We three girls & Aunt Susanna came out on Wednesday Dec. 20th to get the house
ready; we did nothing in particular except shopping, till Friday, when I went for a ride
on the mare as far as Affife, with Antonio, & the rest of the party consisting of
Uncles Cabel, Fred, Mother, Father, Gracie, Ben, Cyril Wright, M^r Newman Noggs
& M^r Page arrived. That afternoon they settled in.

Saturday the ladies drove up S^ta. Lucia, & the gentlemen walked except Uncle Cabel
who rode with May, at the top of the hill we left the carriage & walked over the hills
as far as a pretty little wood where we had lunch. It was like coming suddenly upon an
oasis in the middle of a desert, this little wood & village, called S. Memede. Having
lunched we proceeded. At the end of about hour s walking we came upon a gorge
with a stream flowing down it, down which we had to scramble. The scenery was
most beautiful; the great bare hills with the stream flowing between them, & the
other side the the [sic] fertile plain bordered by the sea The carriage met us again at
Areosa & we drove home along the road. In the evening of Saturday we all went to
the Opera, which was Faust, we enjoyed it very much, it was the 1st opera I had ever
seen, & it was very well done considering the place.

Sunday Uncle Cabel & I rode as far as the foot of S. Silvestre, the ladies drove & the
gentlemen walked; when we had all collected we commenced the ascent, it was rather
hot & the road was dreadfully steep, so that when we got to the chappel [sic] we were
all ready for lunch; after lunch some of the party went on right to the top of the hill,
the view was simply lovely, we cld. see for miles round. I drove home with the others
as the mare had rubbed a saddle sore & cld. not come.

On Xmas day the gentlemen went to shoot the woodcock & we afterwards met them
at the S. Francisco convent, for lunch; the day was cloudy & it rained a little in the
morning; needless to say the woodcock escaped. This has been the Xmas expedition
for many years, in the time of the Teages. In the evening after a big dinner we had a
Xmas tree, we were all very wild and danced about the passage to the music of
guitarres [sic] which Uncle Cabel had ordered to come. Having tired ourselves out we
went to bed.

The following day (Tuesday) the gentlemen left us, and we went to celebrate Ben s
birthday at the Cabadello, it is very pretty there, very much overgrown with pines, we
lunched there & returned home about 4.

Wednesday we did nothing much, it blew hard all day & we had occassional [sic] storms.

Thursday we stayed in all the morning; and May went for a short ride on the fillet
[sic] to try her, as we find our saddle hurts the old mare. It blew hurricanes all day
long.

Friday I rode the fillet as far as Ancora accompanied by the groom on the mare; the
others drove out to Affife & on my way back I stopped there & had some tea, after
which I remounted & rode home.

Saturday. I went for a short ride after tea, it was May s turn but she did not care to go,
as the following day there was a chance of a ride with Uncle Cabel; that evening
father & the two uncles returned.

Sunday. The last day of 1899. We drove out to a convent on the Darque side of the
river, about 8 miles away; the day was a little cloudy but we had no rain which was
fortunate; we had tea in the cloisters attended by a priest & three village men, which
made the proceedings rather ceremonious; noone rode as the filley s back was a little
tender.

Monday. New Year s Day. It simply poured but in spite of it we had a carriage &
drove to Affife, father & Uncle Cabel turned home half way as there was no room
inside the carriage & they said it was rather cold on the box; we got to Affife and had
tea; we girls walked home, about half way the carriage overtook us & the boys got out
& joined us.

Tuesday. The gentlemen left us & we went by the 2 o clock train to Ariosa [sic] and
had tea near a little chapple [sic], May rode; after tea we came home over the hills via
Santa Lucia, it was a very pretty walk.

Wednesday. In the morning it rained but cleared in the afternoon so that we went for a
walk, we went as far as S. Francisco gate then turned off to the left over the hills &
walked along the top of them till we got to S. Lucia & home by the short cut.

Thursday. Mother, Gracie, Ben & Cyril left us by the 11 train, after they had gone I
went for a ride to the Cabodello & had two lovely gallops on the sand; when I
returned we all walked over there by the bridge; Uncle Fred had arrived by the 2 train
for [sic] Porto & came with us.

Friday. Aunt S. went to S. Francisco, Uncle Fred went shooting to Caminha & we
girls went for a long walk over the hills, taking a woman to carry our lunch, it was a
beautiful day & we we [sic] calculate we walked about 12 miles; we started along the
Fontoa[?] road then turned to the left & up a sort of wooded valley down which a
stream flowed, having got to the top we had lunch, after which we walked on hardly
knowing were we were going to, till we got to a village which was S. Mamede, from
there we knew the way; we left the house at 11 a.m. & got home at 4.30 p.m.. In the
evening Uncle Cabel arrived bring [sic] M^r Arnole[?] with him.

Saturday. Aunt S. went by 11 train to Areosa, Uncle Cabel rode with May, and the
rest followed on by the 2 train, when we got there we had tea by the chappel [sic], &
after that went up the gorge round by S. Mamede & home by S^ta. Lucia, for M^r
Arnole[?] to see it, the day was cloudy so of course the view was not what it might
have been as one did not get the beautiful colors [sic] on the hills.

Sunday. The gentlemen went by the 7 a.m. train shooting to Caminha, we followed on
with lunch, which we had (with the gentlemen) in a pretty wood with water running
through it, afterwards the gentlemen went off shooting & we went for a drive up the
Goa[?] as far as Villar dos Morus [sic] where there is an old Roman bridge, we then
went on till we got down to the Lima, along the banks of which we drove back to the
hotel; we came home by the 7 train, the gentlemen having shot nothing.

Monday. The gentlemen all left us, Aunt S. went by 11 train to Areosa and we
followed with tea on foot; we walked home through the woods by the water courses.

Tuesday. We did much the same as Monday. May went for a ride in the morning
along the Affife road, & then we girls went to join Aunt S. at Areosa.

Wednesday. We went to Areosa, had tea by the chapel, & then walked round by the
old ruined fort on the beach.

Thursday. We did nothing in particular, except go and speak to the washerwoman in
the afternoon.

Friday. I went for a lovely ride onto the sands the other side of the river, & had a
lovely gallop; when I got home we walked round by the bridge & went nearly the
same way as I had [rode] only not so far. The gentlemen arrived, this time the guest
was M^r Gonne, M^r Johnnie Murat [had] been asked by [sic] did not turn up.

Saturday. Uncles Cabel & Fred went by 7 train to Caminha to shoot, M^r Gonne and
Aunt S. went curios hunting in the morning, in the afternoon we took tea to S.
Francisco, it was a lovely day.

Sunday. Uncle Cabel & I rode as far as Barcellos, 18 miles from Vianna; there we met
Antonio, who took the horses; after lunch Uncle Cabel & I returned by train to
Oporto, the horses following the next day. All the rest of the party went for the gorge
picnic, so as to show it to M^r Gonne; they came on to Oporto the next day.

Transcribed by
Jonathan Rawes
10 April 2006