Travels in Portugal

Preface To Eirst Edition

These Travels were published in consecutive Numbers of " The New Quarterly Magazine," under the title of Notes of Travel in Portugal. The favourable reception they met with from the public press has induced me to revise them, to enlarge them considerably, and to republish them in book form. Although, at my publisher's suggestion, I have altered the title to the more convenient one of Travels in Portugal, I desire to say that they are nevertheless nothing more than notes — mental notes, for I travelled without any design of future publication, and kept no single written memorandum of what I did or saw. This I say in apology for the somewhat discursive style of my work, and in mitigation of critical judgment. Furthermore, I did not

▼i PREFACE.

travel continuously. My travels were interrupted by periods of residence; both of which extenuating circumstances may, I pray, when I come to be reviewed, be taken into consideration.

In looking over the proof sheets, it has struck me that I may have unconsciously magnified the difficulties in the way of pleasure travelling in Portugal I have, therefore, somewhat modified my original statements, and in one place I have added a long explanatory note.

I would wish my dissuasion from Portuguese travel to be accepted only by the mere tourist — the ignorant, conceited, incurious, moneyed tramp, for whom so much deserved contempt has been expressed in current literature. Those who go to Portugal to enjoy a pleasant winter climate will, as a rule, I think, do well to go. Those who go to see a strange people with a famous name in European history, to watch the successful working of a representative Constitution, to study archaeology, ecclesiology, or natural history ; or, again, those who simply desire to take a month's holiday and a month's relaxation in spring, summer, or winter, in a quite new country (with no intention to " do " the country in ordinary

PREFACE. vii

tourist fashion) will, I think, not regret a visit to Portugal.

For the illustrations to this volume I am indebted to the kindness of the Right Honourable Thomas Sotheron Estcourt, who has allowed me to choose from among a valuable series of finished sketches in pen and ink and in sepia, made by him in the course of a visit to the Peninsula. These sketches were in every case made upon the spot, and to their perfect fidelity I can myself testify. After attempting in vain to get the delicacy and finish of the drawings reproduced by the engraver, I had to fall back on photography, and they appear in the shape of reduced facsimiles by means of the Woodbury Type process.

John Latouche.

PBEFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

After recording the pleasing circumstance that a very large First Edition has been exhausted in rather more than two months, I have little to say in this Preface to a Second Edition beyond expressing my gratitude for the friendly and — what is as important to an author — the early reviews of my book in the leading journals. By no other means can a comparatively unknown and quite unrecommended writer bring his literary wares to market ; for the very fastidious reading public of Great Britain follows the great social law observed by our countrymen everywhere, and will make no acquaintance with a strange author till he be first formally introduced to their notice by the critics, the indispensable fuglemen of the press, and masters of the ceremonies in the society of letters.

Exception has been taken by the " Times," in the course of a full and favourable notice of the " Travels," to my apparently " implacable " feelings against the x PREFACE.

Tourist class. It is perhaps true that I have ex pressed my objection to one section of this class rather freely ; but be it understood that I, no other than a tourist myself on many occasions of my life, should be, and am the very last person to speak ill of tourists generally. I did, indeed, draw a distinction between the idle and luxurious tourist and the traveller who is in pursuit of something beyond the mere killing of his time. The first, I urged, after a considerable knowledge of Portugal, would find that country quite unsuited to him; the true traveller, on the other hand, prepared for rough travelling, and willing to pay the price of much discomfort for an increase of his knowledge of a curious country and a little-known people, would find Portugal very well worth travelling in. Again, I have recommended the two chief towns of Portugal as health resorts, under some circumstances and with some limitations.

