At Mattosinhos, to the north of Foz, there is a wonderful crucifix, said to have been picked up from the sea after floating from the Holy Land. It is an object of great veneration among the peasantry and working-class.
Another excursion may be made to Villa de Feira, where there is an ancient castle.
POITIERS
A STUDY in grey and green is the impression left upon my mind by a first view of the old town of Poitiers. There is a sternness in the aspect of the place as you approach it by rail through the pastures of Vienne. But peace now rests upon Poitiers; the town dreams in this quiet French landscape, and the chronicles of arms are old and faded memories.
Crécy and Poitiers! Every English school-boy remembers the names of these great battlefields, and thrills at the story of the Black Prince and his encounters with King John of France. Poitiers sets the reflective visitor musing upon martial valour, and the vast futile exercise of the bellicose instincts of the French and British nations in the time of the Hundred Years’ War. Fighting was then the proper and exclusive occupation of gentlemen. The age that gave birth to Chaucer was the age of vainglorious warfare with Scotland and France, followed by intellectual stagnation, and all the bitter fruitage of battle.
