CHAPTER II 



PORTUGUESE GARDENS 



I HAVE often been asked whether the Portuguese 

 have any distinctive form of gardening, and in 

 answer I can only say that, though there is no 

 attempt to compete with the grand terraced 

 gardens of Italy or France, or the prim conven- 

 tionality of the gardens of the Dutch, still the 

 little well-cared-for garden of the Portuguese has 

 a great charm of its own. Here, in Madeira, their 

 gardens are usually on a very small, almost diminu- 

 tive, scale, according to our ideas of a garden. In 

 the mother-country, where they probably surround 

 more imposing houses, they may attain to a larger 

 scale, but of that I know nothing. 



The love of gardening, unfortunately, seems to 

 be dying out among the Portuguese in Madeira, 

 and many a garden which was formerly dear to its 

 owner, each plant being tended with loving hands, 

 has now fallen into ruin and decay. The little 

 paths, neatly paved with small round cobble-stones 



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