As evidence that I have no desire whatever to dissuade the more intelligent class of travellers from visiting Portugal, I will even do my utmost to induce them to go thither. I hereby confirm the opinion expressed in the " Times " review as to the ease with which the country can be reached from England. " Imagination," says my critic in the " Times," " invests the little western kingdom with all the vague terrors inspired by the long- continued disturbances of the rest of the Peninsula." All of which terrors the

PREFACE. xi

reviewer shows to be groundless. The " Times " writer might haye gone further, and said that imagination plays more pranks than this with travellers. It would be safe to say that nine intending seatravellers to Portugal out of every ten expect to have to cross the "ever- vexed" Bay of Biscay; this is, as any map will show them, a geographical error, seeing that their steamer's true course from Ushant to Finisterre never once brings them within a line drawn between these two points, inside of which line only are the turbulent waters of this much-feared bay. From all this it may be concluded that this said quality of imagination is a very troublesome sort of commodity for a traveller — fatal to enterprise. It is, indeed, the bane of travellers ; and the Scotch, the most daring of all adventurers by sea and land, possess either least of this unheroic quality, or have, more than other people, the power of suppressing its excess. As to which fact, I beg to relate a pleasant and appropriate instance which chanced to come under my own observation. It happened that a Scotch lady, residing in a distant land, desired to take a favourite native servant home with her. " Oh, madam," objected the woman, " I would willingly go with you, but for the sea — I am so terribly afraid of it." "The sea!" said her kindly and energetic mistress ; " what do you think you will have to do with the sea ? You are simply put into a steamer xii PREFACE.

here and taken out at London. Pray, what does the sea matter to you ?" The girl went, and found that her mistress had been right, and she altogether wrong ; and this I think proves what a foolish thing is this same imagination, which, for this poor girl, had clearly summoned up mountains of waves which she personally was to do battle with, sea-devils, whales with their huge mouths gaping at her, monstrous spear-nosed fish tilting at her weak body, and heaven only knows what beside ; and, compared to these horrors, all the nasty realities of steam-boat travel, the hot, stuffy, oily smells, the closeness, the noise, the nausea, the stewardess — appeared, no doubt, quite endurable evils.

To right-thinking, non-tourist travellers contemplating a visit to Portugal, I commend this anecdote. I say to them, " Pray, let your imagination lie in abeyance. What have rebellious Carlists, or the rough waves of the Bay of Biscay to do with you ? You are put into a steamer at London, Liverpool, or Southampton, and taken out, in due time, at Lisbon or Oporto, safe and sound.' '

John Latouche.

London,

September 20, 1875.

Chapter I. Page

Vigo — Eeal Travel and Holiday Travel — Choice of a Horse — Lies of a Spanish. Horse dealer — Vigo Bay, in connection with British Naval History — Serious Quarrel between Guide and Innkeeper's Family — Boorishness and Virtues of the Galicians — Story of a Zarzuela Actress — Bed and Board of Travellers in Portugal — Tuy ; its Gothic Cathedral 1

Chapter II

Spanish and Portuguese on the Frontier Line — Travel Southward — Banks of Minho — Caminha — Sea Coast — Hospitable Farmer — Ghost Stories — The Lobis-homem ; a Grisly Tale — Farm "Work in Northern Portugal — Land Tenure and Peasant Farms — Undescribed Druidical Remains — A District Peopled by Women — Anecdote in Testimony of their Good Conduct — Timoleon of Cosse . ... 19

Chapter III

Vianna — Costume and Looks of the Women — Cheerfulness of the People — Their Dances ; their Improvised Singing — River Lima. — Unsupported Tradition — Funeral Customs — Surrounding Scenery Overpraised — Raptures over Scenery make poor Reading — Home of Miranda, the Poet —Reflections on Ill-directed Travel, suggested by Misadventures of Two British Tourists— Abundant Traces of the Moors — Wrong Construction put upon the Author's Motives — Belief in Hidden Treasure — Stories in Proof — Precious Stones in Portugal— The Crown Jewels ; the Braganza Diamond. 44

Chapter IV

Visit to the Gaviarra — Prudery of Portuguese Writers — Decay of Literature — View from the Top of Gaviarra— Early Portuguese History — Advantages of Travelling on Horseback — Ride through the Gerez Mountains and along Spanish Frontier— Wild Birds, Beasts and Flowers— Fishing and Shooting not Good in Portugal — Hill Forts — Legends Connected with One— Mild Religious Exercises — Pilgrimages to Shrines 73 xiv CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE V.

pagAi The Castle of Braganza— Hebrew Type of Face in Braganza— Important Part Played by Jews in Portuguese History— Conversation with a Jewish Traveller— His Story of Spinosa — Mirandella — Monotonous Cuisine of Well-to-do People in Portugal — Legend of the Bruxas— Villa Real ; its Architecture — Eeturn of Enriched Adventurers from India and Brazil— Dull Life in Portuguese Country Towns— Curious System of Courtship — Anecdote — Description of Port Wine Country — Sketch of the History of Port Wine — Has a Literature of its Own — The Pass over the Marao Mountains 99

CHAPTEE VI.

Luxuriance of Vegetation on Western Slopes of Marao Hills — A Large Cactus — Affair between General Loison and Portuguese Troops at Amarante — Cinque-cento Ornamentation of Church of San Groncalo — Sketch of Progress of Christian Architecture in Portugal — Legend of Saint Goncalo — Undeserved 111 Eepute of People of Amarante — An Unlucky and Foolish Mining Company — Curious Waterproof Cloak — Portuguese Peasantry Lineal and Unchanged Descendants of Conquerors of the Saracens and Castilians — Old Charters — Breed of Horses Crossed with Arab Blood in Moorish Times — Vallongo — Its Ancient Gold Mines — A Toy Mine at Work— Mining Prospects of Portugal — Oporto — Its History — Its Famous Siege — Is the Centre of Political and Commercial Movement in Portugal — The Douro ; its Dangerous Bar — An Old Eoman Beacon 1 27

CHAPTEE VII.

Foz,the Brighton of Oporto — Sea Bathing — Douro Boats — The Portuguese a Trafficking People, but not Commercially Adventurous — Churches of Oporto — Eemarkable Historical Picture — The Douro Passage of, in 1812 — Curious Eeputation of the Douro in Spain — Fish and Fishing in the Eiver— Ethnology of Portugal — Variety of Eaces — Appearance of the People — Gold Ornaments of Moorish Design— Eai I way to Lisbon— Places on the Way — Marsh Scenery — Coimbra— Erroneous Tradition about Inez de Castro — University of Coimbra; its Connection with George Buchanan— Pombal — Marquis of Pombal the Bismarck of Portugal— His Life and Character— Alcobaca— Batalha, the Battle Abbey of Portugal- Its Plateresque Style of Architecture— " Tanias El Eey," meaning of- Objection to u Interviewing " Eespectable People, and Reporting their Conversation— Conversation of Chance Acquaintances very Poor — An Instance 140

CONTENTS. xv

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

Lisbon— Cintra Overpraised — Monserrat, and the Author of Vathelc — Moorish Palace Fort at Cintra— Pariah Dogs of Lisbon have Ceased to Exist — Dog Hunts — Humanity of the Portuguese — Mild Bull Fighting Practised in Portugal — Singular Tameness of Domestic Animals — Native Newspapers — Their Timidity and Scanty News — Curious System of Avowedly Paid Literary Criticism — Modern Art Progress in Portugal disappointing— Repousse Work — Point Lace — Ancient Furniture — Caldas Faience — Paintings Deplorable — The Academy Exhibition — Gran Vasco and his supposed School 187

CHAPTER IX.

From Lisbon to Evora — Lost Fertility of Great South Tagus Plain — Fine Roman Remains at Evora— Abundance and Triviality of Roman Inscriptions — Elvas — Wrong Choice of a Guide — His Blunders, his Ghost Stories, and General Imbecility — Legend of the Seven Whistlers — The Guide's Terror— Benighted in a Forest— Recovery of Horses and Guide 207

CHAPTER X.

Hostess at Monsaras a Shrew — Her Volubility and Use of Proverbs — Spanish Frontier — Line of Demarcation Distinct between Spanish and Portuguese Character — The Portuguese Language — Affectation of the Brazilians — Portuguese Share in " Pigeon English " — Portuguese a Living and Growing Language — An Instance ; Origin of Word, Fajardismo — An Intelligent Swindle — Olivenca, once Portuguese, now Spanish — Radical and Important Difference between Spanish and Portuguese National Character and Institutions 225

CHAPTER XL

Juromenha — Desolate Country — Last Stand of Moors of Portugal Made in this Region — Final Wars of Moors and Portuguese Treacherous and Bloody — Sketch of History of the Great Portuguese Home Crusade — Names of Different Sorts of Christian Marauding Expeditions Preserved in Charters to Towns and Convents — Mertola — Final and Crowning Misadventure of the Guide Francisco 246

CHAPTER XII.

