NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



473 



Senhor John Baptista Machado, who, from his great wealth, has acquired 

 the nick-name of Half-MilHon, we found a charming display of the 

 beauties of nature, but none of those accommodations with which the 

 abodes of the plainest English tradesmen abound. The rooms were 

 long, but unfurnished and dirty ; there was no glass in the windows, nor 

 offices out of doors, suitable to the rank of the owner, yet he was 

 the only person in the vicinity who kept a carriage. His horses were 

 good, and though an old man, he rode them with spirit. His garden 

 contains probably two acres of ground, where the soil, though upon the 

 Serro of Lenheiro, is rich beyond any which I have ever examined. It 

 is laid out with the utmost want of taste, yet contains a profusion of 

 flowers, fruits, and esculent plants. One part of the inclosure is appro- 

 priated to the washing of linen, in tanks constructed for the purpose ; 

 in another part a fine stream of water, for the supply of the house, is 

 conducted to a square inclosure of grotto-work, ornamented in the most 

 mean and fantastic manner, with broken pots and glasses, Avith old 

 stoppers of decanters, and knobs from the covers of tureens. There are 

 also the figures of wild beasts, and an allegorical representation of the 

 four quarters of the world, and in the centre, as the principal object, 

 stands one of the most indecent exhibitions which can be imagined, refer- 

 ing to a well known circumstance which took place in Rio de Janeiro. 

 Thence the greater part of this trumpery has been brought by the 

 owner, who piques himself on the notion that he " loses nothing, but 

 renders useful what other people throw away." A rustic building, with 

 a small portico in front, occupies another part of the ground, on the 

 pillars of which, toward the garden, are painted figures of satyrs, 

 baboons, and Indians ; on their internal side are Europeans, in the cos- 

 tume of Portugal. A pair of folding doors being opened, a large piece 

 of grotto- work is displayed, representing a mountain nearly covered 

 with trees and grass, on the face of which were numerous small figures 

 of people and cattle, so arranged as to assume the character of a complete 

 and minute history of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ. I certainly 



was not a little surprised at what I saw, but had been prepared for 



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