that to the
south-west is the principal promenade of the inhabitants; the fair on St.
John's Day is likewise held there. The houses are mostly very ancient;
many of them are unoccupied. It contains about five thousand
inhabitants, though twice that number would be by no means
disproportionate to its size. The two principal edifices are the See or
Bishop's Palace, and the Convent of San Francisco, opposite to which I
had taken up my abode. A large barrack for cavalry stands on the
right-hand side on entering the south-west gate. The adjacent country is
uninteresting; but to the south-east, at the distance of six leagues, is
to be seen a range of blue hills, the highest of which is called Serra
Dorso. It is picturesquely beautiful, and contains within its recesses
wolves and wild boars in numbers. About a league and a half on the other
side of this hill is Estremoz.

I passed the day succeeding my arrival principally in examining the town
and its environs, and as I strolled about I entered into conversation
with various people that I met. Several of these were of the middle
classes, shopkeepers and professional men; they were all
Constitutionalists, or pretended to be so, but had very little to say,
except a few commonplace remarks on the way of living of the friars,
their hypocrisy and laziness. I endeavoured to obtain some information
respecting the state of instruction at Evora, and from their replies was
led to believe that it must be very low, for it seemed that there was
neither book-shop nor school in the place. When I spoke of religion,
they exhibited the utmost apathy, and making their bows left me as soon
as possible. Having a letter of introduction to a person who kept a shop
in the market-place, I called upon him, found him behind his counter and
delivered it to him. I found that he had been persecuted much whilst the
old system was in its vigour, and that he entertained a hearty aversion
to it. I told him that the nurse of that system had been the ignorance
of the people in religious matters, and that the surest means to prevent
its return was to enlighten them in those points. I added that I had
brought with me to Evora a small stock of Testaments and Bibles, which I
wished to leave for sale in the hands of some respectable merchant, and
that if he were desirous to lay the axe to the root of superstition and
tyranny he could not do so more effectually than by undertaking the
charge of these bo