Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-07-03
a sLEIGHRIDE ON STONES.
Queer Methods OF Travelling In Ma
delra-The Kaleidoscope Town of
Funchal.

delra-The Kaleidoscope Town of
Funchal.
from the New York Journal
Fuuchal lies spread out on the hillside:
the streets are steep and narrow, the white
washed buildings picturesquely irregular
the people Portuguese looking, dark-eyed,
brown skinned and fond of light colors in
their dresses. The air is delicious to breathe
light and invigorating, and it seemed to us
nothing could have been more exhilarating
in the freshness of the early morning than
our ride up the steep street and on to the
winding road to the convent of Santa Cla-
ra, long, low series of grey buildings that
stood perched above us on the hilltop.
The ladies of the party rode into the
courtyard and dismopnted, and brought
some exquisite handmade lace from the
nuns. Perpaps bargains constitute one of
the unwritten laws of the island, or, may
be, they serve as zest to the daily routine
of Madeira life; for even here some gentle
haggling was INDUCED in, and smaller
prices were taken by the nuns than they
demanded.
Then, remounting our horses, we prepar-
ed to return. Funchal lay at our feet, q
mass of white walled houses, pink stained,
yellow tiled, gray rooted, green casemated
and balconied, nesting amid the greeaery
of lsurels, olives and cacti; glimpses of
beautiful gardens, and rose-hued hillsides
covered with the red orchilla weed, gleam-
ing mass in the brilliant weather, but all
bleached and toned by the sun till what
otherwise might have been crude and glar-
ing incongruities were here all blended in
to one harmonious Wholesome of Turner's
| pictures realized.
Two of the party elected to leave their
horses and be conveyed back again by
"carro," kind of basket chair or carriage
on wooden sleigh runners that slid smooth
ly and swiftly over the pointed cobble
stones with which the streets are paved,
while laughing native, running behind,
both as groom and guider to the strange
but comfortable Conveyance.
Just before We reached the open market
place we dismounted and dismissed our
steeds. This was not difficult matter
that is the dismissal. The payment-bar-
gain included-had been settled beforehand
as the hirers of said ponies had accom-
| panied us wherever we went, clinging to
the ponies tails when they trotted up the
steep ascent, and handing on by the stirrup
| irons when they walked. To the initiated
! eye of the Briton we should no doubt have
! presented the appearance of the tail-end of
I
I gay and various-a lady in a pale blue
blouse, q ships officer in uniform, art
ist in big hat and bow tie, ito that
never remained tied, but streamed gayly
behind, and youth in light tourist suit.
The feather flowers that are made in Ma
deira are marvels of ingenuity, the little
soft down feathers being utilized to stimu-
late the petals and bursting buds of the
natural article, all cunningly dyed in sub
dued tints. The market place is q long,
one-storied building open on all sides to the
| winds of heaven, its interior filed with
produce, the low, uneven steps crowded
with fruit venders, rosary and crucifiI sell
lers, bird merchants, with hundreds of ca
naries, love birds and attadavets-or, as q
passenger enormously called them, 'taffida-
Wits in cages'-trinket manufacturers, dom
key boys, shock headed children and beg
gars.
After leaving tine market place we peep
ed into the church, dim, dark, mysterious,
fragrant with flowers, and then, with
shsrpened appetites climbed the steep street
to the white walled hotel, where we were
ushered into cool, flag stoned apartment,
where we sat down to an ample lunch.
The large windows of this room opened on
to stone colonnade, and through the colon
made arches glowed a garden of roses, hoary
with age, profuse with flowers, such gar
den as the Sleeping Beauty might have
dreamed her hundred years away in.
Upon inquiry we learned that this hotel
had formerly been a convent, and we were
at lunch in the refectory, writes a traveller.
The colonnade was where the former in
mates had once walked and worked al
their embroidery; the garden had been cul.
tivated and tended by the nuns. 1t was
full of roses, masses of crimson and pink
of white and yellow Gloire de Dion, rose.
that climbed over walls and balconies with
the greatest luxurisnce and filed the all
with perfume.
By one of the arches branch of vim,
leaves hung and here we saw the chame
Icons clinging to the tendrils and catching
flies; some of them we transferred TO tn,
flowers and watched them change colo
with each successive removal