Boat Journey down the Guadiana to Villa Nova — Scenery and Botany of Province of Algarve— The Locust Tree— Boatmen's Stories — The Ginet — Mr. Mason's Successful Mining at San Domingo — Embark for Lisbon in a Trading Schooner — The East Wind ; its Bad Reputation— Proverbs— The "Rock" of Lisbon; Why so xvi CONTENTS.

PAGE

called — Viseu — Its Famous Pictures — Gran Vasco— Discussion as to his Authorship of Pictures ascribed to him — The Province of Beira — Its Unsophisticated Inhabitants — Their Singular Dress — Their Probable Origin — Eemarks on Travel Writing — Culture and Good Manners and Nature of the People— A Theory Unsupported by Facts— A Portuguese Priest — His Stories about Wolves — Diminution of Wolves in the Country— Good and Inoffensive Character of the Priest — His Views on Sport — Through Oporto Northward — Monastic Church of Leca do Balio — Description of a Pine Forest— Barcellos — A Portuguese School Inspection — Farming — Strong Traces of Eoman Farm System— " Green Wine j " its Taste and Good Effects — Eecapitulation of Impressions of the Portuguese, as a People . . . . 250

SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER.

Reasons for Writing a Supplementary Chapter — Influence of the Moon in Portugal — The Planting of Cabbages — Spade and Hoe Cultivation— Women's Work— Superstitious Notions — The Fattening of Pigs — The Priests' Influence — Non-Secular Education — Cheap Substitute for Newspapers — Hints to Tourists — Ci,..:ate — Language — Anecdote — Philistinism — Anecdote — Manners and Morals — Management of Forests and Orchards — A Secret in Forestal Science — Flower Gardens — A Problem in Agriculture — Farm System of Portugal 324

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Tuy and Valencia. Ponte de Lima.

VlANNA. AMARANTE.

Batalha.

Chapter I

Vigo — Heal Travel and Holiday Travel — Choice of a Horse — Lies of a Spanish Horse-dealer — Vigo Bay, in connection with British Naval History — Serious Quarrel between Guide and Innkeeper's Family — Boorishness and Virtues of the Galicians — Story of a Zarmela Actress — Bed and Board of Travellers in Portugal — Tuy its Gothic Cathedral.

Landing at Vigo, in the ancient kingdom of Galicia, the traveller is only nine leagues from the northern frontier of Portugal ; and he may make his preparations for a journey into that country with as great advantage in Vigo as in any of the larger towns of Portugal itself. If he is in haste, and wants rather to have seen the country and the people than to see them, let him take the diligence, which will hurry and jolt him along a road leading due south, over the Spanish frontier, through the town of Vianna, and the city of Braga, to Oporto. At this latter city he may take the train, and, still

going due south, will make for Lisbon; stopping

l

2 T1UVELS IN PORTUGAL.

for a day, perhaps, to look at the architectural splendours of Batalha and Alcobaca. From Lisbon he will visit the cool retreats of Cintra. He will take a hasty railway trip south of Lisbon, through a hideously barren country, to Setubal ; another to the west, through an uninteresting country, to Evora ; and he will, on finding himself at Lisbon again (and, if I am not mistaken, with no small satisfaction), take his passage in the first steamer for London or Southampton, and his report upon the country he thinks he has seen will be — " Portugal is thoroughly uninteresting ; the country in parts is pretty but not remarkable, in parts it is a barren wilderness. The people are inaccessible from the difficulties of a language which does not appear worth learning, and therefore of their manners, habits, or customs, it is difficult to say anything."

JS T ow, a man needs not to be of that order of traveller who will journey from Dan to Beersheba, and say, " all is barren," to arrive very honestly at this conclusion ; and yet the country is not in fault, only his mode of trying to see it wrong ; and I hope to show, in the following pages, that the verdict of my supposititious traveller is unjust in every particular.

Portugal is as yet virgin soil, so far as the British tourist is concerned. No preparations have as yet been made for him, hardly any one speaks his language, no inn-keeper expects to see him, no guide is ready to show him the lions.

