444 



DOURO DOVEDALE. 



tity of gold dust found in former times among its 

 Bands. The Douro rises in the province of Soria 

 in Spain, in a chain of mountains near the village 

 of Almarza, in the kingdom of old Castile ; the 

 city of Soria, the capital of the province, is watered 

 by it ; Valladolid, Toro, and Zamora, are also on 

 its banks. A few leagues from the last-mentioned 

 place, it changes its course from a westerly to a 

 southern one ; and from the village of Miranda be- 

 comes a boundary between Spain and Portugal, for 

 the distance of sixty miles. When above Sobra- 

 dilla, it resumes its westerly course, and falls into 

 the sea at Oporto. The lightness of the soil and 

 the extreme velocity of this river have created an 

 immense bar at its mouth ; and the opposition of 

 the current of the ocean, which is also very strong, 

 causes a surf of so dangerous a character as fre- 

 quently to delay ships from entering the harbour 

 for five or six weeks together. For any species of 

 navigation except that of the wine boats from the 

 interior, the Douro is of no use beyond the city of 

 Oporto. 



The Passage of the Douro, in 1809, was one of 

 the most brilliant achievements of the British army 

 during the Peninsular war. The French, in their 

 retreat to Oporto, bad broke down the bridge. All 

 the boats and barges in the river were secured on 

 the Oporto side, and guards were stationed at the 

 most convenient points; all the artillery and bag- j 

 gage remaining in Oporto, were sent off along the 

 intended line of retreat, and Soult himself proposed 

 to stay only two days, thinking that with a river 

 like the Douro in his front, he was safe from at- 

 tack from the British for that short space of time. 

 The Douro is more than 300 yards wide at Oporto, 

 and its banks on either side are steep and rocky. 

 Just before it enters the city, it sweeps round the 

 base of a lofty height on the south bank, which is 

 crowned by the buildings and gardens of the convent 

 of S. Agostinho da Serra, and which completely 

 screens the city from all view of the upper part of 

 the river. Beneath the shelter of this hill the whole 

 of the British force was assembled in one mass. 

 Sir Arthur Wellesley mounted to the summit, and 

 scanned every object on the bank occupied by the 

 enemy. Few French troops were to be seen, and 

 there was every indication of the enemy's approach- , 

 ing departure. Sir Arthur felt that he must be 

 quick, or the prize would escape him, yet how to 

 pass the river was the question. A large unfinished 

 building, standing alone, and surrounded by a high 

 stone wall, running down to the water's edge, soon , 

 fixed his attention, as affording a good position for j 

 those who should land first, until they could be 

 supported ; here then he resolved to cross. 



"A boat," says colonel Napier, " was soon obtain- 

 ed ; for a poor barber of Oporto, evading the French 

 patroles, bad, during the night, come over the 

 water in a small skiff. This being discovered by 

 colonel Waters, a staff-officer of a quick and dar- 

 ing temper, he and the barber, and the prior of 

 Amarante, who gallantly offered his aid, crossed 

 the river, and, in half an hour, returned, unper- 

 ceived, with three or four large barges. Mean- 

 while eighteen or twenty pieces of artillery were 

 got up to the convent of Serra; and major-general 

 John Murray, with the German brigade, some squad- 

 rons of the 14th dragoons, and two guns, reached 

 the Barca de Avintas, three miles higher up the 

 river, his orders being to search for boats, and to 

 effect a passage there also, if possible. Some of 

 the British troops were now sent towards Avintas, 



to support Murray while others came cautiously 

 forward to the brink of the river. It was ten 

 o'clock ; the enemy were tranquil and unsuspicious; 

 and an officer reported to Sir Arthur Wellesley, 

 that one boat was brought up to the point of pas- 

 sage ; " Well, let the men crots," was the reply ; 

 and, upon this simple order, an officer and twenty- 

 five soldiers, of the Buffs, entered the vessel, and, 

 in a quarter of an hour, were in the midst of the 

 French army. The building was thus gained with- 

 out any alarm being given, and every thing was si ill 

 quiet in Oporto ; not a movement was to be seen ; 

 not a hostile sound was to be heard : a second boat 

 followed the first, and then a third passed a little 

 higher up the river ; but scarcely bad the men from 

 the last landed, when a tumultuous noise of drums 

 and shouts arose in the city ; confused masses of 

 the enemy were seen hurrying forth in all direc- 

 tions, and throwing out clouds of skirmishers, who 

 came furiously down upon the building. The 

 citizens were seen making signals from their houses, 

 and the British troops instantly crowded to the 

 bank of the river. The troops in the unfinished 

 building maintained their ground ; the Douro was 

 quickly covered with boats, which the exulting 

 citizens eagerly brought ; and as Murray's troops 

 were seen descending the right bank from Avintas, 

 a loud shout in the town, and the waving of hand- 

 kerchiefs from all the windows, gave notice that 

 the enemy had abandoned the lower part of the 

 city. The French hastily retreated, and as they 

 passed along by the seminary wall, a deadly fire of 

 musketry from within, tore open terrible gaps in 

 their confused and massy columns. In the mean- 

 while Sherbrooke's men had crossed the river into 

 the town, and hastening up the steep streets with 

 ' blessings breathed upon them, and shouts of tri- 

 umphant gratulation and convulsive laughter,mingled 

 with the tears and prayers that greeted them,' came 

 upon the enemy's rear, just as the drivers of five 

 pieces of French artillery had pulled up hesitat- 

 ingly, appalled by the line of musketry which they 

 had to pass; a volley from the British stretched 

 most of the artillerymen on the ground, and the 

 rest abandoned their guns. The British wer^; now 

 in complete possession of the town, and the enemy 

 fleeing in all directions." 



DOVEDALE ; a vale or glen in Derbyshire, re- 

 markable for its romantic beauty. The most fre- 

 quented entrance to this highly picturesque glen, 

 is about a mile from the road leading from Ash- 

 bourne, (a pleasant town in the immediate vicinity,) 

 to Buxton, near the remarkable detached cone- 

 shaped hill, called Thorpe Cloud, which forms 

 quite a "landmark" to a wide district. The de- 

 scent towards the dale is through a wild and nar- 

 row chasm, one side of which is composed of naked 

 beetling rocks, rising to a vast height, whilst the 

 other presents a striking contrast of bushy preci- 

 pices and green herbage. The dale takes its name 

 from the Dove, a torrent stream, which rises from 

 a lofty hill, called Axedge, near Buxton, from 

 which spring four rivers, that run in opposite di- 

 rections. Proceeding in a southerly direction, it 

 hurries through Dovedale, filling the glen with its 

 melody. The length of Dove-dale is nearly three 

 miles, and it is in no part more than a quarter of a 

 mile wide, while in some places it almost closes, 

 scarcely leaving room for the passage of its narrow 

 river. On the right, or Derbyshire side of the 

 dale, the rocks are more bare of vegetation than 071 

 the opposite or Staffordshire side, where they are 



