Note 27 — Chapter I · OUTWARD BOUND.—LIVERPOOL TO LISBON.

The middle classes promenade with their families until the sun begins to have effect, when they return to breakfast and to business. Dinner is usually served from noon till 2 p.m., and consists of sopa, vaca cozida, e arroz, (soup, boiled beef, and rice,) with occasionally hum prato do meio (a dish of roast for the centre). Potatoes are seldom or never used, excepting in the kitchen. Fish is only eaten on fast-days, and the delicious sardine (because common and plentiful) shares the fate of the potatoes. The common vin ordinaire of the country is drunk at table out of small tumblers, being supplied from a neighbouring tenda (wine-store) daily or hourly, as it may be required, at a price never exceeding 2d. per pint. Fine old bottled wine (such as we are acquainted with) is altogether unknown in Portugal, and it would be almost as rare to find in any house a couple of dozen bottles of wine, as it would be to discover as many books. Fire-places have not yet become general in dwelling-houses. In cold weather, gentlemen in society wear capotes (large cloth cloaks), and ladies wrap up in thick shawls. Dinner-parties are quite uncommon; but social evening meetings, where tea and simple biscuits are the only refreshments, are of constant occurrence.—Forrester’s Essay.