Funchal and its Gardens 



a garden, a nobler combination of sea and 

 mountain, with just the sufficient evidence 

 of man's neighbourhood and handiwork to 

 emphasize the natural grandeur of the scene. 

 We purchased this Quinta about seven years 

 ago from a Portuguese gentleman, who was 

 more concerned with farming than with flowers. 

 There was the usual square plot in front of the 

 house ; in the centre of it a handsome marble 

 fountain, and round about certain flower beds 

 edged with jagged clinkers, unpleasant to look 

 at, and very damaging to the boots of those 

 who incautiously approached them. With the 

 exception of this, and of a paved court enclosing 

 a small pond in which a duck of some northern 

 breed passed in solitude a melancholy existence, 

 the whole ground was given up to bananas and 

 vines. It was all very well " arranged," to use 

 a favourite Portuguese expression ; looked at 

 practically from the point of view of the Madeira 

 agriculturist it was perfect ; the symmetrical, 

 terraced plots all provided with cemented 

 conduits for purposes of irrigation, and the 

 roads and paths of cobble-stones laid in cement 

 to prevent the intrusion of weeds ; most of the 

 paths covered with pergolas of chestnut wood 



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