic industry ;—such are the principal features of the quiet 
family dinner-table of the Portuguese. 
“ The crassitude, the pinguid gravity of such entries, would, as an agree- 
able writer observes, ‘make a man of delicate stomach and feeble digestion 
heavily repent of having adventured upon the hardships of such an Arabia 
carefully constructed so as never to secure the foot while a man is on horseback, or by any 
accident let it loose if he happens to fall off. There have been a hundred inventions—not 
one of them worth a farthing—to “ prevent the possibility (in case of accident) of a rider’s 
foot being dragged in the stirrup ;” but the simple principle of the shoe stirrup, used by 
the Spaniards and Portuguese, which renders it nearly impossible for the stirrup to be lost 
-on horseback, and quite impossible for the foot to be retained in case of a fall, has never 
been adopted. Such a stirrup too, with the front of open lattice or shell work, would. be 
capable of being made more ornamental than those at present in use. It is true that 
our people, both on the road and in the field, ride extremely well with their present 
equipment ; but they ride with an outlay of double the power and bodily exertion that is 
necessary. One or two English artists draw exquisitely well, who have had the misfortune 
to lose the right hand; but no reasonable person would teach a learner, by compelling 
him to work only with his left. 
Z 2 
