CHAPTER VI 



THE PALMEIRO 



ABOUT an hour's ride from the town, at a height 

 of some 1,800 or 2,000 feet, is the Palheiro, 

 formerly known as Palheiro de Ferreiro (Black- 

 smith's Hut), the principal country place in the 

 neighbourhood of Funchal, belonging to the same 

 owner as the Quinta Santa Luzia. The road leads 

 past many smaller villas, whose gardens have most 

 of them fallen into decay, and only undergo a 

 hurried process of tidying when their Portuguese 

 owner comes to spend a few weeks away from the 

 summer heat of Funchal. 



Palheiro was not entirely laid out by its present 

 owner, though the grounds have been very much 

 enlarged and improved, and the house itself, having 

 been destroyed by fire a few years ago, has been 

 lately rebuilt. Some letters from Madeira, written 

 by J. Driver and published in 1834, give the 

 following interesting account of Palheiro, which in 

 those days belonged to the family of Carvalhal. 



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