174 Portugal Illustrated. [Aveusr, 
far he does or does not do—that he has witnessed this sight, we have no 
hesitation in giving credit to it upon his assertion ; but it is only just for 
us to observe, that in the course of a residence’in various provinces of 
Portugal, very considerably indeed more extended, as we apprehend, 
than his has been, we certainly never, in any instance, saw a friar “ drunk 
‘in the street.”* And, as far as our belief goes, we never saw an eccle- 
‘siastic in a state of intoxication at all. The clergy, we have no doubt, 
in every country, have quite sins enough to answer for ; but intoxication 
is not a vice at all prevalent in Portugal. 
We pass, however, with great relief from these notices of Lisbon, 
which contain nothing of any value but that which is extracted from the 
works of previous writers, to the more advanced portion of Mr. Kinsey’s 
book, which describes his tour through Beira and part of Estremadura to 
Oporto and Coimbra; upon one circumstance, at least, of which, the 
pictorial illustrations which accompany it, we are tempted to bestow 
almost unqualified praise. Some of these views are the productions of a 
friend who accompanied the author in his tour, and one or two are stated 
to have been obtained from gentlemen resident in England; but, under 
any circumstances, Mr. Kinsey may esteem himself fortunate in their 
collection. The landscape views are, almost without exception, drawn 
with great taste and fidelity, and the engravings, all of them, admirably 
-well executed. Many of the little vignettes, too, which consist of points 
of Portuguese habit and economy, convince the experienced eye, at a 
glance, that they have been drawn from observation on the spot. 
Among the views of architecture and scenery, we would point out espe- 
cially, as striking, not more from the manner of their execution, than 
for the beauty of the scenes represented—the: frontispiece—the “ View 
of Coimbra’—taken, as we imagine, from the high road leading from 
Condeira ;—it is hardly possible to wish for any design more graphic or 
correct than this. The last view but one—“~ The Castle of Leiria,” is 
quite equal to the former in point of merit. And the “ View upon the 
Douro, looking towards Oporto ;” the “ View of Cintra;” and the “ View 
of Porto and the Villa Nova, from the Serra Convent,” can scarcely be 
spoken of in terms of too high commendation. Among those scenes 
more descriptive of the peculiarities of the country, the plates of “ The 
Estalagem, or Portuguese Inn ;” “ The Douro Peasant with his Car and 
Oxen;” and “ The Road-side Altar, with figures resting ;’ all are 
drawn with great spirit and deep feeling, and will recal to the cam- 
paigner of the Peninsula, thoughts and objects with which, in other days, 
he has been familiar. The “ View of the Abbey of Batallha,” we do not 
like so well. Murphy’s book contains a view of the same building, in 
every way superior. And the author fairly enough apologizes for the 
absence in such a work of a View of Lisbon, by alleging, that which is 
the fact, that nothing short of a “ double elephant sheet’—which his 
book will not admit—would enable any artist to embody even an outline 
of the city. Lisbon can only be well represented upon a very extended 
scale ; and it would be a good subject, and, as a picture, not an unworthy 
one, for the future consideration of Mr. Horner’s gigantic panorama. 
It would be injustice, too, in this place, towards Mr. Kinsey, whom 
we have treated hitherto with an absence of ceremony, but whom we 
have no disposition to criticise unfairly, if we were to pass by the fact 
“ We quoted from memory, the words are—‘ A monk in a state of intoxication, with 
a rabble of boys at his heels ;—these are the passing objects that render a residence in this 
street so highly diverting,” &c. 
