Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



hills the views are generally far finer than 

 those obtained from their slopes. This 

 may now be described as the Strangers' 

 quarter, for here, as elsewhere, those who are 

 free to select their own place of residence 

 seem to be drawn by some mysterious law 

 to move westwards. Can this be a survival 

 of the instinct of emigration westwards which 

 has populated Europe and America from the 

 Central Asian steppes ? In this direction are 

 the hotels frequented by visitors, and here, on 

 a slope above the Dry River, is the Quinta in 

 which we live among our flowers. It faces 

 south-east, and looks across the bay to the 

 rocky uninhabited islands known as the " De- 

 sertas " (I have an old Admiralty chart in which 

 they appear as the " Deserters " ! — perhaps a 

 poetical suggestion that they are fugitives from 

 the main island) ; and across such portions of 

 the city as are not hidden by the intervening 

 ridges to the great hills beyond. Below us 

 lies the little harbour behind the breakwater 

 which terminates in the Loo Rock, crowned 

 with its ancient fort ; and farther off the road- 

 stead in which the great liners ride at anchor. 

 It would be difficult to find a fairer setting for 



34 



