Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 9, 2025
"'The principal and only town large enough to be called a city is Funchal, situated on the southern side of Madeira on the slope of a hill. "'The city has an equable climate. Mild sunshine, gentle ocean breezes, and protection from harsh winds by mountains, give to Funchal throughout the whole year the temperature of England in the month of May.
This Curral, a name which means, I'm told, in the Spanish language a `sheepfold, is an immense valley, completely surrounded by hills, that lies a few miles to the north-west of Funchal, the capital of the island.
It is a point of honor to produce the best; and as the clerks know, quite as well as their principals, where the best is to be found, and as the honor of their respective houses is to be sustained, it may well be imagined that all the bon-vivants on earth, were they to meet at one table, could hardly produce such a variety of fine old Madeira, as the clerks of Funchal then sip and descant upon.
Nor is the climate of Madeira well made for sedentary purposes: it is apter for one who loves to flaner, or, as Victor Hugo has it, errer songeant. Having once described Funchal at some length, I see no reason to repeat the dose; and yet, as Miss Ellen M. Taylor's book shows, Stanford, London, 1878. This is an acceptable volume, all the handbooks being out of print.
After a refit and taking on board six months’ provisions and stores, as we were ordered to fit foreign, our signal was made to proceed to sea under sealed orders, taking with us a sloop of war. On the tenth day we anchored in Funchal Roads, Madeira, with our consort.
In 1862 we hired rowing and sailing boats to visit the southern coast east and west of Funchal. For the last twelvemonth Mr. Blandy's steam-tug Falcao has carried travellers to and fro: it is a great convenience to the lazy sightseer, who cares only to view the outside of things, and here the outsides are the only things worth viewing.
A man who has seen much of the world must hold some places strangely and essentially beautiful. My own favourite spots are Auckland, N. Z.; the upper end of the Lake of Geneva; Funchal in Madeira; the valley of the Columbia at Golden City and the valley of the Eden seen from Barras in England. To these I can now add Fuentarabia, the Pyrenees and the Bidassoa.
At Funchal the roof is on a larger scale: there is no division into squares, but the rafters are knotted together with much greater elaboration, and the flat part is like the chapel roof at Cintra, entirely covered with interlacing strips forming an intricate pattern round hollow octagons.
A gentle breeze arising, enabled us to get out to sea, where the wind became favorable, and pretty brisk; it was resolved that the boat should not go on shore: and we resumed our course going at eight knots. We had remained three hours opposite Funchal bay.
Seen from Funchal, the profile of Garajao is that of an elephant's head, the mahaut sitting behind it in the shape of a red-brown boss, the expanded head of a double dyke seaming the tufas of the eastern face. We distinguish on the brow two 'dragons, puny descendants of the aboriginal monsters. Beyond Garajao the shore falls flat, and the upland soil is red as that of Devonshire.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking