magnificent throne room, banqueting hall, and other salas of audience and reception. Their decorations are imposing, and among the pictures is a vast canvas representing the acclamation of D. João IV painted by José da Cunha. There are also paintings by Sequeira, Taborda Portuense and Machado. There is a valuable library in the Palace containing many manuscripts still unedited, and rare books. The noted historian Alexandro Herculano was librarian in his time; Ramalho Ortigão, one of Portugal's most valued writers of to-day is the present head.
The view from the palace windows is superb, commanding wide outlook of the Tagus, the opposite shore and its distant hill ranges with the abrupt profile of Palmella in the far distance, and the villages, bright and sunny, at the water edge, with Almada on the brow of the hill, its church a conspicuous landmark. The town does not extend far back from the river at this end of Lisbon, the cemetery and the parks of the Ajuda and Necessidades Palaces forming a background for the houses. The hills and depressions covered with buildings are plainly defined, the bright, sunlit colouring forced into strong effect by the scattered trees and palms. To the gate of the park is quite a country walk, with broad acres of fertile, tilled soil rolling northward, and a few windmills in sight. The trees in the park are delightful in parts, but here again the impression received is not of a picturesque, free wildness, but of neglect. The road and paths were badly kept, the ground between the trees was ploughed ostensibly for cereals; the whole area seemed deserted. The Royal Observatory is in the centre of the park with a few buildings close to the broad road and barns. It is a park with undeveloped resources that might afford
pleasure not only to contiguous residents but to the whole
60
