ove the
country to the south, and descends by an abrupt precipice on the north
to the deep-flowing river, here some two hundred yards wide, and running
in a narrow gorge, the monastery and its hill have more than once played
an important part in history. From there Wellington, in 1809, was able
to reconnoitre the French position across the river while his army lay
hidden behind the rocks; and it was from a creek just a little to the
east that the first barges started for the north bank with the men who
seized the unfinished seminary and held it till enough were across to
make Soult see he must retreat or be cut off. Later, in 1832, the
convent, defended for Queen Maria da Gloria, was much knocked about by
the besieging army of Dom Miguel.

The Augustinians had begun to build on the hill in 1540, but none of the
present monastery can be earlier than the seventeenth century, the date
1602 being found in the cloister.

The plan of the whole building is most unusual and original: the nave is
a circle some seventy-two feet in diameter, surmounted by a dome, and
surrounded by eight shallow chapels, of which one contains the entrance
and another is prolonged to form a narrow chancel. This chancel leads
to a larger square choir behind the high altar, and east of it is a
round cloister sixty-five feet across. The various monastic buildings
are grouped round the choir and cloister, leaving the round nave
standing free. The outside of the circle is two stories in height,
divided by a plain cornice carried round the pilasters which mark the
recessed chapels within. The face of the wall above this cornice is set
a little back, and the pilaster strips are carried up a short distance
to form a kind of pedestal, and are then set back with a volute and
obelisk masking the offset. The main cornice has two large corbels to
each bay, and carries a picturesque balustrading within which rises a
tile roof covering the dome and crowned by a small lantern at the top.
The west door has two Ionic columns on each side; a curious niche with
corbelled sides rises above it to the lower cornice; and the church is
lit by a square-headed window pierced through the upper part of each
bay. Only the pilasters, cornices, door and window dressings are of
granite ashlar, all the rest being of rubble plastered and whitewashed.

[Illustration: PLAN OF NOSSA SENHORA DO PILAR]

Now the eucalyptus-trees planted round the church have grown so tall
that only the