Or you may attack Cintra by way of Cascaes and Collares, since the accepted approach is rarely the best way of seeing a place for the first time. There is a road for part of the way from Cascaes along the coast with sand-dunes, and hollows of scented cistus and many a delightful cove or broader sandy bays, which are now without a house, but might at the whim of fashion—absit omen—become favourite and crowded watering-places. Some miles from Cascaes the Mountains of the Moon descend into the sea, ending in the famous Cabo da Roca, the “Rock of Lisbon.” A little further on lies Collares in its celebrated vineyards, and taking the road from here to Cintra one has a view of the Serra above Cintra in a rugged, almost Alpine, grandeur of grey rocks and trees, and may understand how Fielding could call it a high mountain. To the right the last slopes are covered with groves of arbutus trees, which hang their berries in clustered lanterns of glowing yellow and orange, white and green and red. Thick layers of mist hide them on an autumn morning, through which the sun lights up the ravines in weird spears and shafts of light. To the left extends that fertile plain which produces nearly all the fruits of the earth and has for centuries provided Lisbon’s markets with their most treasured wares. Even in summer when all the surrounding country is in a cloudless blue the whole Serra of Cintra from crown to base is often blotted out in thick white mist which folds over peak and ravine, taking the shape of each in a more rounded softness of snowfields. Then when a slight wind drives it off in a bank along the horizon seaward the Serra appears a metallic blue, as if it had been poured molten into the mould and was just hardening to its definite shape.
An Infinite Variety.
The variety of Cintra is but a sample of that rich profusion of natural beauties in the most diverse kinds throughout the country. With an area little over a quarter of that of Great Britain and about three times that of Belgium, Portugal presents perhaps greater variety of scenery and products than any other country of Europe. Rich in trees and fruits (especially figs and oranges), rice (it was one of the projects of the last Ministry of the Monarchy to encourage rice-growing in Portugal), wine, oil, maize, wheat, rye, cork, salt from the marinhas of Aveiro and Algarve, honey from Alemtejo, Portugal could also, but for State prohibitions, produce tobacco, cotton, and the sugar-cane. The gardens on the banks of the Tagus, the orchards of Setubal and Santarem, the fruit-gardens round Caldas da Rainha and Alcobaça, the wide corn-lands on the alluvial lezirias of the rivers Tagus and Sado, the sub-tropical vegetation of the southern slope of the Serra de Arrabida and of Cintra and of the neighbourhood of Faro and Villa Real de S. Antonio in Algarve, prove that potentially at least Portugal is indeed the “garden of Europe planted by the sea.”
The Rivers.
The salmon in the transparent rivers of Minho are less plentiful than they were, owing to the poaching and wholesale destruction dating from 1498, when King Manoel deprived the nobility of hunting and fishing privileges in their coutadas. The Vez, a tributary of the Lima, is said to be still a good trout-stream, and some trout are to be caught in the Leça. In the Cavado, Mondego and Zezere trout are now rare. Salmon are caught only or chiefly in the river Minho. But the sea along Portugal’s coasts provides her with an unfailing abundance of fish, and the fish-markets of Lisbon and Faro are renowned for their richness and variety all the year round. To the south, especially, sardines are plentiful in winter as well as in summer. The Portuguese coast is in great part rocky and dangerous, but these bare inhospitable cliffs are broken by little sand coves and bays, and varied with immense bare or pine-covered sand-dunes.
Climate.
The climate varies considerably. In the south (Algarve) and especially in Eastern Alemtejo (where the summer temperature can rise to 120 Fahrenheit) and Traz os Montes (where the climate is indeed rather Spanish than Portuguese) the heat can be insufferable, and the winter cold of the north-east is severe. But in the centre, and especially along the coast of Estremadura, the climate may be described without exaggeration as the best in Europe. The warm winters lead one to expect tropical summers, but this expectation is not fulfilled, and the sea and the north summer wind here moderate the heat which can be so oppressive in the interior. The following statistics from an article by Snr. Antonio Arroyo, in Notas sobre Portugal, give the average temperatures during the years 1856-1900 at (1) Lisbon, (2) Biarritz, (3) Nice—
| Yearly Average. | Winter Average. | Spring. | Summer. | Autumn. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | 15·63 | 10·63 | 14·38 | 20·69 | 16·69 |
| (2) | 13·80 | 7·79 | 12·39 | 19·67 | 15·25 |
| (3) | 14·75 | 7·91 | 13·27 | 21·94 | 15·79 |
Thus, while the Lisbon winters are nearly three degrees warmer, the summers are barely one degree warmer. The figures are Centigrade. To convert into Fahrenheit divide by five, multiply by 9, and add 32. A scientific book has recently been published on the climate round Lisbon: The Climate of Lisbon and of the two health resorts in its immediate neighbourhood, Mont’ Estoril, on the Riviera of Portugal, and Cintra. By Dr. A. G. Delgado. Lisbon, 1914.
Estoril.