Through Portugal . Maria, thecentral railway station, and the entrance to thehandsome Avenida da Libertade, a garden andtree-shaded drive of good houses occupying thewhole of the narrow valley for nearly two milesinto the suburbs. On either side of the Avenidaand the principal rectangular streets in the valleythe hills rise precipitously, and when the tops ofthese have been surmounted a series of suddendips and rapid ascents succeed east and city is, therefore, a most fatiguing one toexplore, as to go anywhere away from the river-bank, which with the exception of Black HorseSquare is
Through Portugal . Maria, thecentral railway station, and the entrance to thehandsome Avenida da Libertade, a garden andtree-shaded drive of good houses occupying thewhole of the narrow valley for nearly two milesinto the suburbs. On either side of the Avenidaand the principal rectangular streets in the valleythe hills rise precipitously, and when the tops ofthese have been surmounted a series of suddendips and rapid ascents succeed east and city is, therefore, a most fatiguing one toexplore, as to go anywhere away from the river-bank, which with the exception of Black HorseSquare is irretrievably ugly and squalid, and fromthe streets tires au cordon in the central valley,formidable hills have to be faced. This of lateyears has been much relieved by a completesystem of electric trams, which practically coverthe city, and by the instalment of funicular rail-ways and lifts up some of the more difficultascents. The city, on the whole, is decidedly dis-appointing at close quarters. The straight 232. o o C LISBON principal streets and rectangular cross thorough-fares, with their flat, prosaic architecture, thehigh white houses all alike, are the antipodesof picturesqueness, whilst the authorities seemperversely to have done their utmost to makethe river-side as ugly as Rotherhithe or is the more to be regretted, as since I firstknew the city many years ago, great tracts ofland have been reclaimed from the sludge andooze of the foreshore which might well have beentreated with some regard for public large strip reclaimed from the river, how-ever, almost as far as Belem, has for the mostpart been turned into untidy deserts of dust,shabby-looking docks, and dumping-places fordebris. The utter lack of aesthetic taste isobservable on all hands. The terrace before thekings residence, the palace of the Necesidades,for instance, is upon the brow of a low hill,and commands a splendid view of the river andthe opposite shore for many miles on either
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhumemartinandrewsharp, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
