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 ½ 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