There is a large class of travellers who should avoid Portuguese travel — those who are impelled to foreign journeying less because they care for it than because all their friends travel, and who, driven from England by that " oestrum " which flies abroad in the autumn months, not unreasonably like to find all the comforts of home during their holiday in foreign lands. Let not any of the migrant tribe who propose to travel in established tourist fashion, visit Portugal. Even Spain has greater, nay, along beaten tracks, great facilities for the luxurious tourist. Yet the obstacles to profitable travelling in Portugal — profitable in the sense of learning something of the people and of their ways — are, after all, but few. Unfortunately, first among them stands the language, and, without a fair command of it, let no traveller venture. It is a language which few people think it worth while to acquire ; moreover, it is a difficult language, easy enough to learn to read, but far harder to speak than either Spanish or Italian. This is the chief obstacle; another is the extraordinary badness of food and lodging along the road. Sour wine, stale oil, black bread, and dried fish are the staples in the less frequented districts. Another is the absolute necessity, if it is desired to see the real beauty of Portuguese scenery and to study the lives and manners of the people, that the traveller should journey chiefly on horseback ; for the few carriage roads, as a rule, pass through the least picturesque and interesting parts of the country. I know of no other difficulties, and, on the other hand, Portuguese travel has its good side ; there are no brigands, and the people are well-tempered and well-mannered, very obliging and very hospitable.*

The present writer does not propose to write a regular itinerary of his travels in Portugal ; for, in truth, he has journeyed over many dreary leagues of road on which he would be sorry to ask for the reader's company. His object will be to carry him rapidly from one point of interest to another, and tell him what he has learned in his travels of the ways of life of a very singular and interesting people. Nevertheless, the reader who shall follow him will have quite enough of the usual incidents of horseback travel, of roadside inns, of good landlords and bad ones, of kind welcomes and of cold ones.

There is now, I am told, an excellent hotel at Vigo, kept by a German with a French wife. There is, therefore, the less occasion for me to dwell on

* This warning, be it observed, applies only to tourists : not, as shall hereafter be set forth, to persons intending to reside — permanently or temporarily — in the country.

the fact that no excellence of the kind existed at the time of my visit, which was made several years ago.

Since that time a French scientific expedition has taken up its quarters at Vigo. The work they have before them is the recovery of the treasure believed to have sunk with the Spanish galleons which had taken shelter in Vigo, in the year "J 702, during the War of the Succession, when the combined French and Spanish fleets were attacked by Sir George Rooke, in command of a Dutch and English squadron, and the town was stormed by three thousand men, under the command of the Duke of Ormond.

My first and, in fact, my only object in remaining even a single hour in Vigo was to buy a horse for my journey. With this view, and without mentioning my purpose at the inn, for landlords are only too apt to be in league with roguish horsedealers, I sallied forth to discover for myself the equine capabilities of the place. I had made the tour of the town and was coming back, without seeing anything desirable, when I perceived a gentleman in high boots with immense silver spurs, a well-used velveteen jacket, and a dirty red sash wound several times round his waist. This person was leaning against the wall of a dark entry leading from the street, and had so evident an expression in his face, attitude and bearing, of some sort of proprietorship in horseflesh, that I instantly accosted him.

I was correct in my surmise. He told me that lie was the possessor of about twenty of the very finest mares in Spain ; " every one of which," said the horse-dealer, taking off his hat and making me a bow, "is at your Excellency's service."

I followed the man along the vaulted passage into a large stable. My eyes getting in time used to the gloom of the place, I could perceive the indistinct forms of some twenty or thirty under- sized ponies ; some tied up to mangers running round the walls, and some fastened to the numerous stone pillars which supported the roof. I looked with some dismay at their diminutive bodies and generally "weedy" appearance.

Horse-dealing is a serious matter in all countries, but in none more so than in Spain, where a bargain, even for the hire of a pack mule or a guide's pony* is approached with the utmost circumspection and gravity.

" Sir," I said, addressing the horse-dealer, with a suitable solemnity ; " pray look well at me, and having done so, inform me to which of these animals you recommend me to confide my person for a journey of some three or four hundred miles."

My companion gravely and politely removed his hat for the purpose of the desired inspection,, and having concluded it, he replied —

" Caballero, I perceive that you are a person not to be imposed upon. These animals you have seen are certainly not worthy nor indeed capable of carrying your distinguished person. 5 ' And thus he went on with a blarneying speech of great length and volubility, ending by telling me that he possessed one horse of quite superlative excellence. Descanting on the way upon the merits of this particular animal, he led me to its stable.

