Funchal and its Gardens 



vicinity. Our shade-giving trees planted, we 

 could afford to proceed more leisurely with our 

 climbers and flowering plants ; and of these 

 and of the extension of the garden ground to 

 contain them I will speak later. 



At the back of our house a steep road leads 

 to the district of S. Martinho — a village two or 

 three miles to the west of Funchal, You mount 

 very quickly, and at an elevation of about seven 

 hundred feet come upon a pleasant road which 

 is almost level for two or three miles, and 

 bending northwards and eastwards presents a 

 continually varied and charming series of views 

 of the town lying in the great basin below. 

 Hither on one of the days between Christmas 

 and the New Year — a day of brilliant sunshine, 

 but as the white-horses out at sea may tell us 

 wit), a strong north-east wind blowing — we 

 asc ;nd intent to meet some friends from 

 an ither quarter of the town. The trysting- 

 p ace is a pine wood, in the shade of which we 

 jicnic. That at such a season such things are 

 possible is evidence of the wonderful climate 

 we enjoy here. At this slight elevation the 

 air is lighter and fresher than by the sea-board. 

 Some wandering gusts of the north-easter reach 



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