and overhung by magnificent old trees. The spot where the road crosses this little rivulet by a romantic foot bridge formed of two or three trunks of vinhatico, struck me as the finest piece of forest scenery I had ever seen.

We ascend through this forest on the other side, and emerge on a kind of open serra, called the Feyteiras. Over this the road still rises, till we gain the Poiza, a ridge which may be said to divide the island from north to south, as from hence our descent is continual and rapid till we reach the town. The road through the Ribeiro dos Escales to the Mount Church is horrible throughout, and as it was already dark, nothing but the instinctive sagacity and infallibility of foot peculiar to these Madeira poneys, could have brought us through with safety *.

* By far the best road, whether to ascend or descend the mountains, is the central one, that rises from the Roxinha.

SOCIETY-LESTE-STRANGERS BURYING-GROUND.

Feb. 25.-A peculiar feature of Madeira life is the number and constant succession of strangers whom we meet here. Besides those that call for wine, most vessels going south of the Line are glad of any excuse to take this little Fairy-land in its way, and the inhabitants are thus favoured with a sight of a great part of the personages whom official duties may call to the charge of the various departments of our East or West Indian administration. An accession is likely to take place in the number of these visitors, from the springing up of so many new states in America, which has given employment for a considerable increase of the diplomatic corps. The last week has been almost wholly engaged by the hospitalities with which the English residents love to do the honours of their island, to some distinguished strangers of this class. I shall not be sorry when they are over; not but they manage these things here pretty much as at home; but very large din

ner parties are always dull; particularly if composed of men only, and those for the most part. strangers whom you are never likely to see again; and I have once or twice, while assisting at some of our late reunions, fancied we might be considered to be brought together with a view of ascertaining the minimum of social enjoyment which could be extracted from an assembly of rational beings..

Feb. 26.-This is the Sunday dos Passos, and a procession took place, the object of which was the meeting of two distinguished images of our Lord and the Virgin at the outside of the Franciscan church. These images are often confided to the custody of some Morgado or gentleman, who holds an estate upon the tenure of giving them lodging. Thus the image of 'Our Lady' was brought down last night by torch light, from the house of a gentleman above the Deanery, and deposited in the Franciscan church, to be used on this occasion.

Feb. 27.-To-night Our Lady' was brought back to her ordinary place of mansion. The effect of the procession-the monks-the lights-the music and chanting-was impressive, particularly as it first appeared passing the bridge below. I followed the crowd up the Willow Walk, and was admitted with the rest into the Morgado's drawing

room, where the Religious sung a short hymn, and, after taking some refreshment, retired.

March 1.-They have here a wind called the Leste, which, as its name implies, comes from the east, although all east winds are by no means Lestes. It is, I believe, of much the same kind with the Sirocco of the Levant; of a hot, close, drying nature, particularly oppressive to some constitutions, whom it affects by languor, headache, and a parching of the skin and lips. What is remarkable, they are the residents whom it most disorders in this way. Visitors in general suffer much less, and the invalids are never so well as while it lasts. There has been something of this Sirocco in the air for a day or two past, and I have found it far from disagreeable. The air is hot, but not to me at all oppressive; and in other respects the weather is lovely; for a very peculiar clearness and cloudlessness in the atmosphere are among the invariable indications of Leste.

March 3.-I have lately taken two or three long rides in the mountains, but always managed to get home by dusk. These excursions are very pleasant. I start after breakfast with a small basket of luncheon, and gaining the summit, abandon my horse to the burroquero, and expatiate for the rest of the day through the desert air, of which in

MOUNTAIN TOPS.

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deed at that elevation one seems more a denizen than of the earth.

There is a sort of excitement attending the sense of elevation and of solitude, which you have on these summits; otherwise we do not gain much in respect of landscape. A mountain we know (and Madeira may be said to form but one,) looks better from any point of view than from the top; and this is peculiarly the case here, where, as you ascend you only obtain a wider horizon of sea. When the weather is clear we get a view of our humbler neighbour, Porto Santo, distant about thirty miles to the north-east. To-day I saw it with peculiar distinctness; it lay almost mapped out beneath me, and I could have counted the heads of the low conical hills which compose its surface.

I sometimes, for the sake merely of variety, return to the city round the head of the Waterfall Ravine, descending by the Alegreja* and St. Roque.

March 4.-In England, when detained for a few hours without occupation, in a strange place, one naturally lounges towards the church-yard: in fact, we find ourselves more at our ease in these cities of the dead, than in the crowded streets of a town, where the endless succession of strange faces only oppresses us with an additional sense of our

* See "Views in the Madeiras."

H