#2016 08 16 121358

[bluesman56]

Quintinha de Monserrate by Tony Via Flickr: An English merchant named Gerard de Visme built a neo-Gothic house over the ruins of a former chapel. In 1793-1794 the estate was subleased by William Thomas Beckford who started to design a landscaped garden. Though the property was still in ruins when Lord Byron visited in 1809, its magnificent appearance inspired the poet, who mentioned of the beauty of Monserrate in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.