Chapter X—<dM^RCH 

 Antiquities 



Duke. " And what's her history ? 

 f^io. A blank, my Lord." 



Twelfth Night. 



IT must be owned that while what we 

 especially enjoy in Madeira — climate, 

 scenery, vegetation — is of surpassing 

 excellence, many things are lacking. 

 Some will regret that there are no sandy dunes 

 by the sea-shore whereon to essay the putting 

 of a little ball into small holes " with instru- 

 ments singularly ill-adapted to the purpose " ; 

 others the absence, or scarcity, of partridges. 

 Some the want of roads suitable for motors 

 and bicycles. To others again the lack of 

 any savour of real antiquity will be a never- 

 assuaged sorrow. We have to go without all 

 the romance which springs from that sugges- 

 tion of ancient civilizations which is every- 

 where present in Mediterranean countries. 

 The chance of turning up even a Corinthian 



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