CINTRA. 317 



length wafted us into the Tagus, and two hours afterwards 

 we dropped anchor opposite Lisbon. I was very shortly 

 up to my neck in a delicious cold bath of the purest fresh 

 water, in one of the most comfortable rooms of theBraganza 

 Hotel, when the buxom Mrs. Dyson sent to know whether 

 I would like the champagne iced for dinner. This was 

 rolling in riches of luxury, after nearly starving of priva- 

 tion, and dying from thirst. 



We stayed several days at Lisbon, to enable the ship to 

 be set to rights, and us to get fresh provisions ; during the 

 delay I visited Cintra, but I was not as much impressed 

 with its glories and grandeur as Byron seems to have 

 been. This I have no doubt arose from having just left 

 Africa, where parts of the scenery are very similar (with 

 the exception that monasteries are there unknown), only 

 on a much larger scale. Ciutra, therefore, looked to my 

 eyes like a pocket edition or model of what I had been 

 accustomed to for nearly three years. I was much struck 

 with the beauty of many of the churches in Lisbon, and 

 also interested with the schools at Belem. It struck me 

 however as cruel, that in one large room, filled with boys, 

 a window looked out into an orange-grove where the ripe 

 fruit hung in clusters within six feet of the glass, against 

 which the boys might flatten their noses in hungry 

 imagination but could not approach nearer to the 

 tempting mouthful ; the same style of thing may how- 

 ever be frequently seen near a pastrycook's shop in 

 London. 



The opera was amusing it was " Macbeth," and the 

 Portuguese were not quite " up " in Highland costume. 



