Full text of "Historic houses of South Africa"

See other formats

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

FINE ARTS LIBRARY

Cornell University Library
NA7468.6.S6F16

Historic houses of South Africa,

3 1924 014 905 834

^^1

Cornell University
Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014905834

Historic Houses

SOUTH AFRICA

N E E T H L I N (, ' S H D F

From the o i I - p a i n t i n g by R . G w e 1 o (Goodman

Historic Houses

SOUTH AFRICA

By DOROTHEA FAIRBRIDGE

with a Preface

GENERAL J. C. SMUTS

LONDON; HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAPE TOWN : MASKEW MILLER

1922

Oxford University Press

London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen

New Tork Toronto Melbourne Cape Town

Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the University

In the preparation of this book valuable assistance has
been given by many people.

To Lady Phillips it owes the pictures in colour which
have been painted by Gwelo Goodman ^ to Y . Glennie,
a well-known Cape Architect and secretary to the National
Society, the architecttiral drawings ; to Arthur Elliott,
Montrose Cloete, E. Steer, and H. Edwards many of
the ilhistrations, and to the Cape Times permission to
reproduce the drawings of the late G. S. Smithard.

// has also found friends in Holland, in Jonkheer
van Riemsdyk and Mynheer van Notten of the Ryks-
Museum, Amsterdam, who supplied information regard-
ing the van Riebeeck portrait and old Cape-Dutch furni-
ture ; and in Jonkheer Six of Amsterdam; Mynheer
Jurriaan van Toll, of the Royal Library at the Hague,
and Dr. H. A. Lorentz,7^r help in tracing the genealogy
of the van der Stel family, while assistance has also been
given by Mr. Graham Botha and Miss Jeffreys of the Cape
Archives 07t many historical points ; also by Mr. Cornish-
Bowden, Surveyor-General, Mr. Fleming, and other
officials in his department.

Those who are familiar with the old Cape ho^tses
will realize that it has not been possible to refer to every
interesting house. Tt some cases, even when the historical
associations are of value, the building itself has lost its
beauty through accident or alteratio7i, and even while this
book has been in the press some of the houses described
in it have been altered to their disadvantage, though in
a few instances others have been skilfully restored by new
owners.

D. F.

Claremont,
Cape of Good Hope.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE
II. OLD CAPE TOWN .

III. THE CASTLE .

IV. IN TABLE VALLEY .
V. BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN

VI. STELLENBERG

VII. THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA .
VIII. AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS .
IX. ON THE EERSTE RIVER .
X. VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS
XI. A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND .
XII. STELLENBOSCH ....

XIII. SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF

XIV. AT THE FOOT OF SIMONSBERG .
XV. NEAR MULDER'S VLEI .

XVI. FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN
XVII. THE PAARL ....
XVIIL IN THE DAL ....
XIX. THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY
XX. THE LAND OF WAVEREN
XXI. SWELLENDAM ....
XXII. OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE

XXIII. THE DECORATIVE ARTS.

XXIV. THE LAND ITSELF .

PAGE
I

75
86

104

109

115
120

124

129

141

144

150
158

165

169

176

182

FOREWORD

MISS FAIRBRIDGE, who is a keen and loving student of our
South African past, has written this interesting and valuable
book on old Cape Architecture. She has asked me to say
a few words by way of introduction. Although I have no qualifications
for the honour thus thrust upon me, I feel I may not refuse it.

The old Dutch homesteads of South Africa deserve to be better
known than they are. In a country where, as a rule. Nature is
everything and Art literally nowhere, our old Dutch houses form
the most notable exception to the rule. The genius of South Africa
has shown itself in action — in great deeds, heroic sacrifices, and
gifts of leadership — rather than in the domain of Art. Neither in
Music nor in Literature nor in Painting nor in Sculpture have we
anything yet to compare with the performance of older countries.
The one exception is our domestic architecture, and there our
production is of a unique character. I believe it was* Ruskin who
said that the only real contribution to Architecture for the last few
centuries has been made by the Dutch in South Africa — or some-
thing to that effect. And the truth of this will be clear to all who
have studied the noble houses built at the Cape in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. Since then our taste has been
debauched by the commonplace or hideous types introduced from
abroad. It is only quite recently that Mr. Herbert Baker has taken
us back to the old Cape style, and has popularized its distinctive
features in many a beautiful house in most parts of South Africa.

In the book before us Miss Fairbridge endeavours to trace the
origin and growth of this distinctive old Dutch style, and gives us
numerous examples of its best achievements.

It is evident that this noble architecture could only have arisen
in times of comparative quiet and leisure. And of this there must

X FOREWORD

have been plenty in the secluded sun-filled valleys of the Cape m
those far-off times.

The earliest settlers do not seem to have had the strenuous
struggle for existence which marks many new countries and must
have had time for the amenities of life. People hurried and urged
by violent competition have not the time to consider the artistic
effect of their houses or to plan gardens in which to enjoy leisure.
Such are usually found in what are called the older countries. It
will, therefore, probably come as a surprise to the reader of this
book, who is not a South African, to find houses and estates dating
back to within a century of van Riebeeck having the appearance of
a mellowed antiquity. This book is an attempt to preserve or, at
any rate, to record what is most noteworthy in our older South
African architecture and domestic surroundings.

Those who have seen the awful destruction of the Great War
and the absolute obliteration of everything in what were some of
the most beautiful districts of Europe will appreciate the necessity
for recording by pen and pencil the works of a period in South
Africa while these remain to us. Even in this uncrowded land the
hand of the builder and restorer is heavy, and even while I write,
some beautiful building may be defaced.

This is often done simply because the attention of the would-be
improver has not been directed to the beauties of what he possesses,
and he does not see that what is consecrated by the taste of one
age is not lightly to be touched by the hand of another. The old
houses of South Africa are a common heritage of which all South
Africans are proud, and are precious links binding us all together
in noble traditions and great memories of our past.

From the tragedy which has convulsed the older world we look
with thankfulness at our own South Africa, with her mysterious
compelling attraction, her peace, the great gifts that Providence has
showered upon her. The youngest of the sister nations which form
the British Empire, she may take her place with dignity amongst
them, sorrowfully proud in her sons who have died to uphold her
good name and maintain her honour and fealty.

This South Africa of ours lies far from the Europe to which she

FOREWORD xi

is, for the greater part, only a name, and her history but a vague
impression, but she has a story of which no country need be ashamed.
It is, for the greater part, a record of struggles in the face of diffi-
culties, and of those difficulties overcome and shaped to noble uses,
even as the dogged spirit in which her two white races more than
once met in collision is being fused into an equally determined
spirit of patriotism which has a wider outlook than that of race.
Her foundations were well and truly laid by the men and women
who gave their lives to planting the standard of civiUzation in a wild
and distant country, and we, who are their heirs, owe to them not
only our spiritual environment but also our wide vineyards, our
fruitful orchards, and the houses in which they lived.

This book is concerned principally with these houses and with
the people who built them. It may serve a twofold purpose. In
the first place it may help to carry across the seas something of the
spirit of South Africa, so that our sister nations may know the beauty
that lies in her old homesteads and the charm that lingers in her
vine- covered stoeps and in the villages set about with orchards.
South Africa has a great heritage, a fine tradition which has come
down to the present day with the houses which were thriving home-
steads years before Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg, and we
who love her would have her beauty and her charm known in the
ends of the earth. But, in the second place, the book has a message
for our own people too, and above all for those who have too lightly
valued an architecture which is in many ways unique in the world.
If the calamities which have fallen upon some of the old houses,
either through neglect or through wanton destruction, are a cause
for regret, there is also cause for hope in the awakening conscious-
ness of the people of South Africa to the value of these homesteads.
In a world which, for the moment, has lost much of its beauty, let
us help to keep alive respect for the old buildings which are not
only charming and pleasant and peculiar to the country, but are
also shrines of the spirit of our forefathers and of their faith in the
land which is our home.

J. C. SMUTS.
2489 b

LIST OF PLATES

Neethling's Hof. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman Frontispiece
Table Mountain and Cape Town. From an old print . . Facing page xvni

Johan van Riebeeck ...-••••• ^

A Corner of Table Mountain. Photograph by E. Steer . . • 8

Internal construction of a Gabled Roof. Photograph by A. Elliott . 9

Two types of Gables. Photographs by A. Elliott .... 9
Types of Slave-bell-towers and Vergelegen Bell. Photographs by

A. Elliott and E. Steer 32

The Old Burgher Watch House, now the MichaeUs Gallery. Photograph

by A. Elliott 33

Interior of the Michaelis Gallery. Photograph by A. Elliott . . 33

Lutheran Church. Photograph by H. Edwards .... 34
Portion now destroyed of old residence in Roeland Street. Photograph

by H. Edwards .......•• 34

The Koopmans-De Wet House. Photograph by H. Edwards . -35

House formerly the Lutheran Parsonage. Photograph by A. Elliott . 35
Front of Government House, Cape Town, in the time of the Dutch East

India Company. From a drawing by Schutte. Photograph by

A. Elliott (copyright) .40

A Tavern in Dorp Street, built in 1717. Photograph, from a drawing,

by A. Elliott 40

Eighteenth-century Houses in Cape Town. Photograph by H. Edwards 41

Old Houses in the Malay Quarter. Photograph by H. Edwards . . 41

Entrance to the Castle. From a drawing by F. Glennie ... 44

The Castle Gateway from within. Photograph by A. Elliott . . 45

The Kat. Photograph by A. Elliott 52

The Castle Gateway. Photograph by A. Elliott .... 52

House in the Imhoff Battery. Photograph by A. Elliott • • • 53

Lady Anne Barnard. From a miniature. Photograph by R. Elffers . 53
Andrew Barnard. From a portrait by T. Lawrence, R.A, Photograph

by R. Elffers .......... 53

Table Valley. From a late eighteenth-century print. Photograph by

A. Elliott .56

Rheezicht. Photograph by A. Elliott •••••• 57

Leeuwenhof. Photograph by A. Elliott ...... 57

LIST OF PLATES

xui

Old Dutch Pump. Photograph by South African Railways . Facing page ^^

Coach-house of Saasveld House. Photograph by A. EUiott . . 58

Door and window at the Normal College. Photographs by H. Edwards 59

Staircase at Leeuwenhof. Photograph by A. Elliott .... 59
Old Residence in Roeland Street, now the Normal College. Photograph

by H. Edwards ......... 62

The Old House of Groote Schuur. Photograph by A. Elliott . . 63

The House of Groote Schuur to-day. Photograph by H. Edwards . 63

Rustenburg, Rondebosch. From the drawing by Montrose Cloete . 64

Cecil Rhodes's Library. Photograph by H. Edwards .... 66

Groote Schuur : the Back Stoep, and the Entrance Hall. Photographs

by H. Edwards ......... 67

Gateway at Welgelegen. Photograph by A. EUiott .... 68

Gateway at Boshof. Photograph by A. Elliott ..... 68

Old Dutch Mill, Welgelegen. Photograph by H. Edwards ... 69

Old Stable at Groote Schuur. Photograph by H. Edwards ... 69

A Barn at Boshof. Photograph by South African Railways ... 70

The former House of Klassenbosch. Photograph by H. Edwards . 70
Papenboom, or the Brewery, built by Thibault. Photograph, from an

old print, by R. Elffers . . . . . . . -71

Thibault's design for the alterations contemplated at Newlands House.

Photograph by A. Elliott . . . . . . . -71

Stellenberg. Photograph by H. Edwards ...... 72

Stellenberg. Front Gable, and the Stoep. Photographs by A. Elliott 73
Stellenberg. Hall Screen, and Courtyard Entrance. Photographs by

A. EUiott 74

Groot Constantia. From a photograph by A. EUiott .... 75

Groot Constantia. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman . 76

Hester Anna Laurens ......... 78

Hendrik Cloete of Constantia . . . . . . . -78

Dining Hall, Groot Constantia. From a drawing by F. Kendal . . 79

Wine Cellar, Groot Constantia. Photograph by H. Edwards . . 80

Jonkheer's House, Groot Constantia. Photograph by H. Edwards . 81

The Triton, and the Bath, Groot Constantia. Photographs by A. EUiott 81

Alphen. Photograph by A. EUiott 82

Door at Alphen. Photographs by A. Elliott ..... 82

Gables at Hoop op Constantia. Photograph by A. Elliott ... 83

Klein Constantia, Front Gable. Photograph by A. Elliott ... 83
Gables at Groot Constantia. Photographs by A. EUiott . . -83

Hoop op Constantia. Photograph by A. Elliott ..... 84

XIV

LIST OF PLATES

Facing page 84
85

Klein Constantia. Photograph by A. Elliott

Tokai. Photograph by E. Steer

Stoep of Tokai with grape-vine. Photograph by A. EUiott
Weltevreden ....•••••

Loggia of a house at Muizenberg. Photograph by H. Edwards

Inner Door at Kronendal. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Door at Zwaanswyk. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Screen at Imhoff's Gift. Photograph by N. Baker

Vault at Meerlust. Photograph by A. EUiott

The Hen-house, Meerlust. Photograph by A. Elliott

Vergenoegd. Photograph by A. EUiott ....

Old Building, Zandvliet. Photograph by A. EUiott .
Meerlust. From the drawing by G. S. Smithard
Wine-cellar at Vergelegen. Photograph by A. Elliott .
Van der Stel's trees at Vergelegen. Photograph by A. EUiott
Gateway at Vergenoegd. Photograph by A. Elliott
Vergelegen. From the drawing by G. S. Smithard
Vergelegen. From the Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel. Photo-
graph by A. EUiott .......

Vergelegen. From the Accusation. Photograph by A. Elliott
Gable on Wine-cellar, Vergelegen. Photograph by A. EUiott
Pigeon-house at the Bush — formerly Onverwacht. Photograph by

A. EUiott

Gateway at Parel Vallei, Photograph by A. EUiott

Morgenster. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Morgenster. Photograph by A. EUiott

Morgenster, Photograph by A. Elliott

Bell-tower, Morgenster. Photograph by A. Elliott

Back Gable, Morgenster. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Parel Vallei. Photograph by A. EUiott

Wine-cellar, Vredenburg. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Pigeon-house, Klein Vredenburg. Photograph by A. EUiott

Wine-cellar, Rust en Vrede. Photograph by A. EUiott

Wine-cellar, Klein Vredenburg. Photograph by A. Elliott

One of the Mural Paintings at Libertas. Photograph by A. EUiott

SteUenberg. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Jacobus Johannes le Sueur. From a miniature .

Arms of the le Sueur family .....

La Gratitude. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Old Cottages at Stellenbosch. Photograph by A. EUiott

85
88

89
89
89
90
90

91
92

95
96

98
98
98

100

102
103
103
103
103
106
106
106
106
107
109
no
no
no
III

LIST OF PLATES

Municipal Office, Stellenbosch. Photograph by A. Elliott . Facing page iii

Old House on De Braak. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Kromme Rivier. Photograph by A. EUiott

House in Drostdy Street. Photograph by A. EUiott .

The Company's Arsenal, Stellenbosch. Photograph by A. EUiott

Gable on a Stellenbosch House. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Old Vault, Stellenbosch. Photograph by A. EUiott

Gable at Stellenbosch. Photograph by A. Elliott

Rhenish School. Photograph by A. Elliott

Nectar. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Back of La Gratitude. Photograph by A. EUiott

Nectar. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Out-buildings, Speir. Photograph by A. EUiott

Back of Speir. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Bell-tower, Speir. Photograph by A. EUiott

Gable at Speir. Photograph by A. EUiott

A farm-building. Photograph by A. EUiott

Neethling's Hof. Photograph by A. Elliott

Bonfoi. Photograph by A. Elliott

Bij den Weg. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Outhouse at Bonfoi. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Rustenburg. Photograph by A. EUiott

Outhouse, Rustenburg. Photograph by A. EUiott

Ida's Vallei, back of House. Photograph by A. Elliott

Rustenburg, back of House. Photograph by A. Elliott

Schoongezicht. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Uitkyk. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Elsenburg before the fire. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Uitkyk. Photograph by A. EUiott ....

Wine-cellar, Uitkyk. Photograph by South African Railways

Gable at Haazendal. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Bell-tower, Elsenburg. Photograph by A. EUiott

The Old Walled Canal, Elsenburg. Photograph by A. EUiott

Elsenburg, now the Government Agricultural College. Photograph by

South African Railways ....
Madame de Paton. Photograph, from a pastel portrait, by R. Elffers
Boschendal. From the drawing by G. S. Smithard
Lormarins. Photograph by Gribble, Paarl
Wine-cellar, Lormarins. Photograph by Gribble, Paarl
Lormarins. Photograph by A. Elliott

III
III

112
112

113

113
114

Between pages 1 14-15

„ I 14-15
Facing page 115

15
16

17
22

22
22

23
24
26
26

27
27
27
28

28
29

32
34

XVI

LIST OF PLATES

Elliott

Bien Donne. Photograph by A. Elhott

Rhone. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Picardie. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Rhone. Photograph by A. Elliott ....

La Provence. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Old Church at the Paarl. Photograph by A. EUiott .

Vredenhof. Photograph by A. EUiott

Paarl Diamant. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

The Paarl Church. From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

Keurfontein, Lower Paarl. Photograph by A. Elliott .

A Paarl Wine-Cellar. Photograph by Lady Phillips .

Schoongezicht in Dal Josaphat. Photograph by A. Elliott

Nonpareil. Photograph by A. Elliott

Side-Gables, Nederburg. Photograph by A. Elliott

Front Gable, and Wall Cupboard, Nederburg. Photograph by A

Groenberg. Photograph by A. Elliott

Fortuin. Photograph by A. Elliott .

Fortuin, Front Gable. Photograph by A. EUiott

Onverwacht, Front Gable. Photograph by A. Elliott

Onverwacht. Photograph by A. EUiott

Olyvenhout. Photograph by A. Elliott

The Old Dutch Church, Tulbagh. Photograph by South African

Railways .........

The Drostdy, Worcester. Photograph by South African Railways
House in Tulbagh, ascribed to Thibault. Photograph by A. Elliott
Old Gateway, Swellendam Church. Photograph by H. Edwards
Window in the Old Church, Swellendam. Photograph by H. Edwards
Armoire in Cecil Rhodes 's bedroom at Groote Schuur. Photograph by

A. EUiott

Armoire of Stinkwood at Verlegen .......

Furniture in the Koopmans-De Wet House. Photographs by Cape Times
An Eighteenth-century Cabinet. Photograph by A. Elliott
Cabinet of Calamander wood inlaid with ebony . . Between pages 172-7'?

Writing Bureau and Cabinet. Photographs by A. EUiott ,, ,, 172-73

Eighteenth-century Stinkwood Chair . . . ,, ^^ 172-73

Old Armoire at Bergvliet. Photograph by A. Elliott . ,, ,, 172-73

Eighteenth-century writing Bureau and Cradle Chair. Photographs by

Lady Rodwell Facing page 173

Camphor-wood Chest with brass fittings at Groote Schuur. Photograph

by A. Elliott tt-^

J • • • • • i7j

Facing page 135
136

138
140
140
141
141
142
144
146
146

147
147
150
150
151

151

156

157
157

162
163
163
166
167

170
170
171
172

LIST OF PLATES

xvii

Photographs by
Facing page
Photographs by Lady

Photo

graph

Stinkwood Rustbank, and Chairs, Groote Schuur.

A. EUiott

Brass Coffee-pot, Copper Kettles and Komvoors

Rodwell .......

Silver Drawer-Handle. Photograph by A. Elliott
Copper Wine-measure and Copper Three-legged Pot.

by D. Fairbridge ......

Brass Komvoors. Photographs by D. Fairbridge
Cuspidor in white metal. Photograph by Lady Rodwell
Stoofje in carved wood. Photograph by D. Fairbridge
An old Cape Garden . ■ .

A Water Garden. Photograph by South African Railways
On a Sheep-farm. Photograph by South African Railways
Friesland Cattle. Photograph by South African Railways
Harvesting. Photograph by South African Railways
White Watsonias in the Drostdy Garden, Tulbagh

A. Elliott

Arum Lilies. Photograph by E. Steer

Ornithogalum at Tulbagh. Photograph by A. Elliott

Erica Monsoniana, Erica longifolia, Leucospermum lineare, Anemone

Capensis. Photographs by E. Steer ......

Photogra

ph by

174

175

17s

175
176

176

177

180

181

181
182
182

183

ERRATUM

Plate facing p. log, for Stellenburg read Stellenberg.

FIGURES IN THE TEXT

in the Heerengracht.

East India Company's House at Amsterdam. Photographed by A. Elliott
from an old print ....•••• Page

An old Money-chest of the Company. From a photograph by A. EUiott

Curved parapet. F. Glennie

Doorway, Normal College, Cape Town. F. Glennie ....

Doorway in the Castle, Cape Town. F. Glennie ....

Typical Gables. F. Glennie .

Ground plan of a Town House. F. Glennie

Ground plan of Country House. F. Glennie

House of the Koster (Sexton) which stood
A. Elliott (copyright)

Architectural Details. F. Glennie .

Details of Staircase in teak. F. Glennie

Wrought Iron Railings. F. Glennie

A typical Cape Staircase. F. Glennie

Fanlight in teak. F. Glennie .

Fanlight in teak and plaster. F. Glennie

Fanlight, from a drawing by Schutte. Photograph by A. Elliott (copyright)

Old Dutch Reformed Church. Photograph by A. Elliott from a print .

The Company's Guest-house. Photograph by A. Elliott from a print .

Typical Pavings. F. Glennie .

The Watch Tower ....

Teak Door in the Castle F. Glennie.

Ship on the Seal of the Dutch East India Company, carved on a stone in
the Castle. From a photograph by A. Elliott

Elevation of Railing in the Castle. F. Glennie .

FanUght, Normal College, Cape Town. F. Glennie .

Groot Constantia. Photographed by A. Elliott from an old

Hoop op Constantia. From an old print .

Early Gable, Zwaanswyk. From a photograph by A. Elliott

Copy of Plan of Vergelegen as laid out by Van der Stel

Burgundy. Miss Catherine Frere

Lock-plate on a chest from Tulbagh .

Brass Fittings and Furniture. F. Glennie

Wrought-iron Furniture. F. Glennie

Wrought-iron grille, Elsenburg. F. Glennie

10
12

15
16

prmt

19
22,23

26,27

30
32
33
39
43
47
49

55
64

79
81

97
132
177
178
179
180

^-1

JOHAN VAN RIEBEECK, ,618-1677

From the original in the

RIJKS MUSEUiM, AMSTERDAM

INTRODUCTION

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST

But now we had five suns pass over seen
Since thence we had departed, cutting through
Seas which by none had navigated been,
And still the winds all prosperously blew ;
When lo, one night, standing in thought serene,
Watching upon the sharp prow as she flew,
A frowning cloud which darkens all the air
Appears above our heads and hovers there.

The Lusiads of Camoens (Aubertin's translation).

IN the cloud seen by Camoens is the Spirit of the Cape of Storms,
the giant Adamastor, stern guardian of the road to the Eastern
seas. Fiercely he bars the way against Vasco da Gama and his
ships. Dread are the curses he calls down on the heads of those
Portuguese adventurers of the fifteenth century who —

dare to traverse my unbounded seas,
Which I so long still guard and hold alone.

In the wild south-easter, when the great cloud above Table Mountain
blots out the sun and the ships in the bay are blown out to sea, we
may still hear the echo of the storm in which the exiled Camoens,
sailing round the Cape some sixty years later than da Gama, saw
and heard in his dreams the untamed Titan rage against the intrepid
explorers who invaded his dominion. We can feel the storm abate

as —

with loud weeping dire
Swift from before our eyes he melting fled.
And the black cloud dispersed.

In the unclouded calm that follows we see how the Horses of the

Sun —

Pirois, Phlegon, now, and the other two
Came drawing forth the radiant car of day,
When the high headland rose before our view
Whereto the giant vast converted lay.

2489 B

2 INTRODUCTION

Only we who know the Cape of Good Hope can read with under-
standing these stanzas of the poem in which a great Portuguese poet
set out to do honour to a great Portuguese sailor. Only we can feel
the fierce, dry wind that beat back Vasco da Gama from the Indian
Ocean, only we know how the storm spends itself in sobs and gasps,
only we have felt the radiance of the days that follow the south-
easter, when sea and sky are alike so calmly blue that it is difficult to
find the line that divides either from other. We — and Camoens, for we
know as we read that he saw with our eyes and heard with our ears.

' Down there, at the far southern end of the continent,' writes Professor
John Purves, ' this poet, who was only ours by the slender chances of a voyage,
set up a monument of perpetual endurance in the giant figure of Adamastor, the
genius of the Cape. The only figure added to mythology since classical times
is a South African figure. . . . This great poetical creation left us by Camoens
in the sixteenth century is a thing unique in the newer world south of the Line
or west of the Atlantic. It stands there to remind us of our portion in the
Renaissance, older than Shakespeare's plays and grandiose like the figures at
the gate of Hell in Milton's epic. The long wave of the classical renaissance
slowly creeping round the African coast left this vast relic high and dry on our
shores ; and although that wave carried other treasures to remoter shores it
left nothing more sublime anywhere.'

Led by Camoens we stand in the shadow of Vasco da Gama
when he lands at the Bahia St. Bras, our Mossel Bay and the Bahia
dps Vaqueiros of the earlier explorer, Bartholomeu Diaz. With
him we meet the cheerful little Hottentots who danced for his pleasure
and played to him on a reed instrument which — ' called the Muse
of Tityrus to mind.' With him too we land on the island of Sancta
Cruz in Algoa Bay, and here at the cross raised by Diaz ten years
earlier we do honour to the brave sailor who had in truth found the
road to the East, though he thought that he had failed, and made
possible this prosperous voyage of 1497. For at this point the
journey of Diaz had ended in deep sorrow. His men had mutinied,
saymg that they had come farther than ever white man had come
before and that they must die of hunger if they went on, for it was
clear that the coast continued to run east and west, and the road
to India seemed to them a veritable will-o'-the-wisp. Diaz persuaded
them to go on for a little while, but the winds and the waves were
agamst him and sadly he turned his prow from the East and retraced
his way to Europe, first landing on the island of Sancta Cruz says
the old Portuguese historian de Barros, and taking farewell oi his
cross as a father takes farewell of a dearly-loved child But he had
not looked his last on South Africa, for in the year 1500 he went

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST 3

down in a great storm off his own Cape of Good Hope, on his way
to that India which he never saw, though he held the beacon-Ught
to others. His last cross was erected somewhere in the neighbour-
hood of Cape Agulhas. Professor Beazley says ' He had discovered
1,260 miles of hitherto unknown coast, and his voyage, taken with
the letters soon afterwards received from Pero de Covilhao (who by
way of Cairo and Aden had reached Malabar on one side and the
Zanzibar coast on the other, as far south as Sofala, in 1487-8) was
rightly considered to have solved the question of an ocean route
round Africa to the Indies and other lands of South and East Asia '.
The one brave sailor-soul must have paid tribute to the other when
Vasco da Gama looked on the cross at whose foot Diaz shed those
bitter tears of seeming failure. These crosses or padroes were
planted at different points on the African coastline by order of
King John of Portugal, as a sign to the heathen that a Christian
nation had set its seal on the land.

From the little island in the ' Bahia da Lagoa ' da Gama sailed
northward, until the Christmas Day which gave its name to Natal.
' Trazia o Sol o dia celebrado ' sings Camoens.

The sun brought back the celebrated day
Whereon three Kings left Eastern parts to find
A new-bom King who in his cradle lay.
Which King three others in Himself combined.
This mom we took for anchorage a bay
In the same covmtry we had left behind,
In a large river which we gave a name
Calling the river and the day the same.

The sea-weary men must have looked with longing eyes on the
green shores of Natal, but their quest was the road to India, the route
by which the ships of Portugal were to bring to Europe the treasures
of the East, the silks and spices and precious stones which for centuries
had passed by the overland caravans to the ships of rich Venice,
and so they sailed on until they came to Malindi and knew that
success had crowned their adventure.

A journal of the voyage, known as the Roteiro, was kept, and it
records their impressions of the South African coast between Algoa
Bay and Natal. ' The country about here is very charming and
well wooded. We saw much cattle, and the farther we advanced
the more did the character of the country improve and the trees
increase in size.'

From that date onward the little strip of the Indian Ocean of
which I write saw the Portuguese galleons and carracks pass to and

4 INTRODUCTION

from the East, From the pen of de Barros (1496-1570) we have
many stories of the South African coast, and in his pages we rnay
read the tragic tale of the death of the great Portuguese empire-
builder, the ex-viceroy Dom Francisco Almeida, and many of
the noblest people of his fleet at the hands of the Hottentots on the
shores of Table Bay in 15 10. From out of the gloom of this tale
shines a bright gleam of chivalry. When it was clear that all was
lost Dom Jorge de Mello came up to Almeida and spoke bitterly—
de Mello was a friend of Albuquerque who had succeeded the deposed
Viceroy — taunting him and saying that he should like to see him
following his dead followers, those upon whom he had bestowed
honour in the days of his own prosperity. Amid the shrieks and the
yells and the flying darts the old man turned to him. ' Senhor
Jorge de Mello, those who owe me any favour are already left behind
me, this is not a time for these remembrances, but rather should
you remember your nobility, and I beg you as a favour to accompany
and save the banner of our lord the King, which is being ill-used, as
with my years and sins I can end my life here, since it is our Lord's
will.' Then, says the historian, ' As long as he was able, Jorge de
Mello stood by the flag and by the viceroy until his death.' Being
one of the few who escaped he took command of the fleet and after
the natives had retired he landed and buried the slain.

Amongst my father's manuscripts I have come across the follow-
ing note, which is of interest in this connexion. Robert Semple was
the author of a small book on the Cape, published in 1805.

' Semple says that in digging the foundation of the houses in the neighbour-
hood of the Dutch Church several Portuguese tombs were found. Mr. Johannes
de Wet thinks that he must have been mistaken, as he was himself informed by
the builder of the house in Strand Street now occupied by Messrs. James
Searight & Co. that, in excavating the foundations, both of this house as well
as of the one where Attwell's store and steam-mill stand, several Portuguese
tomb-stones were found. Mr. de Wet's theory is that Almeida, Viceroy of
India, killed in 15 10 with about seventy of his followers, was with the rest of
the slain buried at this place. . . . Mr. de Wet thinks that the skirmish in which
Almeida was killed was fought on the Flats, near where the old Dutch clinker-
built mill stands.'

The houses in question stood on sites granted respectively to
Johannes Blankenbergh and others in 1709. The former was inhabited
in 175 1 by the Abbe de la Caille (it was 2 Strand Street) and
it was probably in breaking down the older house in the rear, facing
Waterkant Street, that the tomb-stones were found. This was in
1 816 when the then owner, P. J. de Witt, built a store-house for

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST 5

merchandise in the rear of his dwelHng, If, however, tradition
is right in supposing that the fight took place near the Woodstock
beaches, and that Almeida and his men were buried where they fell,
these stones are a long way from the site. It is possible that they
were sent out from Portugal some years later, when the Portuguese
landed to avenge the death of Almeida, and that any trace of the
place of burial had been lost during the interval. If they were merely
left on the shore it is probable that Johannes Blankenbergh regarded
them only as convenient foundation stones.

After a time the vision of Portugal passes — that great, adventurous
Portugal which was inspired by the spirit of Prince Henry the
Navigator. Other ships of other nations were soon contending for
the mastery of the road to the East, and following in the wake of the
Portuguese came the English. We have a glimpse of Drake as he
floats past ' the fairest cape in the whole circumference of the earth '
— in the Golden Hind, on returning homewards in 1580 from his
voyage round the world. Eleven years later came Captain James
Lancaster with his ' three tall ships ' — the first English expedition
to India by the sea-route and one that was to prepare the way for
the foundation of the East India Company. The Dutch, however,
were close behind, and in April 1595 a fleet of four ships under
Cornells Houtman sailed from Holland for the East, guided by
a book of sailing instructions drawn up by Jan Huyghen van Lin-
schoten, a Dutchman who had sailed to Goa with the Portuguese
fleet in 1583. Houtman 's ships anchored in Diaz's Bahia dos
Vaqueiros, the inlet on the South African coast to which the name
of Mossel Bay was given by van Caerden in 1601 ; on their return
to Holland they brought back a treaty made with the Sultan of
Bantam in Java, and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was
formed.

If I have touched on all these names and dates it has not been for
the sake of accumulating dry facts, but because we need to know
them if we are to honour these men and to realize something of the
sturdy heroism that opened the road to the East. I Vv^ould gladly
linger over the subject and write of Antonio de Saldanha who gave
his name to Table Bay in 1503, of Joris van Spilbergen who trans-
ferred the name to an inlet farther north, and of many another,
heroes all, but there is no space here to chronicle their doings. We
must pass them by, but as the modern liner takes us in swiftness
and luxury from Cape Town to Natal she is hemmed about by the
great shades of the past, and the men who toiled and died that we
might travel safely to the ends of the earth must not be forgotten.

INTRODUCTION

Two gallant spirits stand, however, out from the brave adventurers
of the seventeenth century — Humphrey Fitzherbert and Andrew
Shillinge, who in 1520 hoisted the flag of King James on the Signal
Hill and took possession of the land in the name of England. But
England was otherwise occupied and had no use for the far-off,
little-known Cape of Good Hope, so Holland caught the land from
her careless hand and in 1652 the Dutch East India Company sent

EAST INDIA COMPANY'S HOUSE AT AMSTERDAM

Commander Johan van Riebeeck with a handful of Company's
servants to build a fort and plant a garden, in order that a supply
of vegetables might be assured to the Company's fleets on their way
to and from Batavia. There is no space here wherein to dwell on
the brave tale of this little band. The saga of van Riebeeck is to
be read in the archives of the Cape of Good Hope, but of his buildings
nothmg remains except the foundations of his great barn under the
house of Groote Schuur, left by Cecil Rhodes for the residence of
the Premier of South Africa, and the house of Rustenburg at Ronde-
bosch on the site of the earher dwelling planned by him at the foot
of the Company's plantations.

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST 7

The early Dutch commanders who came after van Riebeeck
administered the affairs of the Httle settlement with care, if without
enthusiasm, bearing in mind the Company's desire to see the Cape
established merely as a useful provision station on the way to the
East, a place of refreshment where vegetables and fresh water m.ight
be obtained by passing ships. But in 1679 came a commander with
wider aims for the country — Simon van der Stel. He pushed the

AN OLD MONEY-CHEST OF THE COMPANY

boundaries of the little colony to the northward and founded at the
foot of the blue Drakenstein mountains the town of Stellenbosch,
thirty miles from Cape Town, The Company bestowed on him
the estate of Groot Constantia, and here he buih the fine white gabled
house that stands to this day and planted vineyards and oak avenues,
and here he made good wine, in the hope that those of the colonists
who had settled down as wine-farmers might be induced to follow
his example.

8 INTRODUCTION

The homesteads of the early settlers had been of a primitive
nature — strong, as a defence against the wild beasts that prowled
around the settlement, though probably with scant beauty. As the
new land throve and expanded, and the burghers and wine-farmers
acquired wealth and leisure, the foundations were laid of the graceful
gabled houses which to-day stand in the shade of giant oaks in and
around the Cape Peninsula, set about with wide vineyards and fruitful
orchards. To Simon van der Stel and to his son Willem Adriaan,
who succeeded him as Governor in 1699, the architecture of the
Cape owes much of its inspiration. Both threw themselves with
ardour into the work of developing the country on wider lines than
had hitherto been attempted, both got into trouble with the Company
in consequence and were moreover indignantly reprimanded for
their action in detaining skilled workmen on their way to the more
important possessions in the East Indies. But we of to-day owe to
this mild delinquency much of the loveliness of the old houses, the
grace of their plaster work and the fine hinges and hasps of brass
or iron.

In 1687 a new influence came into the country. Huguenot
refugees, who had fled from France into Holland after the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, were sent out to the Cape and established
on the banks of Berg River, from Coin Fran9ais, which is now French
Hoek, to some distance north of the Paarl. Here they planted vines
and built themselves simple houses, but so rapidly did the sale of
their wine to the passing fleets and the garrison render them men
of substance that fine homesteads soon showed their white gables
and roofs of smooth brown thatch above the green of the prosperous
vineyards.

