Note 21 — Chapter I · OUTWARD BOUND.—LIVERPOOL TO LISBON.
Reading edition
It is so needless to tell any one entering the Tagus, much less any one who has entered, how topographically accurate is the description in ‘Childe Harold,’ that the stanzas are quoted merely to save the reader the trouble of referring to the volume itself, in case he do not quite remember the lines:—
The horrid crags, by toppling convent crown’d, The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep, The mountain-moss by scorching skies embrown’d, The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep, The tender azure of the unruffled deep, The orange tints that gild the greenest bough, The torrents that from cliff to valley leap, The vine on high, the willow branch below, Mix’d in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. Then slowly climb the many-winding way, And frequent turn to linger as you go, From loftier rocks new loveliness survey, And rest ye at ‘Our Lady’s house of woe;’ Where frugal monks their little relics show, And sundry legends to the stranger tell: Here impious men have punish’d been, and lo! Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell, In hope to merit Heaven by making earth a hell.