Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-04

in the magnificent approach to Lisbon by
the Tagus.
Slowly the graceful palace took shape,
until the exterior was complete. Then
carlos was called to sovereignty, and hav-
Ing no occasion to use the palace. now that
he had many others at his command op-
erations on the beautiful building were sus-
pended. For years the framework stood
neglected in the woods, an unfinished poem
of architecture
At length syndicate approached the gov
eminent and asked whether the building
could not be completed and used for the
purposes of hotel. The idea was well re-
ceived. bill authorizing the necessary
proceedings was passed through the junta,
and once again work went forward under
the direction Of the lessee. Mr.. Wissman
Today the hotel is almost completed 1t
Is beautiful beyond all power of descrip
ton. Inside and out the walls are of pure
white stone, on which from morning to
night cunning craftsmen have been working
designs all in accord with one scheme, with
out guide or; tracing. 1.-The chisel answering.
the wielder's thought. ~. 100 -
Battlemented Towers.
One gable Is adorned with a stone figure,
wings outspread. representing Portugal
trampling on the eagle of France. Around
the hotel. floor above floor. there run broad
balconies, ending in battlemented tower.
The roof of this garden is a broad plat
parts of Portugal rising and falling in sun
crowned serras right away to the frontier
towns of Spain. On the other side Is the
turquoise sea, 1500 feet below. z
On one side only Is the view interrupted.
and that is where rises the ridge of Bus
saco, glorious with the foliage of every tree
that grows in forest splendor, and where in
the autumn of 1910, Wellington, leading the
allied armies of Great Britain and Portu-
gal, defeated the French legionS of Mas
sena on their march to the sea.
The British army had taken up its posi-
ton on the night before the battle. That
night Wellington slept within what are now
the hotel precincts. The room he occupied
is shown to visitors.
Around the hotel are grouped series of
picturesque Swiss chalets, In which, while
the great main building has been pressed
forward, guests have been housed
Modern Portugal.
Bussaeo and its now famous hotel have
still older history than that which brings
it into the royal story Of modern Portugal.
Here, amid the superbly silent hills CEN
turtles ago. there sprang up a community of
hermits. High on the tree-clad hills their
hermitages rose each complete in itself.
Great ones in the olden times sheltered
there for lifelong meditation.
These hermitages still remain. Outside,
where all the world might come and pray,
tiny chapels still stand, the sacred symbols
faded and worn to dust. Inside, the rude
kitchen, the simple stone floor and the lit
tie well show how simply the hermits lived.
One curious feature of these hermitages is
that they are all lined with bark stripped
fl ON the cork trees that grow in rich pro-
fusion all over the Bussaco district. Each
hermitage also has its balcony. on which
the men of meditation might breathe the
frs GRANGE of an air that is still redolent OF
the incense of the pines.
In the center of the magnificent hotel
grounds stands the chapel, tended of old by