68 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



genteel and affable, far beyond that of any other lady whom I have seen 

 in Brazil. She is said to be a native of France, and of noble birth. We 

 wanted to purchase sweetmeats, for which the house is famed, and she 

 took the order in person ; thus it was that we enjoyed the pleasure of 

 conversing with so superior a woman. The ladies are seventeen in 

 number, mostly upwards of thirty years of age, and corpulent. They 

 are highly respected, and the female part of the royal family, passing 

 by the house in their daily rides, carefully return the salutations of the 

 Nuns. The Chapel here is plain, but light and cheerful ; the vocal music 

 is excellent. In the garden-wall are many hewn stones, which have 

 either been portions of some older building, or designed for the use of 

 this, had the plan been completed. At one end of the house, and at a 

 considerable distance from the apartments of tlie Nuns, is a suite of large, 

 dirty, unfurnished rooms, set apart as a retreat for vagrants in bad 

 weather. A poor man has the charge of these rooms, and is allowed to 

 accommodate the casual occupiers with a fire. 



Upon a delightful eminence above the public gardens, and South of 

 the city, stands the Convent of Santa Thereza. The ascent to it is 

 steep, but well paved, and rendered as easy as the nature of the ground 

 will admit. It contains twenty-one Nuns, and is reckoned the next in 

 rank to the Ajuda. The Chapel is small, but neat; behind it are the 

 domestic apartments. The gardens are upon a declivity, hanging 

 towards the West, enjoying the advantage of water from the public 

 aqueduct, which runs through them. They seem not well adapted 

 to recluses, as the neighbouring heights command a view of them. We 

 marked the extraordinary care which had been taken to secure the 

 windows of this house, occasioned, it is said, by an elopement through 

 one of them, a few years ago. 



Besides other Religious Houses for females, there are two to which 

 they may resort, and receive all the security of a convent, without 

 taking the vows, or subjecting themselves to perpetual confinement. 

 The first, and most considerable in point of size, is the Recolhimento da 

 Nossa Senhora do Parto, standing at the end of Rua dos Oiu-ives. 



