Here impious men have punish’d been, and lo!
Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell,
In hope to merit Heaven by making earth a hell.
[22] Next to Byron, the great modern English literary name associated with this part of Portugal, and not merely from his residence here, but from his delightful and extraordinary pourtrayal of the conventual life of the neighbourhood, in his almost posthumous work, the ‘Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha,’ is he whom the noble bard alludes to in the well-known lines:—
On sloping mounds, or in the vale beneath,
Are domes where whilome kings did make repair;
But now the wild flowers round them only breathe;
Yet ruin’d splendour still is lingering there,
And yonder towers the Prince’s palace fair:
There thou, too, Vathek! England’s wealthiest son,