Knowing the ways of horse-jockeys — knowing that a horse is praised by them generally in inverse ratio to his merits — I was not a little surprised to find, in a small separate stable to which the dealer conducted me, a strong, good-looking horse of the Andalusian breed, apparently sound in wind and limb.

The dealer led him out into the street, saddled him with the cumbrous saddle of the country, and put a bridle in his mouth. He mounted him. The horse's action was as good as his looks. I asked the price with some anxiety, for I saw that the performance of my journey on horseback was dependent upon getting this horse. After a great deal of tedious bargaining, I obtained him for twenty-five pounds ; no doubt much more than the horse's market value, but he was a fairly good one, and did me very good service.

My plans were to make at once for Tuy, on the E/iver Minho, which is the northern boundary of Portugal, and there or at Valenca, the Portuguese town which is on the opposite side of the river, to procure an active servant to accompany me upon the Portuguese portion of my journey. My preparations were soon made. A good English saddle I had brought with me ; also a pair of regulation cavalry pistols, and holsters for them. At Visro I bought a true Spanish cloak of stout broadcloth, a saddle-cloth, a pair of capacious saddle-bags, arid I was ready. I might have carried all my baggage on the stout Andalusian, and ridden to Tuy in a day by the high road ; but I had a reason for wishing to keep along the sea-shore. Asking the horse-dealer for a guide over the mountains by the sea, he proposed to accompany me himself, remarking, however, that the road was bad, and the people along it no better than the road.

At daybreak the following morning we made our start. Skirting the magnificent Bay of Yigo for a mile, we soon began the ascent of a steep mountain, and continued, till the sun was pretty high, ascending a good deal, and now and then descending a little. Presently the whole bay was spread out like a map beneath our feet. The day was calm, and the steep hills and white houses, with their verandahs and projecting eaves, were reflected as in a looking-glass.

Fine as the scene before me was, there was a certain human interest about this bay which far outweighs any admiration for it as scenery. Some very momentous episodes of our own history have been transacted within sight of these hills, and evidences thereof cannot but be lying at this moment beneath the quiet waters of the bay. If, by a miracle, they could be lifted for an instant, we should see such a sight as would realize Clarence's dream. We should look upon u Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearls, Inestimable stones, unvalued gems, All scattered in the bottom of the sea."

Looking from the hill- side on the bay, I forgot all about its beauties in the fancy of how many brave deeds might have been witnessed from the hill-side on which I was standing. From this spot a spectator might have seen the entry of Drake's squadron in Elizabeth's reign, and have counted the men on the decks — seen them work their guns upon the town, and felt the earth shake to the booming of the heavy artillery from the castles overhead. I suspect that our tiny English ships, moving quickly about, ran no great risk from the plunging fire of the Spanish gunners, and that the affair was rather a one-sided one. A far better show must have been the capture of the galleons by Rooke and the Dutch, when five of the huge treasure vessels of Spain were set on fire, and eleven borne away by their captors. It must have been a very gallant sight, and be sure that the traces of that fight still lie under the waves of Vigo Bay, and that there is a rich prize there well worth the seeking for.

The rocky island which is seen from where I stand, and which, with its sister island, not now visible, commands the entrance to the bay, is Bayona; and, high up on its southern face, I make out what my guide assured me are the remains of ancient fortifications. There is an infinitesimally small literary difficulty connected with Bayona which caused me to choose to ride along the sea-shore to Tuy, .rather than along the high-road.

The question is whether it is this Bayona to which Milton refers in the lines —

" "Where the great vision of the guarded mount Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold ;"

or whether it is the little seaport of Bayona, lying a few miles farther south. My own strong impression, after seeing both places, is that Milton meant the islands, " Bayona's hold " being equivalent to " Bayona's fortress," and being taken to signify Vigo Bay, its castle and its fortified islands. I do not see how such a place as Bayona, the town, could even have been heard of by Milton ; while, when he wrote " Lycidas," events had taken place near " Bayona's hold" which, though they occurred some fifty years before, would have made its geography familiar enough to British ears.