Amid them were
scattered all kinds of fantastic grottoes, fountains, statues, and
ferneries; flights of steps, leading downwards to the beach, and
upwards to sylvan nooks; arcades, arched over with bamboos, and
containing trellis-work from Derbyshire, and Minton tiles from
Staffordshire; seats of all sorts and shapes, _under_ trees, _in_
trees, and _over_ trees; besides summer-houses and pagodas, at every
corner where there was a pretty view over land or sea.
One of the heads of the establishment, a great friend of Madame
Cousino's, was unfortunately very ill, and as she was nursing him, she
could not come out to see us; but she kindly gave orders to her
gardener to send some cut flowers and some ferns on board the yacht,
to decorate the saloon; and as she was unable to invite us to luncheon
at the big house, she sent some champagne and refreshments down to the
Casa de la Administracion, where we were most hospitably entertained.
She has had the latter place comfortably fitted up for the use of the
principal employes on the works, and has provided it with a
billiard-table, a very fair library, and several spare bed-rooms for
the accommodation of visitors.
After luncheon we went to see the copper-smelting works, which were
very interesting. The manager walked through with us, and explained
the processes very clearly.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219