Clarissa in Coimbra

Before we left for Bussaco we spent the day on the other side of the Mondego river  visiting the two old convents of Saint Clara and the Quinta das lagrimas, which Clarissa writes about in her journal. The old convent was already replaced in her time by a newer one, higher up away from the river, which constantly flooded the old one. The contrast was huge.The old
one has been beautifully restored and displayed, with an exhibition about the nuns' lives. The newer one (mid 17th century!) had a surly ticket seller, no information and  no interest in my story of Clarissa's visit. There was no trace of the organ where the nuns made her play God save the KING, but Samuel found the door in the grill separating the nuns from the world, through which she was carried. FASCINATING. 

At the Quinta das lagrimas Nicholas Trant had placwd a stone with some lines from a poem to commemorate the murder of Ines, a famous prince's mistress. There was a stone there, but with different lines crom the poem to those clarissa quotes, and all the lealets say it was Wellington whoplaced the stone there. I guess we'll never know the truth.