My last letter informed you of our intention of remaining stationary for some months; and I have now the satisfaction of telling you, that I think Lord William has, on the whole, gained more from this climate than from any he has tried, and that hitherto we have had no reason to regret the plan we have adopted. An assured refuge from the heats of summer and the advantages hoped for from his vicinity to the sea, have not altogether failed. He has been amused, his thoughts divested from what he calls "a cowardly flight from death," and free from the inconveniences of Lisbon, he enjoys placidly, the few short days of his allotted space. We have been constant residents in this terrestrial paradise only since the first of June. Our spacious house and elevated situation at Lisbon, being perfectly adapted to our dear invalid's comforts; and to say the truth, we quitted the view of the noblest harbour in Europe, with an intire persuasion, that we might have remained with safety under its protection and the sea-breeze, which blew on our faces from every balcony. But Lord William had not then seen Cintra! He had not then seen from the _Cabo de Penah_, nor from _Cape Roque_, the sublime objects of nature which surround them. Rocks and mountains; the expanded ocean; the wide-stretching Tagus; plains rich in cultivation; impending woods; bubbling fountains, and falling cascades! Nor had he then traced the footsteps of havoc and confusion, left by the earthquake, and which the broken fragments and ponderous masses of the bare rock, mark at every approach.--But recommending to my Lucy the names of those writers who have embellished their works with a description of this favoured haunt of nature, I will proceed to place before her an adventure much more interesting to myself. Twiss, Baretti, Southby's Tours through Spain and Portugal will satisfy your curiosity, as to the spot in which I met with my good genii. You will not wonder, that your brother seeks solitude. My Curro[1], who knows his master for his friend, is no less impatient than he is, for the early dawn; about that hour he conducts me daily to some otherwise almost inaccessible haunt, and contentedly browzes the verdant paths in his way. The sun had gained upon us, whilst my Grison breakfasted on what nature made to him a luxurious repast. I conversed with an intelligent friar, one of the inmates of this singular retreat, who has been banished by the superior of his order to this place from his convent in Lisbon, to expiate the sin of loving _English heretics_, and English books; both of which temptations are yet too strong for him, in a spot "Whose darksome round contains "Repentant sighs and voluntary pains; "The rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn, "The grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn."