1828. Portugal Iliustrated. 177 
foreign print, ill executed, and very scarce, but was corrected and 
greatly improved in the course of the re-drawing. From these descrip- 
tions and some of those which follow, our readers will perceive that 
Portugal might be made not altogether unendurable as a residence :— 
* In the gardens of the quintas, small channels of water, kept constantly 
filled from some overflowing fountains, are so skilfully constructed, as to 
furnish a never-failing supply of moisture to the shrubs and plantations, which 
would otherwise in summer be burnt up by the heat. The ulmis adjungere 
vitem is well known in poetical description, but in Portugal, besides over- 
shadowing their artificial supporters, the vines are seen attaching themselves 
to, or hanging down in luxuriant festoons from forest trees, such as the oak, 
chestnut, and cork, in all the wildness of nature, and not unfrequently insi- 
nuating themselves among the branches of myrtle-trees, which attain a con- 
siderable size in the hedge-rows, and contrasting their large purple bunches 
with the snow-white blossom. The union is truly poetical, and its novelty is 
charming to the eye of a northern traveller. You shall have a sketch of the 
myrtle and vine in conjunction, faithfully represented. A vine is often pur- 
posely planted by the farmer under an oak tree, whose boughs it soon over- 
runs, repaying the little labour expended in its cultivation by its fruit, and the 
lop of its branches. Ten pipes of green wine, vinho verde, expressed from 
these grapes, will yield one pipe of excellent brandy. Being light and sharp, 
the vinho verde is preferred by the generality of Portuguese, in the summer, 
to wines of superior strength and quality. 
_ “ The golden pippin-trees are here in as declining a state as they are in 
England. Great care; however, is taken in their cultivation; and at one of 
the quintas, where we were hospitably received, we were surprised with 
finding a nursery of them amounting to nearly a thousand, and apparently in 
a very healthy condition. It is observed, however, that they invariably 
become cankered after the growth of a few years. Cider is said to have been 
first known in Africa, and thence to have made its way across the Iberian and 
Lusitanian peninsula, by the Pyrenees, into France and Normandy, and ulti- 
mately into our country. Were not the vine so luxuriant in Portugal, the 
inhabitants might be disposed to turn their attention to the increase of apple- 
trees, which would amply repay every care bestowed upon them by their 
rich produce, calculated alike for the table and the press. The branches of 
the fruit-trees are literally breaking down under the weight which has 
increased upon them. Little care, however, is taken to prevent the mischief 
by the application of props; for such is the climate and fertility of the soil, 
that the ensuing spring commonly repairs the injury, and the vigour of the 
tree seems never to be exhausted. The young trees are generally very great 
bearers.” 
The markets of Oporto are much better supplied, Mr. Kinsey says, 
than those of Lisbon. “ Fresh meat is excellent ; and particularly pork, 
during the season.” The pork of Portugal, generally, would not be con- 
sidered good in England. The sweet acorns upon which it is fed, and 
which Mr. Kinsey afterwards describes as such cheap and admirable 
provision, diminish the firmness and elasticity of the flesh, though they 
produce fat very abundantly. The greater part of the Portuguese hogs, 
from this cause, are unfit to be cured in the shape of bacon; and the 
fat only of the animal is preserved, which is kept between layers of salt, 
and called focino. There can never be fine bacon produced except from 
hogs fed upon corn. The prices of provisions, from the difficulty and 
expensiveness of all conveyance, vary very considerably in different 
parts of Portugal. In Lisbon, they are always, comparatively, dear ; 
and the meat is of a very bad quality. It is killed, as some moon-struck 
persons are insisting that ours should be killed in London, at “ abattoirs,” 
and brought into town in carts, making an exhibition, as Mr. Kinsey 
oa observes, extremely “ filthy and revolting.” It is fair to observe, 
.M. New Series.—Vou. VI. No. 32. 2A 
