Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/83

Rh of original and fantastic designs in which the cable moulding is interwoven at every turn. With the exception of the small pillars under the arches of the upper ambulatory all the work dates from the original erection. In the chapter house, quite lately restored in its Manueline richness is the mausoleum of Alexandre Herculano, the historian whom Portugal has delighted to honour with this noble resting-place. The refectory on the other side of the cloisters is worth seeing with its quaint azulejos, and beautiful ceiling of shallow, groined vaulting.

The royal Casa Pia of Lisbon is now installed in the monastery and its adjoining buildings. Children's voices echo through the long corridors and in the sky-roofed cloisters, which one devoutly wishes may in no way be injured by their use as a recreation resort for the young inmates, six hundred in number, who are educated, clothed and fed by charitable bequests and donations.

Another monument of Manueline architecture stands immediately on the river edge a little further away, the tower of S. Vicente known ordinarily as the Torre de Belem. Though the three stories of square battlements and turrets look picturesque from the water the approach to it on foot is disagreeable by reason of the close proximity of gas works and a coaling stage almost in its shadow. Political prisoners were confined in the dungeons during the reign of D. Miguel. The view from the summit is extensive and beautiful.

We return through the leafy garden of Vasco da Gama which forms a pleasing foreground for the Mosteiro of the Jeronymos, and the new Ethnological Museum adjoining, and turn aside close to the Palace of Belem to visit the royal coaches. It is the finest collection that exists, except, I am told, the one in Vienna, but not having visited the Austrian capital I can make no comparisons. Here in the 57