LETTER VII. A WORTHY PORTUGUESE CLERGYMAN. A SERIOUS LOSS.-ANTIQUITY OF TORRES VEDRAS.-ITS ROMAN ORIGIN DOUBTFUL.-CONVENT DE LA GRAZIA.-AQUEDUCT.-ROMANTIC ENVIRONS. Torres Vedras, 8th Sept. 1808. I EMBRACE the opportunity afforded by my friend Y's return to England, to acquaint you that I am well; and as happy as my anxiety for letters from you will permit. My situation here is by no means unpleasant, having been so fortunate as to form an acquaintance with a very worthy Portuguese clergyman, named Bertrand, who has invited me to reside in his house. There are two other English officers under his roof; and as the old gentleman speaks French fluently, we make up a sociable partie quarré. My stay here is likely to be of short duration, for the moment a general hospital can be formed at Lisbon, all the sick under my care are to be removed thither. As I make you acquainted with all my little distresses, I must not omit to tell you, that I am now deploring the loss of a most excellent mule, which some body took the liberty of appropriating to himself, the day after my arrival here. I regret the animal, not solely for the seventy dollars I had given for him only two days before; but on his own account, as he was, as far as I know, the most gentle and tractable of his species. I had promised myself many a contemplative and pleasant excursion in his company, among the picturesque and romantic scenery, in the midst of which I am now situated. In short, I lament him pretty nearly as much as Sancho did his ass and although I do not exactly wish that he may endanger the rogue's neck who deprived me of him, it certainly is no want of charity to indulge a hope that he may not have much enjoyment in his new acquisition. But here I must say with Racine, “arrete, ma plume:" and I trust you will excuse this ebullition of my chagrin. I here tread on classic ground; this town is one of the oldest in Portugal; it is finely seated on a rising eminence nearly in the midst of a valley, through which flows a purding stream, named Sisera, whose banks are covered with alders and aspen-leaved poplars. A ruinous castle, which appears to be of Moorish origin, still nods on the summit of a small hill, and overlooks the valley and town. The scene has been hallowed by the Muse of Camoens, who in his immortal epic, when enumerating the conquests of Alphonso, Henriquez proceeds: "When Lisboa's towers before the Lusian fell, And TORRES VEDRAS bends beneath his sword." MICKLE'S LUSIAD, Book iii, - Dumourier, in his Etat de Portugal, asserts, that this town was formerly a Roman præsidium. Of this opinion no corroborative proofs exist at the present day; as there are no remaius of Roman antiquity to be found in the town or neighbourhood. The houses are mean and ruinous; they contain a population not exceeding 2,200 inhabitants. Four churches, as many convents, and one hospital, constitute the public buildings. The convent de la Grazia, belonging to the Augustine order, now contains our field hospital. Their church, which is handsome, and covered with a profusion of gilding and some miserable paintings, is now converted into a Commissariat store. Torres Vedras is supplied with water by means of a small aqueduct of white marble, which collects the springs on a hill about half a mile to the eastward of the town. The aqueduct, in its course, throws arches over the Sisera and the road leading to Lisbon by Cobral de Monte Goree. I frequently amuse myself in sketching the romantic ap G proaches to the town, and shall now send you a view of the castle as it appears from the north-east. In the foreground, which is a forest composed of pineasters and seapines, I have endeavoured to convey an idea of the picturesque appearance of our army, hutted beneath the loppings of these trees.* Behind the castle appear some very high grounds, clothed with vineyards to their summit; beyond which are the shores of the Atlantic, and the little harbour of Porto Novo. These mountains abound with veins of the most beautiful marble; of which I shall endeavour to send you a few specimens. I hope to hear from you soon. Adieu. Pinus pinea and pinus maritima Gerardi. The fruit of the former tree contains a pleasant kernel, resembling that of the pistachio nut. It is commonly eaten in Portugal and the southern parts of Europe, where this tree abounds. In Italy it is generally known by the name of the Italian pine. |