ii
npAvards of a thousand poor children. Visitors are
admitted to the cloisters at three o’clock, and as that
hour had not arrreed we were turning away from
the door, Avhen a servitor opened it and invited us to
enter.
AVe passed through an archway into a large quadrangle
Avitli the sun shining hrightly into it. Flov^erl'
iii, a 1 . - Quadrangle of the .Monastery ot Santa Maria, Belem.
heds occupied the centre of the square, cut out in
various shapes, and separated hy neat, trimly-kept
gravel Avalks. The heds Avere planted Avitli oranges
and hananas, and clumps of aloes Avith their rich
crimson spikes, alternating with the cool, Avhite cups
of the calla; wliile heliotrope and jasmine, and many
aromatic flowering shruhs and lierhs, sent up an
almost oppressive fragrance into the Avarm still air.
AVhile Ave were there several heautiful liaAvk-motlis
Avere hovering over the floAvers and dipping their
long trunks into their hells.
B i g . 22.—Cloisters of tlio Mona.stery of Santa Maria, Belem.
All round the quadrangle runs a double tier of
cloisters, supported hy Ioav, gracefully proportioned
and richly ornamented arches -a kind of compromise
hetAveen the Moorish and the Gothic.
The stone is a light pink carboniferous limestone,
almost a marble, Avitli many fossils ; and in some
places the elegant forms of the imbedded shells have
A1