Willem Adriaan van der Stel followed his father's policy of
developing the country. He colonized the Land of Waveren, now
known as Tulbagh ; he imported wool-bearing sheep and laid the
foundation of the wool industry of South Africa ; but his plans for
the future of the land which he loved as dearly as his father had done
were cut short by the discontent of a party amongst the farmers,
headed by a weahhy butcher-contractor named Huysing and his
wife s nephew Adam Tas, who saw in the governor's policy a menace
to the methods by which they had acquired considerable wealth,
without undue exertion. His actions were misrepresented to the
directors of the Dutch East India Company, and in 1706 he was
recalled ; at the same time an order was sent out enacting that in
future no Company s official should own any land. As a result of
this short-sighted decree the Cape was henceforth administered by

A CORNER 1' TABLE MOUNTAIN

INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION OF A GABLED ROOF

TWO TYPES OF GABLES

THE ROMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST 9

men who had no personal stake in the country and cared nothing
for its development — only desirous of seeing it fulfil its limited
mission as a provision station and watering place. It must be remem-
bered that the Company's interests were centred in the rich East
Indies, and the van der Stels paid the penalty of being in advance
of their times in desiring to see the Cape of Good Hope developed
on wide lines, and it is not until we come to Governor Ryk Tulbagh
in 175 1 that we touch again the note of love for the land. In 1795
the Cape of Good Hope passed into the possession of England. It
was given back to Holland by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 and
taken again by England in 1805, Through the years that preceded
and followed these changes the well-to-do burghers continued to
build houses on the good early models, and only with the latter half
of the nineteenth century did the wave of ugliness and meretricious
taste^^hich had swept over Europe a few decades earlier sweep away
much that was lovely. With the dawn of the era of red-brick villas,
adorned with pepper-pot cupolas and smugly hideous, some of the
beautiful houses were destroyed or shorn of their charm, on the
ground that they were old-fashioned. Much that is lovely remains,
however, and a new school of architects has arisen, inspired in the
first instance by the genius of Cecil Rhodes, who bought and saved
from destruction many of the fine old homesteads, and their work
testifies to the possibility of applying successfully the principles of
old Cape architecture to modern buildings.

The houses are set in a fair land. A land of wide spaces, of blue
mountains which are purple in the dawn and rose-red when the
swift Southern evening is falling ; a land of promise and of rich
fulfilment ; a land of clear skies, of flower-strewn stretches, of
forests and open veld, green vineyards and rich orchards — of grim
grey rocks too, of wild winds and of the wide Karoo with its gnarled,
uncouth vegetation, its sun- washed sands and its emptiness.

She is very old this South Africa — old and eternally young, with
the light of the dawn in her eyes and in her heart the memories of
the past.

2489

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

IN Saenredam's picture of the Town Hall of Haarlem, in the
MichaeHs Gallery at Cape Town, there is little that is familiar
to students of Cape Dutch architecture. There are gables, it is
true, but gables of a type unknown to old Cape Town or Stellenbosch.
The Town Hall itself bears little resemblance to the old Burgher

ci//^v^D /^,^//^£r-

Watch House of Ryk Tulbagh's day, now the resting-place of this
picture and its companions, the collection of seventeenth-century
Dutch paintings which are the gift of Mr. Max Michaelis to South
Africa. The Haarlem Town Hall was begun in the twelfth century
and was formerly a palace of the counts of Holland ; it was remodelled
in 1602 by Lieven de Key, who built the curious Fleshers' Hall in 1603.

But, for all the lack of resemblance, it is well worth our while to
study this picture and to realize what went to the formation of Dutch
architecture, if we are to understand the spirit, in which seventeenth-
century Holland founded the Mother City of South Africa.

Until the middle of the fifteenth century public and domestic
buildings in Holland were built in the Gothic style. With the close
of the Eighty Years' War, when under the inspiration of William the
Silent the yoke of Spain was thrown off, the breath of a new life
swept through the country. From suffering and oppression the
Dutch emerged strong and valiant, a nation which sent its ships to

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE ii

the ends of the earth to gather in riches and built itself Town Halls
and Weigh Houses and Store Houses as the visible expression of the
new spirit of liberty and prosperity that had come into the land.
Into this new Holland came too the echo of the Renaissance, and
though the Dutch — being a conservative people — still continued to
build on Gothic lines as far as the bulk of the building was concerned,
a Transitional style came into use. This has been described as ' the
use of classic motifs and decoration, as interpreted by Dutch archi-
tects, in conjunction with the Gothic type of house.' It would almost
seem, however, as though circumstances, even more than conserva-
tism, tended to produce this type. When you have the very narrow
street-frontage which the domestic buildings of Holland were allowed
in towns it is difficult to build on classical lines. It was therefore
perfectly natural that the seventeenth-century builders should continue
to present high gabled ends to the street, and perhaps equally natural
that they should so far yield to the spirit of the times as to decorate
these ends with carved stone lion-heads and swags of fruit and to
build window-heads and doorways with classical outlines. The gables
of the earlier and more purely Gothic houses had been almost invariably
of the primitive order, crow-stepped and sometimes grotesque.
There are later examples which show the classical influence in being
crowned by pediments, and others again which combine the two
influences.

Eventually pediments, hipped roofs, and cornices became features
of Dutch domestic architecture. There are, however, few examples
of houses built in the pure spirit of the Renaissance, for the reasons
that I have indicated. At Amsterdam and in other towns houses were
built early in the seventeenth century which are fine instances of a
style in which the classical spirit is blended with that of the earlier
influences with entire success. Fifty years after the building of these
houses the city of Cape Town was founded. A fort, on the present
Parade Ground, was the first building raised by the white man in
South Africa, and we can well believe that van Riebeeck was more
intent upon making it secure from the marauding little Hottentots
and the lions that roared under its walls at night than upon any niceties
of gable or pediment. Between this primitive fort and the house built
by Simon van der Stel at Constantia some thirty years or so later lies
a world of brave endurance and hardship overcome — Groot Constantia
is a landmark, and from it we may reckon the starting-point of South
African architecture. There are some people who doubt whether
the house that is so familiar to us is the actual house built by van der
Stel. I have never come across any evidence to the contrary nor any

D(XD^my ' /yo/ZMM Cozi£C^ - - 6/a /^>>^

'£/^yj^r/cr/-

'j2cr/o/V-

'PlAfi

^//Y ^44C-)

/j^m^ U/ff/z /to/€ /^/i£A

•D^TM /oi^y^e /^r/^^

14 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

reason to think that it has been rebuih ; on the other hand, evidence
points to its being the actual house. We know from passing travellers
and from the records of the time that Simon van der Stel built a large
homestead on the land granted to him by the Dutch East India
Company. We have a glowing description of the beauty of this
' lovely seat ' from the pen of Kolbe — so inaccurate a writer, however,
that I should hesitate to quote him were it not that his admiration is
shared by others. Why should not the beautiful house seen by Kolbe
in 1713 be the beautiful house of to-day ? Then again, who but a
van der Stel would have decorated his floor with the star in red stone
which we find at Constantia ? A star was borne on the arms of the
van der Stel and of the Six families ^ and it is recorded that Simon
van der Stel worked a quarry of this red stone in the Steinbergen and
that it was used for floors and steps. But to my mind the most con-
clusive evidence is to be found in the type of the gables.

We have seen that the earlier gables in Holland were of the corbie
or crow-step type. These were followed by gables with pediment tops,
in accordance with the spirit of classicism, and finally by elaborate
variations of this and the original simple forms. Of these later and
more elaborate gables you will find examples which have retained the
pointed top of the crow-step gable, while others curve and riot under
the severity of a classic pediment.

The gables with which the early Dutch builders at the Cape
adorned their houses also fall into these two classes, the pointed and
the pediment-topped, and the Constantia gables in their fine severity
are the best examples we have of the latter type. Somewhat similar
is the front of the gable of Stellenberg, and when we remember that
Jacobus Vogel, who owned Stellenberg, was a warm friend of the
van der Stels and one of those who came forward to give his testimony
in favour of Willem Adriaan, we may with some reason suppose that
the smaller house drew its inspiration from the greater. It clearly
owes the family its name. Stellenberg was destroyed by fire in 17 10
but rebuilt immediately afterwards.

Therefore, to go back to the gables of Groot Constantia, it is just
that feehng of classical severity about them that makes me think that
they were built for Simon van der Stel, gables which are on houses of
a later date are, for the greater part, more florid ; they are often
exceedmgly graceful, but grace sometimes deteriorates into mere
flourishes and curves, as at Uiterwyk. Those of Groot Constantia and
Stellenberg might well be the work of one builder, and probably were

1 The arms of the family of van der Stel van der Stel impaled with his own £
were Or, three castles gules, but Simon the star of the Sixes, his wife's family.

arms

TYF/CAl Cffi^L.

rir - JT^li^/yjSojT-^^

^r- r/J/i t/oz/^-

/^r • 0^(D>r l)^A/<£^fr/:/rV ■

i6 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

almost contemporary. The student of Cape architecture is frequently
met by the fact that the decorative gables over the front and back
doors of the houses are not of the same period as the buildmg. i here
is evidence to show that these have sometimes been reconstructed
(the date on them is usually that of the re-buildmg), which may
account for the elaborate rococo gables which are sometimes to be
seen when the four end gables of the house are of charming simplicity.
This grace and simplicity of outhne has sometimes been ascribed to

the influence of the Huguenots.
The early Dutch Governors
were familiar with the mingled
Gothic and Renaissance ideals
of Holland. They were, more-
over, well acquainted with the
houses of the East Indies, built
for shade and coolness, and
Cape architecture is of pecuHar
interest in showing how these
widely-differing traditions were
affected by climatic conditions,
by the limited materials avail-
able in a new country and by
slave-labour. The steeply-
pitched Gothic roof of mediae-
val northern Europe had been
calculated to resist heavy falls of
snow and inclement weather —
the vine-covered stoep of the
Cape homestead was to guard
the colonists from the fierce heat
of the Southern summer.

The old houses of the Cape
fall into two classes, the first
having steeply pitched roofs
covered with thatch and usually
with six gables, the second being square and flat-roofed and sur-
mounted by an architrave which was often finely decorated in
plaster-work.

In the country districts the majority of the houses belong to the
first type, and the ground-plan has been described as that of the letter
H seen from the side. A simple gable, plain or slightly curved and but
rarely crow-step, finishes each of the four ends of the H, and a gable

GROUND

PLAN OF
HOUSE

A TOWN

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 17

of a more elaborate type, and often showing French influence, appears
over the front and back doors, the back and front of the house usually
being alike. Sometimes the smaller houses are T-shaped, but this is
only an incomplete building of the H type, usually found where the
property has been subdivided in accordance with the Roman-Dutch
law of inheritance. In the neighbourhood of Cape Town the gabled
houses are more frequently formed like a square U, with a little
garden or paved courtyard between the two arms.

We cannot trace the
ground-plan of the H-
house either to Holland
or the East, though
there are Dutch barns
with gabled ends which
may have suggested
the idea. Two parallel
barns, connected in the
middle by a long room,
give the H ground-plan,
and it is possible that
the scarcity of long
roof-planks led to this
method of building a
large house without
any great width of roof-
span. The barns with
gable-ends were united
in one harmonious
whole, the smooth
brown thatch for the
roofs was gathered from
the veld, the yellow-
wood forests were cut
down to yield raftered

GROUND PLAN OF
HOUSE

COUNTRY

ceilings and polished floors, teak was brought from the Far East for
the shutters and window-frames, the deft-fingered Oriental slaves
worked marvels in plaster decoration. Many of the gables, as we
have seen earlier, suggest French influence, brought in by the
Huguenots, while the stoeps and the white pillars which supported
the grape-vines above them were inspired by memories of
Batavia.

In the H-houses all the living-rooms are on the ground floor,

2489 D

i8 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

and there are large attics which are usually store-rooms, though
some present-day owners are converting them mto bedrooms, ihe
floor of these attics is called the brandsolder ; it is formed of a thick
layer of clay under the wooden planks, and is intended to protect
the lower floor in case of fire. , , , u

In spite of this precaution the charming thatched and gabled houses
of the early burghers proved an easy prey to the fires which frequently
ravaged the mountain-sides and sent showers of sparks over the
settlement. Therefore, at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
we find the Council of Policy— the governing body— recommending
the building of flat-roofed houses in the place of those which had been
destroyed by fire, and from this period date many of the dignified
square buildings of a simple Renaissance type which may still be seen
in the streets of Stellenbosch and— though more rarely— of Cape
Town, where they have not been pulled down to make room for shops

and offices.

These square houses belonged to the towns rather than to the
country districts, where gabled, thatched buildings continued in
general use until, in the train of nineteenth-century progress, came
fire insurances with high tariff for thatch, followed by the fruit and
grain farmers who put under the plough the wide flats where thatching
reeds had grown since the beginning of time. Unhappily, corrugated
iron presented a cheap substitute, which was eagerly adopted by a
generation which had forgotten the sense of beauty that had inspired
its forefathers — and not only were many of the thatched roofs destroyed
but some of the most graceful gables were shorn off, in order that the
corrugated iron might the more easily be adjusted.

Structurally the two types of Cape houses are unlike, but the
details are common to both. In this the early builders followed the
example of seventeenth-century Holland, where the windows were
often square-headed and architraves over doors are as often found
on high-pitched, gabled houses, as on those of classical design.

A characteristic feature of all Cape houses is the stoep, a platform
of brick or stone in front of the building and sometimes extending
round it with curved brick and plaster seats of graceful proportions
at the corners. The stoep is sometimes shaded from the summer heat
by a grape-vine trailed over columns, but more frequently its only
protection is afforded by the great oaks which are almost always found
round the old homesteads. It is a very pleasant feature of a Cape house
but it must be owned that unsheltered it leaves something to be desired
on wet days. In modern houses it is usually covered by a verandah,
but the old roof of vine-leaves was more lovely. The wine cellars

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 19

and slave quarters which are always found near the country home-
steads are frequently very charming.

Many of the old houses have screens which divide the entrance-hall
or voor-huis from the large dining-room — the crossbar of the H . This
screen is of wood, sometimes finely inlaid with ebony, sometimes
louvred to admit air and sometimes pierced and patterned for glass in
a manner suggestive of a fine Chippendale cabinet. The screens can
be unlatched and pushed back, so that one long apartment is formed

HOUSE OF THE KOSTER (SEXTON) WHICH STOOD

IN THE HEERENGRACHT

From., a drawing by H. Schutte

which in the old days was used for church or dancing, according to
circumstances.

The gables present every variety of curve and angle— from the
simple and lovely lines which satisfy the eye to debased rococo
curligues. Some gables may be traced direct to Holland; those of
Groot Constantia, for instance, bear a strong resemblance to the
gables on the old Weigh House in Monnikendam and to several
gables in Amsterdam, while others are clearly French in their inspira-
tion. The gables on the H-houses lent themselves to fine plaster-work,
and so, in a greater degree, did the architraves of the square buildings
of a classical type and the urns and figures that decorated them. Of
these architraves the finest example left to us is the frieze over the

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

wine-cellar at Groot Constantia. It is the work of the master-sculptor
Anton Anreith, who came to the Cape in 1777 and spent his life there
Who he was, or why he left the Europe in which great fame would
surely have been his, we do not know with any certainty, though
many stories are told of him. A great artist, working for the most
part in a perishable medium, fire and modern progress have destroyed
some of his work, but enough is left to bear witness to his genius.
The massively carved pulpits in the Dutch Reformed and Lutheran
Churches reveal to us his mastery over wood, but fine as they are in
their heavy way they do not breathe of his rare sense of beauty as
do the Ganymede and Loves over the wine-cellar of Groot Constantia.
Perhaps the Fathers of the Church considered that heaviness and
reverence went hand in hand, while the unfettered genius of Anreith
was given full play in the pagan design of the Constantia frieze.

The walls that fenced in the old homesteads often took on gracious
curves, breaking into them almost at haphazard, it would seem, but
with a fine sense of line and proportion. The gateways, too, were very
fine, with graceful mouldings in plaster- work. Up to recent years the
Malays of Cape Town — the descendants of the seventeenth-century
slaves and political exiles from the East — held the masonry craft in
their hands and worked with the sense of curve and line handed down
to them by their forefathers. To-day the capable white workman
has taken the place of the Abdols and Magmoets of a vanishing past,
and an indefinable something has gone out of the world, as many of
the gateways and gables of modern South Africa testify.

Chimneys at the Cape are for the most part simple. In many of
the old houses there are no fireplaces, only a wide open hearth in the
kitchen. The women of the Cape are good cooks, many of their
recipes having come down from Dutch or French or East Indian
sources, and they achieve wonders by means of three-legged cooking
pots on these open hearths or in home-made ovens of brick or clay
out of doors. The old Dutch burghers and their wives seldom used
fires for warmth — if they were cold they put on an extra shawl or
petticoat or sat with their feet on a perforated wooden box in which
was a little brass charcoal-brazier. Slaves accompanied their mis-
tresses to church carrying these little stoofjes to place under their
feet. It is no matter for surprise that chimneys were little accounted
of, though fine twisted ones are to be seen on a few of the old houses.

The windows of the early houses were probably casements, but
they were very quickly followed by sash-windows— the latter being
found on Simon van der Stel's Groot Constantia, buih towards the
end of the seventeenth century. It will be remembered that even in

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 21

the Gothic period in Holland windows were usually square-headed.
Sometimes they were surmounted by decorated arched spaces, and
with the Renaissance these were followed by classic pediments such
as may be seen over some old windows in Cape Town. Heavy
shutters are almost always found ; they are usually of teak and are
occasionally louvred, but more often solid — sometimes pierced with
a heart to admit air. The ironwork on these shutters is massive and
good, much of it being attributed to the workmen detained at the
Cape on their way to Batavia by the van der Stels. Sash-windows
with rounded tops are sometimes found.

The doors throughout the old Cape homesteads were always of
a generous amplitude and solidity, frequently panelled or inlaid with
a contrasting wood — a very usual combination being teak and yellow-
wood, or yellow- wood and stinkwood, occasionally with ebony
mouldings. The outer doors vary in type. Sometimes, as in the case
of the door removed from Elsenburg to Groote Schuur, they were
enriched by side-panels of ironwork, or plaster mouldings or carved
wood. One type of door is divided horizontally, so that the lower
half may remain closed while the upper half is opened — these doors
are still found in Holland. In another type the upper half is a sash
window, with the innumerable small panes which characterize all the
old windows, which may be pushed up or pulled down. In buildings
where the decoration is of the classical type the doors are flanked by
pilasters and surmounted by architraves. Fanlights were a fine feature
over the doors, and vary in design from skilful and elaborate carvings
to simple but graceful curves. In many of the larger homesteads
cupboards were set in the wall. These are usually of teak or stink-
wood, and are often finely carved, sometimes with bombe curves and
claw-and-ball feet.

The first South African architect of whom, so far, any indication has
been found, is J. Meerman, whose name appears below the plan for
a church at the Paarl, sent in by Minister van Aken in 17 14. In the
latter half of the eighteenth century came the greatest Cape architect
of the past — Louis Michiel Thibault of Picquigny near Amiens, a
young Lieutenant of Engineers, who came to the country in the service
of the Dutch East India Company. He was employed by the Council
of Policy on many public buildings, the decoration being often executed
by Anton Anreith. The Oude Drostdy at Tulbagh is the work of
Louis Thibault, and the building used until recent times as the
Supreme Court was built by him in the courtyard of Simon van der
Stel's Slave Lodge. The little oval room at the entrance to the old
Supreme Court has singular beauty of proportion.

Fi>^5TLR- D^C0Rr)T/O,^

70.'y-

//e/fr/Sc/^jz-

C/fmM^nr

frcM)

S- o"

Out- Tiouj^ Jffcrr^/s

IV/ sr,nf! ijt^ci_

Tw/^rw Ct^//^/^^' (^'^/2^/^^y

24 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

Thibault's work was largely influenced by the classical movement,
but it is a mistake to attribute to him all the houses and gables at the
Cape which show the influence of the Renaissance. This influence,
as we have seen, was probably introduced a century earlier. It was
common in Holland in the time of van Riebeeck and the van der Stels,
an example being Rembrandt's house in Amsterdam which was
probably very familiar to Simon van der Stel, owing to the friendship
which existed between his wife's family and the great painter.
Mevrouw van der Stel was Johanna Jacoba Six, a member of the
family of wealthy burgesses whose name has come down to posterity
as the friends of Rembrandt. The facade of the Koopmans de Wet
house in Strand Street is sometimes attributed to Thibault, but it may
with equal possibility date from earlier in the eighteenth century, the
house of the Burgher Reynier Smedinga having stood on this spot since
1701. The Cape possessed fine architects before Thibault, though
we do not know the name of the man who designed Groot Constantia
or Leeuwenhof or Ryk Tulbagh's dignified Renaissance Burgher
Watch House in Greenmarket Square.

The slaves who had attained freedom, by purchase or in other
ways, settled on the outskirts of the town, and in the district lying at
the foot of the Signal Hill there still exist picturesque, single-storied
little houses with flat roofs and graceful curved parapets, where the
Malay people of to-day sit on their high stoeps and the cry of the
muezzin rings in the ears of the Faithful from the neighbouring
mosque. They are fast being elbowed out of existence by modern
progress, these little houses, but they are still to be found here and
there — survivals of the days that have passed away.

And so, under one influence and another, the South African type
of architecture was evolved, and when the old builders looked on their
work it must have been with the knowledge that it was good. With
the rebuilding of Groote Schuur and the purchase of many old houses
that were threatened with destruction, Cecil Rhodes, for whom
Mr. Herbert Baker's early work was done, did much to check the
wave of popular taste for ugly red-brick villas. Modern South African
architecture draws its inspiration from the fine houses of the past.

A comparison between the old houses in Holland and those in
South Africa is of great interest, for it establishes the fact that the
actual ground-plan of the Cape house is unique and has no prototype
in Europe. Another point to be noticed is that whereas in Holland
the builder carried out his fine designs in stone or hard brick, the

or /y^^'cc

J2cr/or/ ?^/eo-

mf'

/<mf

s^M-

3489

^4' /^/^

W/^ouatiT If^oN

'f^ A I uncus'

J5jrcpor/

T~~

—JJiiUlli

}<^-f'Z£-

■/kr/// Of Jr//vj)//s/?-

-PZ/f/y o,^ f/-M^4f^'

'yfh'^/ err /-t^sr

AS /ysyyjU,

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 29

bricks of the old Cape workmen were sun-dried affairs, and some of
the walls consist of these bricks rammed hard and plastered over,
alter the manner of pise de terre. Burchell, who arrived at the Cape
in 1810, draws attention to this—' the walls of the Drostdy are of clay,
exactly after the manner called building in Pisee, to which the dry
climate here is particularly favourable. I have seen houses of this kind
which have stood a century and which were so burnt by the sun that
they looked like tile.'

^ ' ^ iff

Writing of the houses
in the town he says :

' The houses are built
of brick and faced with
a stucco of lime ; they are
decorated in front with
cornices and many archi-
tectural ornaments, and
frequently with figures
both in high and low
relief . . . The windows
are very large but the
panes of glass are small.
Beams and floors of the
teak-wood of India are not
uncommon; but the great-
est part of the timber used
in building, and indeed
for every other purpose,
is the Geel-hout (yellow-
wood) and the Stink-hout
(stink- wood). The latter
is a handsome wood and
resembles mahogany, both
in colour and quality.'

FANLIGHT IN TEAK

From the Imhoff Battery, now at
Groote Schuur

Yet another point of contrast between the houses of Holland and
South Africa is found in the structure of the gables, which in the
former are built up of brick with decorations in carved stonework,
while in the latter plaster- work takes the place of stone. In order to
comprehend the architectural ideals which the seventeenth-century
builders brought with them to the new land across the seas, and the
manner in which these ideals were modified or altered in accordance
with local conditions, we should compare their buildings with the
old houses which are to be seen in every town in Holland. When we
look at the gables of Amsterdam, in the Roomolenstraat, the Brouwers-

30 SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

gracht, the Heerengracht, and many other streets, we may see the
inspiration which hes behind the gables of Groot Constantia ; but in
the farm-houses of Holland there is nothing resembling the H-houses

FANLIGHT IN TEAK AND PLASTER

Koopmans-de Wet House

of the old Cape burghers, which are peculiar to the Cape of Good Hope
and were the product of local conditions and materials, under the
combined inspiration of the East and the West.

It seemed worth while making some investigations as to the houses
of the Dutch East Indies, built during the seventeenth and eighteenth

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE 31

centuries, and my friend Violet Markham has sent me this extract
from a diary kept during a visit to Batavia. It will be seen that though
the Cape has much to lament in losses by fire and alterations it has
also much for which to be thankful in the many beautiful houses
which remain, in comparison with the few which seem to have
survived in the East Indies, though these were doubtless more magni-
ficent — as befitted the residences of the Company's high officials —
than were the graceful homesteads of the Cape burghers.

' I was unexpectedly successful in the matter of one house now the Mining
Offices but formerly the old palace of the Governor- General. Here was the
real old Colonial house of essential kinship to those of the Cape though the
details differed in many respects, notably in the fact that it had an upper floor.
I bearded the establishment and actually had the luck to run up against a clerk
who had lived 16 years in South Africa and was full of enthusiasm about
the old building. This house was built between 1750 and 1755 at the time of
Governor Schrender. Marshal von Doendels lived here for a brief period.
You go up a flight of steps into a big hall divided in two by a row of columns.
There was a low wainscoting of three rows of mauve-coloured tiles. The
windows were large and of the sash variety, filled with small panes of what
Mr. HoUeman called " lila " panes — green and mauve tinted. There were
rooms to right and left of this hall, a wide stoep at the back where a house looks
over a garden half filled now with rubbish. And here was a real find, for the
long row of buildings to the right and left (corresponding exactly with the
slave quarters) were finished off with gables of the real South African type.
Gables are practically non-existent in Batavia and I can hear of no others.
There was a jolly old gateway crowned with stone vases at the end of the
garden but it was sadly out of repair. But the real feature and glory of the
house were the wonderful wood carvings over the doors. Each door was
surmounted by a carved panel exactly like the Japanese " ramma " openwork
for ventilation, and like the best Japanese ramma (save in the bedrooms)
carved on both sides. The finely panelled doors were also surmounted by
splendid wood carvings — shields, flowers, ribbons, &c. The staircase was
rather cramped but at each landing it carried a beautiful carved basket of fruit
and flowers in wood. Upstairs there was a most noble room running the whole
breadth of the house some 24 yards long by 7 wide. At the front door the
" ramma " was supported by classical pilasters. One sees this classical touch
reproduced constantly in the modern houses.

' Altogether a great bit of good luck to have happened on this rare surviving
example of old Dutch architecture in Batavia.

' I went on to the lower town. It conveys with its red roofs and canals the
most extraordinary impression of a tropical Amsterdam. But the Chinese town
has butted in unfortunately at this point and the jumble of ideas and houses in
consequence is most extraordinary and most bewildering.

' I saw the old city gate, the Kleine Boom, which has nothing much to
commend it except its age.

SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE

' I next happened on the old Stadthouse set on a high stoep and which stili
carries the date " 1707 den 2 Decembr " over the entrance. Here again were
large sash windows with small panes and a fine carved staircase. Upstairs in
a long sort of corridor ante-room I found a doorway decorated with a string of
cockle shells and the same shell as exists over the door at Morgenster. In the
Council Room there was a fine armoire crowned by the arms — of the Company ?
Anyway, it consisted of two lions supporting an oval lozenge bearing a palm tree.
There was a large tempera frieze in this room of the Judgement of Solomon.
In this quarter I saw evident traces of old houses with white columns and rough
plaster work over the fanlights of the windows. But it is only too evident little
or nothing remains of the old days, and here as elsewhere in the East there is
something about the climate or atmosphere which makes all buildings look the
same age — whether built yesterday or two hundred years ago.'

OLD FANLIGHT

From a drawing by H. Schutte

TYPES OF SLAVE -BELL-TOWERS
AND VERGELEGEN BELL

THE OLD BURGHER WATCH HOUSE

Now the Michaelis Gallery

INTERIOR OF THE MICHAELIS GALLERY

OLD CAPE TOWN

THE stranger who walks up modern Adderley Street may well
be pardoned if he sees nothing more in it than fine shops and
offices, a railway station, a church, a large post-office, and
a prosperous-looking bank. For there is little more to see.

THE OLD DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH

And indeed, all these things are necessary to the city's well-being
and she would not be without them if she could. But we, in our
turn, may be forgiven if we think that the old Heerengracht, with its
gabled and thatched or flat-roofed houses, its shady canals and high
stoeps, must have been more picturesque — if undeniably less
utilitarian.

Once upon a time it was a street of private residences — large-
roomed, dignified houses, with no monotonous level pavement
before them, though this charming lack of uniformity left much to
be desired by the pedestrian in wet weather, however pleasant it
may have been for the owners of the obstructive high stoeps, whereon
the old burghers and their wives sat with their pipes and coffee. At
the head of the street on the left is a square white building, the old

2489 F

34 OLDCAPETOWN

Slave Lodge founded by Simon van der Stel and now used as Govern-
ment offices. In the courtyard of the Slave Lodge is the Supreme
Court, built by Thibault in the beginning of the last century, now
superseded by a newer building elsewhere. The one twisted chimney
which remains to the Slave Lodge bears witness to the grace with
which the old builders invested even the most sternly practical
details — they seem to have formed lovely lines and curves for the
sheer pleasure of forming them, as we see in such of their gables and
walls as modern progress has left to us.

Below the Slave Lodge is the Dutch Reformed Church, built
in the time of Willem Adriaan van der Stel and opened for service
by Minister Kalden in 1704. It had fine gables in those early days,
one looking towards Church Square, one over the Heerengracht,
and yet another facing the mountain. Its roof was of brown thatch,
smooth and shining, supported by columns, and on the walls were
the monuments of the men who lay beneath the pavement — Simon
van der Stel and many another. There, too, were hung the armorial
hatchments which in the early days of the Cape were carried at the
head of funeral processions, and there they might have remained to
this day had not both monuments and hatchments been scattered
to the winds when the church was rebuilt. A few of the latter were
recovered by the Rev. H. C. V. Leibbrandt, in the tower which
remains from the old church, but the majority are lost. Simon
van der Stel's tomb has been described by passing travellers as of
great beauty, but the only historic memorial remaining is the tomb-
stone of Governor van Oudtshoorn, recently found in the church-
yard and now set in the wall of the church. Anton Anreith's pulpit
is a fine example of massive carving, though without the grace that
marks his exquisite Constantia frieze, which breathes a Greek spirit
for which perhaps it would be unreasonable to look within the walls
of a Dutch Reformed Church.^

On the other side of the Heerengracht, on the ground between
Wale and Longmarket Streets, stood Simon van der Stel's hospital,
where the scurvy-stricken sailors were nursed back to health after
long months of peril and privation in the little ships which seem to
us so singularly inadequate for covering half a world and back again.
During the eighteenth century this hospital was broken down to

1 Valentyn records seeing in the church her bust in a serpent biting its tail, on the

a tombstone engraved ' Corneha Six. 1681 '. left a smoking lamp, on the right a small

Jonkheer Six tells me that this was an elder skull and broken leaf, with an inscription,

sister of Simon van der Stel's wife, and that The reverse shews her coat of arms

he has one of the silver medals given to quarteredwiththatof her mother Hinlopen,

those who attended her funeral. ' It shows covered by a helmet with a star as crest.'

\ \ I \ t

u
<;

H
D

THE KOOPMANS-DE WET HOUSE

HOUSE FORMERLY THE LUTHE

OLDCAPETOWN 35

make way for dwelling-houses and, later on, these were replaced
by prosperous shops and offices. A new hospital, afterwards used
as barracks, was built in Caledon Square, and this too was broken
down a few years ago.

In the centre of old Cape Town lies Greenmarket Square, where
in the eighteenth century the farmers and market gardeners of the
Cape brought their fruit and vegetables for sale. There were fine
houses of the burghers round the square in those days, but these
have been superseded by uninteresting blocks of shops and offices.
Fate, which has dealt unkindly with the private houses, has however
left to us the old house of the Burgher Senate, built in the time of
Ryk Tulbagh as the Burgher Watch House and now the home of
the fine group of Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century, collected
by Sir Hugh Lane and presented to South Africa by Mr. Max
Michaelis in 1914, through the medium of Lady Phillips.

The building is square and stately and the interior has been well
adapted for use as a picture gallery by Mr. J. M. Solomon, whose
untimely death is a very great loss to South Africa. It forms an
appropriate and beautiful setting for the mellow canvasses that hang
on the old walls which must often have looked down on just such
a scene as that depicted for us by many Dutch painters, showing
the grave burghers of the town sitting in council. Behind the building
is a little formal garden, a pleasant place wherein to turn aside from
the bustle of the streets ; on the hottest summer day the rooms of
the gallery have that sense of cool restfulness which the eighteenth-
century builders achieved by thick walls and lofty ceilings.

Many volumes have been written regarding the art of the Nether-
lands. We know that above all countries Holland produced great
genre painters — a genre painting being interpreted to mean a
picture of a scene of ordinary human life, without any religious
or historical significance. The first half of the seventeenth century
was very rich in Dutch painters of genre ; it was the blossoming
period of Dutch art, and it is difficult to understand why so few old
pictures of any merit should have come to light in South Africa when
we remember that it was in the middle of this rich century that van
Riebeeck laid the foundations of Cape Town. It is even probable
that he was personally acquainted with some of the painters whose
names are now held in reverence by us.

The problem becomes still more baffling when we think of the
connexion between the van der Stels and the family of Six, the
friends of Rembrandt, for Simon van der Stel's wife was Johanna
Jacoba Six. She was with him in the East Indies, where their sons

36 OLDCAPETOWN

were born, but did not accompany him to the Cape later on, and it
is at least probable that at her house in Amsterdam, and in the
family home of the Sixes, which was rich in works by the great master,
her children would have acquired the love of art which marked her
family. Pictures were not costly luxuries in those days— -we know
the tragic prices which some of the greatest painters received— did
Simon van der Stel leave none behind him when he died at Groot
Constantia ? It is true that a passing traveller who visited Govern-
ment House in the eighteenth century, during the time of Ryk
Tulbagh, writes of the pictures that hung on the walls, but where
are they to-day ? I know of a few old Dutch paintings that have
come to Hght at the Cape — a Hondecoeter, a van der Velde, and
others, but their rarity makes the problem all the more profound.
Perhaps in the loft of some Cape Dutch house there may still be
hidden treasure, and some day the lost ' Minister Bogardus ' of
Frans Hals may be discovered among the discarded household
belongings of some old family.

The gift of pictures now housed in the former home of the
Burgher Council is of great value to South Africa, for it forms a link
between seventeenth-century Holland and the little town at the foot
of Table Mountain which was to grow into the Mother City of the
Union. That is the historical side, and a valuable one, but we may
also regard them as rendering an incomparable service to the art
student and the picture lover. For as you stand before these pictures
there comes to you a sense of what this art of Holland was, that
owed little to France or Italy, that was pent within her own dykes
and borders, that drew no inspiration from her stern Calvinistic
church, that depicted perforce the little things of life, because saints
and virgins and lofty mountains and mighty torrents were outside
her sphere, but brought to the portrayal of those little things the
great genius which only found expression with the freedom of the
people. And you do not need to stand there long to reaHze that
there is more real beauty in the homely woman painted by Hals
than in a Mater Dolorosa of Carlo Dolci.

The pictures in the gallery have often been described, but there
are many points of view from which they may be regarded. Take,
for example, the mere subject-matter. There are the portraits, in
which may in several instances be traced a resemblance of type to
familiar Dutch faces in South Africa. Then there are pictures of
churches and houses in which there is no great similarity to the old
Cape buildings, a testimony to the original lines induced by the
difference in climate, material, and workmen, while the fruit and

OLDCAPETOWN 37

flower pictures show that we have not progressed very far beyond
the peaches and grapes of van Beyeren or the carnations of van Es.

Any one who has seen Rembrandt's famous ' Night Watch '
(so-called) in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam can picture the
scene when the Burgher Watch of old Cape Town assembled in the
fine building or in the square outside. When the Burgher Senate
was established in 1797 its meetings were held here, and in later
years it became the Town House and on its walls were hung for
the first time the Arms of the City of Cape Town, granted by Com-
missioner de Mist in 1804.

It is a fine, square building of the Renaissance type, with the great
sash-windows which were introduced into England by Dutch William
but probably came to the Cape at an earlier period, as we find them
on Simon van der Stel's Groot Constantia. The fan-lights on the
front of the building are very fine and they have been skilfully copied
in making such alterations as were necessary for the reception of the
pictures. None of the old features have been lost, and the removal
of partition walls of a late date has restored the rooms to all their
former spaciousness and dignity. The teak-panelled Council Chamber
might well be the scene of the meeting of the Clothmakers' Guild
or of any other civic gathering in old Amsterdam.

To Governor Tulbagh's time, too, belongs the Lutheran Church
in Strand Street, then Zee Straat, built by Martin Melck. Within
is a fine pulpit, carved by Anton Anreith, by whom also the doors
and windows were designed, and in the vestry hang his original
sketches and plans. In the van der Stel days grants of building-
land in Strand Street were made to Willem ten Damme, Jan Brom-
mert, Henning Huysing, Reynier Smedinga, and other worthies and
unworthies of the time. Huysing's grant covered the entire block
between Burg Street and the present St. George's Street, and above
it — on Smedinga's land — stands the Koopmans-de Wet house.
Part of this is undoubtedly the original building of 1701, though
Dr. Purcell, who made a careful examination, thought that the front
was rebuilt towards the end of the eighteenth century. Tradition
ascribes the facade to Thibault, but it is of a style common to most
of the houses which were built in Cape Town during the eighteenth
century. Few of these dignified old buildings remain as residences.
Modern progress has transformed into a busy city the town in which
the early burghers had their pleasant dwellings, with flat roofs on
which to take the air and high stoeps on which to sit and smoke and
drink coffee after the heat of the day. Many of the old houses are
stores or tenements in which crowd the coloured folk whose grand-

38 OLDCAPETOWN

fathers and grandmothers were slaves to the burghers of former
days, or they have been pulled dov^^n to make v^^ay for prosperous
shops.

Above the town, towards the Signal Hill, lies the Malay quarter,
where linger picturesque houses with high stoeps and curved parapets.
Cape Town is a place of many creeds and many churches— Christian,
Hebrew, and Mohammedan. And of these latter even the orthodox
Sunni will find himself confronted with the non-conforming Shiah,
who keeps the feast of Hoseyn with a zeal vvhich sometimes leads
to breaches of the peace. Upon which follow bewilderment and
confusion in the minds of policemen and other officials, to whom
one Moslem is very like another, and who know nothing and care
less for the subtle distinctions which divide the Children of the
Prophet. There is an Oriental side to Cape Town which only he
may fully see who sits with the old Imaums on their high stoeps
in the Malay quarter, or visits the mosques which their courtesy
permits him to enter.

In the heart of old Cape Town lies an oblong plantation. Govern-
ment House and its gardens have encroached on its ancient boundaries;
the Houses of Parliament stand where once flourished palms and myrtle
hedges ; the South African College has grown into it from the south-
west — the Cathedral from the north-east. To-day it is the Municipal
Gardens. Its oaks and magnolias shade few but the leisured wanderers
who find a temporary resting-place on the city's benches, save when
the Curator's chrysanthemums draw flower-lovers to exult in the
glory of orange and purple and crimson among the late Jupiter's
Lightning roses. The heart of South Africa. The little seed from
which has sprung a mighty tree. This, and no less, is this garden,
cramped and hemmed in to-day, but still rich with the loveliness
of the bygone years. For romance, which lingers so tenderly around
the white gables of the Cape homesteads, which dwells in every
stone and shadow of the mountain, clings with an abiding fragrance
to this old garden of the Dutch East India Company.

On the site of the present Government House in the Gardens
stood the Guest House built by Simon van der Stel for the accom-
modation of such passing guests as it was not convenient to house
in the Castle. It was incorporated in the present building, which has
been added to by successive governors and still retains a great
measure of old-world charm. It was here that Pere Tachard with five
other Jesuits were lodged in 1685, when the scientific expedition
sent by Louis XIV to China and the Indies called at the Cape of
Good Hope.

OLD CAPE TOWN

' About the middle of the wall,' writes the Father, ' on that side which looks
to the Fort, there is a little Banquet-House where nobody lives. The lower
Story of it consists of a Porch open to the Garden and the Fort, with two little
Halls on each side ; over that there is a Pavilion open every way, between two
Tarasses paved with Brick, and railed about ; the one looking towards the North
and the other to the South. This Pavihon seemed to be purposely made for

- The Company's Guest-House, now Government House
with the Castle in the background
From the Voyage de Siam by Pere Tachard. Paris, 1689

our Design ; for on the one side we discovered the North, the View whereof
was absolutely necessary to us, because it is the South in relation to that Country.
Whil'st they were preparing that Pavilion, which with the Dutch I shall call
our Observatory, we went on Board to give the Ambassador and our Fathers
an account of all that had past.' ^

The South African College, in the upper part of the Gardens —
you enter through Anreith's gateway — stands on the site of the

^ From the English translation, published 1688.

40 OLDCAPETOWN

Company's Menagerie and below it was the Melk Hok. Did dainty
ladies fare to the Melk Hok to drink syllabub and butterniilk, with
toy milking-stools under their arms, while their cavahers in curled
wigs and silk stockings carried the milk pails ? There need be no
restriction upon the imagination, for little is known of it beyond its
name and situation.

Much imagination is needed, in truth, to recreate early Cape
Town, the Mother City of South Africa, from the prosperous streets
and thriving shops of to-day. In the garden of van Riebeeck and
the van der Stels something of the old spirit still lingers, and, when
the key of the gate is turned at evening on the last loitering visitor
and the stars shine out in the velvet sky, memory peoples the alleys
and lawns with the shades of bygone years. Van Riebeeck, the
van der Stels, and Kolbe who so ill-requited their hospitality, Pere
Tachard from the Guest House, Anreith the sculptor, de la Caille
the astronomer, the kindly and learned Pieter Kalden, Ryk Tulbagh,
brave Janssens, Lady Anne Barnard, Sir Harry Smith, and a hundred
more.

As of old, the night-moths flutter heavily from one sweet-scented
flower to another, the trees rustle and whisper in the soft breeze,
the great rock keeps sentinel-ward behind the garden and city, or
the wild south-easter pours a sheet of moonlit vapour over the
mountain's face, whirling the petals from the roses, stripping the
leaves from the palms in the old Company's garden that whisper
and rustle where Cecil Rhodes points northward — hurrying them
down the old Heerengracht to lay them at the feet of Jan van Riebeeck
as he watches over his town. And a few fragrant petals drift farther
on the night-wind and are carried out to sea in the track of Willem
Adriaan van der Stel.

A very early description of the new settlement has been left to
us by John Nieuhoff , who first visited the Cape in December 1653.
I quote from the English translation of 1703. Van Riebeeck is
described as having a dwelling in the Fort, with ' a well-planted
garden of fifteen acres. Upon the banks of the Salt River is hkewise
a small Redoubt. Behind the Fort, all along the banks of the River,
are many fine Plantations or Gardens, which produce Cabbages and
such-like Herbages, being cultivated by certain Hollanders who have
settled there . . . The Dutch have planted many thousands of Vines
on a Hill adjacent to the Fort, they bear very plentifully but the
wine is of a Crab-like taste '. There is a fine description of what
the old translator calls ' Pinguwyns, Flamingos, Iron Piggs [meaning
porcupines], Sea Cows, Lyons, Jackalls, Tygers, and the Hottentots'

p i-v^;nk>

!fWtv»^

H^i-'tSi^ jw'^wj

[A^-'

r?'

iHr"^

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE TOWN

The front, in the time of the Dutch East India Company

From a drawing by Schutte

A TAVERN IN DORP STREET

Built in 1717, since destroyed by fire

I/)

OLD CAPE TOWN 41

Fish, the latter so called because the Hottentots are very dexterous
in taking them '.

Nieuhoff gives a quaint account of a jaunt in the company of
Commander van Riebeeck and his wife. ' The next day, being
informed that a Whale was got on shoar in the Salt River, the Governor
and his Lady, our Master of the ship and I, went thither to see it,
it was a very large one ; we got upon the back of it whilst the Trumpet
sounded merrily, and the Negros were busied in cutting great pieces
of the Flesh, which they buried in the Sand in order to eat them.'

Picnics to the sound of trumpets were apparently a favourite
form of diversion in those early days. Valentyn, the learned divine,
in his book of travels published in 1724-6, records two such expedi-
tions, organized by Simon van der Stel, to the top of the Lion's
Head mountain ; one in 1685, when he was accompanied by the
Juffrouw de Man, wife of the Secunde, ' and the people of most
importance at the Cape, with several young ladies '. The other and
earlier occasion was a picnic in honour of the wife of Rykloff van
Goens, Governor-General of the East Indies, and in this instance
too, he was accompanied by a merry crew ' who now and then fired
a shot ; they made a great fire, and sometimes sounded a blare on
a trumpet and beat a drum and frightened away all the wild animals in
the neighbourhood. Nevertheless ', he adds, ' of all the people to
whom I have spoken, no one expressed any desire to go up again.'
Simon van der Stel erected on the mountain a monument of brick,
between six and seven feet high, bearing an inscription carved on
a smooth black stone, in memory of this frolic.

The temptation to quote from the various travellers who passed
through Cape Town during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
is great. Thunberg, a Professor of Botany at Upsala, who arrived at
the Cape in 1772, writes as follows :

' In the Company's garden there was a very beautiful covered walk, formed
of chestnut trees, which were now very thick and large. It was this year cut down,
root and branch, by order of the Governor [van Plettenberg] , for the purpose
of making different kind of furniture of its elegant wood ; and in its stead were
planted oaks . . . Besides a handsome house, built in the Company's garden
in town, the Governor has also one at Rondebosch [Rustenburg] and another
at Nieuwland [Newlands House], both out of town, to which he may retire at
pleasure and unbend his mind when oppressed with cares of state. Another
such house was now to be built likewise, for his accommodation, at Baay-fals.'

Le Vaillant writes in 1781 of the ' spacious and handsome houses '
of the Cape, which contain ' no frivolous luxuries ; the furniture
is simple, yet neat and handsome ; they use no hangings, pictures

2489 G

42 OLDCAPETOWN

and looking-glasses are the principal ornaments '. Many others
have written of old Cape Town, but I have only space for one more
quotation, in which the writer draws largely on the descriptions
given by earlier travellers, though the book is called A new description
of the Cape of Good Hope {Nieuwste Beschryving van de Kaap), By
Carel Frederik Brink. Published at Amsterdam in 1778.

' In Table Valley there are the town, the fortress, and the gardens of the
Company. The town is situated on the edge of the sea, and extends from the
shore into the valley ; it is fairly large, built with regularity, with wide streets
and consisting of more than twelve hundred houses. The earliest houses were
built for the most part of brick, on a good-sized piece of land and in the first
instance were only one storey high, but now the greater number are of two and
sometimes three storeys. In the front they have a large court, which makes a
pleasant entrance, and behind them are beautiful gardens. One observes in
them an air of Dutch elegance, except that in the place of tiles they are covered
with thatch, which somewhat detracts from the beauty of the town. But nothing
else can be done, because of the frequent storms, particularly of those south
winds of which we have already spoken, which carry off the tiles and even some-
times the roofs themselves, at the risk of crushing people and animals in the
streets and in the houses. Formerly there were pent-houses on either side of
the buildings, where one might take shelter from the rain, but, apart from being
eye-sores and cramping the view, they were inconvenient and dangerous. For
the Hottentots and the sailors, who love smoking, crowded there for this purpose
and were sometimes the cause of fires. Therefore the Government was not
content merely in pulling down the pent-houses but forbade smoking in the
streets. As, despite this, the Hottentots and sailors continued to smoke, this
warning has not only been renewed but the ofi"enders have been threatened with
a severe punishment ; all who transgress against the rule are to be placed in
the pillory and severely beaten.

' The most beautiful street or canal is that which is called the Heerengracht.
It is bordered with oaks and follows the course of a canal, while along it are
built the finest houses. This street makes a turning at the corner. During the
last thirty years the town has grown considerably and has been enlarged by
several streets, so that it now extends close to Table Mountain.

' Having spoken of the town in general we will now give a detailed descrip-
tion of the public buildings which add not a little to its lustre and beauty. The
first which merits remark is the Castle, where the Governor and the principal
officers of the Company have their dwellings. In the early days of the colony
van Riebeek, who was then only Commander and was afterwards the first
Governor of the Cape, had built a four-square mud fortress, and constructed
within the walls houses for himself and his suite, besides the magazines necessary
for guarding merchandize, as I have already said. But in the years 1664 and
1665 a regular fort was built, which in the year 1672 was altered into a castle.
This castle is a perfect pentagon, flanked with many outworks and well provided
^vlth all necessary munitions of war, to defend the port and town against incur-
sions of the enemy. On two sides of the Castle there are batteries which flank

rZ.

mtiiaimiiiimiifimiff^^

cT/^^

Orf jsacJS.

7/''^^,^

<^/?4^

44 OLD CAPE TOWN

the whole Bay, where there is an anchorage for vessels which could not be
sufficiently defended by a bulwark. One of the batteries is situated to the west
of the Castle on the Lion's Head, or rather on the tail of the Lion's niountain,
a little within the Bay, and it is the stronger of the two. The other is placed
near the Salt River to the East of the Castle and is joined to it by a path. The
Governor and the principal officers of the Company have fine residences there,
where are also to be found great depots and magazines for the Company's goods.

' The second of the public buildings, which contributes not a little to the
embellishment and size of the town, is the Hospital for the sick, which has
experienced the same fate as the Castle, having developed from a mean little
building into a large and stately edifice. In fact, Commander van Riebeek,
being a clever man and very experienced in the art of healing, knowing how
the sick fared on board the ships, was not long in realizing the necessity and
usefulness of such a building in so renowned a rest-place. Consequently, he
built one close to the shore, so that it might be convenient to carry there the sick
from the vessels, so that they could procure the treatment necessary for their
restoration to health. But the progress of the Company's navigation in the East
Indies was so great that this house was found too small for the reception and care
of the sick on the vesselswhich arrived fromHoUand or the Indies. Consequently,
the Governor, Simon van der Stel, decided to build a house which should be
much larger and more convenient for the sick, and to use the old one as a magazine
for storing ships' provisions, ropes, fish-oil, sails, &c., in order that they might
be always at hand when the ships needed them and could be furnished quickly.

' He therefore chose a convenient and airy place, which had until then been
a garden and which adjoined the large garden of the Company, of which the
sick could have a pleasant view when they were well enough to leave their beds.
This building was constructed in the form of a cross and was well decorated,
the walls a good thickness, and it is both long and wide. The longest part is
from the upper door, which looks into the Company's garden, to the door which
leads to the town, and is large enough to hold a hundred patients ; the cross-way,
which extends from the great door which faces the church to the one which
looks out upon the Lion's mountain, is for the greater part left free, to serve as
a passage for those who visit or who care for the sick. It is not, however,
altogether useless, for it is used for those who have broken arms or legs or for
those at the point of death. Each of these lies on a mattress, on a bed to himself,
round which people can come and go, but others which are not in such great
danger nor so afflicted lie on wooden beds, after the Dutch manner, which run
the length of the walls and are joined one to the other as if they were in one
piece. Thus along the walls of the two sides one hundred patients may be
accommodated and cared for, and more than sbcty down the middle. On
either side of the great door, as well as of that in the rear facing the Lion's
mountain, there are large glass windows of which some are opened in fine
weather or when there is too much heat in the house, in order to admit the air
freely, but these windows are barred, to prevent the escape of convalescents.'

It will be remembered that this hospital stood in the present
Adderley Street, opposite the Dutch Reformed Church.

ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE

THE CASTLE GATEWAY FROM WITHIN

Ill

THE CASTLE

HEMMED in between the railway and the road, on the outskirts
of the modern, busy city of Cape Town, Ues the old fortress
which was once the central point of civilization in all Africa
south of the equator.

Obsolete it may be, inadequate as a means of protection against
the smallest cruiser that carries a six-inch gun; but it is an heritage
from the hands of those who laid the foundations upon which has
been reared the South Africa of to-day. This was not the first fortress
built at the Cape by the Dutch East India Company. Its predecessor,
the Fort of Good Hope, built by van Riebeeck soon after landing in
1652, lay on the present Grand Parade, somewhere behind the Post
Office, and was merely a collection of low wooden houses and a square
stone tower surrounded by walls of earth — a pitifully slender means
of defence against wild beasts and marauding Hottentots, and
practically useless against trained European troops.

But for a while it was all the protection which the brave little
handful of settlers had, and, but for the war which broke out with
England, and the consequent loss of the Dutch West India Company's
possessions in North America, which galvanized the directors into
action, the new settlement might have remained indefinitely at the
mercy of any passing ship. It must have cost them an effort to give
the order for the building of a strong stone fortress, for economy was
the keynote of their administration of the Cape. That it could ever
become more than a mere provision station does not appear to have
entered their minds. However, even a provision station had to be
protected, if they did not wish to see it fall into the hands of Charles II
or Louis XIV according to circumstances ; so, in 1665, the order was
given for the building of the Castle of the Cape of Good Hope.

The plan chosen by the directors is one common to fortresses
of the period, and is in the form of a five-pointed star — a pentagonal
bastioned fort on Vauban's system. An engineer, named Pieter
Dombaer, was selected to superintend the work. Commander
Wagenaar was instructed to detain three hundred soldiers from
passing ships and to employ them in preparing stones and other material

46 THECASTLE

for building. The Commissioner, Isbrand Goske, was appointed to
choose a site for the fortress. Convicts and slaves were sent to Robben
Island for shells for lime, and to Hout Bay for wood — it is easy to
realize the activity and bustle which stirred the little settlement in
Table Valley.

Isbrand Goske landed on August 8, 1665, and eight days later, with
the approval of the Council of Policy and the chief naval and miUtary
officers present, he chose the site of the Castle. The preparation of
materials and digging of trenches occupied the five months that
followed, and, on January 2, 1666, the first stones of the Castle were
laid with great ceremony and rejoicing. There were four of these
stones, and they were laid by the Commander Zacharias Wagenaar,
the Minister Johannes van Arckel, the Secunde Abraham Gabbema,
and the Fiscal Hendrik Lacus. A great feast followed, at which a poem
was recited, which so impressed the Commander that he caused it to
be inscribed in the Archives. Regarded as poetry it is not a great
success, but there were more workers than poets among the brave men
and women who stood within the Castle foundations on that January
day two hundred and fifty years ago.

A fortnight later they met again on the same spot, to bury within
the shelter of the rising walls the body of Johannes van Arckel. No
record of his grave remains — the pioneers of South Africa are better
known by their works than by their monuments.

Eight years passed before the fortress was sufficiently advanced
for the garrison to move into it from the old fort of Jan van Riebeeck,
which was shortly afterwards broken down. A few weeks later, in
July 1674, came news of peace which had been concluded with
England, and, with the news, the building impetus appears to have
ceased. With the removal of the immediate danger of invasion came
the opportunity for the work that was urgently needed elsewhere, and
from this date to the arrival of Simon van der Stel in 1679 there were
but few European workmen employed on the Castle. The excavation
of the nioat was, however, pushed forward during this period, chiefly
on the initiative of Governor Bax, who decreed that every one who
passed the Castle, male or female, rich or poor, should assist in the
work by carrying out a certain quantity of earth in baskets. The
Governor and his wife and child, the officials and burgher-councillors
and their wives, set the example. It was a fine illustration of the civic
spirit which was shared by all. On February 10, 1679, news was
received of the conclusion of peace between France and the Nether-
lands, an event which was immediately celebrated by withdrawing
the remaining European labourers from the work. In the same year

THE CASTLE

the five bastions of the star were given their names of Orange, Nassau,
Catzenellenbogen, Buuren, and Leerdam.

If you walk round the Castle and look carefully at its walls, you
will notice that there is a faint, irregular, horizontal line about

^^1

THE WATCH TOWER

two-thirds of the way up. It has been suggested that this marks the
height to which the walls were taken in the first instance. Just where
this line occurs, in the point nearest to the railway, is a stone inscribed
' Ludovicus, 1667 '. I have been able to find no record which
mentions any one of this name in connexion with the building. The
stone may have been used originally in some other connexion and

48 ■ THECASTLE

have been regarded simply as building material — as was the Post
Office stone recently removed to the Museum from the Leerdam
point. ^

The Castle precincts are entered to-day through a gatevi^ay facing
the tov^fn, and the gate-pillars are decorated with Anton Anreith's
lionesses. The original gateway faced the sea, close to where the old
jetty ran out. It was decided by Simon van der Stel in 1682 to close
it and build another for the better security of the Fort. Passing
through the lioness gate you come to the actual entrance, the gateway
above which are the arms of the Chambers of the Dutch East India
Company— Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Hoorn, Middelburg, and
Enkhuisen, flanked by the Company's monogram and surmounted
by the lion of Holland. The gables are not unlike those of Groot
Constantia and are attributed to Simon van der Stel. Over the gateway
hangs the old Castle bell — as it has hung for over two hundred years.
It bears the following inscription :

' Benedicat Terra Dominum : laudet et superexaltet eum in saecula.
Claudifremi me fecit. Amstellodami, Anno 1697.'

Besides raising the walls to the necessary height the van der Stels
are responsible for the fine houses within the fortress, the residences
of the Governor and the Secunde, on the right and left of the sundial
as you face it, and the house of the Admiral of the Fleet, at a right
angle to the Governor's house, and now used as the General's office.
This building, which still retains many fine features, was probably
used as the Governor's residence before the great Government
House was built on the cross wall. The Government House and the
Secunde's residence form the dividing line between the outer and
the inner courts. Under the latter house lie the grain cellars of which
Simon van der Stel wrote with pride in his dispatches to the Company
— their vaulted ceilings might serve as an example to modern archi-
tects. The old Government House itself retains many of its early
features, and there yet remains the dignified Council Hall of Simon
van der Stel with its fine windows — the room in which Lady Anne
Barnard gave those dances which were to draw the Dutch and English
together more than a hundred years later. In his dispatch to the
Seventeen, dated August i, 1696, Simon van der Stel says : ' The
new hall (Kat) ' having been completed in the Governor's House, the

1 These post-office stones were slabs as a means of communication, and are

carved with the names of ships and usually found from time to time,

with the notice that letters would be found 2 g^j^j ^g ^^^^ received its name from

beneath them. They were used by ships the Placcaaten or Edicts published from it.
passing to and from the East prior to 1652,

TEAK DOOR IN THE CASTLE

2489

THE CASTLE

first sermon was preached in it on the 22nd May (Whit Sunday, 1695),
and regular services have been held in it ever since.'

Adjoining the Council Hall is the large reception-room, and in
the rear the dining-room, which still retains a good fireplace, over
which hangs a picture to which a sinister legend is attached. It is
said that no one may remove it without calling down dire calamity on
his head. It is also said that it covers the entrance to a secret passage
down which a discontented ghost walks to the present Government
House — and probably one story has just as much foundation as the
other.

Several of the rich fanHghts remain in their original positions over
the chief doors, though one has, unfortunately, been removed to
Groote Schuur. The Httle balcony, from which edicts were read and
newly arrived officials presented to the burghers assembled in the
square, is singularly graceful. Much of its decoration is attributed
to Louis Thibault, the Lieutenant of Engineers who held the post
of Government Architect towards the end of the Dutch and the early
days of the English occupation.

There is one curious feature in this old Government House — the
wall, fifteen feet deep, which runs through it. Passages are pierced
at intervals and afford communication between the front and back
rooms. The Castle has never been fully explored ; perhaps further
investigations may bring to light the meaning of this wall, which looks
like a fortification and is buried deep in the heart of a dwelling-house.
Some light is shed on the matter by a dispatch of January 23, 1696, in
which Simon van der Stel writes as follows : * The new corn stores,
built on the Italian plan on the side of the cross-wall which runs
through this fort, are at present so far advanced that they can already
hold a large quantity of wheat, and we are doing our best to complete
them.' It is probable, therefore, that this is the original fortified
cross-wall which once divided the outer from the inner squares of the
Castle, and that the dwelling-houses were built by Simon van der Stel
above and around it. The deep passages may have been embrasures
for cannon. In a letter dated July 14, 1691, to the Seventeen, he says :
' By order of Commissioner-General van Rheede we have completed
a cross-wall, masoned with stones and lime, a great strong work, and
none the less necessary for our protection to cover the bastions, being
542 feet (Dutch) long, 39 feet high, 10 feet broad at the base and 8 feet
in the centre and at the top 6 feet, with a stone mantelet for defence
of the bastion Nassau. The foundations of the church, cellars, stores,
and dwellings of the company's servants have been laid.'

The Secunde's house— to the left of the sundial— was completed

THE CASTLE

in the time of Willem Adriaan van der Stel. The court in the rear
of these houses was originally divided into two squares— an arch of
small bricks marks the point of division— and in the square behind
the Government House was a garden surrounded by a pillared arcade.
In the centre of the garden was Thibault's fountain, the church and
other buildings stood in the dividing line between these two squares.
The Castle well is under the sundial archway. The old pulley-wheel,
by means of which the water was drawn to the surface more than two
hundred years ago, is still in
its place.

It was a stern age in
which the old fortress was
built and held — how stern
we can only realize when
we read the minutes of the
Council of Policy and stand
in the dark vaulted room be-
neath the Catzenellenbogen
bastion. This was perhaps
the torture chamber, or it
may only have been a pow-
der magazine, but a torture
chamber existed — whether
here or in another part of the
Castle. In the Archives are
records of the punishments
that were meted out by order
of the Company for offences
that do not always sound
desperate — they were terrible
enough to impress the most
callous . The wheel , the rack ,

the gibbet, and the axe : we read of them again and again. And as,
by a curious law, no one might be executed for an offence until he
had confessed, it was customary to put him to the torture until he did.
Here is an entry from the Journal of August 24, 1708, and there are
many similar to it : ' The landrost and deputies from the Court of
Justice busy this morning in the Torture Room to bring certain
offenders, condemned eight days ago, ad actum proximum.'

Perhaps the thumb-screw and the rack were the terms too plain
for the secretary who made the entry. Others were not so reticent.

The prison is in the same bastion, but on a level with the ramparts.

Ship on the seal of the Dutch East
India Company, carved
the Castle

on a stone in

52 THE CASTLE

To reach it you pass up a flight of steps and close to the ship of the
Dutch East India Company, deeply carved on a stone by some name-
less artist of bygone days. It is strange to find it in this obscure part
of the Castle. Perhaps it was the work of some prisoner with abundant
leisure on his hands.

On the opposite side of the ramparts is the building which was
once the Castle armoury. The arms have vanished no one knows
where, but scattered over the land are various things that bear the
Castle Armourer's mark. Anton Anreith, the sculptor, had a work-
shop in the Castle. There was a miniature Renaissance when he and
Louis Thibault and the architect Schutte worked together within the
Castle walls at their plans and models.

I have spoken of the small bricks which are found in some of the
buildings. These are usually known as ' Klomptjes ' in Holland,
though at the Cape they are called Batavian bricks, and it is supposed
that they were imported . A note , in the recommendations of Governor-
General Hoorn to the Seventeen, dated March ii, 1710, is, however,
at variance with the theory that the Cape could not produce good hard
bricks. He suggests : ' That Table Bay, the Flats towards the
Steenbergen, Stellenbosch, and Drakenstein should be examined for
the best clay for bricks, floor bricks, tiles, pots, &c. The Governor-
General and Governor having inspected the potteries and tile-factories
of the Company at the Cape found the articles very compact and good,
and the bricks better than at Batavia.' The tile-yards were near the
present Keerom Street.

We have many descriptions of the Castle from the writers who
touched at the Cape on their way to and from the East. The Jesuit
Pere Tachard tells us how he was entertained at tea by Simon van der
Stel after ' the Indian fashion ', and how he walked with the Governor
on the flat roof, which he speaks of as a fine terrace paved with large
stones. The Embassy, of which he was a member, was on its way
from France to Siam, having been sent by Louis XIV for the propa-
gation of Christianity, and, incidentally, of trade. The Ambassador
and the priests were hospitably received by Simon van der Stel in the
large drawing-room adjoining the Council Hall.

The description of his visit is worth transcribing. It is taken from
the Enghsh translation of 1688 :

' After he had a little considered on 't, it was resolved that Father Fontenay
and I should go visit the Commissary- General and the Governor of the place
before the rest went ashoar, and that if in Discourse we found occasion to open
our Design we should lay hold on it. We went strait to the Fort then without
any other Recommendation. The Sentinel stopt us at the first gate, according

THE K AT

THE CASTLE GATE W^ AY

HOUSE IN THE IMHOFF BATTERY

Destroyed to make room tor the railway

LADY ANNE BARNARD

From a miniature in the possession of

the Ear] of Crawford and Balcarres

ANDREW B A R N A R D
From a portrait by T. Lawrence, R.A.

THE CASTLE 53

to the custom of Garrison places, until an Officer of the Guard being come, and
having informed himself that we were come to pay a Visit to the Commissary-
General and Governor, he commanded us to be let in, and gave us a Soldier to
conduct us to their Apartments.

' This House consists of a large Pile of Building, two storeys high, and very
solidly built. It is covered with a very fair Tarrass, paved with broad free Stone,
with Balconies and Iron Rails all round ; thither they commonly go to take
fresh Air. This Country has so temperate an Ar that it is never very cold
there, but when a South Wind blows ; and though it was in the depth of Winter
then in relation to that Climate, yet it was so hot in the Day time that they were
glad to go take the fresh Ar in the evening.

' We went first into a great Hall where they preach every Sunday until the
Church be finished that was begun to be built without the Fort. On both sides
of that Hall there are pretty handsome Apartments ; they had us into that
which was on the Left-hand, where we were received by Monsieur Vanderstel,
and wither presently after Heer van Rheeden came to see us. He is a Man of
Quality, about fifty years of age, Handsome, Civil, Wise and Learned, and who
thinks and speaks well on all Subjects ; we were extremely surprised to meet
with so much Politeness at the Cape of Good Hope, and much more at the
Civilities and many Testimonies of Friendship which we received at that first
Interview . . .

'At the same time he ordered a Summer-house that is in the Companies
Garden to be made ready for us to lodge in.'

This summer-house was the portion then existing of the present
Government House ; it is referred to elsewhere.

A less pleasant association is connected with Governor Pieter
Gysbert Noodt — who is said to have died in his chair at the same
moment on which a young student, whom, with several companions,
he had unjustly sentenced to death, was hanged at the Castle on
April 23, 1729. As the hangman was about to put the rope about the
young man's neck, he put up his hand to check him. Turning towards
the garden-house where the Governor was, he cried out, ' Governor
Noodt I summon thee before the Judgement Seat of the Allseeing God,
there to answer for the souls of myself and of my companions.' And
the story goes that the officials, entering the house to report to the
Governor that the executions had taken place, found him sitting dead
in his chair.

It is more agreeable to turn to the memories of Lady Anne Barnard,
wife of Andrew Barnard, the Colonial Secretary, and the author of
' Auld Robin Grey ', when she reigned at the Government House in
the Castle from 1797 to 1801. The Governor, Lord Macartney,
preferred the Government House in the Gardens ; General Dundas,
being at that time a bachelor, chose the second-sized house, and
sometimes lived at Rustenburg, Rondebosch. I think that his must

THE CASTLE

have been the fine residence on the right of the entrance-court,
formerly the Admiral of the Fleet's house. It still retains its charming
windows and doors, and other interesting features. The Government
House in the Castle must have been a very pleasant cheerful place
under the hospitable rule of Lady Anne, and for a hundred years after
her it was the official residence of the generals commanding the
troops in South Africa, and a centre of social life, until, in the course
of the Boer War, it was adapted for military offices.

In one of her letters to Lord Melville, Lady Anne writes :

' Lord Macartney, immediately on his arrival, declared his intention of
living in the Government House in the Garden, which he apprehended would
not be too cold in the winter, and which is certainly cooler than any other here
in summer. General Dundas was the next to make his election ; he preferred
remaining in the second-sized house within the Castle — being fixed there with
a proper bachelor establishment— to occupying the great Government House,
which required more servants and furniture, and was fitter for a family. This
he gave up to us, partly from good humour and partly from the above reasons.
It is a palace, containing such a suite of apartments as to make me fancy myself
a princess when in it — but not an Indian or Hottentot princess, as I have fitted
all up in the style of a comfortable, plain English house. Scotch carpets,
English linen and rush-bottom chairs, with plenty of lolling sofas, which I have
had made by regimental carpenters and stuffed by regimental tailors. In a week
or two I shall invite all who wish to be merry without cards or dice, but who can
talk or hop to half a dozen black fiddlers, to come and see me on my public day,
which shall be once a fortnight, when the Dutch ladies (all of whom love dancing,
and flirting still more) shall be kindly welcomed, and the poor ensigns and cornets
shall have an opportunity of stretching their legs, as well as the generals. I shall
not be stinted for room, as I have a hall of sixty feet, a drawing-room of forty,
a dining-room of twenty, a tea-room of thirty, and three supper-rooms — in one
of which only I shall have supper, and that cold and desultory, with sideboards
and no chairs, as I wish to make my guests happy without being ruined by their
drinking half a hogshead of claret every party. Ducks, chickens, &c., they shall
have, but as turkeys are one pound apiece I shall not fly at any of their excel-
lencies.

' At Rondebosch is the pleasantest country-house belonging to Government,^
four miles from the Cape ; it has been occupied by General Campbell — Lord
Macartney begged him and his wife to remain in it, which they have done.
I like our house in the garrison better, however, than any we could have had
elsewhere, as it is close by the office, where Mr. Barnard is from ten in the
morning to three or four, and sometimes part of the evening.'

In a subsequent letter she writes of the scene in the Castle Square
when the burghers arrived to take the oath of allegiance to England.
' The gates of the Castle were thrown open every morning ... Firstly

1 Rustenburg.

THE CASTLE

came a number of well-fed, rosy-cheeked men, with powdered hair, and dressed
m black. They walked in pairs with their hats off, a regulation on entering the
Castle on public occasions which, in former days, Dutch pride imposed. They
were followed by the Boers from the country— farmers and settlers who had
come some very great distance . . . They are very fine men, their height is

/€/i/z/ryo^

J'C'fSJ Afr'aSS-

'or^^^^' Willi

enormous ; most of them are six feet high and upwards, and I do not know how
many feet across ; I hear that five or six hundred miles distant they even reach
seven feet. They were dressed in blue cloth jackets and trousers and very high
flat hats.'

From the balcony or Kat she received the Kafir chief, who arrived
with his train of wives and dogs — ' as fine a morsel of bronze as I ever
saw, and there ought to have been a pair of them with candlesticks in
their hands. I gave the chief a cap, which pleased him so much that,

56 THE CASTLE

with the gallantry of nature he came forward, and, on receiving it
from the balcony in the courtyard, kissed my hand respectfully.'

Evidently Lady Anne's parties at the Castle were very successful,
if we may judge from the guests' appreciation of ' three or four hams,
some dozens of fowls and ducks, venison and other game, and pastry
of all sorts. Our lamps, which were numerous, were lighted, and
well lighted, with the tails of the sheep whose saddles we were eating.'

During recent years the Castle has been used as military offices.
The spacious old reception-rooms were partitioned and the woodwork
painted. The military authorities, however, under the direction of
Major-General Thompson, have lately effected great improvements.
Thick layers of paint have been removed from the fine old doors, the
brasswork has been cleaned and repaired, the partitions taken down,
and the rooms restored to something of their original beauty, though
much still remains to be done.

w
<:

<
h

O
h

H
2i
W

a:
o

R H E E Z 1 C H T

LEEUWENH

IN TABLE VALLEY

UP and up and still upward. Through the old garden of the
Dutch East India Company, past the Mount Nelson Hotel,
and on to the very top of Hof Street, where a turn to the
right brings you to all that remains of an ancient gateway — one massive
pier. Another turn — to the left — takes you into an oak avenue and
so to Leeuwenhof, at the foot of Table Mountain.

High above the rattle and clang of modern Cape Town stands
the great house of Johannes Blesius, fiscal or magistrate in the time
of the van der Stels ; but the house is probably older than even those
early days, for in the grant made to Blesius in 1698 a building is
clearly shown in its present position. The land had previously been
occupied by the burgher Guillaume Heems — by whom, presumably,
this house was built — and was transferred to Blesius when Heems
became the owner of Boscheuval, now Bishopscourt, the farm laid
out some forty-five years earlier by van Riebeeck.

So Leeuwenhof links us to the very earliest days of the Cape's
history. In its prime it was perhaps the greatest house in Table
Valley. Willem Adriaan van der Stel writes of it as being ' infinitely
larger and finer ' than his Vergelegen — it must have been about
twice as large — and even to-day it is a very fine house indeed.
Latrobe, writing of it in 181 5, when it was the residence of Johannes
Zorn, says, ' It is a good Dutch building, delightfully situated among
shady groves of various trees. The garden abounds with a vast
variety of large flowering shrubs and plants. The portico or gallery,
running along the whole front of the building, has an espalier roof
entirely covered with vines, the grapes hanging down in great pro-
fusion and beauty.' These fine gardens have been encroached upon
in recent years by the growth of modern Cape Town, but sufficient
space remains to set the old house well apart from the newer ones
that press upon it. Burchell, writing in 18 10, speaks of the beautiful
trees of Oleander and Cassia corymbosa in the garden and says that
the house was ' delightfully placed in the midst of gardens and planta-
tions, in the country behind the town '.

The woodwork throughout is of teak which has weathered the

2489 I

58 IN TABLE VALLEY

stress and strain of over two hundred years. There is a carved teak
staircase, v^rith open-work which suggests Chinese influence— the
work perhaps of some of the clever Eastern slaves who fetched prices
proportionate to their capacity for carving and masonwork. The
great windows are unspoiled, and their innumerable panes of glass
have attained a lovely iridescence, dyeing the white curtains within
to the tint of a laughing-dove's neck. The wide hall which runs
the full length of the house is still paved with its old red tiles, the
steps leading to the stoep are still edged with the little bricks that
tradition says were brought from Batavia in the early days of the
Cape.

The house is built with a solidity which we seldom see in these
days of jerry-building and scamping. Stately Leeuwenhof is one
of those square, flat-roofed houses which came into being at the
close of the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth
century, when the fires which visited old Cape Town rendered the
thatched roofs dangerous. These flat cemented roofs are, however,
very liable to shrink and crack in the summer heat, thus affording
ingress for the winter rains. Where the cracks are not repaired the
houses fall into decay.

I have touched on this point because I wish that all South Africa
would feel a pride in the fine old houses which have come down
to her from bygone generations. The weight of public opinion
should make it impossible for the owners to let them deteriorate,
and, equally, it should discourage the so-called improvements to
windows, doors, floors, and roofs by which many of these houses
are being disfigured — sometimes by new-comers, but more often by
the descendants of the men who built them with infinite care and
knowledge.

Once upon a time Leeuwenhof stood in a wide expanse of rich
land — the good alluvial soil of Table Valley which grows the finest
grapes and stephanotis in the world, and a little knowledge and
expenditure will go far in restoring what is left of the garden to its
old-time loveliness. In this favoured corner the south-easter is only
a breeze, cooling the air without stripping the leaves from the branches
as it is apt to do in less sheltered places.

A fine feature of the house is its wide, pillared stoep, while the
dentated ornamentation round the walls is a common form of classical
decoration. Johannes Zorn, who owned it a hundred years ago, was
Landdrost of the Cape district, and the old house "was probably
a great centre of social life then, as it had been a century earlier,
in the days of Fiscal Blesius.

OLD DUTCH PUMP

COACH-HOUSE OF SAASVELD HOUSE

:i:

2
W

w
w

I— J
<

<
o

1— H

Z
■<

IN TABLE VALLEY 59

To turn from the house to the people who Hved in it, Guillaume
Heems and his wife came to the Cape in 1696 from Bruges. In
common with many others he has no claim to posthumous fame
except as the owner of his house and, in this case, as one of the
signatories to the petition in favour of the younger van der Stel.
He was, moreover, one of those who testified to the Governor's
fairness and impartiality in regard to the sale of vegetables when
examined before the commission in 1705. In 1698 Leeuwenhof
passed into the possession of the Fiscal Johannes Blesius. Blesius
had married Christina Diemer in 1685, and they had five children,
the two younger of whom bore the romantic names of Dominicus and
DeHana. The eldest daughter, Christina, married Jacobus Cruse,
a member of the Council of Pohcy in the time of the younger van der
Stel. Amongst the hatchments which were thrown aside some
years ago, when the Dutch Reformed Church in the Heerengracht
was altered from a fine gabled building into the present edifice and
the tombs of the old governors and worthies were scattered to the
dust, was one bearing the name of Joan Blesius and the date 1771.
It was rescued some years later by the Rev. H. C. V. Leibbrandt,
then Keeper of the Archives.

It must have been a fair garden in which Dominicus and DeHana
played ' derde mannetje ' and the other childish games that, under
various names, are as old as this old world, Deliana grew up to
marry Cornelis van Beaumont and to call her eldest daughter
Catharina Balthazarina, after the sonorous Dutch fashion. After
his death she married Leonardus Weijer of Amsterdam, Her thoughts
must often have crossed the seas to the house set amongst its vines
and roses in the heart of Table Valley, to the great wall of Table
Mountain rising sheer behind it, and to the blue waters of the bay
below. To-day the chief glory of Leeuwenhof is a glowing mass
of orange Bignonia venusta and a copper-coloured Bougainvillea
which flings long shoots across the pillared stoep and affords grateful
shade from the morning sun. Leeuwenhof has recently been bought
by Mr. Lewis,

A lesser neighbour of Leeuwenhof is Waterhof. Equally blessed
in soil and situation, it had a glorious garden not long ago — a garden
in which steps of Batavian bricks led you from one terrace to another,
in which you lost yourself in the luxuriant tangle of honeysuckle,
myrtle, jasmine, and scarlet passion-flower. Even to-day, when the
old place has been encroached upon by the modern builder and
shorn of much of its beauty, the great Cape chestnut (Calodendrum
capense) is a landmark from far off when its purple blossoms cover

6o IN TABLE VALLEY

the branches more thickly than do the leaves and the petals fall in
a benison on the old house below.

It was a Hofmeyr house once, and the legend which hangs about
so many old Cape houses has a home at Waterhof. The household
slaves mutinied on one occasion, with the amiable intention of
murdering every member of the family. With a thoroughness
worthy of a better cause they proceeded to carry out their intention ;
but a young slave girl had charge of the sleeping baby, and when
all her fellows were running amok and yelling in triumph she slipped
outside with her precious charge and slid him into the brick baking-
oven in the yard. Then she ran about and yelled and" hooted and
danced a fandango with every one else, though her faithful heart
must have beaten quickly with fear that the child would wake and
add his voice to the chorus. But he slept through it all, as a healthy
baby would, and lived to hand the story down to his children's
children.

Waterhof is a place wherein to see visions and dream dreams.
Legend says that you may hear the pattering footsteps of the mutinous
slaves whenever you care to listen for them. The hand of time has
rested heavily on the old house but it retains some of its interesting
features.^ In an old print of Table Valley it is marked ' J. Hofmeyer '.
Below it is Welgemeende, originally granted to Andries de Man,
appointed Secunde in 1684, and- marked ' S. Hofmeier ' — they were
not bound by any hard and fast conventions of spelling a hundred
years ago. It has belonged to the Hofmeyrs for many generations.

Near Leeuwenhof are several old Smuts houses — the Roman-
Dutch law of inheritance, by which estates were cut up and divided
between the heirs, explains the close proximity in which relatives
often lived. Leeuwendal was built on land granted to Hendrik
Sniuts in 1777, and its neighbour Bellevue was the homestead of
Michiel Smuts. The first member of this family to come to South
Africa was an earlier Michiel Smuts, a native of Middelburg in Zeeland,
who arrived at the Cape in 1692, and from whom General Smuts
is descended.

The ground upon which the Mount Nelson Hotel now stands
was part of the van Oudtshoorn estate, which extended from Hof
Street to Kloof Street, where beautiful Saasveld House was built
by Baron Willem Ferdinand van Oudtshoorn, son of the Governor
who died on board a ship in Table Bay in 1773, on his way to take
up his office. He was buried in the Groote Kerk in Cape Town and
his tombstone was taken down with those of all the other Governors

1 Since this was written Waterhof has been bought by Mrs. Woodhead and restored.

IN TABLE VALLEY 6i

who had died at the Cape when the church was rebuilt. It has
recently been found lying in the churchyard and is now built into
the wall. Saasveld House has been bought by the Dutch Reformed
Church and has been enlarged as a boarding-school, at the expense
of much of its former beauty.

On the opposite side of Table Valley are houses which belonged
to the van Breda family. For more than a century and a half Orange-
zicht was the family homestead, and near by is Rheezicht where
Alexander van Breda built his house in 1782

Close to Rheezicht is all that a fire has left to us of Nooitgedacht
of the Gardens, There are many Nooitgedachts. The old Dutch-
man did not hesitate over the choice of a name for his new house
simply because some one had chosen the same name before him. What
did it matter, when there was no postman to be puzzled ? So the
land was filled with Welgelegens and Goede Hoops and Nooitgedachts,
each with its significance of beauty or hope or delight.

Nooitgedacht — the Unexpected. Sometimes the name has a
prosaic origin, merely expressive of surprise at an unlooked-for
heritage or grant, as in Nooitgedacht of Stellenbosch. But when
Johannes Ossenbuil, to whom this land above Cape Town was granted
in 1708, looked on the loveliness of its setting between sea and
mountain, perhaps surprise and admiration blended in the name that
rose to his lips. The property has passed through many hands
since those early days, and in 1820 came into the possession of Josua
Andries Joubert, who is credited with the building of the present
house ; but, as a print of the end of the eighteenth century shows
a similar house on the site, it is probable that he only added to the
original building.

There are indications which point to Thibault as the architect
of the house which stands on the site of Ossenbuil's homestead.
A glance at the graceful curves and dentated ornament of the oval
room at the entrance to the old Slave Lodge — added by Thibault —
reveals a strong resemblance to the great entrance hall of Nooit-
gedacht. Externally and in the mouldings of the doors and windows
the type is what is called Georgian — though we cannot assign to
England alone an architectural style which was common to many
European countries at the close of the eighteenth century.

The earlier homestead, which was apparently the nucleus of the
present house, was single-storeyed, and to it may have belonged
the fine old blue flags which pave the steps and high stoep and the
large red tiles in the ruined portion of the building. For a fire, set
alight by sparks from a mountain conflagration a few years ago.

62 INTABLEVALLEY

destroyed the back of the building and the fine old dining hall. This
had been a long room with a semi-circular end and teak doors, curved
to follow the bend of the wall. At the end nearest to the doors
leading to the entrance hall stood two carved wooden figures, probably
the work of Anreith, and at the other end was a small raised platform
for musicians.

There was a ballroom on the upper floor, for Nooitgedacht was
a great centre of hospitality in the days when the Dutch Reformed
Church looked leniently on minuets and gavottes, and ladies with
powdered hair and men with queues and embroidered satin suits
were carried to the old homestead in sedan chairs, to disport them-
selves within while their slaves gossipped of their affairs outside.

To-day the formal terraced garden of Nooitgedacht is a ruin,
and the walls of the oak-shaded well have been broken down, but
these are matters which the new owners, the All Saints Sisters, will
repair. Of greater moment are the cool oak avenues that surround
the house, the tangle of passion-flowers that hangs tenderly about the
ruined tomb in the garden and the tall shafts of cypress through which
you look down on the blue sea from the curved arches of the stoep.

Nooitgedacht owns a legend similar to that of Waterhof, a tale
of mutinous slaves and of the master and mistress returning from
a rout at Government House — she in brocade and diamonds, he in
powder and satin — to be murdered on their arrival. Again, only
the baby was saved and by its faithful slave-nurse, who hid in a dark
cupboard, clasping the child to her in silence while her fellow-slaves
prodded the darkness with knives tied to long bamboos, piercing
her feet again and again. It is stories such as these which shed
a strong sidelight on the relations between the slaves and th«ir
owners. There are many records in the Archives of amok-running
on the part of the Malays — a name apphed in the first instance to
the slaves or prisoners who were brought from the East Indies, but
now used somewhat loosely to describe any Cape Moslem. There
are also stories of devotion on the part of the slaves and kindliness
on that of the masters, the Dinahs and Lenas, the Aprils and Cupidos,
becoming identified with the family in a manner which is best under-
stood by its analogy in the southern American states. The Dutch
huisvrouw trained her slaves well, and the result still lingers at the
Cape, where the coloured folk of the old school are excellent cooks
and coachmen and laundresses.

In passing, it must be noted that strangers often hold the erroneous
theory that every coloured person at the Cape is a half-caste, or
has some proportion of European blood. A glance at the old records

OLD RESIDENCE IN ROELAND STREET
Now the Normal College. Occupied by Willetn Boers in 1777

THE OLD HOUSE OF GROOTE SCHUUR

THE HOUSE OF GROOTE SCHUUR TO-DAY

IN TABLE VALLEY 63

will show that while some slaves came from Mozambique the greater
number were brought from the East Indies, India, or Ceylon, and
their descendants of to-day are not necessarily of mixed descent.
Both Indian and Malay types are to be seen in their original purity,
though of course there are many others amongst the coloured people
whose features indicate European or African blood.

To return to the old houses of Table Valley — it will be noticed
that most of them are of the square classical type, built after the
fires which ravaged the early settlement. Many of them were sur-
mounted by decorative urns and other devices, which in an earth-
quake a little over a century ago came crashing down into the streets.
Unlike the gabled houses of the country districts they have but
rarely served as an inspiration to modern architects, while gables
have been used in every possible position — no modern villa being
considered complete unless it is adorned by one, at least, and that
not always of a graceful or harmonious outline. In fact, South
Africa is fast becoming over-gabled, and the eye turns with relief to
the plain grave simplicity and dignity of houses such as Leeuwenhof .

Another very fine residence was the house which to-day is the
Normal College. In 1777 it was the property of Willem Cornells
Boers, and during another period of the eighteenth century Johannes
Blesser, an official in the Company's service, lived there.

The old burghers who built their homes above the town looked
out on a wonderful view. Table Bay lay at their feet and across it
were the Blaauwberg, Koeberg, and Tygerberg hills, where the
setting sun gleamed on the white walls of de Grendel, granted in the
early days to Booy Booysen and now the thriving farm of Sir David
Graaff, Close by is the homestead of Platte Kloof where lived
Abbetje Meyboom who married Rudolf Alleman, as readers of the
van Riebeeck Society's latest publication will remember. The
Meybooms were prosperous folk, and in 1708 Claas Meyboom was
granted the whole of the upper side of Greenmarket Square, where
probably he built his town house.

Behind the houses of Cape Town rose the sheer wall of the
mountain, and beyond the hills across the bay gleamed the peaks of
the Drakenstein, snow-touched in the winter. Over the Kloof Nek
is Camps Bay, where there was only one house a century ago. The
original owner was Christian Otto von Camptz, and the house vt^as
called Ravensteijn. It came to him through his marriage with
Anna Koekemoer in 1778 and in 1786 he sold it to the Company.^

^ It was in this house, now known as the Homestead, that Laurence OHphant
was born in 1829.

IN TABLE VALLEY

Latrobe tells us of his ride over the Nek to the Round House in
1 815. ' Turning to the right, round the Lion's Head, we arrived
at a villa belonging to Mr. Horak. This place, given to him by the
Earl of Caledon, has been greatly improved by clothing the steep
ascents with plantations of Witteboom [the silver-tree] and other
trees. The gardens surround the circular mansion in concentric
circles. Behind the house stone steps lead to a picturesque group
of rocks.' This, by the way, together with the actual grant to Horak
in 1 8 14, disposes of the romance which assigns the building of the
Round House to Lord Charles Somerset. Latrobe continued his
ride, past CHfton to Botany Bay, where a small botanic garden had
been laid out by Dr. Liesching and Mr. Ziegler.

r^fiL/Of'/r • ' /fo^r9/Il CZ)^/-^-^-' ^fz/G^^-

BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN

IT is a long line of prosperous suburbs to-day, houses thickly
clustered along the route of the tram and train by which thousands
of people pour into the Mother City of South Africa each morning
and return each evening. The larger houses lie in correspondingly
larger gardens, half hidden beneath the great oaks which are a legacy
from the past. Peaceful and sheltered, secure in the guardianship of
law and order, they sleep undisturbed in the shadow of Table
Mountain, the great rock that keeps watch and ward at the gate of
South Africa.

It is difficult to shut our eyes to the present and reconstruct the
scene that opened before Jan van Riebeeck's sight when, in 1652, he
rode over the shoulder of the mountain in search of good corn land —
the heavy south-easters having blown the corn out of the ear in the
neighbourhood of the settlement and flattened it on the Green Point
Common. He felt great delight at seeing the rich earth near the
' Rondeboschen ', and it is pleasant to read of his jubilation when the
small experimental farm at Groote Schuur throve and the wheat and
barley came to fruition. The seed was sown in the face of danger,
for a large tribe of Hottentots was encamped in the neighbourhood ;
but the little commander ploughed the land, built a fort of sods to
protect the workers, and committed the new venture to the care of
the Providence in which he had such a robust faith.

Groote Schuur remained a Government farm until lygijwhen, in
order to raise funds, it was sold by the Company to Hendrik Christiaan
Herhold, the purchase price being 53,000 gulden.

Of the Groote Schuur of to-day much has been written and much
may yet be written before justice is done to its exquisite charm.
Every one who knows the Cape has seen the fine white-gabled house
with its roof of dull red tiles, its wide stoep and teak-panelled
rooms filled with old furniture and china. Its history has been
told very often. How it passed from the Herhold family to Willem
van Ryneveld, Fiscal and Member of the Council of Policy under
the successive Dutch and English Governments, who planted many
of the finest trees on the estate. How, after his death, it was bought

2489 K

66 BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN

by George Anosi and sold by him in 1832 to Mr. Abraham de Smidt.
How, for a short time, it belonged to Mrs. John van der Byl, from
whom it was bought by Cecil Rhodes for whom Mr. Herbert Baker
rebuilt the old house. This building was destroyed by fire, and again
rebuilt by Mr. Baker. All these things are solid and useful facts.
But when we stand on the stoep behind Groote Schuur and look out
across the blur of colour under the stone pines in the garden — canjias,
bougainvillea, and plumbago — across the soft turquoise of the
hydrangeas on the hillside and up the silver-clad slopes of the grey
mountain, we are only conscious of the two great spirits of the past —
the two pioneers — ^Jan van Riebeeck and Cecil Rhodes. As long as
this South Africa of ours endures their names will be linked together
in this lovely spot — the corn lands of the one, the home of the other.
Even the house reflects the work of both, for underneath the building—
the fourth erected on this site — are the foundations of the great barn
in which van Riebeeck stored his grain, found by Mr. Herbert Baker
in making the necessary excavations. When van Ryneveld bought
the property it included ' De Onder Schuur ', now the Governor-
General's country house of Westbrooke, and part of Kleine Schuur,
the other part having been sold to Christoffel Coenraad Prediger in
1795. On the title deeds may be seen the wide avenue now known
as Newlands Avenue, which ran through this property.

One of the houses most closely linked with the history of South
Africa is Rustenburg at Rondebosch, now a school for girls. Kolbe,
writing more than two hundred years ago, calls it ' a noble Pleasure
House for the Governour, and near it a beautiful grove of oaks, called
the Round-Bush, from which the Garden takes its name '} In the
Nieuwste Beschrijving it is called * a beautiful country house ', and it
is referred to by Stavorinus and other writers, great commendation
being given to its gardens and plantations. It was here that the first
capitulation of the Cape was signed in 1796, and during the first
Enghsh occupation it was sometimes the residence of General Dundas.
Rustenburg was partly destroyed by fire during the last century, but
owing to Its flat roof escaped the total destruction which fell upon the
early Cloete homestead of Ecklenberg on the same day, when a violent
wind carried the burning thatch from house to house.

Above Groote Schuur lie the ruins of the old house of Mount
Pleasant, on land granted to Pieter Laurens Cloete in 181 1. It was a
fine homestead with a magnificent view, and was famed for its hospi-
tality in the early days of the English occupation ; but to-day the little

1 The name Rondebosch— originally Riebeeck, who found there a round grove
Konde Doom Bossien— was given by van of wild thorny trees.

<
I— (

CO
W

Q
O

I — I

u
w
u

u
<;

w
h

o
o

BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN 67

grey squirrels which Cecil Rhodes brought to the Cape frisk in and
out of the ruins and trees grow and thrive in what was the dining hall.
For this homestead, like many others, fell a victim to fire, and its
beauty is turned to ashes and the spirit of feasting to desolation.

In Newlands Avenue, behind the present house of Montebello,
near where Ohlsson's brewery stands and where a brewery has stood
since the Cape's earliest days, was Papenboom. Here, in the time of
the van der Stels, the Widow Mensinck (a niece of Henning Huysing's
wife and a sister of Adam Tas) and her son brewed beer and apparently
made themselves as unpleasant to those in authority as did the more
distinguished members of the family. It is difficult to follow all the
windings of these two-hundred-years old quarrels, but the gist appears
to be that Mrs. Mensinck, having obtained the brewing rights from
Simon van der Stel, refused to supply the lessee Cruywagen with good
beer, refused to pay for the boilers supplied by the Company, banged
the door in the faces of Mrs. Cruywagen and the Court Messenger,
used, says the old record, ' many irrelevant and aggravating expres-
sions ' — a delicate euphuism, this — and displayed, generally, ' un-
alloyed, obstinate malice.' I do not know what the end of the quarrel
was nor does it matter — Mrs. Mensinck is only interesting as casting
a sidelight on the characteristics which distinguished the families of
Huysing and Tas in those far-off troubled days. On the departure
of the Mensincks the land was given to Rudolph Steenbok in 17 16,
and towards the close of the eighteenth century the beautiful house of
Papenboom, afterwards destroyed by fire, was built by Thibault for
the van Reenen family. It was sometimes called The Brewery. On
the opposite side of Newlands Avenue lies Newlands House, a country
residence of the Dutch governors until 1791, when it was sold from
motives of economy to Mr. Hendrik de Vos. In the early English
days it belonged to Mr. William Duckitt, from whom Sir John
Cradock purchased it once more for a Government House. Lord
Charles Somerset attempted to add a second story to the building,
with the result that the roof fell in during a storm on a night in
August 1 8 19, the walls not being strong enough to support the addi-
tional weight. In 1828 the English Government, dismayed at the
extravagance of the Somerset administration, and considering the
Governor over-housed with Government House and Newlands House,
in addition to shooting boxes at Worcester and Groote Post, gave
orders for the sale of all except Government House. Newlands House,
upon which nearly ,(^30,000 had been spent, was sold for a tenth of
that sum. It now belongs to Mr. Hiddingh. The gardens at Newlands
are referred to by very early travellers as serving principally for the

68 BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN

supply of vegetables to the Company's ships ; but Bougainville, M^ho
visited them in 1769, found them more beautiful than the gardens in
the town. The long alleys sheltered by hedges higher than himself
gave them, he said, the appearance of a monastery garden. He
planted some oaks, but no one knows to-day which these are among
the giant trees that shade the house. The Abbe de la Caille writes of
being taken by Ryk Tulbagh in 1751 to see the garden of Newlands
with the ' pleasure house ' which he had built in the previous year ;
men were at work on making the garden ' one of the most beautiful
in the neighbourhood '. Stavorinus tells us that in 1768 he saw there
an apricot tree so large that more than twenty men could be sheltered
under its branches, which bore excellent fruit. The best account of
the house, however, is that given by Las Cases, Napoleon's secretary,
the author of the famous Memorial de Ste.-Helene. He was expelled
from St. Helena by Sir Hudson Lowe for infringing regulations and
was sent first to the Cape and subsequently to Europe. Newlands
House was lent to him for three months by Lord Charles Somerset,
then Governor. At first he and his son had been lodged in the Castle.

' It might be accounted a pleasant residence even in Europe ... it was
surrounded by lofty trees and thick groves,' he says. ' When left to ourselves
in this delightful place, we felt that we had been suddenly removed from a
prison to a Paradise. The elegantly furnished apartments, the dovecots in the
vicinity of the house, the birds of every kind that inhabited the grounds, the
numerous flower-beds, groves, and delightful walks, and the silence and solitude
that prevailed — all presented a somewhat magical effect and reminded us of
Zemire and Azor.'

From the pen of Las Cases we have a picture of Dr. Barry, the
famous woman doctor, who masqueraded as a man all her life. On
his first introduction, he says :

' I mistook the captain's medical friend for his son or nephew. The grave
Doctor, who was presented to me, was a boy of eighteen, with the form, the
manners, and the voice of a woman. But Dr. Barry (such was his name) was
described to be an absolute phenomenon. I was informed that he had obtained
his diploma at the age of thirteen, after the most rigorous examination ; that
he had performed extraordinary cures at the Cape, and had saved the life of one
of the Governor's daughters, after she had been given up, which rendered him
a sort of favourite in the family.'

On another occasion he mentions that the young doctor had been
driven to the Castle by the two Miss Somersets in their carriage.

Eventually, on Newlands House being required for the use of
Lord Amhurst, on his way from China, Las Cases and his son were
lodged at a farm in the Tygerberg called Altydgedacht.

GATEWAY AT WELGELEGEN

GATEWAY AT BOSHOF

OLD DUTCH MILL, WELGELEGEN

AN OLD STABLE AT GROOTE SCHUUR

BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN 69

Newiands is now the residence of the well-known painter,
Mr. Gwelo Goodman. In the grounds is the tomb of a learned Dutch
divine, van Lier, who died towards the end of the eighteenth century.

Hidden in the woods above the end of Newiands Avenue are the
ruins of the little house of Paradise, to which Lady Anne and her
Mr. Barnard used to repair for peaceful week-ends, far from the noise
and bustle and gossip of the Castle. The name of Paradise was given
to the ravine in the neighbourhood, whence native timber could be
brought with ease for the Company's use, whereas the ravine of
Kirstenbosch, being more inaccessible, was known as Hell — a some-
what illogical reason. Lady Anne's cottage is hopelessly derelict
to-day, but the ground-plan of the house is easily traced and you may
still stand on her stoep and mark that it once had curved white seats
at the corners. The way to it is hidden under trees ; it is as mysterious
and secret as the palace of the Sleeping Beauty. Her wide view is
lost in leafy shade, but her ' hasty little brook ' still babbles past the
ruined homestead.^

At the end of Newiands Avenue was the old house of the van
Breda's — ' Boshof '. It is one of the many once-beautiful houses from
which the glory has departed, and a warning to care for those that
yet remain. The fine old gates of Boshof are left to us, and at the
time of writing there still lingers an outbuilding with a graceful gable.

Across the Liesbeek River lies the Archbishop's residence of
Bishopscourt, once van Riebeeck's farm of Boscheuval. The latter
has left us a record of the trees he planted, some of which remain to
this day. There were ' 1,244 fruit-trees, independent of the lands
sown, and some thousands of young vines of fair growth '. His hedge
of ' bitter wild almonds ' may still be traced, cutting across the hill
from Kirstenbosch towards Wynberg — it was clearly a fine and
prosperous farm when he left it in 1661. In the Record Office is a
grant of Boscheuval to ' the free-burgher Tobias Marquard ', dated
1695, and in the days of the van der Stels it belonged to the Burgher
Guillaume Heems.

If you stand in the lovely garden of Bishopscourt to-day and look
up at the house you will notice the traces of an earlier homestead —
a doorway here, a small-paned window there, but it is not likely that
much remains of the house which van Riebeeck mentions as being
on the land. The windows may be those of Guillaume Heems 's
house, but this is pure speculation. The oaks perhaps at least we may
ascribe to van Riebeeck, and in their shade grow the Wichuriana
roses of to-day.
1 The Barnards afterwards lived at the Vineyard, then a low, thatched bungalow.

70 BEHIND TABLE MOUNTAIN

Nearer the mountain than Bishopscourt is Kirstenbosch, a
Company's mihtary outpost from the earliest days to the British
occupation. At that time the lower portion of the land was granted
to the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Alexander, and the upper portion to
Colonel Christopher Bird. On the ground belonging to the latter
is an exquisite little sunken bath, ovoid, lined with tiny Ba'tavian bricks
and sheltered from the sun by lofty trees. This was the swimming
bath of the daughters of the house when it was owned by the Eksteens
in the early days of last century, and slave girls sat in a circle on the
shady bank above to keep away intruders. To-day I like to think that
when night falls on Kirstenbosch, Pan and the dryads creep from the
leafy mountain glens and bathe in the cool, moon-lit water. The
Kirstenbosch homesteads are in ruins, but around the ruins and in the
deep mountain ravines the Botanic Gardens of South Africa will guard
for future ages the trees and flowers which are the glory of the whole
earth and not of one province of the Union only.

Klassenbosch lies near by, an old farm of which one portion was
granted to Hendrik ten Damme in 1696, and beyond is the rich and
smiling valley of Constantia.

A BARN AT BOSHOF

THE FORMER HOUSE OF KLASSENBOSCH

PAPENBOOM, OR THE BREWERY

Built by Thibault. Destroyed by fire.

- ' aMi/'i 0^ 1'^ .'nJ^rt/jr u/-//., f.r'i .hvihhn,f,_n.-,.-r>:n« U ih, Ou-^ of M/' .•x'i'/''nr, S-'r AwJ ^"''^' «''r- '"""'"■

THIBAULT'S DESIGN for the alterations contemplated at
NEWLANDS HOUSE

STELLENBERG

AT the foot of a slope that falls towards Kenilworth from Wynberg
/A Hill and its crown of silver-trees stands the old homestead of
-^ -*-Stellenberg, so hidden beneath its ancient oaks that a stranger
in the land, passing along any of the main roads, would not suspect
its existence. The trams to Wynberg and Cape Town rattle on their
dusty way past the end of its avenue, ' desirable villa residences,
complete with every modern convenience,' have sprung up within
an acorn's throw, a lawn tennis club has broken in upon its stately
calm. But the fine old house cares for none of these things, and
Stellenberg stands as aloof in its old-world dignity from the busy
world outside its narrowed borders as it stood two hundred years ago,
when these borders enclosed a hundred morgen and more of good land.

In 1697 Simon van der Stel made the grant of land to the burgher
Jacobus Vogel. Additional grants were made in the two centuries
that followed, until at one time the property included land as far as
Rosmead Avenue in the direction of the Flats, while it covered most
of the land on which Kenilworth and Claremont now stand.

In 1710 Vogel's homestead was burned to the ground and the
present beautiful house was built immediately afterwards, probably
much on the lines of its predecessor. Its ground plan is that common
to most of the Peninsula houses — the square U type — straight-fronted,
with two wings running back at right angles and leaving an open space
behind the great central hall. This space is sometimes paved with
large red or blue tiles or with cobble-stones, and spanned by a grape-
vine ; sometimes it is utilized as a small garden for daphne, gardenias,
or other sweet-scented flowers. At Stellenberg it is enclosed by a fine
gateway, with wreathed columns surmounted by vases.

The gable above the entrance is almost a facsimile of the front
gable of Simon van der Stel's Groot Constantia. This, and its name,
indicate the friendship between Jacobus Vogel and the van der Stels
which was demonstrated when he, with Guillaume Heems, Hendrik
Donker, and other prominent agriculturists, came forward to give their
testimony in favour of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, who had been
accused of forbidding the free burghers to sell vegetables to the ships.

72 STELLENBERG

Probably Simon van der Stel stood sponsor for Stellenberg, as he had
stood for Stellenbosch and Simonsberg and Simon's Bay and Simon's
Valiei. It was a comprehensible weakness, that yearning to see his
name stamped on the country he loved, but it is, perhaps, as well that
all his successors did not follow his example — imagination reels at
the thought of the unsuspected perils of complimentary nomenclature
through which South Africa has passed.

The teak shutters, pierced occasionally with a heart to admit air,
the twisted chimney, and the ironwork of the external hasps and
hinges are unusually good, even for an old Cape homestead. The
metalwork throughout the house, especially the brass door-handles
and finger-plates, is very fine, and the latter have served as examples
in the rebuilding of Groote Schuur and for the houses which are being
modelled on old Cape lines throughout South Africa.

As is usual in most of the larger homesteads, the long dining-hall
which forms the centre of the house is divided from the voorhuis or
entrance-hall by a fine teak screen, with glass panels. These screens
were introduced from the East, the idea being brought from Batavia,
and they may be the work of Malay slaves, or, with equal probability,
of the master-carpenters sent out by the Company. It is on record
that Martin Melck of Elsenburg paid upwards of ^^300 in the days of
Governor Tulbagh for a slave skilled in ironwork, and, as we know,
the van der Stels drew down on themselves the very comprehensible
wrath of the East Indian Government by detaining at the Cape artificers
who were on their way to Batavia.

In common with many of the burghers of his day. Jacobus Vogel
appears to have owned a town house as well as a country residence,
for a grant of building land in Tuin Plein, near the Company's Guest
House, stands against his name. I wonder whether he expended upon
it one half of the love and care with which he built the stately home-
stead at the foot of the Wijnbergen, perhaps under the guidance
and advice of Governor Simon himself. After the death of Vogel
Stellenberg passed through the hands of many successive owners
who have left no particular mark behind them. In 1742 it belonged
to Jan de Wit— probably the John White who married Maria Adriaanse,
dutchified his name and settled at the Cape early in the eighteenth
century.

In 1795 Stellenberg emerged from private life as the residence
ot the Secunde— the second official in the Council of Policy— Johannes
Izak Rhenius, and in the early days of the eighteenth century it was
the residence of Commissary- General de Mist, the Special Com-
missioner sent out from the Batavian Republic in 1802 to take over

w
w

M^i

'^m

ti'

I if . '.:

^ -S

^;^i

I^^Jj

fefcfe

li'ai

.-Jk^t^ i

i^k'!

■-'Til--' "-•! '^^ /^ '-^..v. '•^-

'"''' ■ ^^'^'''■-

^El^'

■ ''-- iflM

w-%

vfl

//S'^

HHingnaiMrtir^T !■

EK7 "■" ."i,--"

^" *;;/"-

wKmM

SS^m

mJfMfinilllrlillM

■*'''l:<^

^-v^'l

'H r:

~^-

,..>..& 'r-A^i'^m:

«l'';

J^BP^B^^^ss^agf^^

, ■

■■'W>

FRONT GABLE, STELLENBERG

THE STOEP, STELLENBEJRQ

STELLENBERG 73

the Cape when it was given back to the Dutch in accordance with
the provisions of the Treaty of Amiens. He was accompanied by
Lieutenant-General Jan Willem Janssens, whom he installed as
Governor in March 1803, though de Mist himself continued to act
as Commissary-General until his departure in 1805. During this
period he lived at Stellenberg with his daughter Augusta.

De Mist was a great gentleman, as his letters show. I like to
think of the pleasant hours he must have spent, seated on the old
flagged stoep of Stellenberg, smoking and talking with his friend
brave General Janssens, while the eighteen-year-old Augusta Uiten-
hage de Mist poured out their coflPee. Janssens was another very
fine gentleman, fated to lead his half-hearted troops against the might
of England three years later, when Holland had become so weak and
Napoleon so strong that the Cape— the key of the East— lay almost
within the grasp of the Man of Destiny. England saw the peril, and
acted — as she has not always acted — promptly. But for that prompti-
tude we might all be living under the Tricolour to-day instead of
under the Union Jack.

De Mist is remembered in connexion with the right to bear arms,
granted by him to Cape Town in 1804.

' The anchor, symbolizing Good Hope,' he said, ' as well as the gold ground
on which this anchor rests, indicates my wish for the future wealth and pros-
perity of this settlement. The same is covered and protected with a red shield
bearing three gold rings, the coat of arms which we know was borne by your
father and founder van Riebeeck. Hang then this coat of arms in his honour
within and without on the walls of your Town House.'

To the town of Uitenhage, so called after his daughter, he had
previously granted the right to bear anns.

After the departure of de Mist Stellenberg passed through the
hands of various owners — Charles Blair, John Amber, Sebastian
Valentyn Cloete, Hendrik Cornells Dreyer, and so on, until it came
into the possession of the Feltham family in 1878. The ground that
belongs to the old homestead to-day is but a fragment of the wide
lands of Jacobus Vogel, but the old house is unspoiled, and the great
oaks in the courtyard may well have looked down on Simon van der
Stel himself and have been amongst those young trees upon whose
rapid growth he wrote with enthusiasm to Holland. The Jonkheer's
house, behind the main building, was built for the eldest son of the
family, and is a charming residence to-day, harmonious within and
without.

The grant of Stellenberg to Jacobus Vogel had been made condi-
tional on the planting of trees — a characteristic van der Stel touch

2489 L

74 STELLENBERG

which is found in many other grants. He was evidently a man of
peace, for in all the storms and upheavals of those troubled times his
name appears but rarely. He busied himself on his farm and among
his young plantations. He paid a tithe of his corn to the Government ;
and we may be sure that it was good corn, not that which drew caustic
and uncivil criticism from Batavia and damaged the reputation of
the Cape.

Houses such as Stellenberg are a mute reproach to a generation
that has preferred pepper-pots to gables, plush-covered gimcrackery
to fine and simple furniture, door-knobs of white china picked out with
gold to old brass crutch-handles. When the victorious troops of
Charles the Fifth overran Spain a band of zealots reared unto their
own shame a hideous rococo church, all plaster roses and sprawling
cherubs, in the very heart of that wonder of Moorish Cordova — the
mosque of the eleven hundred columns of porphyry and jasper, of
the double arches and the countless aisles and the white marble
Mihrab formed like a cockle-shell.

' You have destroyed what you can never rebuild,' said the
Emperor, when he looked on the work of destruction.

Let the Cape take heed to its ways. At this moment beautiful
houses are in danger of being pulled down or altered — because they
are old-fashioned, say their owners, because the roofs leak and it is
a bother to keep them in order, because anything you like for an
excuse. The plain truth is that the owners who do these things really
prefer pepper-pots to curved gables, just as the soldiers of Charles
the Fifth preferred plaster cherubs to porphyry columns.

VII

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

T'HE heart and soul of the beautiful valley in which it lies is the
great house of Simon van der Stel, who arrived at the Cape
as Commander in 1679, was some years later promoted to the
rank of Governor (in which office he was succeeded by his son
Willem Adriaan in 1699) and died at Groot Constantia in 171 1.
The land was granted to him in 1685 by Hendrik van Reede tot
Drakenstein, Lord of Mydrecht, ' as Deputy of their High Mighti-
nesses,' as the old deeds have it, on one of the annual visits of inspection
paid to the Cape. Here van der Stel built the house which is the best
example of seventeenth-century architecture left to the country, and
here he planted vineyards and orchards, experimenting in agriculture
for the benefit of the new land and making that Constantia wine
which was to become famous throughout the world.

The ground-plan of Constantia is less regular than that of the
majority of the Peninsula houses. The voorhuis or entrance is
a small square hall paved in the pattern of a star, the device borne
on the van der Stel arms, with red and white stone from the Steenberg
mountains in the neighbourhood, and from it opens the large recep-
tion room on the right, which has a floor and ceiling of yellow- wood
(probably cut from the forests on the road to Hout Bay), tall sash
windows set in teak and a charming wall-cupboard at the end of
the room. On the left is a smaller room, with bedrooms beyond it,
while the long banqueting hall defies the tradition of the U-houses
and runs parallel with the stoep, behind these front rooms. Here,
too, graceful cupboards are sunk in the walls. It is a fine, dignified
room and has been the scene of much festivity in the life of the Cape.
From a door in the rear steps lead down under a roof of bougainvillea
to a wide space set about with the oaks planted by the old Governor,
now tall and venerable trees. Here we may picture Simon van der
Stel and his friends seated, smoking their long pipes, their wigs
laid aside for coolness, the little stream which then ran below the
wine cellar crooning contentedly over the pebbles.

Franfois Leguat, the French voyager, who visited the Cape in
1698, writes of the place :

76 THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

' The Governor has a pleasant House called Constantia, about two leagues
from the Cape. Here he lives the greatest part of the year, not only on account
of the Air, which is Excellent, the fine Prospect, and the admirable Soil, but
also by reason of the great quantity of Game which are thereabouts, Hunting
being the greatest and most profitable diversion of this country.'

In 1779 Groot Constantia came into the possession of the Cloete
family, Hendrik Cloete paying 60,000 gulden for it to Jan Serrurier,
acting on behalf of the Burgher Raad. Behind the homestead
Hendrik Cloete built the present beautiful wine cellar in 1791, and
employed the great sculptor Anton Anreith to adorn its pediment
with the frieze which is one of the Cape's greatest treasures. It
represents Ganymede surrounded by Loves, and the figures are
grouped and modelled with singular grace and ability.

Up the hill-side, above a long pleached alley of oak, is a graceful
bath, presided over by a Triton through whose horn flows the limpid
mountain water. It is probable that this, too, is the work of Anreith —
who, with equal probability, is not responsible for the figure of
Plenty over the front door of the house, a tradition in the Cloete
family assigning this to an earher date.

We have a picture of Constantia drawn in 1771 by another
traveller, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the author of Paul et Virginie.

' On our approach we passed through a wood of silver trees. They resemble
the pine tree, have a leaf like the willow, and are covered with a white down which
is very shining.

' The forest seemed to be all of silver, when the wind blew them about and
the sun shone, each leaf glittered like a plate of metal. We walked through
these groves, so rich and delightful, in order to look at the vines, which, though
less splendid in appearance, are of far greater utility.

' A broad avenue of old oaks ^ conducted us to the vineyards of Constance.
Over the front of the house we saw a vile painting of a strapping girl, and ugly
enough, reclining on a pillar. I took it for a Dutch allegorical figure of Chastity ;
but they told me it was the portrait of a Madame Constantia, daughter of a
Governor of the Cape.'

Bernardin de Saint-Pierre was somewhat inaccurate. The silver
tree, Leucadendron argenteum, is not Hke a pine ; the figure over the
door is a statue, not a painting, though ' ugly enough ', in truth, and
a marked contrast to the work of Anreith. Moreover, there is good
ground for the supposition that Constantia received its name in
rnemory of a little daughter of the Lord of Mydrecht, who died in
the East Indies not long before the land was granted by her father
to van der Stel, and who bore the beautiful name of Constantia.

1 In the English edition the word chenes is wrongly translated as ' chestnuts '.

1— (

o
o

'-'

ITj

fi;

■^

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA 77

But his description of the silver trees, the ' knights in shining mail ',
as Ian Colvin has called them, is as true to-day as it was a hundred
and fifty years ago.

Another theory of the naming of Constantia assigns it to a desire
on the part of Simon van der Stel to compliment his absent wife,
who did not accompany him to the Cape, with the assurance of his
constancy, but this is probably incorrect.

Over the old house rests an enchanted spell. Sit on the stoep
or in the shade of the oaks, and, if you can forget for a while the
modern wine-making machinery near at hand, you may see the
shadows of the past, you may share the old Governor's pride in his
beautiful house as it rises from the ground, you may join in the
stately revels which the large rooms must have witnessed. And you
may sit with him in his solitude when Louis van Assenburgh reigned
at the Castle, and the ship that bore his favourite son to exile and
ruin had vanished over the horizon.

Many visions must have passed before his eyes in those last
days, the echo of the grandchildren's voices must have sounded in
his ears long after the ship had sailed which took away every one
bearing the name of van der Stel save the old man himself and the
wife of his youngest son Frans, who followed her husband to Holland
shortly afterwards.

And through the white gates of Groot Constantia and along the
red road that leads to Cape Town, and to the church his son had
built, they carried him a few years afterwards ; and there he sleeps
to this day, though it was left to a later generation to pull down his
tombstone in its zeal for ' improvements '. We have a description
of this tombstone from the pen of Francois Valentyn, who paid several
visits to the Cape at the close of the seventeenth and beginning of
the eighteenth centuries and was the author of a valuable book on
the Dutch possessions in the East.

' On both sides of his escutcheon are seen various gilt pieces of ordnance,
some trumpets, harness and guns, also heavily gilded. Above the hatchment
hangs a standard, and below it a man resting in full harness on his left arm,
holding the staff of command in his right hand. On his head is a plumed helmet.
On the wall hang a coat of mail, a black helmet and other ornaments.'

There are other memories connected with old Constantia. In
her letters to her sisters, published in The Lives of the Lindsays,
Lady Anne Barnard tells the story of the lump of stalactite which
once stood in the hall as the result of an incautious utterance on
the part of Hendrik Cloete. Visiting the stalactite caves in the
Caledon district he was attracted by the charms of a particularly

78 THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

fine and glittering mass, and exclaimed that he would give a large
sum of money to the man who would convey it to Constantia, after
which he went on his way without giving the matter a second thought,
as others who have spoken in their haste have done before and since.
Some weeks later, a wagon drawn by a team of patient oxen wound
its way along the Constantia road and up to the stoep of the home-
stead, where Hendrik Cloete was probably sitting and smoking and
thinking as little of stalactites as of metaphysics. In the wagon
was the glittering lump ; on the driver's seat was a farmer who had
heard the incautious offer and acted upon it. I forget the exact
sum ; but Hendrik Cloete paid up like a man, and until recent
years saw Groot Constantia pass from the Cloete family into the
possession of the Government, the stalactite was a conspicuous
feature in the hall.

Groot Constantia is now the Government wine farm, and where
Simon van der Stel experimented in wine-making for the benefit of
the seventeenth-century farmers the Agricultural Department of the
Union of South Africa experiments to-day. It is a prosperous and
lovely valley in which the old homestead lies, in the shade of the old
man's great oaks. A mellow charm rests on the landscape, whether
you see it when the vines are bursting into leaf, or in the drowsy
warmth of the vintage, or clothed in its autumn robes of yellow and
russet and deepest crimson.

Valentyn, who visited Groot Constantia in 1705 on the occasion
of Simon van der Stel's birthday, says, ' Here are commonly to be
seen the finest and most sought-after fruits of the Cape.' A great
company was received and Commander Helot conveyed him, together
with the Juftrouw van der Stel and Valkenier, the Admiral of the
return fleet, in his coach with six horses. They were regaled with
a sumptuous feast of fish, meat, venison, and ' with matchless fine
and delicious fruit '.

I have gone to some considerable trouble, while in Holland, to
trace the fortunes of the van der Stel family after the recall of Willem
Adriaan, as well as of the antecedents of Simon van der Stel with
a view to examining Kolbe's statement to the effect that his mother
was a slave-girl, and I have to acknowledge with gratitude the valuable
assistance given to me by Mynheer Jurriaan van Toll of the Royal
Library at The Hague, by Jonkheer Six of Amsterdam, and by
Dr. Lorentz. This is the family history in an abridged form, as
given to me in Holland by these authorities.

Simon van der Stel, Councillor of Dordrecht, had a son Adriaan,
who went to Batavia in 1623 in the service of the Dutch East India

'-Tl

-i

'■A

;jj

r~-

u:;

1 — 1

■V

-Q

'-^^

CTj

ci;

■i-t

*~*-^

"-o

t->

■tj

bXJ

TIJ

■ "

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA 79

Company. This Adriaan married Maria Lievens at Batavia, March 3,
1639, and his son Simon was born on November 14, 1639, at Mauritius,
where his father had been transferred with the rank of commander.
There is therefore every good reason to suppose that he was the
son of his father's wife ; and had it been otherwise, as I am told by
Mynheer van Toll, the father would have been obliged to confess
the fact and acknowledge him publicly by letter as his son. Moreover,
added Mynheer van Toll, it is highly improbable that a family of

GROOT CONSTANTIA
From an Eighteenth-Century Print

such distinction as the Sixes would have given their daughter in
marriage to a man whose mother had been a slave-girl, so that this
story is probably another of Kolbe's inaccuracies. After her
husband's death — he was murdered in Ceylon — Maria Lievens
married Mynheer Hendrick van Gent, Councillor of Batavia.

Simon van der Stel, described as Seigneur van Lim, married at
Haarlem, in 1663, Johanna Jacoba Six, daughter of Willem Six
and his wife Catalina Hinlopen, and they had six children. Of these,
Willem Adriaan succeeded his father at the Cape, and another son,
Adriaan, became Governor of Amboina and a man of great wealth.

8o THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

Both of them left sons in Holland ; but it is difficult to trace the
family much farther, although we know that Willem Adriaan's son
Simon married Catharina Keyser at Amsterdam in 1726, and that one
of Adriaan's sons, Johan, is described as a man of good position and
considerable wealth. He inherited a fortune from his wife's brother
which, having no children of his own, he left to Franciscus Theodorius,
son of his brother Simon — the eldest son of Adriaan — both brothers
having called their eldest sons after the paternal grandfather in the
good old Dutch fashion.^

The uncertain glory of an April day flickered over the wide
valley as we turned to the left on reaching the white gates of Groot
Constantia and drove down a road bordered with oleanders, now
crowned with fading clusters where had been rosy masses of almond-
scented flowers. Another turn took us into one of the wide oak
avenues which the old burghers of the Cape planted for posterity,
two hundred years ago and more. Through the trees gleamed the
tawny yellow of the autumn vine leaves, and far away on the horizon
shone a line of burnished silver, as the blurred sunlight caught the
distant waters of False Bay.

It was all lovely and mellow — the grey of the tree trunks, the
gold of the leaves, the sheen of the sea. And behind all and above
all the great purple mountain, knee deep in silver-trees and heath
and fragrant wild geraniums.

The wide avenue led us to the steps of Hoop op Constantia.

A fine house — one of the finest that the early builders have
bequeathed to us. It is on the lines common to most of the old
Peninsula homesteads — a straight front with a gable over the entrance
and two long wings running back at right angles, giving the effect
of a solid, square building. The gables are of a form common in
Amsterdam, very similar to those at the back of Simon van der
Stel's own homestead of Groot Constantia close at hand. The two
houses are of the same age, having been built shortly after 1685,
when the land on which they stand was granted to the Governor
by the Lord of Mydrecht, Commissioner of the Dutch East India
Company. Tradition says that Hoop op Constantia was buih for the
accommodation of the officials who accompanied the old Governor
in his pleasant villeggiatura, when south-easters and the summer
heat made the Government House in the Castle uncomfortable.
Meetings of the Council of Policy were probably held in the large
airy rooms of Constantia, or under the shade of the young oaks—

1 The van Baerle family is descended, on the maternal side, from Willem Adriaan
van der Stel, through his son Simon.

O
u

o
o

JONKHEER'S HOUSE, GROOT CONSTAN^TIA

THE TRITON

BATH AT GROOT CONSTANTIA

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

now venerable giants — upon whose rapid growth the old man ex-
patiated in his dispatches to the Seventeen in Holland. The passage
of time has left its mark upon Hoop in the loss of several gables. An
early print of the house shows a very unusual arrangement of three
gables in the front and another in the middle of the side wing ; of
these all but the one over the front door have been taken down.
The effect is that the house has lost much of its originality, though
it is still harmonious and dignified. The great sash windows are

HOOP OP CONSTANTIA

In the eighteenth century.

unspoiled, the slave bell still hangs in its tower, the smooth brown
thatch has not been replaced by corrugated iron — and for all these
things there is cause for thankfulness in these days.
n There is a sunken garden below the stoep, in which palms and
guavas grow among the tall red spikes of aloes, and over all broods
an air of peace. Hoop op Constantia has, however, been agitated by
fierce feuds in its times. Early in the last century it belonged to
a lady who is oddly described in legal documents as ' Johannes
Lambertus Coleyn, widow '. She was clearly a woman of rneans
and determination, for she owned another property in the district —

3489

82 THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

Sweet Water, it was called— and, as her only way of reaching it was
through her neighbour's farm, through it she went without a moment's
hesitation. The neighbour, Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen of Bergvliet,
not unnaturally resented a driving-road being made across his
property without so much as a by-your-leave, and he carried his
grievance before the Landdrost and Heemraden. Judgment was
given for the widow, and we can imagine the satisfaction with which
she drove back to Hoop— probably going out of her way to use the
Bergvliet road.

Undaunted by defeat, Eksteen again appealed to the Court of
Justice, which again upheld the widow. Still undisrnayed, he carried
his woes before the Court of Appeals, which annihilated everything
that everybody had done before and sent him home a triumphant victor.

You are mistaken if you think that that was an end of the whole
matter. The widow appealed to Caesar, as represented by the Privy
Council — England being in temporary occupation of the Cape —
and emerged finally victorious, with a decree which gave her right-of-
way across Bergvliet. It is a pity that the records do not go a step
further and tell us the attitude of the two neighbours to each other
after their successive victories and defeats. Probably, once having got
her way, she never used the road again without asking his permission.

Hoop op Constantia first passed into private ownership in 17 16,
when it became the property of Pieter Meyer, and later in the
eighteenth century it became the property of the Colyn family. It
is now owned by Mr. Malan, The house was originally known as
Klein Constantia, a name which was subsequently applied to another
charming old house in the neighbourhood. Numerous early writers
speak of the two Constantias in terms of warm admiration. Kolbe
writes of ' that lovely seat ', and Latrobe, more than a century later,
says, ' There is an appearance of ancient grandeur about the place
which pleased us much.' The Abbe de la Caille and others are agreed
that the famous Constantia wine, which was made from grapes that
were almost raisins, varied according to the Constantia which pro-
duced it, though only a low hedge divided them. Captain Percival,
writing in 1796, says ' Great Constantia produces the red wine of
that name and Lesser Constantia the white '.

Las Cases, in his Memorial de Ste.-He'lene, says that he sent
Napoleon some Constantia wine, and in his last moments, when
he had rejected everything that was offered to him, the dying Emperor
asked for ' a glass of Las Cases 's wine '.

Not far off is the house now known as Klein Constantia, built,
tradition says, by Simon van der Stel for his daughter Catalina, who

A L P H E N

^PBHBHBPp^

|h ■■»■!■

r-'

^-4i

i^ <-. «( m '«• w) 'li* ;

; m>r»m mm m '

, se «<» V!- w ■ s»

« «■ w '■'■am¥*

}

n w •»' ^

■-" -^ ■*»•» «<tj 1

St'

K ••--'• ** *• '<i?i"

■....J

fSWsfS?

'■*^t ■ !»■'*?

,-.

' M^m "- i JFV^B

r J

■-IT

■^^

t i

fc^

:4, ll

H i^i !■

k . ■ '■II

^ r. ^

■L?:"

■

ii«

j^j j w " BP H w Hi

eiifii

*-^'^

fiiiiii

■■■■■£

■■■■LI

DOOR AT A L P H E N

GABLES AT HOOP OP CONSTANTIA KLEIN CONSTANTIA, FRONT GABLE

GABLES AT GROOT CONSTANTIA

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA 83

married a Mynheer van Rhyn. It is a plain, but dignified, white
house and is the property of Mr. Lochner de ViUiers. The gable
over the entrance is of a more severe type than those of the neighbour-
ing homesteads, and bears more resemblance to the gables of Belgium
than to those of Holland. As in many other old houses in the
Peninsula, only the lower half of the front door is of solid wood.
The upper half is a sash window which is pushed up to afford ingress —
a picturesque but not particularly convenient device. These divided
doors are common to most of the early homesteads ; but in the country
districts the upper half is usually of solid wood, for the most part teak,
with finely wrought iron hinges and locks. The old burghers had
a genius for setting down their houses in the fairest landscapes, and
there are few sweeps of mountain and sea to compare with the view
from Klein Constantia. We looked across False Bay, where Hangklip
stood out sharply against the blue of the sky, and the waves that beat
against Seal Island made a scurry of white foam. It was even more
enchanting when we turned towards Table Mountain and the fore-
ground of autumn vines splashed with silver, as the wind stirred the
leaves of a group of silver-trees close at hand.

Not far from Klein Constantia is the house of Buitenverwachting,
once known as Plumstead, but now restored to its original name.
Rightly restored, for the meaning is too pleasant to be lost — ' beyond
expectation.' It belonged to a brother of the Eksteen who fought
the widow Coleyn, and was built towards the end of the eighteenth
century on part of the land originally owned by Simon van der Stel.
There is a charming front door of teak, with carved ropework
decoration and wide steps of yellow brick. The rooms are large and
lofty; the view from the stoep magnificent — little wonder that its
early owner loved it and found it ' beyond expectation '. The
corrugated iron verandah is not in harmony with the dignity of the
house.

On the way back to Wynberg you pass a great square house cast
in a different mould — Mr. Henry Cloete's homestead of Alphen.
An aisle of dark-green pine trees leads to the gate, tall oaks protect
it from the heat, its wide vineyards stretch towards Hout Bay Nek
in seemingly endless succession.

Alphen stands on part of the land granted to Simon van der Stel.
In 1 7 14 a portion of the property was transferred to Theunis van
Schalkwyk, and passed in the following year to Jan Brommert, the
wharfmaster, one of the burghers who stood by Willem Adriaan
van der Stel in the troubles of two centuries ago. Tradition says
that the present house was built by Abraham Lever in 1753, and

84 THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA

that it was added to shortly afterwards by Captain de Waal, a sailor
who had been in the service of the Dutch East India Company.
This de Waal was related to the old Dutch family of Overbeek. In
1765 Alphen was bought by Jan Serrurier, and a few years later we
find Sparrman writing of Alphen as the residence of Kirsten. Andrew
Sparrman was a learned Swedish naturalist and physician who spent
some time at the Cape in 1772. In the intervals of medical practice
and acting as tutor to the children of the Resident at Simonstown,
Johan Kirsten, he made expeditions to the country districts. The
results of his observations, botanical and otherwise, as well as the
account of a journey to Kaffraria on a second visit in 1775-6, were
published by him a few years later.

From Kirsten 's possession Alphen passed to the family of
Dreyer, who retained it until 1850. In the days when Lord Charles
Somerset was Governor, the fine old house belonged to Thomas
Frederik Dreyer, who had a pretty daughter, and her fame has come
down to us in the singular tradition that she was courted by Dr. Barry.

Dr. Barry was the woman who for most of her life passed as a man,
and who actually rose to the military rank of Inspector-General of
Hospitals. She was medical adviser to Lord Charles Somerset, and
with him was a frequent visitor at Alphen. Great hunting parties
were held, in which both took part ; there were prodigious banquets
in the old hall, and long chats on the stoep over coffee and pipes. In
all these delights Dr. Barry played her part manfully. What her
motive was in courting Miss Dreyer it is difficult to say — perhaps
the desire to avert suspicion from herself. To the credit of the lady's
perspicacity it must be added that she turned a deaf ear to the voice
of the charmer, married John Cloete, and lived out her peaceful life
in the old homestead of Buitenverwachting.

Alphen, like many another house, has lost its original roof. But
it is a fine building, with great dignity in the massive squareness of
its outline, its great windows and doors. It is the centre to-day of
a thriving wine industry, worked by the most modern methods and
machinery. The old way was more picturesque, when the vats were
heaped high with white or purple grapes and the juice was pressed
out beneath the feet of the slaves, singing some old-world chanty
as they danced. Doubtless, however, there are points in favour of
machinery, incongruous as it may seem on these dreamy, lovely
old wine-farms, where you are tempted to feel that there is nothing
better in life than to sit in the shade of the great oaks and eat the
sun-kissed grapes.

But Alphen, for all its calm beauty, is a place where men work—

HOOP OP CONSTANTIA

KLEIN CONSTANTIA

TO K AI

S T O E P OF T O K A 1 WITH GRAPE-VINE

THE VALLEY OF CONSTANTIA 85

as the well-grown vineyards, the thriving orchards, the busy wine
cellars testify. Far up the valley run orderly vine plantations, brown
in winter against the red soil, green in summer, golden and scarlet
in autumn. In the fruit season peaches, nectarines, and plums are
sent off in vast quantities to Covent Garden and Johannesburg, and
the gatherers' baskets are heaped high with golden and green melons,
purple figs, and the finest grapes in the world.

Men work here, it is true. But I think that Pharaoh's task-
master himself would sometimes turn a blind eye if they dreamed
a little too, in the shade of the whispering pines or in the mellow
sunshine of the vineyards.

VIII

AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS

AS you drive towards Tokai from Wynberg you turn out of the
/A soft red dust of the Constantia road on to a good hard track
which leads to the district below the Steenberg mountains,
with many ups and downs, across a smiling plain, green with vines
and yellow with pumpkins under the January sun. On your right lie
Groot Constantia, beautiful Hoop, Buitenverwachting, and many
other homesteads, half buried in their trees, a white gable gleaming
here and there among the green. To your left are vineyards, small
cottages with tangles of flowers and fig-trees and gnarled pome-
granates in the gardens, the white sands of the Flats, and the far-off
blue waters of False Bay.

Out of this sunshine and colour the road plunges into a hoary
avenue of stone pines, great umbrella-headed trees with grey and
pink stems, the branches forming a Gothic aisle through which the
sunshine filters, dyeing orange-coloured the sand below. The trill
of a cicada speaks of the hot sun without — under the old trees is
perpetual shade. Tokai is part of the grazing-ground granted to
Simon van der Stel by Wouter Valkenier, Commissioner for the
Dutch East India Company, in 1700, and every student of Cape
history knows that where a van der Stel owned a morgen of land he
planted trees. It is possible that these are van der Stel trees ; but, be
that as it may, the land owes a wealth of gratitude to the men of
bygone days who worked for those who were to come after them—
well knowing that they themselves would never ride under the wide
avenues of oaks and pines, but content that others should rejoice in
the fruits of their labours.

A bend of the avenue brings into sight the fine homestead of
Tokai, flanked on either side by the stables and slave quarters.

The earhest grant of which there is any record, apart from van der
Stel's grazing rights, is that of 1792, when the land was given to
Andreas Rauch by the acting-governor, Rhenius. This would suggest
that Rauch was the builder of the ' beautiful country residence ', as
Tokai is described in a notice of sale in the Cape Town Gazette and
African Advertiser of August 13, 1800, wherein are also mentioned

AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS 87

superior vines, excellent casks, and good slaves. It is, however,
difficult to believe that only eight years elapsed between the founda-
tion and sale of a prosperous wine-farm, and it is more probable that
the land had previously been held on loan and that the house dates
from earlier than 1792.

The old builder put good work into his beautiful homestead.
Tokai, which is one of the square U-houses, has fine teak shutters,
the ceilings are of yellow-wood, the sash-windows of the fine type
taken to England by Dutch William and to the Cape by Simon
van der Stel. It has a fine pillared stoep, where a thriving grape vine
softens the severity of the front gable, which is of a type seldom found
on the earlier houses, and has been ascribed to the influence of Thibault
on the architecture of the latter part of the eighteenth century.

There is little space for ghost stories in these records of the old
houses, but room must be found for that of Tokai.

In 1 8 14 it became the property of Hendrik Oostwald Eksteen, who
was a hospitable soul, and many and riotous were the feasts held in
the old hall — then about 56 feet long, but now divided by a partition.
At the conclusion of one of these feasts a young man, filled with
Hendrik Eksteen's good wine and his own misplaced courage, sprang
to his feet.

* A wager,' he shouted. ' A wager. Will any man bet that I do not
ride up the steps of the stoep and round the dining-table on my Arab ? '

' Done,' said a neighbour, incoherently. ' My fur-trimmed cloak
against your new saddle.'

A storm of expostulation broke from the older men and a twitter
of alarm from the women, for the stoep of Tokai is fifteen feet above
the level of the ground ; but the young man brushed them aside and
ran down one of the steep flights of steps leading to the werf below.

In tense silence they watched him as he mounted and rode up the
steps, the Arab feeling his way with careful precision. With a shout
of relief they greeted him as he rode along the paved stoep, in at the
wide door, and round the long table glittering with silver and cut-glass,
heaped with fruit and the debris of the feast. But, as he would have
dismounted, flushed with triumph, the man who had taken the wager
claimed that the matter could not be considered finished until he had
ridden out of the door again and down the steps. I wish that I need
not finish the story. For of course he made the attempt, and halfway
down the horse stumbled and — well, to this day, so it is said, if you
have time enough and faith enough, you may see the rider in all the
pride of his pitiful young folly, you may watch the dainty footsteps
of his Arab as they ride to their death.

88 AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS

Indeed, the story must be true, for is not the mark of the horse's
hoof still to be seen on the floor of the great hall ?

About thirty years ago Tokai was purchased by the Government,
and is now the centre of the work of afforestation carried on under
the Chief Conservator of Forests. Much has been rightly said against
planting ahen trees on the slopes of Table Mountain, more particu-
larly the eucalyptus and wattle, which swallow up the silver-trees and
glorious wild flowers, though such criticism cannot be levelled against
the work of clothing bare districts with forests of eucalyptus and
conifers, which, with their sister plantations elsewhere, will some day
supply South Africa with all the telegraph posts and railway sleepers
she needs. It is to be hoped that that day will dawn before the ruin
of the fine old yellow-wood forests of the Knysna has been accom-
plished — for yellow-wood makes the worst and most perishable
railway sleepers in the world, while, as the old Dutch builders have
shown us, nothing is more solid or beautiful when used indoors
for floors and ceilings. Wisely directed afforestation may help to
preserve the native trees by providing a substitute for them and thus
arresting their destruction.

Van Riebeeck, who was keenly interested in the forest which he
found on the way to Hout Bay, published the following Placcaat on
October 12, 1658 :

' Whereas yellow-wood, the most serviceable for planks and the scarcest
in the Cape forests, is cut down and destroyed by everybody . . . the yellow- wood
should be economized for planks.'

There is a fine vigour in the old Placcaaten dealing with trees.
Van Riebeeck threatened any one who should break off ' even the
smallest twig ' from his hedge of bitter wild almond — the wilde
amandelboom {Braheium stellatifolium) — with the penalty of being
' banished in chains ad opus publicum for three years, with confiscation
of 100 reals of eight, of which the informer, with concealment of his
name, shall enjoy 6 reals.' Portions of this hedge still remain above
Bishopscourt. The punishments threatened by the van der Stels for
damaging the young plantations were even more drastic.

Not far off is the homestead of Zwaanswyk, now called Steenberg,
one of the earliest existing Cape houses, on the land granted to
Catharina Ras in 1682. Here she built herself a modest dwelling,
with a gable of severe simplicity, under the shade of the oaks which
even then were of a considerable size, for they are shown on the
earhest plans of the estate. And she called the little house Zwaanswyk
— ^the ward of the swans. Perhaps she had brought with her from
Europe some lingering, tender association with the name — the senti-

W E L T E V R E D E N

LOGGIA OF A HOUSE AT MUIZENBERG

<d
<:
>

N
h

a!.
O
O
Q

-I"
Q

h
<;

O
O
Q

AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS

ment which sometimes moves dwellers under the shadow of Table
Mountain to call their villas The Elms, or Chatsworth, or Southsea
Cottage. Perhaps the herons which to this day haunt the vleis in the
neighbourhood pleased her fancy and recalled the swans of her
northern youth. To-day the farm is known as Steenberg.

Here Catharina Ras lived, with Simon van der Stel as a neighbour,
and here Nicholaas Oortman wooed her daughter and built himself
the present homestead, within a stone's throw of her gabled cottage.
The house is much as he left it in 17 17, save for a corrugated iron
verandah. After his death it passed to his
daughter, who married Frederic Rousseau,
a Huguenot ; their daughter married a Louw,
and to the Louws it belongs to this day. The
house itself is simple and dignified — always
making allowance for the verandah. The
stoep is paved with narrow tiles which show
wonderfully little trace of the innumerable feet
which have paced them. To enter you push
up the sash window over the half-door and pass
in under a charming fanlight. Within is the
square hall or voorhuis, separated by a fine old
screen of yellow-wood and stink-wood from
the large ro6m beyond. The middle portion
of the screen has glass panels, not unlike those
in a Chippendale cabinet ; the sides are
louvred, and the whole can be unbolted and
pushed back to form one great apartment.

Here in the old days the neighbourhood
may possibly have gathered for church and
undoubtedly collected for festivities — ^when
the gardens were illuminated by candles in tall glass punkah-shades.
It is easy to picture the guests in powder and brocade as you stand in
the old hall, with its ceiling and polished floor of iron-wood, its doors
of the same woods as the screen, its heavy teak windows with glass to
which age and weather have given an iridescent sheen. On one of
the panes you may read the inscription : ' F. N. Leappe, Capitain
van de Artillerie en Jongeman mit het schip Duyvenburg. Anno 1763
den 8 December. En Ivan Asbeek, Luytenant van de Artillerie.'

In one of the ancient oaks hangs an ancient slave-bell — so old that
all trace of its history is lost, but it may well have sounded across the
wide Flats in the days when Charles the Second was King of England
and Catharina Ras lived at Zwaanswyk. There is a sundial near by,

2489

EARLY GABLE
ZWAANSWYK

AMONG THE SOUTHERN HILLS

dated 1756. Wrapped in the foliage of its old trees — so worn that
many of them are but the shells of oaks — the curved white gables
gleam through the green, the sun lights up the brown thatch roof, and
glinted, as we talked, on the white head of the courtly old man who
held the land his fathers had held before a stone of Petrograd was laid.

A neighbour of Zwaanswyk is Bergvliet, another old Eksteen
homestead, built on land which was once owned by Simon van der
Stel. Here the late owner. Dr. Purcell, gathered together much of
the fine old furniture which has vanished from many of the houses.
He was very learned in this and other matters, and his recent death
is a heavy loss to the country.

Over the Steenberg mountains lies Hout Bay, where there is an
old house, Kronendal, on the land granted in 1681 to W. van Dieden
and P. van der Westhuizen. A road from this bay winds between
mountain and sea to Noord Hoek, which with the neighbouring
Imhoff's Gift was granted in 1743 to Christina Rousseau by order
of Governor- General van Imhoff.

Close to the south end of Constantia Valley lies False Bay, the
nearest point being Muizenberg, where batteries were thrown up in
1795 to protect the Cape against the British fleet. These proved useless
against the heavier guns of the ships, which the resourceful English
sailors ran close in to the shore, mounted on small launches. On the
way to Muizenberg the road passes Mrs. Cavenagh's charming Httle
old house of Weltevreden. Farther on is the thatched cottage in
which Cecil Rhodes died, and next to it the beautiful house built by
Mr. Herbert Baker for Sir Abe Bailey, with a lovely garden. On the
southern shores of the bay lies Simonstown, so named by Simon
van der Stel, and the little station founded by van Imhoff in 1743.
A long row of store-houses was built and a garden planted for growing
vegetables for the fleets. Oaklands, this garden is called to-day, and
the Company's house is still standing. A Residency was also built
and a hospital. In 18 14, when the English naval station was transferred
to Simon's Bay, a farm, which had originally been granted to the
Burgher Anthony Visser, was bought from the widow Hurter and
the present Admiralty House was built.

Still farther southward you may go, until you come to Cape Point,
along a glorious road with the blue sea below you, while the mountains
that thrust out into it are every tint of green and grey, rose-madder,
and burnt umber. And here you may look across the ocean — across
the rock that marks where Diaz lies— to where the Southern Cross
hangs high in the heavens above the cold stillness of the Antarctic, and
the graves of the very gallant gentlemen who carried the flag of
England to the utmost limits of earth and sea.

VAULT AT M E E R L U S T

T H E H E N - H O U S E, M E E R L V S T

V E R G E N O E G D

OLD BUILDING, ZANDVLIET

ON THE EERSTE RIVER

' 'T~^HEY would likewise have seen plainly, as all of them would

I be obliged to confess, that, among others, the house of Jan
Blesius, Independent Fiscal at the Cape, and the house of
Henning Huysing, the chief mover among the subscribers [to the
accusation], were in all respects much larger, higher, and grander
than van der Stel's house. Notwithstanding that the same Henning,
a Hamburger by birth, had arrived at the Cape as a most insignificant
personage, and for some years had been there as a poor shepherd.'

These words are from the Defence of Willem Adriaan van der Stel.
We have noted the house of Fiscal Blesius, Leeuwenhof, above Cape
Town, and the description applies with equal truth to the Fiscal's
country homestead of Simon's Vallei near Klapmuts. Huysing, who
had described the Governor's modest homestead of Vergelegen as a
palace, and his grant of four hundred morgen as * as much land as
would suffice for the support of at least fifty farmers ', had himself
received various grants amounting to a total of five hundred and forty-
five morgen on the Eerste River, on which he had built the fine house
of Meerlust. He also owned grazing-land at Groen Kloof and more
than one large property in Cape Town, including two solid blocks in
Strand Street.

There must have been moments when Henning Huysing found it
difficult to believe that he had ever been the humble shepherd of
Hamburg. He was a man of considerable shrewdness and business
capacity. We read of him as the owner of ' more than 20,000 sheep
and 1,000 head of cattle ', and in 1685 the Lord of Mydrecht, as
Commissioner for the Batavian Government, granted to him the
contract for the retail sale of meat. From this time onward he
prospered, until he had become the richest man at the Cape, wealthy
enough to build the fine house of Meerlust on the land which had been
granted to him — by a curious irony of fate— by Willem Adriaan
van der Stel in 170 1.

The neighbouring homestead of Welmoed lies on this land, and it
is possible that the older buildings of the farm were his residence
while Meerlust was being built. We find in the records that in

92 ONTHEEERSTERIVER

June 1700 he made a purchase of timber from the Government,
probably for the fine yellow-wood ceilings and floors which Meerlust
possesses to this day, and from that date to the end of 1702 there are
many entries of wood supplied to him, including teak for the doors,
wall-cupboards, and shutters.

The plan of Meerlust is a variation on the H-type, owing to the
great size and number of its rooms. It has a large entrance hall, paved
with square red tiles, and lofty rooms open off it on either side.
Behind it is the long, wide dining-room, placed across the top of the
hall, as at Groot Constantia, and there are charming carved wall-
cupboards and a curious fireplace with curved doors of teak and a
fresco painting on the wall above. On one of the old panes of glass
in this room is written, apparently with a diamond, ' Pieternella
Heymond, 1725.'

Despite the corrugated-iron roof, a disadvantage under which it
rests for the moment, Meerlust possesses much of its original dignity.
The gable over the entrance bears the date of 1776, but this is no
indication that it was not built with the house, for it has long been
the inconvenient custom of Cape masons and owners to replace the
early date by that of a ' doing up ' of the house. Nor is the style
any clue to the age of the gables, for, as we know, both pointed and
square-headed gables were common in Holland at the time of the
founding of the Colony of the Cape.

Meerlust has unusually fine out-buildings, with elaborate decora-
tions in plaster-work. The pigeon-house and wine cellar, the
graceful stairs leading to lofts, the dignified old bell-tower— all these
thmgs testify that Meerlust was no ordinary house, but the best that
the butcher-contractor's long purse could build, and truly ' much
larger, higher, and grander ' than van der Stel's neighbouring
Vergelegen.

Huysing was a wine-farmer as well as a butcher-contractor, and
TX71, * ^^^ections he speedily fell foul of the new Governor when
Willem Adriaan van der Stel succeeded his father in 1699. Van der
Stel desired to see the Cape a wool-producing country, and did his
utmost to persuade the farmers to breed wool-bearing sheep, instead
ot the fat-tailed half-breeds which were certainly more profitable as
mutton. In March 1706 he wrote to the Seventeen in Holland, asking
tor some Spanish or other fine-wooled sheep ', adding that ' all
sheep-owners, in spite of the admonitions of the Governor and every
efiort made by him, could not be persuaded to breed wool sheep for
shearing, because they will not take the trouble— some being animated
with a wrong zeal, and others incHned to a lazy and do-nothing life,

^:rt

ONTHEEERSTERIVER 93

caring little for the interests of the Company. The half-breed sheep
are the biggest and heaviest, and bring in the most profit, but only
produce hair and no wool.'

It is easy to believe that these sentiments were not popular with
Huysing, the butcher-contractor, and those who made their living by
the happy-go-lucky rearing of half-breeds. The restrictions on the
retail sale of wine were another source of discontent — necessary as
they were both in the interests of the Company and of the slaves and
hired Hottentots. A conspiracy against the Governor was organized
by Huysing, with his wife's nephew Adam Tas and other farmers ;
van der Stel was represented to the Seventeen as an unjust, tyrannical
official, and, despite the protest in his favour made by the majority
of the burghers, he was recalled, while Huysing remained in wealth
and prosperity at beautiful Meerlust,

Perhaps his wife was his Nemesis. Her name was Maria Linden-
hof, and she had been a servant in the employ of the van der Stels
before her marriage with the man who was to rise to such great wealth
and power. In the troubled times which followed on the recall of
van der Stel she took a lively share. Being present when the eccentric
Minister le Boucq abused the Administrator she was ' civilly required',
say the records, ' to testify to the truth of what she had seen and
heard.' This she refused to do, alleging that she had forgotten the
conversation, whereon the Government imprisoned her in the Castle
at her own expense, in the hope of refreshing her memory, while
* the chaste Mrs. Maria Engebregt, whose virtue and godliness are
irreproachable ', came forward to testify that she had been with
Mrs. Huysing on the occasion in question and had heard the libels
and slanders uttered. Mrs. Huysing, however, continued to assert
that she had forgotten the occurrence, and her friends got up a petition
' filled with very tart, libellous, and hateful expressions towards this
Government, and moreover bristling with vile falsehoods ', say the
records ruefully. In the end Mrs. Huysing was released, and the
story is only worth telling as a sidelight on the difficulties of Cape life
two hundred years ago.

Meerlust, however, has pleasant associations, unconnected with
the Huysings. For eight generations it has been in the possession of
the Myburgh family, and Lady Anne Barnard, who spent a night
there in 1798, has left on record the excellent dinner that Mevrouw
Myburgh gave her ; Burchell also speaks of having dined there ' with
an opulent farmer named Meyburg '. Here, too, General Janssens
took refuge in great bitterness of soul after the battle of Blaauwberg,
when the Wurtemburg Regiment under his command had rendered

94 ONTHEEERSTERIVER

a difficult task impossible by running away from the English troops ;
and down the steps behind the house, tradition says, he kicked the
two officers of the regiment who had come to apologize.

Behind the homestead the ground falls to the Eerste River and
to magnificent vineyards and oak plantations. Near by was the
' Company's Drift ', and the solid stonework of the early bridge
built by the younger van der Stel still remains. Across the river was
Geduld, the homestead of Huysing's ally Ferdinand Appel, since
destroyed by fire ; farther on lived another of the coterie, Wessel
Pretorius of Berg Sinai, and across the road Adam Tas's sister, Sarah,
owned a homestead with the pleasant name of Vogelgezang — the song
of the birds.

Nearer to the sea hes Zandvliet, the farm of Petrus Kalden,
Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Town during the
time of the younger van der Stel ; it was granted to him in 1699.
He was a kindly and learned man, zealous in his sacred profession,
but a friend of the Governor and therefore a mark for the dislike of
the Huysing faction, who procured his recall. It was owing to his
energetic representations that the once-beautiful church in the
Heerengracht was built, and in the midst of van der Stel's own troubles
he found time to petition the Seventeen in favour of ' this very worthy
minister '. Still stronger is the testimony of the Church Council, who
never ' knew him otherwise than as a man of an upright, pious, and
God-fearing life and conduct, a lover of study and zealous in the same,
and the preaching of God's Holy and Saving Word '. But no testi-
mony weighed with the Seventeen against the crafty misrepresenta-
tions of Tas and Huysing, and Kalden shared his chief's exile. Of
his homestead little was left by the fire which destroyed the main
building some years ago, but there are lovely gables on some of the
old out-houses.

Moslem pilgrims assemble at Zandvliet every Easter, for in a small
mosque on the summit of a kopje on the farm sleeps Sheikh Yussuf,
the Macassar noble and saint who was exiled by the Batavian Govern-
ment and died, in 1699, in one of the small stone houses now falling
to decay at the foot of the kopje. There were many pohtical exiles
sent to the Cape from the East in the early days of the Company, and
doubtless, in the crowd who picnic and worship with equal decorum,
are descendants of the rajahs and princelings who broke their hearts
in exile two hundred years ago, as well as of the slaves who were sent
from Batavia and Ceylon.

I sat on the low stone wall outside the little mosque one Friday
morning, and watched the worshippers pass in and out with bent

^V I N E - C E L L A R AT V E R G E L E G E N

VAN DER STEL'S TREES AT VERGELEGEN

GATEWAY AT VERGENOEGD

ONTHEEERSTERIVER 95

heads and folded hands. In their long white robes — for none should
pray to Allah in gay raiment — there was something unearthly about
the silent figures, and it seemed incredible that they were the Malays
of the fish-carts and cabs.

Between ZandvUet and Meerlust is Mr. Faure's homestead of
Vergenoegd, on the land granted to Johannes Nicolaas Colyn in
1778, though the land was evidently held on loan earlier, as the date
on the front gable is 1773. Vergenoegd has a gateway of unusual
beauty, which must have been made for the sheer delight in lovely
things which inspired so many of the old builders. It has fine lines,
and is more suggestive of the entrance to a Spanish convent than the
backyard of a Cape farm.

The house of Huysing and its neighbours are set in a fair country.
In his days of wealth and prosperity, did no remorse rise in his heart
when he sat on his stoep and looked across the Flats to Table Mountain,
dark against the sunset, and thought of the men whom he had driven
from its shelter to ruin and exile ? Only the Recording Angel can
tell — all that we know is that he died in the full tide of prosperity
and was buried with pomp and circumstance in the Groote Kerk of
Petrus Kalden and van der Stel.

VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

THE man who first owned Vergelegen wrote of it as a place in
a sweet and pleasant climate, and we of two centuries later can
only echo his words. Set in between the hills, in a fair and rich
valley ; deep in the shade of its ancient oaks and camphor trees ;
watered by a never-failing brown trout-stream — over all broods an
indefinable sense of mellow beauty and an air of detachment from the
hurry and worry of modern life,

Vergelegen, as everyone who is interested in Cape history knows,
was granted to Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel by Wouter
Valkenier in February 1700. Valkenier was the Commissioner of the
Dutch East Indies, who, being entrusted with full powers, visited the
Cape at that time on the annual visit of inspection. It was granted
' as a hereditary possession, with liberty to sell, let, plant and sow on
the same, and also to build on it as he liked '. It was by no means the
first grant of land to be made to an official. Jan van Riebeeck, for
example, owned Boscheuval (now Bishopscourt), one of the richest
and most fertile farms in the country. A little later, Commander
Cornelis van Quaelbergen became possessed of Concordia, a valuable
tract of land in Table Valley, upon which the present Good Hope Hall
stands. The Secunde Andries de Man was the seventeenth-century
owner of the Hofmeyr property in Camp Street, and in 1685 Com-
missioner van Rheede, the Lord of Mydrecht, gave to Simon van der
Stel the 891 morgen of land on which he built his homestead of Groot
Constantia. The Dutch East India Company granted land very freely
in the early days of the settlement, but the land of Vergelegen was
only 400 morgen in extent, a smaller grant than that made to many of
the settlers.

If small, it was of singular beauty. To-day the homestead stands
deep in the shelter of great trees, and you may walk for long distances
down cool green alleys with the hot sun beating in vain on the leafy
roof above your head. But when van der Stel first looked on the
valley, and all his heart went out to it, he saw only the wild veld
jewelled with flowers, the stream that sang and chuckled over the
rounded stones, the finches and bokmakeries, and the jewelled

8489

98 VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

sugar-birds that hovered over the proteas, the Guardian Peak and
all the blue mountains that lie between the life of cities and this
' most sweet and pleasant spot '. Even the little Hottentots who were
dispossessed by the white men had feU its singular charm, for they
told the early explorers who boasted to them of Holland that this was
their Holland — meaning the loveUest place on earth.

But for all his sense of its beauty, van der Stel was no mere idealist,
but a very practical farmer and gardener. Vergelegen the beloved—
the Far Off— was not only a pleasant place, but one in which he had
the opportunity of putting into practice the knowledge of agriculture
which he has left to us in the manuscript now in the South African
Public Library. It was pubhshed in the African Court Calendar for
1825 as a number of The African Gardeners' and Agriculturists'
Calendar, and it leaves one amazed at the versatility of the writer's
knowledge concerning fruit-growing, cattle-rearing, vines, vegetables,
trees, and flowers. He had a vigorous faith in the future of the
country, and saw clearly that the future must be based on work and
knowledge if it were to fulfil its golden promise.

Not unnaturally — ^when we remember that the Dutch East India
Company's object in forming a settlement at the Cape was to ensure
a supply of fresh water, meat, and green stuff for the passing fleets
in those scurvy-stricken days — ^vegetables fill a large space in these
directions. It is illuminating, though not edifying, to contrast the
long list of these that were evidently grown freely by van der Stel
with the costliness of all vegetables mentioned by writers a century
later, when the divine spark of enthusiasm for the land was dying
down as the once-great Company tottered to its fall.

Cabbages take a prominent place, being largely in demand for the
ships on their way to and from the East. He is as insistent on their
value as van Riebeeck was. But he is also enthusiastic over French
beans, turnips, radishes, celery, leeks, cauliflowers, cucumbers, Turkey
beans, carrots, parsnips, brown lettuce, endive, spinach, chervil,
onions, lentils, peas, potatoes, coriander, artichokes, beet, and so forth
— an endless list of them, as many as you would find at Covent
Garden on a summer morning. He was also interested, as van Rie-
beeck was, in the wild vegetables of the country, and he suggests
digging up roots of the wild asparagus and cultivating them on new
land. The anise- wortel, still eaten in the country districts, also
received attention from him. In the midst of so much that was
practical it is quaint to find him gravely telling us that we should plant
our peas and carrots with a full moon, and endive and parsnips when
the moon is waning.

-a

r^
rt

"rl

-13

>. /

■ -1

(I)

'-)

<]>

PIGEON-HOUSE AT THE BUSH — FORMERLY ON\'ER\VACHT

GATEWAY AT PAREL VALLEl

VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

Evidently he was successful in the culture of tulips — so rarely seen
at the Cape to-day. ' The land should be well manured,' he writes,
' and the holes into which the bulbs are to be placed must be half
filled with white river-sand.' He also writes of bulbs from Ceylon,
and we know from the records that large quantities of Cape bulbs
and other plants were sent to Holland by both the van der Stels.
Perhaps some of the gladioU and ixias which are the glory of Dutch
florists to-day are the descendants of those which van der Stel gathered
in the valley of Vergelegen. The diseases of fruit trees are also dealt
with by him, and though one sorrows to think that he was not
acquainted with the virtues of our modern remedies against scale on
orange trees — he calls it scab — one feels that he was spared the
myriads of pests that have come to us with new varieties and the
small black Argentine ant. At least he could eat his figs in peace.

In one of van der Stel's letters to the Seventeen in Holland he
speaks of the introduction of the white mulberry in order that the
leaves might provide food for the silk-worms which he brought to
the Cape — a silk industry being one of his plans for the future. It is
of interest to-day to see a large-leaved mulberry tree growing close
to the house at Vergelegen, perhaps an offshoot of one of the trees
which he planted with such high hopes.

The homestead, as built by van der Stel, was as follows — the
description is that of the Commissioners from the Court of Justice
who examined it in 1706, and made a sworn declaration to this effect :

' A dwelling-house one story high, level with the ground, containing six
rooms or apartments, and a flat roof for the kitchen — five small closets or gardes
de robes under flat or sloping roofs, and a small provision cellar with a small
room — all level with the ground, without other apartments or stores. A house
for the mason with two rooms, and a front room with two small rooms under
the sheds, and a yard with sheds. Three sheep and cattle pens and another
bit of one. A room for a wine-press. Another for the slaves. Another for
the horses and mules. And two small rooms for work and storing the tools —
and that on the whole land there no other buildings stand or are found, the rest
consisting of orchards, vines, plantations, and wilderness.

' The above they have seen and found as stated, and to confirm their state-
ment all repeat the solemn words, " So truly help me, God Almighty." '

Then follow the signatures — the Sieur Willem ten Damme (chief
surgeon), David Vieravond, Jan Vosloo, Jan Hartog, and others, all
reputable citizens.

It is interesting to compare this description with the old drawing
shown and to note how far the original house differed from the
Vergelegen of to-day. How it happens that there has been an altera-

100 VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS

tion is a well-known story, so it need not be dwelt upon at length.
Briefly, one of the main charges against van der Stel was that Vergelegen
was a palace, and that fifty farmers might make their living off the land.
The Directors of the Company, alarmed at any suggestion of expansion
in a country which to them was only a provision-station, recalled van der
Stel, and ordered that Vergelegen should be broken down, as setting
an example of ' ostentation '. When we think of the great rooms of
Meerlust a few miles away this would be almost funny — if mirth were
not lost in the sense of tragedy. For van der Stel's heart was in the
country, above all at Vergelegen ; his father was spending an honoured
old age at Constantia, and he too looked to sleep his last sleep in this
' sweet and pleasant ' place. He prayed to be allowed to remain
' as a forgotten burgher ', but he was curtly ordered to leave, and
Vergelegen was sold to two members of Huysing's cabal, Jacobus
van der Heyden and his cousin.

It is difficult to believe that these two worthies allowed the work
of destruction to proceed very far. There would have been no object
in destroying the house merely to build another of the same size on
the same foundations — for the old plan shows us that it occupied the
exact site in the octagonal wall that it fills to-day. No doubt a fine
show of carrying out the orders was made, and indeed the gables of
to-day differ sufficiently from those of the first house to suggest that
they were broken down and afterwards rebuilt — probably immediately
afterwards.

The great oaks and camphors of Vergelegen can only have been
small saplings when van der Stel looked his last on them. It is easy
to picture the delight with which he must have shown his young
plantations to his neighbours, and how his brother Frans wauld ride
over from Parel Vallei and the Reverend Pieter Kalden from ZandvUet,
or the Secunde Elsevier from Elsenburg, to compare notes on their
farming, and on the fair prospect of working for the future of the
land that lay before them. We know how all these hopes were bUghted
and how the three friends shared van der Stel's sentence of banishment
—apparently because they were his friends. It is less pleasant to
thmk of Vergelegen a few years later. If trees could speak, the oaks
that are old to-day could tell us of the chuckles of satisfaction with
which the cabal must have met there. The wealthy butcher-contractor
Huysmg and his shrewish wife ; Adam Tas, the lazy, tippling creature
revealed by his own diary ; Ferdinand Appel, newly possessed of the
Hot Baths (now Caledon) ; van der Heyden and the rest of them.
How often m the grey years that were left to him must van der Stel's
thoughts have sped back across the sea to his vineyards and orchards,

W
H

w
o

VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS loi

his young forest trees, and the sheep that were to lead the way in
making of South Africa the finest wool-producing country in the
world, as he saw it in his dreams.

For many years Vergelegen has rested undeveloped, but South
Africa has reason to be thankful that it has now become the property
of Lady Phillips, under whose discriminating care and knowledge we
hope that van der Stel's dreams will merge into reality.

Within a short distance of Vergelegen is the beautiful house of
Morgenster. Here the gables are unusually good, whether on house,
wine-cellar, stables, or slave- quarters. The gable over the front door,
with its shell apex and graceful scrollwork, belongs to the type of
which Mr. Herbert Baker writes, in his introduction to Mrs. Trotter's
book, Old Colonial Houses of the Cape of Good Hope :

' It is undoubtedly an original form — nothing exactly like it is to be seen in
Holland or Belgium. In the old Weigh House at Amsterdam there is a book
called Alle de Huizen en Gebouwen van Amsterdam, in which drawings are given
of all houses in the Heerengracht and the principal streets of Amsterdam as
they appeared a few centuries ago. The majority of the gables of these houses
were variations of the type just described [i. e. the Schoongezicht type], but a
few more were like the type we are now considering . . . Although, according to
the book quoted, this form was rare, and though none exist at Amsterdam at this
day, it is possible that from it the Cape gable may have been developed. There
it has, however, been very much simplified and improved from its rococo original.'

One of the Morgenster buildings has a crow-step gable — a form rare
at the Cape, though very common in Holland.

Morgenster has the large, cool rooms of all the old Cape home-
steads. The fine sash windows are unspoiled, though the louvred
shutters may be an addition of later years, the old teak shutters being
usually solid, sometimes pierced with a hole. There is something
to be said in favour of the louvred type, though it does not lend itself
so well to the fine ironwork decoration and hinges which we find on
the earlier shutters.

The Cape housewife, in common with all dwellers in warm
countries (unless her lot is cast in a cool district) closes both shutters
and windows after the house has had its early-morning airing, and
her rooms are of a pleasant temperature on the warmest day.

The present owner of Morgenster was born a Morkel, the old
family estate coming into her possession a few years ago. Rome, a
homestead of simpler design near by, belongs to the same family.
The Morkels have been landowners in this district for over two
hundred years, and though the present Morgenster only dates from
1786 there was an earlier house near by, now used as an outhouse.

102 VERGELEGEN ANDITS NEIGHBOURS

The Morkels seem to have kept clear of the disputes which tore
the Cape asunder two centuries ago. Perhaps they were wise in their
generation, for it must have been infinitely pleasanter to till the rich
soil and watch vineyard and orchard break into leaf and fruit than to
be embroiled in strife. But Philip Morkel, who came to the Cape in
1 69 1, married Marie Bibon, widow of the Huguenot Hercule Verdeau,
who was a supporter of van der Stel, and perhaps he shared his prede-
cessor's views. It is difficult to keep the name of van der Stel out of
these records of the old houses, for the Governor's brother Frans
owned the neighbouring homestead of Parel Vallei, now the property
of a branch of the Myburgh family.

Parel Vallei is pleasantly situated, facing the sea and open to the
sand dunes and the cool, salt breezes which blow across from False
Bay. Here Frans van der Stel lived with his wife, a daughter of the
Burgher Johannes Wessels, and here his descendants might have
lived to this day but for the ill-will of the Huysing faction that
extended to every one bearing the name of van der Stel, and led to his
banishment ' beyond the limits of the Company's districts and
boundaries '.

How many of the travellers who to-day pass by train through this
fair country, on their way to the hot baths of Caledon, give a
thought to the fierce passions which swept over it two centuries ago ?
On the one side envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness ; on
the other ruin, dismay, and bitter grief. For no appeal from the
sentence of banishment touched the Seventeen at Amsterdam. The
Governor's petition to be allowed to retire to Vergelegen with his
family, ' to live there as a forgotten burgher,' was icily dismissed, and
to Frans van der Stel's ' respectful request ' to be informed ' how far
the orders of banishment extended, and in what direction ' — I own
that this sounds very like clutching at a straw in the hope of rescue
or reprieve — the curt reply was made that it appeared ' very frivolous,'
and that he was to ' leave the Cape, and, as soon as possible, proceed
beyond the Company's limits '. Can you not read between the dust-
laden lines ? On the one hand human despair : curt officialdom on
the other. How many times has the tragic drama been played out
since ?

Small wonder that the hearts of the condemned men yearned over
the country they had learned to love. They had reclaimed it from
the wilds, had cleared away the heath for their corn and the rhinoster-
bush for their vineyards. At Paarde Vallei, nearer the shore, the vlei
was owned by Frans van der Stel, and there is reason to suppose that
he cleaned it out, deepened the water, and experimented in fish-

VERGELEGEN AND ITS NEIGHBOURS 103

breeding. The house of Par el Vallei was enlarged and altered about
a hundred years ago, by an ancestor of the present owner.

Not far off is Onverwacht, which for many generations has
belonged to the Morkel family ; the Morkels were prosperous burghers
from 1691 onwards, and Onverwacht was granted to the first member
who settled at the Cape. It was, in all probability, a beautiful house,
but the present homestead is a modern building. A picturesque
pigeon-house is all that remains of the earlier Onverv^^acht — now
called The Bush.

There are other interesting homesteads in this district, though
many houses that were once picturesque have been hopelessly
modernized. On the homesteads that remain still lingers the fragrant
spirit of romance. I sat on an acorn sack the other evening, as the
setting sun dyed the mountains behind Vergelegen wine-colour.
Above me stretched a mighty camphor tree of van der Stel's planting ;
before me lay the land he had loved and the house in which he had
prayed to be allowed to end his days. It all happened more than
two centuries ago. Historians have wrangled over the rights and
wrongs of the story, and the name of van der Stel is but a shadow in
the land. But for me, as I sat and dreamed under the green of his
trees, it might have happened yesterday. And the shadow seemed
greater in substance than much which we call reality to-day.

A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND

EARLY summer, and a golden haze over the country — the fine
gold of sunshine falling on the rich fields of ripened oats and
filtering through the dust of the roads.

They were reaping the harvest on either side of the railway line
between Eerste River and Stellenbosch, leaving a little red-brown
plant which grew close to the ground and gave it a russet tint in
lieu of the shorn and unlovely appearance usually presented by
stubble. Sleepy clouds still clung to the blue hills, waiting for the
day to be more advanced before they roused themselves. A little
cool wind blew in at the carriage windows, tempering the warmth of
the golden sunshine. Much of the country was sadly blotted out by
AustraUan wattles, but in the intervals between them and the vine-
yards and corn lands were breadths of purple scabious, tufts of
scarlet heath, and white cats' tails and clumps of yellow lapageria.

And at last we came to Stellenbosch, and from the station jogged
in a white-hooded Cape cart down the golden dust of a pine-bordered
road, until we came to Vredenburg, where Philip Gerrit van der Byl
built his homestead in 1692, and which is one of the Rhodes Fruit
Farms to-day. It was too late to save the original house when Cecil
Rhodes bought the farm, as he saved others, for it had been destroyed
by fire some forty years earlier and rebuilt after the uninteresting
manner of the day, on the foundations of what must have been
a fine homestead.

The old stoep remains, paved with red tiles and rounded at the
corners, with rounded steps at the back and front. Careful inspection
of the modern house reveals the fact that the old yellow-wood ceilings
and floors of several rooms remain, as do the old doors of teak, under
a heavy coating of paint. In the kitchen, where the original open
hearth remains, the door possesses a graceful crutch-handle — the
solitary remnant of what was probably the beautiful brass work of
van der Byl's Vredenburg. It must have been a very fine homestead,
judging from the ground-plan and the farm buildings.

There are some buildings behind the house which have graceful
gables. The wine cellars may be of a later date, and the gables are

A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND 105

less fine in their curves. The bell tower still stands, as it stood in
the old burgher's day, and there are the remains of a sundial. A tangle
of roses fell over the low wall of the werj, tall clumps of feathery
barnboos waved at the river's edge, and at one end of the gabled,
white-walled wine cellar scarlet pomegranate blossoms flamed in
the sunshine of the golden morning.

Near by lies Klein Vredenburg, a small farm which was granted
in 1691 to Hendrick Elbertz, Heemraad of Stellenbosch. Apparently
he throve, as all the farmers did during the van der Stel days, for
thirteen years later he owned the fine farm of Aan den Weg, in
Stellenbosch Kloof.

His sons, Johannes and Nicolaas, were among the nine mutineers
against the Government in 1706 who refused to appear at the Castle
to answer the charge — as recorded in the Archives — of ' Writing,
drafting, and signing of libels and defamatory letters, full of treason
and insult, falsely forged against the authorities here '.

Chief amongst these letters was the charge against the Governor,
Secunde and Minister, drawn up by Adam Tas at the instigation of
Huysing and others. It is interesting, though not perhaps surprising,
to find how near to each other all the opponents of van der Stel
lived, for Libertas, the homestead of Adam Tas, is another neighbour
of Vredenburg. Before crossing the river to look at it a word must
be given to the columbary of Klein Vredenburg ; there are many
farms upon which you find these graceful dovecots.

The first grant of Libertas was made in 1692 to Hans Jurgen
Grimp, whose widow, Elisabeth van Brakel, Adam Tas married.
It was a very fine farm, though, as we gather from Tas's diary, its
cultivation was left to his slaves and hired Hottentots. The present
homestead was built or altered in 1771, but further alterations have
shorn it of much of its beauty. Within are some interesting mural
paintings, said to be the work of a German artist who visited the Cape
while the homestead was in course of construction or alteration. It
also possesses a fireplace with teak doors, similar to the one at Meerlust,
and there still remains an old slave bell, inscribed ' Me fecit Amstello-
dami, anno 1732 '. It is difficult to say how far the present Libertas
is the original homestead of Tas. Tradition ascribes that distinction
to the smaller house at the side — now modernized beyond recogni-
tion — but I incline to the belief that he lived in the larger house. It
is, at least, improbable that a well-to-do landowner would have been
satisfied with an inferior house to the dwellings of Huysing or van
der Byl.

If we may judge him from his own diary, Adam Tas was lazy

2-l8f/ P

io6 A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND

and a wine-bibber, credulous, agile with his pen, and easily swayed
by the more clever men who poured into his receptive mind the
charges against the Governor which have come down to us in his
writings.

Out of his own mouth, as shown in his subsequent recantation
of the charges made against van der Stel, he stands convicted of
untruth, and any chance reference to his diary will show you the
man himself.

* July 6, 1705. To Stellenbosch this morning, and paid Mr. Mahieu 2J rix-
dollars for three books bought by me . . . thereafter to Mr. Bek's, where sundry
pipes of tobacco and a glass or two of sack between whiles. Then comfortably,
with Messrs. van der Bijl and van der Heijden, to my house, where we eat
dinner, and after dinner fell to playing cards, and between times a round of
the glass, and in the evening eat and drink again together, and after supper
our acquaintance parted.

' 7th. Took horse this morning and rid with Mr. van der Heijden to his
place, where we mighty brisk discoursing and drinking and smoking, not
forgetting the eating neither ! And so at night to rest and sleep.

' 8th. Delicate fine morning. Did find my head on rising pain me a great
deal . . ,

' 9th. Fine morning. Our people busy again pruning and delving.

' nth. Dull morning. Two of our slaves been pruning again.'

And so on throughout the diary — days spent in eating, drinking,
and gossipping with van der Byl and van der Heyden while the
slaves delved and pruned the good land of Libertas. Small wonder
that, in thinking of such men, van der Stel was moved to write
sorrowfully to the Seventeen at Amsterdam :

' It is clear as the sun that our striving must be that corn, meat, and wine
should be obtainable here in abundance and cheaply, that the Company's ships
may obtain enough supplies. This, however, is once and for all against the
interest of the farmers, who will not see it with satisfaction. They prefer a lazy
and jolly life, and to make much out of small wares, rather than cherish the
mterests of the Company . . . They desire a free importation of wine from the
country, to do with it as they like. Consequently, smuggling has assumed such
dimensions that undoubtedly it will cause the profits of the Company to suffer
severely. Should, however, the Governor prevent it, the hatred towards him
will become more bitter. We therefore request that you may be pleased to
make such regulations as will meet the case.

'But, in order to give you further proof of the lazy and thriftless life which
the farmers lead among themselves, and how little they improve their lands or
work, we send you a portion of the journal kept by Adam Tas, the secretary of
this wicked crew, and found among the papers seized with his desk.' ^

1 Dispatch of the Council of Policy to the Seventeen, March 31, 1706.

ONE OF THE MURAL PAINTINGS AT LI BERT AS

A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND 107

Adam Tas and his diary have perhaps occupied an undue amount
of space, but it should be read by all students of South African
history, not only to enable one to understand the man himself, the
pettiness of his mind, his credulous acceptance of every statement
made by ' Uncle Huysing ', but also because of the interesting side-
lights it casts on life at the Cape two hundred years ago.

An earlier owner of Libertas was Hans Jurgen Grimp, whose
widow Tas married. Kolbe writes of him as ' a wealthy and public-
spirited gentleman, who had a fine estate near the bridge over the
Eerste River. He observed that it was narrow and dangerous, and
he therefore erected a large and stately bridge at his own expense,
his neighbours not being inclined to pay their share '.

Near Libertas is Doornbosch, granted to a burgher named
Brouwer in 1692. It still retains a charming gable, and we were
shown a magnificent armoire with silver fittings which had come
from Libertas.

And in the afternoon we came unto a land of rich farms and bad
roads. Everywhere the golden harvest was being reaped or straw-
berries gathered, and we passed innumerable trays of ripe fruit
carried on crisp black heads.

Towards Helderberg we drove in the drowsy warmth, through
Nietgegund and Rustenburg vineyards, until we came to the deeply-
furrowed precipice which is the road to Rust en Vrede. This was
originally part of the neighbouring estate of Bonte Rivier, which was
divided between the two sons of the original owner, Laurens Lieben-
trau, who built both homesteads about 1776, though a beam dated
1720 in one of the outbuildings of Bonte Rivier suggests that there
may have been an earlier house on the site. The most charming
feature of Rust en Vrede is the cellar, with its festooned gable and fan-
light windows set in small Batavian bricks — the light filtered in
through the broken windows in their graceful setting as into a church,
and shed gleams of gold on the onions heaped on the floor, trans-
muting them to opals and pearls.

The view from the homestead was glorious, for the old Huguenots
and Dutchmen had a keen sense of beauty. Down a broad oak
avenue and a somewhat less precipitous road we drove to Mr. J.
Krige's neighbouring farm of Bonte Rivier, which has a pleasant
and prosperous homestead and a very beautiful wine cellar. Both
are similar to those at Rust en Vrede — the H in each homestead being
deficient in one arm — but the cellar gable at Bonte Rivier is decorated
with a flagon and glass in plaster instead of with the more romantic
festoon.

io8 A WIDE AND SUNLIT LAND

Bonte Rivier belonged to the parents of Jan Hofmeyr, and part of
his boyhood was spent there.

We had meant to continue our drive to Annandale, once van
Brakel's Dal, the farm of Johannes van Brakel, whose sister married
Adam Tas. Time failed us, however, so we turned back towards
Stellenbosch, driving through a thriving orange grove and up a steep
road to the top of a hill. Here again the land was yellow with grain
around us and in the far distance. Dark green stone-pines stood out
sharply in the landscape against the opal blue of the neighbouring
hills, and on the far horizon Table Mountain and its attendant crags
were purple on a field of gold.

In the valley from which we had climbed, the white gables of
Groen Vallei gleamed among their sheltering oaks. Not far off was
Groen Rivier — on the land granted to Abraham Bastiaans in 1693,
and in the distance lay the homestead of Frederik Botha, Zand Berg,
now the property of Mr. Scholtz. A fair land this ; it is difficult to
imagine anything more lovely than this corner of Helderberg.

We passed near Groote Zalzee, the property granted to Nicolaas
Cleeft in 1693, and turned off the road at Mr. de Waal's homestead
of Blaauw Klip, on the land granted to Gerrit Visser in 1690.

The setting sun was reflected on the iridescent panes of the fine
windows in their teak mouldings, and there was an air of dignity
over the house. The roof, lamentable to relate, was marred before
it came into Mr. de Waal's possession, but perhaps some day may
see the shorn gables restored to their former beauty. Judging from
the plaster-work which has escaped destruction, they must have been
very good. Blaauw Klip must have been one of the most stately
houses in the district, and was built in 1789 ; an earher dwelling-
house, built in 1780, being now used as a school-house. There was
a still earlier house, of which only a few bricks remain, buried in an
orchard. The homestead has a very fine dining-room, with charming
old carved wall-cupboards. The back of the house is almost as
picturesque as the front, with casements in the place of sash-windows,
and if the gables could be restored in their former grace— but not in the
manner of some modern builders— there would be few Cape houses
to compare with it.

The neighbouring farm of Fleur Baai was given to Pierre le Febre
m 1696, and across the railway-line is Dwars in den Weg a grant of
1697 to Jan de Wilde. ^' ^

S T E L L E N B U R G

From the oil-painting li y I\. C. wclo Goodman

XII

STELLENBOSCH

IT is two hundred and forty years since Simon van der Stel rode
into the smiUng valley which is girt about with mountains and
watered by the Eerste River on its way to the sea from the slopes
above Jan de Jonker's Hoek. The land must have been as white
with ornithogalum and as pink with heath and monsonias on that
spring morning as when I saw it last week. The river must have
cluttered as joyously over the round stones and tussocks of reed as
it does to-day. But there were no white houses, no great oaks, no
vineyards, no flush of peach blossom — and no Theological Seminary.
It was a wild land upon which he looked when, filled with love for
the country and desire for its expansion — a desire not shared by the
Company — he founded the town of Stellenbosch and called it by
his own name, in his first year of office, 1679.

Six months later found nine families settled in the valley, farming
the land and authorized to grow anything that would grow on it —
save tobacco, as that would have interfered with other interests of
the Company. By August 1682 more famiUes had arrived and they
were all so much at home in their new surroundings that it was soon
found necessary to establish a Court of Heemraad to settle disputes
between neighbours.

The names of the first Heemraden are familiar to us, owing
to the part they played in the story of the Cape. They were Pieter
Gerrit van der Byl of Vredenburg, Henning Huysing of Meerlust,
Hendrik Elbertz of Vlottenburg, and Hans Jurgen Grimp of Libertas,
whose widow subsequently married Adam Tas. Three years later
the first Landdrost, Johannes Mulder, was appointed by the Lord of
Mydrecht. The original Drostdy stood on the site of the present
Theological Seminary ; it was built in 1686, burned down in 1710,
and rebuilt, again burned down and rebuilt in 1762, only to be pulled
down a century later.

Stellenbosch had suffered heavily in the great fire of 17 10,
caused by the heedlessness of a slave who was carrying a light for
the Landdrost 's pipe, when many of the burghers' houses and the
avenues of oaks perished. Fifty fine houses were built immediately

no STELLENBOSCH

afterwards, the records tell us, and it is probable that amongst them
were the flat-roofed buildings of Georgian type of which several
examples still remain.

Mr. Barrow — afterwards Sir John Barrow — who accompanied
Lord Macartney to the Cape as private secretary in 1797, speaks
of the Drostdy as ' an excellent house ', and even Lady Anne Barnard,
who shows surprisingly little appreciation of the beauty of the old
Cape homesteads, describes it as ' airy and spacious '. Both writers
are enthusiastic in their description of the two great oaks which stood
before it, each measuring eighteen feet round. Lady Anne, in her
charming letters to Lord Melville, writes thus of Stellenbosch in
1797 : 1

' The perfection of this place consists in its extreme coolness in the midst of
the most sultry weather. It is built in long streets, perfectly regular, each street
having on each side a row of large oaks which shadow the tops of the houses,
keeping them cool and forming a shady avenue between, through which the
sun cannot pierce.'

Modern Stellenbosch, under the rule of the Dutch Reformed
Church of to-day, must rub its eyes when it reads in the same letter
of the ball given at the Drostdy by Landdrost van der Riet on a
Sunday evening a hundred and twenty years ago. It was the custom
at that time to assemble on Sundays at the great homestead of the
neighbourhood and dance in the great hall formed by the unlatching
of the screen which threw voorhuis and dining room into one apart-
ment. An old inhabitant of the Paarl has told me that the custom
lasted up to his boyhood, church having been scrupulously attended
in the morning. I wonder whether old Stellenbosch was any the
worse for its Sabbatical minuets and gavottes, and whether they
were a more doubtful influence than sundry political meetings, held
in later days after Nachtmaal, were likely to prove.

The Oude Molen — the burghers' corn mill — was erected in 1686,
and readers of Adam Tas's diary will remember how often his strolls
with van der Byl took the two gossips for rest and refreshment to the
mill-house. The first church built in Stellenbosch in 1687 was only
forty feet long by twenty-two feet wide, but the growing population of
the little town soon overflowed this limited space. The building
was enlarged and made into the form of a cross in 1699, and was
probably very comely and not unlike the graceful church which the
Paarl has been wise enough to leave unspoiled. The second church
of Stellenbosch has, however, been altered into a larger but less
interesting building.

The first deacon was Dirk Coetsee of Coetsenberg, and the original

JACOBUS JOHANNES
L E S U E U R

Landdroxt of Stjlleiibosch 1763-1769

^^^^^S%m'

ARMS Ol' THE
LE SUEUR FAMILY

LA GRATITUDE

STELLENBOSCH m

church was opened for service on the occasion of one of Simon van
der Stel's annual visits, when he celebrated his birthday and the
kermis or fair of 1687. During the time of these fairs all Stellenbosch
was given over to merry-making. Men, women, and children climbed
or rode up the hill, which is still known as Papagaaisberg, and shot on
a painted wooden parrot, or papagaai, on a pole. It was a time of
general recreation and holiday, which probably no one enjoyed
more than the kindly little Commander himself.

Glancing at Stellenbosch to-day from the train, the first impression
is one of rich vineyards and plantations, fine oaks and dark green stone
pines, among which are set the houses. If Simon van der Stel could
stand on Papagaaisberg and look down on his town he would be able
to trace the outlines of the old streets and the winding of the river,
for the older part of Stellenbosch still occupies the plan laid down
by him.

Some fine houses are to be seen, and of these Kromme Rivier,
Mr. du Toit's homestead, lies nearest to the old railway station. The
original house, now almost a ruin, dates from about 1680. In 1771
another homestead, now used as a wine cellar, was built, while the
present dwelling dates from early in the last century.

From Kromme Rivier the way to the town of Stellenbosch is up
a long street which takes its name from Colonel Christopher Bird,
Colonial Secretary in the time of Lord Charles Somerset, At the
end of the street is a wide, open space known as De Braak, where
on the hottest day the sweet babble of water is to be heard from the
little canals which lend such charm to Stellenbosch. Great oaks
are here too and line many of the streets — some of them the trees
which in their infancy were the nurselings of the van der Stels. In
the Archives there is a letter, dated 1699, authorizing the Landdrost
Michiel Ditmars to order the freemen of Stellenbosch each to send
a wagon to the plantations of Rustenburg at Rondebosch and to
take thence twenty thousand young oaks — twelve thousand for
Stellenbosch and eight thousand for Drakenstein. It will be remem-
bered that the subsequent neglect of many of these young trees was
one of the sources of trouble between the farmers and the van der
Stels. To-day they are stately oaks and shade the streets and squares
of Stellenbosch.

The old Arsenal of the Company stands on De Braak. It bears
the monogram O.C.V. and the date 1777. In the Municipal Office
close by — an old house with a charming fanlight under its verandah —
are kept the little old cannon which, report says, were taken by
General Janssens to Hottentots' Holland, as a last resource against

112 STELLENBOSCH

the English army. In a corner of De Braak is a beautiful Httle old
house. It has a tin roof and was somewhat out of repair when I saw
it — but the graceful gables were intact. It is not always a misfortune
for the old houses when the owners have no money to spend on them.
Money too often brings striped iron verandahs and other atrocities
in its train. It provides plate-glass windows in deal frames and front-
doors grained to look like maple. But, on the other hand, it enables
those who realize the value of their lovely houses to preserve them
in their original beauty. Other buildings on De Braak are the old
church of the Rhenish Mission (with its gable an example of every-
thing that a gable ought not to be), built in better, kindlier days
than those through which we have passed, and the Girls' School
founded by the same Mission many years ago. The front of the
school house has been rebuilt, but in the rear is a charming old garden
with myrtle hedges, mulberry trees, and a tall palm. In this garden,
rumour says, a slave was murdered by her master, and once a year,
when the moon gleams on the white, waxen flowers of the myrtle,
she wanders beneath the vine-covered pergola. A slave-ghost seems
oddly incongruous with the healthy, busy life with which the school
vibrates — from the classrooms with impossible-looking problems
chalked up on the black-boards to the large airy cooking-school where
the girls are trained to be good housewives.

In Herte Street are a few quaint old houses with small gables..
It leads into Dorp Street, where the most interesting house remaining
is La Gratitude, built as a Pastorie by the Reverend Meent Borcherds
in 1798. In the memoirs of his son, Petrus Borchardus Borcherds,
we read that he ' placed in the portico the emblem of the All-seeing
Eye, which in this the country of his sojourn had watched over him '.
The older Pastorie, built for Minister Bek in 1704, was about seven
houses lower down the street.

At the top of Dorp, Street is Drostdy Street, and at the corner
stands the modern Theological Seminary, on the site of the old
Drostdy. Turn down the street and look at the fine old classical
house, once the Brand family house and now belonging to Mrs. Collins.
It is a dignified building, and has a particularly graceful fanlight over
the screen and a good door. The plaster tree over the door is a very
usual device on Stellenbosch houses— Kromme Rivier has it— but
I can find no explanation of it. In Italy one would say : ' Of
course— a della Rovere Pope ' ; but this is obviously inapplicable to
Stellenbosch.

On the outskirts of the town lies Coetsenberg, granted to Dirk
Coetsee in 1692. Nothing of the old homestead remains ; there is

}lOV S E IN D R O S T D Y S T \< E E T

THE COMPANY'S ARSENAL, STEELE N BOSCH

^ ■ 5^

GABLE ON A STELLENBOSCH HOUSE
0^1

OLD VAULT, STELLENBOSCH

GABLE AT STELLENBOSCH

RHENISH SCHOOL

STELLENBOSCH 113

a large modern hou&e on the site, but fortunately the magnificent
trees survive. One oak measures seventeen feet in girth four feet
from the ground, and under its shade a charming little stream croons
its way past what was once the stoep of the old burgher's homestead.
Most of the houses in this neighbourhood are new, though on old
sites, but one beautiful little homestead remains and is now the
Wesley an Parsonage.

From the modern villas in their gay little gardens I looked to
the eternal hills which fold Stellenbosch in their arms. Around her,
inviolate and unchanged, rest the grey and purple mountains which
sheltered the fair valley into which Simon van der Stel rode in 1679,
and to which he left his name. It is a goodly heritage still — the town
which he gave in trust to those who should come after him.

In the memoirs of Petrus Borcherds, who was born at La Gratitude
in 1786, we have many pleasant glimpses of life in Stellenbosch
a century or so ago. Here, for instance, is a picture of Dominie
George Knoop at the close of the eighteenth century, as he walked
to the Parsonage on Fridays with ' a grave and stately face ' to receive
the minister's directions regarding the service for the next Sunday —
the Psalms, marriages, christenings, &c., marriages always being
celebrated after the Sunday service. He wore a black coat cut in
the clerical style, knee breeches, and silver knee and shoe buckles.
He also wore a wig with two rows of curls and a small three-cornered
cocked hat, and carried under his arm a fine rattan, silver-mounted
walking-stick.

The kermis was kept annually at Stellenbosch until 1796. The
Governor and Landdrost sat, Mr. Borcherds tells us, in an alcove
of old oaks near the mill, while the Burgher Corps filed by. The
dress of an officer was a fine blue coat, the flaps turned up, the breast
decorated with silver embroidery, an orange sash, white waistcoat
and breeches, high boots covering the knee, silver spurs, a cocked
hat with ' panage ' coloured according to the standard of the company,
and a sword. He was well mounted and seated in a high saddle,
the latter sometimes lined with red cloth embroidered with silver,
as were the holsters and saddle-cloth. On one occasion Stellenbosch
was visited by a Burgher Corps from Swellendam, wearing broad-
brimmed hats with the red, white, and blue cockade, then the emblem
of the revolutionary party in Holland ; South Africa had her internal
troubles in the Company's days as well as under the Union Jack,
and Swellendam was then in the throes of a mimic rebellion, which
died down as other rebellions have died down before and since.

From Stellenbosch a pleasant road leads out to Jonker's Hoek

2489 Q

114 STELLENBOSCH

among the mountains, where — on the land granted to Jan de Jonker
by Simon van der Stel — are the Trout Hatcheries, where the trout,
which are now found in many South African rivers, were first hatched
out from ova brought from England. On the way you pass several
interesting old houses. One of these bears the favourite name of
Schoongezicht, and a little farther up the valley is the picturesque
homestead of Nectar.

«'

fcrj

!=i

-S

H
O

Q
D
H

OUT-BUILDINGS, SPEIR

':M^^

BACK OF SPEIR

BELL-TOWER, SPEIR

XIII

SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF

GREY mountains — powder-grey, melting into smoke-colour in
the fissures ; rose-tinted mountains, which had been grey
an hour earlier ; purple mountains — wine-coloured in the
shadows and pale-violet where the sun lingered.

Thus the Hottentots' Holland changed from moment to moment
and from morning to noon and evening as we passed swiftly over the
land which lies between the Cape Peninsula and the Moddergat,
turning aside here and there to one white homestead or another.
The motor chirruped pleasantly, like an unusually large and joyful
cicada trilling its appreciation of the still heat. With a chirrup that
was almost a fanfare we turned off the sun-baked road and swept
between two white pillars and up to the stoep of Speir, near the little
railway station of Lyndoch.

For a moment the green of its sheltering trees dazzled eyes that
were tuned to the soft grey of the rhinoster-clad plain over which we
had come. Here were veteran giants of oaks, the acorns falling noisily
on the earth beneath. A weeping-willow — a very Niobe among
trees — drooped over the little stream that tinkled past the homestead,
which lay deep hid in shade as profound as that of Vallombrosa.

Giants among oaks indeed. There are some behind the house of
enormous girth, as old as the buildings themselves or older. And
Speir is no mushroom farm, but one of Simon van der Stel's own
grants, made to Arnout Janssens in 1692. He was apparently one of
the earliest settlers in the district and seems to have held the land on
loan from 1683 — the later grant bears the picture of a house which
was already in existence, but it is difficult to say whether this is the
present homestead or one of the charming gabled outhouses.

From Janssens, Speir passed into the possession of a burgher who
rejoiced in the alliterative appellation of Hans Hendrik Hattingh — let
us hope that South Africa took the aspirate seriously two centuries ago.
He seems to have lived a peaceful and uneventful life at beautiful
Speir, emerging from its pleasant obscurity once as one of those who
signed the petition in favour of the younger van der Stel. In 1698 he
married Marie de Lanoy,^ a daughter of the old Huguenot exile who

^ Probably the widow of Ary Lekkerwyn.

ii6 SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF

owned Boschendal in Groot Drakenstein, and his second wife was
Susanna Visser. After passing through various hands Speir was
bought in 1781 by Andries Christoffel van der Byl, who added to the
original grant part of the neighbouring farm of Vlottenberg, and a large
tract of land on the Eerste River. To the van der By Is it belonged
from that date until the present year. Speir probably owes its name
to Hattingh, who is described as ' van Speyer ' or Spires, in Rhenish
Bavaria. In all new countries there are names which betray the
yearning of exiles for the homeland. Australia has its Perth and York.
Canada has Argenteuil, Gloucester, Dumbarton, and a score besides.
South Africa has Middelburg and SaHsbury, besides all the French
names to which the Huguenots clung so passionately. They were not
allowed to give them to the towns, but their farms bear to this day
such musical names as Rhone, Burgundy, Orleans, Versailles,
Lormarins, and so forth.

The interior of the homestead of Speir is larger than the outside
would lead one to expect. There is a small voorhuis, with a dining-
hall beyond of fine dimension and floored with wide planks of polished
fir — not deal, but a heavily knotted wood producing almost the effect
of walnut. Some good old furniture still remained here when I saw
the house — a tall Dutch clock, a solid press with silver fittings, a sofa
with carved gadroon edges and cockle-shell ornamentation.

But pleasant as are the shaded rooms of the homestead, the outside
is even more attractive. For, besides the house, there are the old out-
buildings — the wine cellars, the slave quarters, and the stables — each
with a different form of gable. There are at least six varieties to be
seen, and they differ greatly in merit. One, dated 1778, may have been
built at that time by the then owner, Albertus Myburgh, or it may only
have been repaired by him and the date added. It has fine, simple
curves, and the plaster ornamentation shows a definite purpose, unlike
the meaningless twirls and twiddles of much modern decoration. The
other gables are, for the most part, more florid in outline and less
graceful, but all are interesting and show that the architect was not
content to work on stereotyped lines.

It is a pity that the old deeds and transfers do not go beyond
morgen and roods and tell us something of the old houses themselves,
and of the manufacture of the fine solid furniture that passed from
generation to generation. It is true that we are told that when
Albertus Myburgh bought Speir in 1765 he took over five slaves,
nine wine-vats, one teak rice-barrel, two wooden vats, and one grape
case, but there is nothing particularly inspiring in the information.
It would be more interesting to know who made the fine old presses

■ }

GABLE AT S P E I R

A 1^V\ R M - B U I L D 1 N G

SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF 117

with their silver handles and the great brass-bound chests which are
fast passing from their old homes to the dealer or collector.

Speir owes much of its extraordinary charm to the blessed water
that runs in and out and round about. The Eerste River lies within
a few hundred feet of the homestead, below steep banks which are
spanned by a bridge, and fine trout are caught in it. Tall clumps of
giant bamboo grow near by, and figs, apricot, mulberries, and roses
flourish in a small garden. In the centre of this garden hangs the
old slave-bell, the belfry grown round with clematis and surmounted
by two white plaster vases and a lion. The slave-bell rang out as we
sat dreaming, though there are no slaves to-day to summon from
pruning vines or digging sweet-potatoes. To judge from the out-
buildings Speir must have owned a goodly number in the old days,
and it may be doubted whether their lot was not as happy a one as
that of their descendants, free to come when they like and go when
they like and get drunk when they like. I hold no brief for slavery,
but no one can contend that wisdom was exercised in the manner in
which the boon of freedom was conferred upon a people who were
half children, and wholly incapable, either through tradition or
training, of resisting the world, the flesh, and the devil when brought
into sudden and unrestrained association with them.

Below the stoep ran a streamlet fringed by a broad band of hydran-
geas that had once been blue but were now dying in every gradation
of chrysoprase and chalcedony, jade and dull turquoise. Overhead
an eagle swept lazily across the unspecked blue of the sky, from the
mountain peaks in the near distance to the far-oft' dynamite factory
and the sea. As far remote as East from West does modern man with
his machinery seem to be from this old homestead, hidden away from
the world under its oaks and its willows of Babylon. It is difficult to
feel that anything really matters very much here except that the grapes
should ripen in due season and the roses grow in unpruned luxuriance.

A few miles to the northward of Speir lies Stellenbosch Kloof,
known to the Huguenots as Bonfoi, and here are several interesting
homesteads. At the head of the valley is Uiterwyk — the ' Outer
Ward ' — granted to Dirk Cauchet, Coetsee, Coetse, Kotzee, Coetchee,
or Koetchee, for he appears under each variation in the records, by
Willem Adriaan van der Stel in 1699, though he had held it on loan
from 1682. He also owned Coetsenberg on the outskirts of Stellen-
bosch, where a modern villa now stands on the site of his homestead.
His wife was Sara van der Schulp, and they reared one of those fine
large families for which the Cape has always been famous, though the
ten fledglings seem to have taken wing early.

ii8 SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF

In 1 72 1 we find him petitioning the Council of Policy to permit
him to leave the country and live in Cape Town. He had served the
church as deacon and elder, he says ; been heemraad often and captain
of the Stellenbosch infantry ; now he lives with his invalid wife,
without any children in the house, and the difficulties of a country life
are beginning to tell on him. Two years later, however, we find him
complaining of his son Cornelis, and begging the Council to send him
to India in the service of the Company. We might be moved to pity
for his loneliness but for this evidence of his inability to keep his house
in order.

The Landdrost Starrenburgh mentions him amongst those who
came to his assistance in the Stellenbosch riots against the Govern-
ment in 1706, and he signed the petition in the Governor's favour.

Uiterwyk must originally have been a very fine house. The gables,
including those over the wine-cellar and stables, are unusually
interesting and show the elaborate character of the original building.
Unfortunately, the four end-gables — it is one of the H-houses — have
been shaved off to make way for the iron roof. The gable over the
front door is very heavily moulded, and though the actual plaster- work
is fine the design is rococo and less beautiful than the simple and less
ambitious gables to be seen on the neighbouring homestead of Aan
den Weg, formerly called Bonfoi.

This house stands on ground which, with the neighbouring farm
of Bij den Weg, was granted to Hendrik Elbertz by the younger
van der Stel in 1704, and is now the homestead of Mr. Gideon Joubert
and his brother, descendants in the eighth generation of the Huguenot
Pierre Joubert who came to the Cape with his wife Isabeau Richard
and one child in i688, amongst other French emigres. From the exile
who left home and kindred for his faith are sprung the innumerable
Jouberts who are spread over South Africa, including the old Boer
Commandant upon whose death Rudyard Kipling wrote the fine
verses beginning :

' With those that bred, with those that loosed the strife,
He had no part, whose hands were clear of gain.
But subtle, strong, and stubborn, gave his life
To a lost cause and knew the gift was vain.'

The homestead and the wine-cellar of Bonfoi, to give it its old
name, are two precisely similar buildings— T-shaped, with gables
showing combined curves and crow-steps, and roofs of smooth brown
thatch. The unusualness of the plan was explained by Mr Joubert.
His great-grandfather, Willem Adolf Joubert of Bij den Weg, divided
the property between his two sons. On this portion he built the

SPEIR AND STELLENBOSCH KLOOF 119

stable and wine-cellar, leaving between them a level expanse of sward
on which the homestead was to stand, but before it could be begun
he died. He was much to be regretted, for the man who built such
graceful outbuildings would assuredly have left a very fine homestead
behind him. One of these buildings became the present dwelling-
house — a pleasant little place, under the shade of its giant oaks and
unspoiled by modern alterations.

Not far off is the older Joubert homestead, Bij den Weg, a larger
house with very charming end-gables. The front and the interior
have been modernized, but the back of the house still retains its
casement windows and heavy teak shutters and is very picturesque.
Over the front door the gable is of an interesting type, decorated with
a plaster eye and a sundial. Beneath are the initials D. J. and L. J. K.
They stand for Daniel Joubert, born 1759, one of sixteen brothers
and sisters, who married Louisa Johanna Krige and contributed twelve
more members to the growing tribe of Joubert.

A still earlier house lay behind the present homestead.

Not far off is Neethling's Hof, once known as Wolvendans, the
Dance of the Wolves, which were probably jackals. This land was
granted in 1699 to Barend Lubbe, who does not appear to have been
noted for anything in particular. His two daughters married two of Dirk
Coetzee's sons. Jacobus and the recalcitrant Cornells, who apparently
did not go to India but settled down to blameless domesticity.

The way to Neethling's Hof is up a prodigiously long avenue of
stone-pines, which melt into oaks as they near the homestead. The
house has the great merit of being unspoiled, and the gable over the
front door has, in common with many other gables, a decoration of
plaster stars. Whether this was designed originally as a compliment
to the van der Stels, I do not know, but it may have been so. The
high sash windows are set in a frame with a curved top, and a similar
window is set in the gable itself. The terminal gables of the H rest
on pilasters ; this feature is found in several of the homesteads, and
has a good effect.

Mr. Louw, the owner of Neethling's Hof, has a large extent of
land under tobacco, besides thriving vineyards. Tobacco is grown
at Bonfoi, too, while Bij den Weg looks out on hills which were green
with young wheat. Here oranges hung in golden masses on the laden
trees and the air was sweet with the perfume of the flowers. There
was a pleasant scent from the newly-turned chocolate-coloured earth
too, and from clumps of cabbage roses in the old-world garden, while
busy hordes of red-beaked rooibekkies swept twittering through the
orchard as the hum of our motor roused them from their mid-day siesta.

XIV

AT THE FOOT OF SIMONSBERG

ON a cool September morning — the spring-time of the Cape —
we drove out through the pine plantations of the Forestry
Department and the less praiseworthy masses of AustraHan
wattle on the Flats. Wattle is a beautiful thing for three weeks in
the year — for the rest it is dull and scraggy and has the supreme
demerit of ousting and destroying the far more lovely native flora.
It is, however, being planted in great quantities, in order to prepare
the ground for crops of tomatoes and other useful things, but to those
to whom heath and ixias are more than tomatoes it is anathema.

At last we passed from the wattles to the open veld and its flowers.
They are true children of the Sun God, and under the pearly sky of
this spring morning the glorious gazanias and mesembryanthemia
had refused to open, and the rose-pink stars of the monsonias were
half- furled. But there were clumps of white arums, wide masses of
creamy sparaxis, coral-coloured watsonias, orange satyria, and
brilliant blue babianas. Sometimes we passed a patch of young corn,
emerald-green, with the yellow flowers of the tulip hovering above it
on almost invisible stems and looking like yellow butterflies. Then
the wild veld would take us to its heart again, as we sped through
sweeps of pink heath and rich brown grasses. Here and there stalked
a solitary secretary-bird. Out of the bushes flew black and gold
finches as we passed, and hawks circled overhead. Far away the
Drakenstein mountains were white with snow against the sky. White,
too, were the homesteads which nestled in their folds, shaded by oaks
now clad in the virginal green of spring. Umbrella pines, dark against
the grey of the hill-sides, gave an Italian note to a landscape that was
otherwise very like the pikes and fells of Westmorland on this cool
September morning. And at last we came to Stellenbosch and passed
through it to Ida's Vallei on the Kromme River, at the foot of Simon
van der Stel's six-peaked mountain.

The original grant of ' Groot and Klein Ida's Vallei and Nazareth '
was made to the Huguenot exile, Fran9ois Villon of Clermont, on
another September day in 1692. His wife was Cornelia Campenaar,
and their son Henning married Marguerite de Savoie after the death

ATTHEFOOTOFSIMONSBERG 121

of her first husband, Christoffel Snijman. She was the daughter of
Jacques de Savoie, a sturdy and truculent old Huguenot who with
his wife, Marie Madeleine le Clerc, had come to the Cape with
special introductions from the Company. In them he is described as
' one who has been under the cross of persecution at Ghent for many
years '. Whether there is any truth in the tradition which assigns
him kinship with the royal house of Savoy it is difficult to say. There
are many strange stories associated with the old refugees, stories such
as that of the du Plessis who came to the Cape at the end of the
seventeenth century. He was of the house of Richelieu, and his
descendant was the actual head of the family. But, for the most part,
the stories are vague, and I have only mentioned the Savoy tradition
because there is over the door of Ida's Vallei a device in plaster which
may or may not be a crown, and a plaster bird which may or may not
be an eagle. If it were the white cross of Savoy it would carry more
conviction. At present the namesakes of Francois Villon bury their
name in its Dutch form of Viljoen, while that of de Savoie has died
out of the country.

An early house evidently stood near the present homestead, which
belongs to Mr. Malleson and is set in a thriving fruit farm. Some
ruined walls and the remains of an Italian garden have been found.
If the dates on the old door-plates are to be taken as indicating the age
of the present building the portion which is now the back of Ida's
Vallei was built in 1787 and the present front in 1789. That the back
was once the front is easily to be believed, for it has an equally beautiful
gable, with heavily moulded scrollwork in plaster, and the eagle in
plaster is over the graceful fanlight above the doorway. The windows
which look out on what is now the front have been modernized, but
this was before the present ownership, and those windows which
look on what is now the back still retain their charming small panes,
iridescent with age and weather, and their heavy teak shutters.

Yet another story lingers round Ida's Vallei, though there is no
record of it in official documents. It is said that Simon van der Stel,
whose wife remained in Holland, loved a lady called Ida van der Merwe
and gave her a portion of the land on which Ida's Vallei now stands.
The story is very vague and any one may read what he pleases into it
—for my part I think it is to the credit of Governor Simon and the
lady that Ida's Vallei was as far from Constantia as it was possible for
any place to be in those days.

Farther up the valley lies Rustenburg, now the homestead of
Lord de Villiers and originally granted to Pieter Robbertz^ in 1699.

1 The letter z at the end of a name stands for ^oo« = son

2489 R

122 AT THE FOOT OF SIMONSBERG

We come across him several times in the diary of Adam Tas — at first
as a friendly neighbour, then as ' the old Norse berserk of a landdrost
Robertz ', and finally, as the plot against van der Stel develops, as
being ' mighty honourably commended of the Governor upon laying
down of his office as landdrost ', and ' a pestilent rogue with some
information to discover '. From which we may conclude that the
old Norseman did not share the views of Adam Tas— indeed, we
find his name, with those of many other prominent burghers, attached
to the petition in van der Stel's favour.

Rustenburg is unlike many of the old houses in the extreme and
austere simpHcity of its gables, those over the front and back doors
being severe in the purity of their outline while the ends of the H are
hipped. The effect is very pleasant, especially as a contrast to the
beautiful but more elaborate gables of its neighbours. Another
unusual feature is the magnificent central hall, which extends from
the front to the back of the house, without any dividing screen or
voorhuis ; it is wide and high in proportion, and the effect of all this
simplicity is great dignity and spaciousness.

The woodwork throughout the house is fine. It has polished
yellow- wood floors and rafters, and heavy doors on which the original
brasswork has fortunately been preserved.

From the stoep of Rustenburg we looked across a lovely valley.
To our left lay Stellenbosch and the open veld, where a flock of
black-faced Persian sheep grazed contentedly. Beyond were the
foam-crested waves of False Bay, hemmed in by the mountains.
Before us lay acres of fruit orchards, bare still, save for an enterprising
pear or plum tree and the pink quince-blossoms in the hedges.
And — ^blending with Rustenburg — the wide fruit-lands of Schoonge-
zicht, the rich rose-coloured earth showing through the bare branches
of the peach trees, the oaks round the homesteads clothed with a
delicate veil of green. A mighty oak hangs above the stoep of Rusten-
burg, and beneath it a semi-circular flight of steps leads up to the
front door. Beneath the stoep, at one side, an opening in the wall
showed a dark cellar, traditionally called the Slaves' Hole, though one
hesitates to believe that it was ever used as a prison for disobedient
slaves.

From Rustenburg it is only a walk of a few minutes to Mr. John
X. Merriman's homestead of Schoongezicht.

This is a wine-farm as well as a fruit-farm, and the vines had
apparently more confidence in the weather than had the peaches, for
the early varieties were in leaf and covered with minute bunches. The
later grapes were only showing grey-green sprouts.

u
I— I

N
W

o
o

X
u

AT THE FOOT OF SIMONSBERG 123

' And the leaf-buds on the vine are woolly,
I noticed that to-day.
One day more bursts them fully,

— You know the red turns grey.'

Schoongezicht was originally part of Rustenburg, but was cut off in
1 810 and sold by Jacob Eksteen — then owner of the latter farm — to
his son-in-law Arend Brink. Arend was the youngest of thirteen
brothers and sisters and his elder brother Cornelis was the proud
father of eighteen sons and daughters. It is difficult to understand
how any house of moderate dimensions accommodated these fine
large Cape families.

The date of a grant does not necessarily coincide with the building
of the homestead, many lands having been held for a long time on
loan or possibly, in this instance, on hire. There is a beautiful little
building at the side of the main house, now used as a wine cellar but
perhaps the original homestead. The back of the present dwelling
was built in the same year and the front in 181 3, a year after it passed
into the possession of Hendrik Cloete.

Like most old houses in the country Schoongezicht is H-shaped
and has very fine gables. Those over the front and back are of the
type frequently seen on the eighteenth-century houses of Holland,
while the four end-gables are of the graceful form most commonly
found at the Cape. Within is a good louvred teak screen, cutting off
the voorhuis from the dining-room beyond, and the doors, floors, and
ceilings are all of fine yellow-wood, Schoongezicht has a very high
stoep, once surrounded by an iron railing on which hung a speaking-
trumpet, through which Hendrik Cloete was wont to shout his orders
to the slaves working in the wide vineyards below, while he sat on
the stoep and drank coffee. To-day Mr. Merriman grows magnificent
peaches and plums in the orchards, and at the side of the house, below
a grape-vine pergola, lies a charming garden where flowers come to
rare perfection. At the entrance to the garden is a large pomegranate
tree, and the blossoms are dazzling scarlet against the blue sky.

NEAR MULDER'S VLEI

IF you take the Bottelary Road from Stellenbosch to Cape Town
it leads you past two early grants — Koelenhof, given to Simon
de Groot in 1694 and the house of Nooitgedacht, on the land
granted to Mattheys Greeff in 1692. It was one of the farms bought
by Cecil Rhodes and is one of the finest of the homesteads which he
saved from alteration or destruction — it is now the property of
Mr. Lange. As you leave Stellenbosch behind you it is pleasant to
see the curved gables and brown roof of Nooitgedacht among the
green of its sheltering oaks, and the emerald sweep of the great
vineyard which slopes upward from the homestead. The long wine
cellar near the house, with its lines of mighty vats, is commensurate
with the size of the vineyard.

For several generations Nooitgedacht belonged to the Cloete family ^
and it is thought that the present house may have been built during
this time. In 1771 the entrance hall was decorated with mural
paintings, probably by the artist who decorated the walls of Libertas.
The great dining hall has two graceful cupboards with curved fronts
set in the wall, and in them are treasures of old cut glass and silver —
too rarely found to-day in the houses in which they were once matter-
of-fact articles of daily use.

The road curves round the hill and leads past the railway station
of Mulder's Vlei, in whose neighbourhood are several homesteads
of historic interest. The ground upon which the station lies was
granted in 1714 to Johannes Mulder, who had been appointed first
landdrost of Stellenbosch in 1685, and it was originally called Hopen-
burgh — the families of Hop and Mulder being connected — but the
farm to-day is known as Mulder's Vlei. There are few traces of the
old homestead left in the present house. Johannes Mulder was one
of the witnesses who testified to the younger van der Stel's innocence
of the accusation that he had profited by cattle barter with the
Hottentots and had moreover employed force to extort the cattle
from them. It will be remembered by students of Cape history
that both the van der Stels were opposed to free barter between the
natives and the colonists, realizing that it was unwise to place this

1 This family gave its name to the granted to Guillaume du Toit in 1692
neighbouring homestead of Cloetesdal, under the name of Aan het pad.

'^ I'

I — I .-

NEAR MULDER'S VLEI 125

power in the hands of men who were not all too scrupulous in their
methods of dealing with the Hottentots, and that it was permitted
by the Company against their advice. Many abuses followed, though
Johannes Mulder, in exonerating the Governor from any part or
lot in the matter, declared that he himself had always conducted his
barter with the natives with ' good fellow- and friendship '. That
this was not always the case many subsequent tragedies proved, and
it was a refinement of ingenuity which moved Adam Tas and his
friends to charge van der Stel with profiting by an arrangement
which had been made in defiance of his advice.

The van der Stel association deepens when you cross the railway
line and drive up an avenue to Elsenburg, the fine house which has
recently been partly destroyed by fire but has been rebuilt on the old
lines, the gables having escaped destruction. It is now the Government
Agricultural College, but was formerly the homestead of the Melck
family, having been built by Martin Melck on the site of a still older
homestead — also destroyed by fire — which was built in 1698 by the
Sieur Elsevier, the Secunde or second official in the Council of Policy.
It was as lovely a spot as a hard -worked man could desire, wherein
to rest at intervals, far from councils and officialdom. Doubtless
Elsevier often looked out across his wide vineyards to the distant
outline of Table Mountain, grey against the green and gold of the
sunset sky, and looked forward to a leisured old age spent in the shade
of his oaks, with the murmur of the little canal of Elsenburg in his
ears. For, little as the Governor whom he served and with whom
he was ruined and exiled, did he think that ' in such a sweet and
pleasant climate such heavy and dark clouds would overwhelm and
sweep him away ', as van der Stel wrote in his appeal to the Seventeen
in Holland — a very pathetic document to those who can see beneath
the stiff and elaborate phrases the soul struggling passionately for
the justice which was denied it. And not denied to van der Stel
only, but to the Secunde in whose defence he wrote fervently that
the charges brought by Adam Tas ' might be safely passed by here,
with the full confidence that Elsevier will thoroughly be able to clear
his character from these vile imputations. But van der Stel considers
it his duty not to keep back a just testimony regarding this slandered
Elsevier of what is personally known to him '. Here is the charge
formulated by Tas.

' We may just mention, with a few words in passing, that the Secunde Samuel
Elsevier has likewise an excessively large piece of land at the so-called Klapmuts
[a hill in the neighbourhood], where the Company has a station up to the present
day. On that farm he also has bulk a large house and sows annually a large
quantity of corn. He has also planted a large vineyard there, and is richly

126 NEAR MULDER'S VLEI

provided with cattle ; but let it serve for Your Honours' information that,
during the government of the ex-Governor Simon van der Stel, two burghers
had each a farm in the neighbourhood, the one named Gerrit Jansz Visser and
the other Bar end Hendricks, who were both driven away from them by the
ex-Governor because they were too near the Company's station, although the
Secunde at present holds in possession that station of the Company and the
surrounding land, on which many farmers could subsist.'

No one would suppose on reading this that the two burghers in
question had been removed from the neighbourhood sixteen years
earlier because of the ' trouble and injury ' they were causing the
Company's station, nor that they had been given two fine farms in
the Stellenbosch district, nor that Klapmuts had been abandoned
by the Company many years before Elsevier 's grant was made. Down
the centuries echoes the sense of injustice which wrung from van der
Stel in his own ruin his chivalrous protest against the treatment
meted out to ' this slandered Elsevier ', whose only crime, even
according to Adam Tas, was that he owned Elsenburg, 'which, in
truth ', wrote the Governor, ' is of much less mark and importance
than many other farms possessed by the subscribers to the Accusation,
especially that of Tas, composer and writer of the charges.' It
seems almost incredible that the charges could have succeeded —
as though sowing corn and planting a vineyard were crimes — and the
result reflects very little credit on the intelligence of the Seventeen.
We can well believe that the sorrow with which the Secunde looked
out across his fair lands for the last time was embittered by the
sense of injustice. His daughter married the Reverend Hendricus
Bek, minister of Stellenbosch, and remained at the Cape when her
father was exiled.

Elsevier 's house, as we have seen, was destroyed by fire some years
later, and in 1752 the estate passed into the capable hands of Martinus
Melck^ of Memel, the ancestor of a well-known Cape family. There
were many evidences of his ownership on the house which has again
suffered from fire, but it is thought that the walled-in canal below
the house dates from Elsevier's occupation.

We have a picture of a thriving Cape farmer of the eighteenth
century from Stavorinus, who visited Elsenburg about 1768.

' The dwelling-house is furnished in a neat and even costly
style, so that it more resembles a gentleman's villa than the mansion
of a farmer.' He speaks of the

' four large barns, each 150 feet long, in which Melck housed his com and wine.
Blacksmiths', carpenters', and a cartwright's workshops, with large numbers

^ Through his marriage with Anna Margaretha Hop.

E L S E N B U R G R E F O R E T H t: F I R E

U 1 T K \' K

WINE-CELLAR, UITKYK

GABLE AT HAAZENDAL

BELL-TOWER
ELSE N BURG

NEAR MULDER'S VLEI 127

of oriental slaves to work them were there. One slave cost Melck 1,500 rix-
doUars, upwards of £2°° sterling in the money of that day, and he had fully
200 slaves, all well housed and cared for. He owned seven or eight other farms.
Some produced corn, some wine, some were for pasturage, under the care of
stewards. He had a great love for his king [Frederick the Great] and decorated
the chimney-pieces and other parts of his house with the arms of his sovereign.
In one year he cleared about ^9,000 sterling in the money of that day from the
sale of wine and spirits.'

Stavorinus also visited Klapmuts, then the property of the
Albertyn family, where moved by the hospitality and prosperity
of his surroundings he exclaims * Happy, thrice happy mortals, who,
situated at the extremity of the globe, amidst the wilds of Africa,
formerly so barren and desert, though now fertilized and embellished
by your labour, can lead a life of content and innocence ! '

Many of the farmers held additional grazing or corn land, and
to Martin Melck belonged a fine farm at Berg River, which is
still in the possession of his descendants. Here he built an ample
homestead, with rooms of generous proportions, and he filled it with
the fine furniture of the period which is there to this day. The
farm lies in the heart of the flower-country, and every spring the
surrounding veld gleams with sheets of orange arctotis or blue
anchusa, or the rich pinks and yellows of the nemesia. A wonderfully
lovely country is that in which Martin Melck 's grazing ground is set,
and where his descendants breed fine horses to-day.

We have wandered a long way from Elsenburg — but the men
who built and lived in the old houses are sometimes as interesting
as the houses themselves, and Melck and Elsevier were strongly
marked personalities — the prosperous, vigorous burgher and the
shadowy, sorrowful figure of the ruined Secunde.

There are other interesting houses in the neighbourhood.
Klapmuts, once the Government' post to which reference has been
made, now belongs to a branch of the Cloete family. Close to it
lies the fine square house of Uitkyk, built by Martinus Melck for
one of his daughters on her marriage — Thibault being the architect —
on the land which was granted to Jan Oberholster in 1712. It has
spacious rooms, filled with beautiful old furniture by its present
owner Mrs. Sauer, by whom too the garden has been brought to
a state of beauty not always seen on a fruit farm, where spraying
and pruning and packing usually absorb more attention than flowers.
Fruit, too, there is in abundance, and beyond the avenue of palms
and the pergola heaped high with Dorothy Perkins roses a flush of
peach-blossom lies over the land in spring.

128 NEAR MULDER'S VLEI

On the other side of Mulder's Vlei lies Joostenburg, granted to
Matthys Michielse in 1694. In 1754 we find the Heemraad Gerrit
van der Byl asking for a plot of land ' near his farm Joostenburg '.

There are many other old grants near Mulder's Vlei, such as
Hercules Pilaar and Warborg, granted in 1701 and 1704 to the
Reverend Hercules van Loon, the minister of Stellenbosch who
preceded Bek and came to an untimely end by his own hand. His
wife — as we have already noted — is known to us in the Company's
records as ' the chaste Mrs. Maria Engebregt, whose virtue and
godliness are irreproachable '. This tribute was evoked by the fact
that Mrs. van Loon testified on oath to the libels and slanders uttered
by the half-crazy minister le Boucq (successor to the kindly Peter
Kalden who was recalled with van der Stel) in the presence of herself
and Mrs. Huysing.

Some miles nearer Cape Town the road leads you past what
was once the beautiful house of Haazendal — how beautiful only those
can realize who have seen Mrs. Trotter's drawing of the old home-
stead before it was modernized out of all charm, a fine gable being
all that survives of its former grace.

A lonely place out on the open veld, where only the song of a
passing bird or the sighing of the breeze rustling over the wild
flowers breaks the stillness. Its first owner, Christoffel Haazewinkel,
came to the Cape in 1686, and after serving the Company as messenger
of justice and beadle for eighteen years, was granted in 17 14 the land
to which he gave his name, on the condition that he should give
a tithe of his corn to the Company and plant oaks and other trees
to replace any that he might cut down. This was a very common
condition of tenure under the old Dutch administration, and to it
the Cape owes many of her fine avenues and shady woods. Haaze-
winkel farmed this land peacefully for twenty-four years, and then,
suddenly, home-sickness gripped him — a yearning for the grey skies
and tulip fields of Holland. So he sold Haazendal to Claas van Raap
and Jacobus van Brochem and went his way.

But whether the old man found happiness in the land which he
had not seen for forty-two years, who knows ?

There is a certain melancholy over Haazendal. Perhaps it is
the loneliness of the place, or perhaps it is the corrugated iron roof.
There are, however, pleasant associations with the farm— it was at this
homestead that the Swedish naturalist Sparrman received a welcome
from the Hanoverian bailiff in charge of the farm, when he went
' a-herborising ' on foot in 1772. His host entertained him with milk,
an excellent stewed cabbage, and a detailed account of his love affairs.

the: old walled canal, els en burg

ELSENBURG, now the Government Agricultural College

MADAME D E P A T O N

One of the pastel portraits attributed to
F I" a n c i s Boucher

XVI

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

A WARM hush lay over the land. It was May Day — which in
South Africa corresponds with that first of November which
ushers in the fogs and chills of northern lands. But, as we
sped from Stellenbosch up the mountain pass that is known as
Hell's Hoogte, it might have been midsummer, save for the scarlet
leaves on the pontac vines, which spoke of the falling sap. The
earth was red, too, rich red against the grey of the rhenoster and the
green of the broad leaves of the tobacco plantations. Down below
us, in the ravines, early white arums gleamed. Here and there a tuft
of pink heath or the waxen blossom of the protea broke into the
monotony of the rhenoster.

Up and up, until Stellenbosch lay far below us as we looked back,
and beyond Stellenbosch fold after fold of blue mountains, with the
great Table Mountain behind them. To our left, Simon van der
Stel's stern peak — where was once a ' salted ' tin mine — rose sheer
and purple against the clean blue of the sky. Then we began to
descend, past the road to Zeven Rivieren and the farm of Bethliem,
granted to Pierre Simond by Simon van der Stel, past Zorgvliet^ and
through the mission station of Pniel, nestling in the shade of its great
oaks, past the red-roofed village at Languedoc which Cecil Rhodes
built for the workers on his fruit farms in the valley below. And, as
evening fell, we came to Drakenstein and the little house of Nieu-
wendorp, where he sometimes came for respite from the strenuous
life which was his existence at Groote Schuur.

This farm was originally divided between Hans van Lier, Willem
Basson, and Andries Pietersen — the dates of the grants vary from
1690 to 1692 — but it is not known who built the homestead which
fell into decay and was replaced by this cottage a few years ago.

The lovely valley was bathed in the carmine Ught that sometimes
follows after sunset at the Cape as the motor stopped at the wide
white-pillared verandah. From the Paarl Mountain on our left to
French Hoek on our right it shone, flooding every peak of the Draken-
stein with glory, irradiating far-off Dal Josaphat and touching the
white homesteads with colour. Against the rose of the mountains

1 ZorgvlietwasgrantedtoCasper Wilders in 1692.
3489 s

130 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

the dark Italian pines reared their sombre green heads. Only the
yellowing Lombardy poplars which marked the course of the Berg
River and the falling leaves of the peach and plum orchards showed
that winter ever touched the radiant valley.

Next morning a soft bloom lay over the land, the bloom of a ripe
plum or a pastel drawing. The mountains were opal now, pink
and grey with violet fissures, rugged and bare or soft and alluring
according to the lights that changed from hour to hour.

For a while we sat on Cecil Rhodes's stoep, spellbound by their
colour. It was Ascension Day, and the still air seemed to vibrate
with a song of praise.

' Oh ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord. Praise Him and magnify
Him for ever ! '

No earthly sound broke the stillness, save an acorn that fell now
and again on the roof. Even the birds and the cicadas shared in the
warm, healing silence. In the far-off shadow of the blue mountains
some one was burning the veld, and a column of grey smoke rose
sheer into the air, unstirred by a breath of wind.

Early in the warm afternoon — for we had much to see — we roused
ourselves, and the motor carried us silently down the road through
the plum orchard that stretched before the house. Down the long
valley we passed, following in the footsteps of Simon van der Stel
as he rode between the hills on his journey of exploration, and of
the Huguenot pioneers who broke up the veld to make a place for
their vineyards two hundred and thirty years ago. It is a French
district still. Dutch names of homesteads or families are the ex-
ception. Living on farms which bear such names as Dauphine,
Cabriere, La Provence, La Cotte, La Motte, and so forth, you find
famihes with the old Huguenot names of Marais, de Villiers, Malherbe,
Roux, Joubert, and many more. They have forgotten the language
of their forefathers, and even the correct pronunciation of their own
names in some cases, but the characteristics of race are not so easily
obliterated. You see at a glance that the alert, dark-eyed men and
women who welcome the stranger with kindly courtesy are distinct
from the descendants of the more grave Dutch burghers who — ^with
a considerable proportion of men of other nationalities — composed
the earliest settlers.

It is a happy, smiling valley to-day, this French Hoek which
was once Coin Fran9ais. But in the early days of the settlement
the suppression of the French language by order of the Company,
coupled with the desire of the emigres to have a church of their own,

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN 131

in preference to being absorbed by the Dutch Reformed Consistory
at Stellenbosch, made it the theatre of much heart-burning and
revolt against what was considered the tyranny of the Government.

' Send me no more cadets of noble famihes, but plain Zeeland
farmers,' wrote Simon van der Stel at last, in despair.

The car wound its way past prosperous orchards and wide vine-
yards, through the village of French Hoek, over a precarious bridge,
and up in the shade of great oaks and pines until we reached the
mountain fastness of Boschenhout Vallei, where Jean Roux built his
homestead in 1777.

It was a wild and glorious spot in which he placed his house,
a little corner hemmed in between high mountains, green on their
lower slopes and rose-red and blue above the Hne of verdure. The
original house stood in a clearing, from which a fine view of the
valley is seen, but nothing remains of the building to-day save a few
foundation stones overgrown with wild bushes.

The present homestead may have been a contemporary out-
building, perhaps the slave quarters. It has a picturesque high
stoep and small windows with heavy shutters — the early settlers
were wise in their precautions against wild beasts or marauding
Hottentots.

Below the kloof lie Dauphin^ and the three farms which were
granted to the de Villiers brothers, who came here from La Rochelle
in 1689.

Some years ago, when I paid my first visit to French Hoek, I came
away enchanted with the beauty of Dauphine — the homestead on
the land granted to Etienne Niel in 1710. It was a singularly perfect
little house then, with gables, brown thatch, charming casement
windows and a half door of teak. The stoep was flagged, and in
the rear of the house a lofty shaft of cypress stood sentinel proudly.
I saw it again the other day in passing, and deplored the traces of
a modernizing hand. One saving grace remains, the gables are intact
and in the rear the old casement windows are still to be seen, recalling
what was once the charm of the front of the house, and perhaps
making restoration possible. In writing of this district it is often
difficult to assign an exact date to the old houses. We know when
the land was granted, but it is probable that the settlers built simple
houses in the first instance — the immediate necessity for a roof over
their heads being more pressing than niceties of architecture, for the
moment. But that the early colonists speedily became men of means
is evident from the van der Stel dispatches to the Company, and from
the record of passing trav€llers, and no doubt many of the beautiful

132 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

houses date from an earlier period than the dates on the gables would
seem to indicate. As we have seen elsewhere, these dates are often
only indicative of the work of later decorators. It is unlikely that
well-to-do men who were familiar with Huysing's Meerlust and
Simon van der Stel's Constantia would continue to be satisfied with
the small, plain houses of the refugees. Quite recently I have seen

an unmistakably old gable

which the builder in ' doing
up ' has embellished with the
date of the year before last.
The three de Villiers
homesteads lie near Dau-
phine. Pierre de ViUiers,
of Bourgogne or Burgundy,
the adjoining farm, married
Elisabeth, daughter of Isaac
Taillefer, whose farm of
Picardie, at the entrance to
the Paarl, was held up to
the Company's admiration
in the time of the van der
Stels by passing travellers.
From this marriage was des-
cended Lord de VilUers, the
late Chief Justice of South
Africa. Of Burgundy, much
of the grace has been shorn
by a fire which destroyed the
roof and the four end-gables
of the H, but the elaborately
decorated front gable is un-
scathed, and the windows
have not been spoiled. On
the gable are the initials B. M. and I. T. and the date 1791. It is
open to conjecture whether the latter initials refer to Isaac Taillefer,
or whether they are contemporary with the date. Within a short walk
is Jacques de Villiers's farm of La Bri, or Labori, as it is called to-day.
It is now the property of Mr. Roux. The ruin of the early-house and
a stump of the great tree that shaded it are in the vineyard near by.
Labori too is changed externally, but within — as in the other houses —
the fine rooms and floors and ceilings remain intact. Its chief glory
to-day lies in the magnificent oaks that surround the house.

BURGUNDY

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN 133

Beyond Labori is Champagne, granted to Abraham de ViUiers in
171 1. His wife was Susanne Gardiol, sister to Jacques de Villiers's
wife, Marguerite, daughters of Jean Gardiol, to whom the neigh-
bouring farm of La Cotte was granted in 1694.

Monsieur Haussman, Consul for France at the Cape about sixty
years ago, mentions the de Villiers family in his reminiscences. He
says that the three brothers only left La Rochelle at the earnest
entreaty of their aged parents and that the fourth brother, Paul,
could not reconcile himself to this lasting farewell and returned to
his home the day after he had left it. The three, when they began
life in the new country, had only one horse between them, so they
had to take it in turns to ride to church on Sundays and hear Pastor
Simond preach. He adds that amongst the Huguenots some were
' k la noblesse, car alors on sacrifiait son rang, sa fortune, sa liberte,
sa vie a sa foi '. The story of the du Plessis family is also recorded
by Monsieur Haussman.

' It is told that the Emperor Napoleon I, having learnt that there existed in
this colony a du Plessis, the descendant of an illustrious family of Calvinist
refugees, proposed to restore to him the title which had formerly been borne
by his ancestors, and to put him in possession of estates equal to those which
had formerly belonged to his family, if he would return to France. But the
honest old colonist, while showing himself grateful and touched by the proposi-
tion, said that he was too old to become grand seigiieur in France, and that he
preferred to die as he had lived, in simplicity at the Cape.'

From time to time small pastel portraits, attributed to Boucher,
have been found at the Cape. Tradition says that a number of
these were sent out from France by the relatives of the families
which had gone into exile, and it is to be regretted that comparatively
few are left ; a collector having acquired the bulk of them from
famihes in reduced circumstances, they were sent to Europe.

The most interesting link with the past which has been retained
at La Cotte is the old oak grown from an acorn brought from France
by Daniel Hugod, of Zion, On one of the Paris boulevards is a tree,
grown in its turn from one of the La Cotte acorns, returned to the
land of its fathers.

Below Champagne lies La Cabriere, half hidden amongst trees.
It was the homestead of Pierre Jourdaan, granted to him in 1694.

If corrugated iron had never been invented, the Cape would
have had fewer spoiled homesteads to mourn. At the same time we
must enter into the feelings of the owners who say that thatch is not
only dangerous in case of fire, but increasingly difficult to procure,
owing to the cultivation of the veld on which it grew. Brown tiles,

134 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

as dark and smooth as the thatch itself, is the only substitute which
has been suggested. The red Marseilles tiles take generations to
mellow in this sun-bathed land — why not make mellow tiles from
the first ? And why pull down the gables in removing the thatch ?
It is possible to endure an iron roof with greater equanimity when
the building it shelters is intact — there is always the lurking hope
that some day it may be replaced by thatch or tiles. But destroyed
gables are irreplaceable.

The old village of French Hoek and its neighbourhood are still
worth exploring, on the chance of coming upon ;an unspoiled home-
stead. One of the most charming is La Provence, granted to Pierre
Joubert in 1712, and at present quite untouched. The gable over
the front door bears the date 1800 — which may or may not be the
year of its building. It also bears the following elaborate inscription :
'D. 3 M. D. 13 D.'

It took some time to discover that this stood for ' De derde maand
en de dertiende dag ' — the third month and the thirteenth day. In
other words, March the thirteenth. A singularly picturesque little
house is La Provence.

Next to it lies La Motte, granted to Hans Hendrik Hattingh
in 1695. It will be remembered that he was also the owner of Speir,
near Stellenbosch. There are many instances of more than one
grant being made to an individual settler — probably one farm was
used for stock and the other for vine-growing and agriculture. La
Motte is a wine farm to-day, with wide and thriving vineyards.

Elsewhere we had found apples on every side, ruby red apples
that seemed to stretch in a frieze between us and the blue mountains
as we flashed past the orchards. Golden apples too, Ohenimuris of
colossal girth — we talked apples at every farm, and everywhere we
found that they were at that moment the pride of the fruit farmer's
heart, a pride which in due season would be transferred to his peaches
and nectarines.

On the hill-side to the left of the road leading from French Hoek
to Groot Drakenstein lies Normandie, granted to Gideon Malherbe
in 1713, and its neighbour Lormarins, recently bought by the Duke of
Abercorn. Up a long avenue of glowing scarlet-flowered eucalyptus
we drove to Lormarins, past a very large vineyard and into a space
surrounded by one of the low white walls which divide so many of
the old houses from the surrounding werf. The homestead is un-
spoiled, and well worth the care with which the late owner, Mr. Silber-
bauer, preserved it. The main gable of the fine house is interesting
and the pediment has a flat top which looks as though it were meant to

L O R M A R 1 N S

WINE-CELLAR, L O R M A R I N S

LORMARINS

BIEN DONNE

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN 135

carry a vase — the same type is to be seen on other houses in the district.
There are graceful curved rust-banks at the corners of the stoep.

The ancient oaks are the glory of Lormarins. Their leaves cast
a chequered shade over the homestead, past which a little streamlet
chuckles over cobble-stones on its way to the guava orchard below.
To the left of the house is a small pond, and in the pond an islet
shaded by a weeping-willow, and half-way round the pond runs
a curved wall on which is traced in raised plaster work ' L'Ormarins.
17 14-1905 '. The first grant was made to Jean Roi — who appears
later in the records as Jan Rooy — one of the Huguenots who supported
the younger van der Stel.

A rich land, this valley in the mountains, to which the exiles for
their faith came more than two centuries ago. Rich in old traditions,
in fair houses, in the good earth in which fruits and flowers come
to rare perfection. Some other old grants near French Hoek are
La Terre de Lucque, given to Matthieu Arniel in 1713, Pierre
Rousseau's farm of L'Arc d'Orl^ans, granted in 1695, and — one of
the rare Dutch names — Keer Weder, granted to H. Muller of Basle
in 1695, and well known to-day as a resting-place for sojourners in
the valley. There is a gay insouciance which is almost pathetic in
Franfois Retief's choice of a name for his homestead nearer the
Wemmer's Hoek mountains — Le Paris ! The sound of the name
must have been very dear to the exile's heart to condone its inappro-
priateness. It lies not far from La Rocque, which was granted to
Louis Barre in 1694.

In the fast falling darkness we drove back to the little cottage of
Cecil Rhodes — the Englishman who saw with clear vision the great
gifts which South Africa holds in her lap for the children she has
drawn from many nations. And, as we sat on his stoep after dinner,
in a stillness broken only by the liddle-liddle of frogs in a neigh-
bouring streamlet, looking over the star-lit valley, where bright
lights twinkled from prosperous homesteads set in wide orchards,
we knew that his faith in the land was justified.

Richer than French Hoek in unspoiled homesteads is its neighbour
Groot Drakenstein. That this is mainly due to the influence of
Cecil Rhodes, and the men whom he established on the farms which
he bought, is beyond question. The presence of one of his red-
roofed sheds is an almost invariable indication that the homestead
to which it belongs is in good order, its smooth brown roof intact,
its teak doors and casement or sash windows unchanged from the
finished plan of the man who built it a century or two ago.

136 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

Here, again, I must express the bewilderment I have always
felt in reflecting that there is apparently no record of any architect
in connexion with the older houses. That their fine lines and good
workmanship should have been taken for granted is indicative of
the high architectural standard and executive ability of two hundred
years back. That the Cape owes some of its treasures of beautiful
buildings to the Huguenots is suggested by the French influence
which is to be traced in many of the most graceful of the gables,
fanlights, and screens ; but the master-builders of that day were
apparently the owners of the homesteads themselves, whether they
drew their inspiration from Holland, France, or the East — or from
all three sources with Simon van der Stel's Groot Constantia as their
example.

Leaving the cottage in the cool of the morning, we drove through
the Rhodes farm of Good Hope, past the homestead of the beautiful
view — granted to Susanna Vos in 1708 — and up the road that leads
to the shaded little mission village of Pniel, to beautiful Rhone, one
of the Rhodes farms, and unspoiled. It retains its old roof and gables,
its fine floors and ceilings of yellow-wood, the brass crutch-handles
on the teak doors, and the inlaid screen which divides the entrance
hall from the long room behind, and can be unlatched and folded
back at pleasure. The date on the front gable, over the graceful
fanlight, is 1795 ; but, as I have often said, this does not necessarily
indicate the age of the building. The first grant of Rhone was made
to Jean Garde in 169 1. It Hes in the centre of a flourishing orchard —
four miles of apple, pear, peach, and plum trees — and at the side of
the house is an orange grove, the trees almost breaking under the
weight of the fast ripening fruit in the warmth of the golden autumn
day on which we saw it. The oranges formed a glorious foreground
to the mountain peaks, powdered at their summits with snow, against
the blue sky.

The Dwars River irrigates Rhone and its neighbour Boschendal ;
but the majority of the Drakenstein and French Hoek farms are
watered by the Berg River, and were long narrow grants about a mile
apart, so that no one might get more than his share of water. Behind
Rhone lay Languedoc, granted to Pierre Beneset or Beneke or
Benozzi — the records vary as to his name — in the same year.

Boschendal, another Rhodes farm, is as beautiful and prosperous
as Rhone. There is a fine amphtude about the old house, the wide
stoep that runs entirely round it, the wide curves of the gables, the
rounded steps of Batavian bricks, and the generous outhouses— we
do not know who built it, but that he was a man of large views we

','~""^^i5^^i„^^-

RHONE

From the oil-painting by R. Gwelo Goodman

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN 137

may feel sure. Here is another very good screen, inlaid with ebony,
and yellow-wood floors, doors, and ceihngs, as in Rhone. Boschendal
was granted to Nicolas de Lanoy in 1690. His daughter^ married
Ary Lekkerwyn or Lecrevent, who lived in what is now Mr. H. V.
Pickstone's charming house near by, and was subsequently murdered.
Lekkerwyn, as the homestead is called, is an example of the possi-
bility of adding to an old house without spoiling it — it is commodious
and convenient, and has lost nothing of its old-world charm. It is
filled with fine old furniture, china, and brass, acquired in the neigh-
bourhood, recalling the manner in which the houses which now
rejoice in tapestry-upholstered ' suites ' were once furnished. Mr. Pick-
stone and his brother — who owns the pleasant, spacious old house
of Delta — have helped to lift the fruit industry of the Cape from
lethargy to prosperity, and the country owes them a debt of gratitude.
There are many other interesting houses in this neighbourhood.
To the right, as you drive from Groot Drakenstein towards Simondium,
lies the gabled house of Meerlust — originally Meer Rust — on the
land granted to Jacobus van As in 1689, the neighbouring farm of
Eenzaamheid being given to Arnoldus Basson on the same date.

A neighbour of Lekkerwyn was Zandvliet, where lived Hans
Silverbag who murdered Ary Lekkerwyn. The record says that
he was hit on the head with a stick and killed, and, when you note
how closely all these early farms are crowded on the banks of the
Berg River and reflect on the mixed nationalities and types of men
who formed the early settlers, it is easy to believe that Willem Adriaan
van der Stel spoke the truth when he said that Drakenstein was a bad
and watery place, where the people lived too close to each other and
could not get on. It is a rich and prosperous valley to-day, where
plums and peaches, nectarines and grapes, are grown by the ton for
the Covent Garden market six thousand miles away. Here men with
English, French, and Dutch names are working side by side, as they
have fought and died shoulder to shoulder in Delville Wood and on
the plains of Flanders, moved by a common desire to uphold the
honour of that South Africa which to-day is neither Dutch nor
French nor English alone, but a state within the union of sister
states that form the British Empire.

Some of the finest houses in the valley He in this neighbourhood,
and a little farther on is beautiful Bien Donne, most beautiful when
you walk round to the back and realize that it was once the front,
which is now uninteresting. Here the end-gables show French
influence very clearly in their grace of curve and shell apex. Bien
^ Probably the same Marie de Lanoy who afterwards married Hans Hendrik Hattingh.

8489 T

138 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

Donne was once called Watergat, and received its present name
when the farm was cut into four portions to accommodate four brothers
of the name of Joubert, to which family this portion still belongs.
The original grant was made to Pierre Lombard in 1699. It^appears
on the plan as ' Zonder naam (without name) and Watergat '. Near
by was van Burtel's farm Suisseland, granted in 1696.

Past a hedge, vermilion with the blossoms of Tecoma capensis —
the Kaffir honeysuckle of Cape gardeners— we drove to Simondium,
the little village named after Pierre Simond, the French minister
who accompanied the Huguenots to the Cape. Here several old
homesteads lie close together. One of the largest is that of Vrede
en Lust, once owned by Jacques de Savoie, one of the most important
men amongst the Huguenots. His daughter. Marguerite, married
Henning Villon, after the death of her first husband Christoffel
Snyman, and was an ancestress of the family which is now known
as Viljoen, in accordance with the disguise in which many good
old French names are wrapped — de Villiers being sometimes
' Filjee ' and Vivier being occasionally written ' Weeweejee '. That
the descendants of the Huguenots should have lost all knowledge of
their mother tongue is comprehensible enough in the circumstances.
It is not so easy to understand why they should have been content
to forget their own names.

The homestead of Vrede en Lust is set amongst trees and
cut off from the surrounding country by a low white wall. The
house is simple in comparison with the very graceful outbuildings.
This peculiarity, which may be noticed in other instances, suggests
that the original homestead may have been destroyed by a fire which
spared the surrounding buildings and have been rebuilt on economical
lines. The gables of the outbuildings, like those of Bien Donne,
show distinct French influence.

Rust en Vrede — also granted to Jacques de Savoie in 1694 — is
the neighbouring farm. It is now famed for its well-grown and
thriving pear orchards. Behind it lie the vineyards of Le Plaisir
Merle, formerly called Plessis Marie, originally granted to Charles
Marais the elder in 1696. The pears and vines on these farms
showed remarkably good cultivation, and the orange trees were laden
with ripening fruit. Plessis Marie is probably the correct name, as
the family of Marais came from Plessis Marie in France.

On the other side of Vrede en Lust is another La Motte, with
a wide view and a modernized house. Beyond lay Frederiksberg
and Berg Henegouwen. All these were granted in 1694, La Motte
and Frederiksberg to Daniel and Jean Nortier and Berg Henegouwen

W c

FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN 139

to Jean Parisel and Jean Durand — who figures in the records as Jan
Doeringh, his name being one of the earUest to lose its original
French form.

On the opposite side of the road lies Daniel Hugod's Zion —
a grant of 169 1. I could go on almost indefinitely with a list of
names, but those which have been mentioned will serve to indicate
how almost wholly French this lovely valley was in its early days.

We turned off into the Klapmuts road at the little chapel which
stands somewhere near the site of Pierre Simond's simple church —
so simple that before long it sank to the ground, leaving nothing but
a pile of bricks to mark where it had stood. There is more of mixed
farming and less of exclusive fruit culture between Groot Drakenstein
and Klapmuts. First in importance of the nearer homesteads is
De Babylonsche Toren, near the conical hill of this name. It was
granted in 1692 to Pieter van der Byl — the father of the Pieter van
der Byl who owned Vredenburg in the Moddergat and joined in the
denunciations against van der Stel's Vergelegen as a farm upon which
' fifty farmers might make a living '. Babylonsche Toren, now the
property of Mr. Louw, must have been a very beautiful house before
its gables were shorn off to accommodate an iron roof. Within are all
the usual points of a fine Cape house, polished wood floors and ceilings
and two very graceful cupboards built into the wall of the dining
room. Near them hangs the old grant, signed by Simon van der
Stel. The outbuildings are on an ample scale, and fortunately
retain their gables. The old slave-bell, too, still hangs in the bell-
tower, and peals out across the vineyards and the veld — it is inscribed
' Soli Dei Gloria '. A curved wall cuts off the homestead from the
open country, and through the white-pillared gateway we saw the
distant Drakenstein mountains turn flame colour and carmine beneath
the setting sun.

On the opposite side of the main road van der Byl's ally, Jacobus
van der Hey den, held the farm of Overveen, granted to him in 1690.
The neighbouring homesteads of Kunnunburg and Bloemendal were
held at the same period by Willem Bok and Martin van Staden.
Van der Heyden afterwards owned Laatste Gift, near Vergelegen.

As darkness began to fall we came to a large vlei covered with
white blossoms of the Aponogeton — the sweet-scented pond-weed of
the Cape, whose flowers enter into the savoury ragout known to
Dutch cooks as ' water-uintje breedee '.

' Simon's Vallei,' we said to each other. ' And that is the home-
stead of the Fiscal Johannes Blesius, the large modernized house inside
that charming wall. We shall be benighted — but we must see it.'

140 FRENCH HOEK AND GROOT DRAKENSTEIN

As with all the farms we had visited, whether the owners were
friends or strangers, we received a kindly welcome on the doorstep,
and were conducted to all the points of interest by the owner, Mr. De
Kok. It is a very large farm to-day, and the house must have been
magnificent before the alterations which deprived it of the gables.
It still retains its spacious rooms.

Most of the land is under corn, but Simon's Vallei has wide vine-
yards and large oak plantations. From a rise near the house we
could see the fair valley whence we had come, the white homesteads
of Drakenstein and distant French Hoek gleaming in the evening
light. A mellow softness touched the broad fields of stubble ; the
Paarl rock behind us was dark purple against the sunset sky. Dal
Josaphat lay in grey shadow, but on the crests of the Drakenstein
rested a touch of rose-red as day passed into night.

RHONE

LA. PROVENCE

OLD CHURCH AT THE PAARL

VREDENHOF

XVII

THE PAARL

THE Paarl is one seven-mile-long street, approached at either
end by an avenue of stately stone-pines, bordered with houses
set in pleasant gardens and shaded by great oaks. They were
all charming houses once, and some of them still retain their gables
and old-world air, while in the little gardens flourish roses, gardenias,
daphne, camellias, and many other flowers. The railway station is
built on the farm De Zoete Inval, granted to Hercule des Pres in 1692.
Four early grants lie at the southern end of the Paarl, on the slope
of the hill below the two granite boulders, the Paarl and the Diamant,
the former giving its name to the town. Of these grants, Picardie and
Labori stand in the name of the Huguenot Isaac Taillefer and his
son Jean, to whom the land was given in 1691 ; they are now the
property of Mr. Louw. Franfois Leguat, a French Huguenot of
noble birth, who visited the Cape a few years later, writes :

' One of these fugitives named Taillefer, a very honest and industrious man,
' and very dilligent in investigating all kinds of things, has a garden which may
certainly be called beautiful. Nothing is wanting in it ; everything is in order
and as it ought to be. He has likewise an inner yard, with all kinds of aviaries
and birds ; also a multitude of oxen, sheep, and horses which graze the whole
year through without ever being in want of food, and without the necessity on
his part of being provided with hay — certainly a great convenience. This noble
man receives those excellently well who visit him, and treats them grandly. His
wine is the best that is obtained there, and as nearly as possible like our small
wines of Champagne.'

Elsewhere he writes of the ' wonderful fine Landskips ', the fine
rivulets, and the little hills covered with vines, the gardens and orchards
' which are filled with all sorts of Fruits, Herbs, and Pulse, as well
European as Indian '. I quote from the old English translation.

How far the present homestead of Picardie is that of Taillefer it is
difficult to say. It is, in any case, a very charming house with good and
simple gables, and though French windows have been introduced at the
front the back is unaltered. The outhouses are especially attractive.

The neighbouring homestead was La Concorde, granted to Gabrie
le Roux in 1689. All these grants are now intersected by the main
street, and the oldest house on the property lies on the road. The

142 THEPAARL

fourth grant was that of Goede Hoop, given to Jean Cloudon in 1688,
and of great interest to-day on account of the experiments in olive-
growing which have been made on the hill-side above the homestead.
Goede Hoop is approached by a drive bordered by the flaming
Tecoma capensis and is a pleasant white house, fortunate in retaining
its thatched roof. It was the father of the present owner, Mr. Minnaar
(a descendant of the Huguenot Jean Mesnard of Provence), who
brought thirty olive trees to the Paarl and discovered that any cutting
would grow luxuriantly in the disintegrated granite of the hill-side.
Van Riebeeck and the van der Stels and Cecil Rhodes had all dreamed
of olive culture at the Cape, but the old farmers found wine-making
an easier business and for generations continued to grow little but the
vine and corn. As we walked up an avenue of olive trees laden with
fruit Mr. Minnaar told us how every one had said : ' Olives ? Why,
you 'II have to wait a lifetime before you see any result ' — a theory
which they had probably inherited from the men who said the same
to Simon van der Stel — and how the trees had borne a good crop
five years from the date of planting.

And as he talked we climbed up the hill-side, through olive planta-
tions, until we paused for lack of breath and turned to look at the
glory of the view spread beneath us — the ' wonderful fine Landskip '
of Fran9ois Leguat. It was indescribably beautiful : blue sky, stern
mountains, rich farm-lands. And I hoped that the souls of those who
' looked forward and made some beginnings ' looked down too on the
wide vineyards and prosperous orchards and — above all — on the silver
sheen of the olive trees as the soft wind swept over the leaves.

In the Archives are preserved the plans of the first church built
at the Paarl.

This plan and the requisition for materials were sent in by the
Reverend Petrus Arkelius van Aken, who was appointed minister of
Drakenstein— which included the Paarl— in 17 14, and lost no time
in applying for a church to replace the ' simple barn ' which had fallen
down at Simondium. The plan is signed ' J. Meerman '—the first
Cape architect of whom we have any trace, if he was the architect.
The site chosen was close to that occupied by the present South Paarl
Church, and is described as lying ' about seven and a half minutes
from the minister's house '—the latter being the once-lovely Oude
Pastorie, which figures on the cover of Mrs. Trotter's Old Cape Colony,
but has since been spoilt by the breaking down of its gables to accom-
modate an iron roof. In the Requesten of 1 7 1 5 we find the Heemraden
of Stellenbosch and Drakenstein referring to the ' large sums ' spent
on building a house for the Drakenstein minister. If they could have

?^ o

< 1

I — I >-,

< ^

THE PAARL

143

foreseen the destructive spirit which was to animate their descendants
they would probably have been more economical.

Perhaps with a view to making his peace with heaven, Henning
Huysing bequeathed i ,000 rix-dollars towards the building of Pastor
van Aken's church — though the Kerkeraad had considerable difficulty
in getting the money from his widow. The total sum estimated for
building was 15,094 rix-dollars — over three thousand pounds. In
1 79 1 the church was enriched by an organ, the ornaments of which
were executed by ' the renowned sculptor Anreith ', says Spoelstra
in his Bouwstoffen. Eight years later, in 1799, the Kerkeraad suggested
that the church should be enlarged by the addition of two wings. It
was, however, urged that the building ' had a mis-shapen external
appearance ' and that it was built of soft, bad bricks. It was therefore
agreed that a new church should be erected, and the present church
was consecrated in 1805, the old one being sold on the following day.
If we may permit ourselves any regret for the loss of the earlier church,
there is ample cause for congratulation in the plan chosen for the small
church which is now the most graceful building left to the Paarl. It
is in the form of a Greek cross, with curved gables at the end of each
arm. The old records of baptisms and marriages kept by Paul Roux
d 'Orange are to be seen there.

One of the early grants at the Paarl was Nantes, in the centre of the
present town, given to Jean Colmar in 1692. Parys, across the railway
line, was the homestead of Jean le Roux in 1699. Bethel, also in the
town, was granted to Louis Cordier in 1692, and a somewhat later
grant was Optenhorst, given to Booy Booysen in 1713 — it will be
seen that the Dutch names in this area are few in comparison with the
French — and near Bethel was Pierre de Labuschagne's homestead of
Pontak, on land granted in 1694. Behind the Paarl mountain lie some
old houses — Paarl Diamant, on land granted to Pieter van Nimwegen
in 1692 ; Eenzaamheid, the homestead of the Burgher-Councillor Die-
penaauw in 1693 ; and Lands Kroon, granted to Jan Hofsmit in 1691.

As the train winds through the lovely valley in which the Paarl
lies, you see orchards and vineyards on either hand. Under the great
oaks which shade them from the mid-day heat rest many of the old
houses that sheltered those early settlers who took their lives into their
hands when they ventured so far from all that meant safety and ease.

At the northern end of the Paarl lies the fine old house of Vredenhof ,
in the midst of thriving vineyards. The original grant was made to
' Frans Bastiaans ' of Amiens (otherwise Francois Bastien) in 1699.
It is a good specimen of a Cape classical house, square and solid, with
high sash windows and a door flanked by pilasters. A smaller thatched
house at the side is probably the earlier homestead.

XVIII

IN THE DAL

THE earliest record of Dal Josaphat — the broad valley which hes
between the Paarl mountain and the Drakenstein — is found in
van Riebeeck's Journal. He records how, in October 1657, he
sent out an expedition under the Fiscal Abraham Gabbema, with the
object of finding the nearest tribe of Saldanhars and opening up a trade
in cattle with them. Throughout his administration van Riebeeck
desired to explore the interior, in the hope of finding the golden city of
Ophir and the river Spirito Sancto, but Gabbema's party did not get
beyond the Berg River, which they were unable to cross, nor were they
successful in procuring much cattle from the natives, but they reported
on ' fine lands for cultivation and good pastures along the river,' in
which were many hippopotami. The Paarl and Diamant boulders and
the Klapmuts hill were named by them, and on leaving these they
emerged into ' a beautiful valley, about an hour's walk in length,
where there was as fine grass for hay as could be found in the Father-
land.' This valley, which is described as lying NNW. of the Paarl
valley, is evidently the one which afterwards received the name of
Dal Josaphat, but it remained untenanted save by the wandering
natives and the wild beasts and birds until, with the coming of the
Huguenots later in the seventeenth century, the settlement was
expanded to the northward.

There are many old grants in the Dal, and some of the houses have
been touched with the blighting influence of the injudicious restorer
but others retain their original charm. Many of these grants were
made to French families, and to-day the preponderating names in
the district are du Toit and Hugo — the modern form of Hugod or
Hugot.

The road from Wellington into Dal Josaphat leads past the red
roofs of Diemersfontein, a late grant of 178 1 to Fran9ois Marais and
to-day a prosperous dairy farm. Below Diemersfontein Hes Kyk
Uit. The house, which^ belongs to Mr. Daniel Hugo, has been
modernized, but it still retains the date 1749 above the door, under
what was once a curved gable. It is a thriving farm, and one of the
most beautiful things we saw in the Dal was a magnificent pair of

■d

1-^

1—1

-i-|

-t^

IN THE DAL

145

snow-white turkeys in their pride, which emerged from a thicket as we
were talking, and marched stateHly across the werf , followed by ten or
twelve turkey lings. It seemed murderous to think of Christmas
dinners, as the beautiful, pagan creatures went by.

Guided by Mr. Hugo's directions we went on our way to the
farms at the base of the mountains. The first in order was Kleinbosch,
granted to Fran9ois du Toit in 1685, on the understanding that he
defended himself from the fierce hordes of Hottentots in the mountain
fastnesses behind him. Mr. Hugo had pointed out the gully, now
known as Du Toit's kloof, in which a great fight took place, when the
Hottentots were beaten back over the mountains as far as Goudini.
The places now known as Trompetter's Bosch and Rust Kraal carry
in their names a remembrance of this conflict between the advancing
agents of civilization and the bewildered, angry little savages who
were being steadily driven back from the good arable lands of their
fathers. A later grant, that of Limiet Rivier, to the north of the
present town of Wellington, was made to Francois du Toit in 171 5.

Kleinbosch is a simple little house, surrounded by modern
buildings. Near by is Mr. D. F. du Toit's homestead of Naauw
Bepaald, now called Valentia. The upper part of the house was
burned, and has been rebuilt on modern lines, but there is a beautiful
little building at the side, which may have been the earlier homestead
— despite the inscription ' 1821 ' — judging by the grace of the gables
and the iridescence which only age and weather combined could have
given the glass in the windows. We noticed this iridescent glass in
the windows of several houses in the Dal which were only built
eighty years ago, and it is possible that in those instances the windows
had been removed from the earlier buildings. Naauw Bepald has
belonged to the Du Toit family for several generations.

Our road to the next homestead led us away from the mountains,
through prosperous orchards of plum and guava, and past acres of
golden apricots.

And then, quite suddenly, we came upon the Magic Mere — not
the imitation of it that other pools and lakelets have seemed to be.
From edge to edge it glowed in pure, pale purple, and it was not until
our driver jumped down and broke off a spike of flowers for us that
we knew that we were looking on a sheet of water hyacinth — Pontederia
crasstpes is its botanical name. Drop the veriest fragment of this
plant into a pond and it will spread over the surface almost as rapidly
as a ripple ; but even in Madeira I have never known it blossom in
this comprehensive fashion.

It was only a short distance from the Magic Mere to Schoongezicht

2489 u

146 IN THE DAL

of the Dal, a large homestead on the land granted to Abraham Vivier
in 1694, the same whose descendants sometimes call themselves
Weeweejee. The present homestead bears the date 1826, but there
must have been a house before that time. Calamity, in the shape of
fire, fell upon Schoongezicht not long ago. Fortunately, only the roof
was destroyed, and some of the fine ceiling beams charred, but the
graceful gables escaped unscathed. Of course, the result is a corrugated
iron roof. It is waiting for those dark brown tiles which are some day
to restore their dignity to the old houses — but not, I am assured by some
of the owners of the houses, until they are as cheap as corrugated iron.

Schoongezicht has unusually large and lofty rooms, so large that
a fine old four-poster bed looked like a speck in mid-ocean, in one of
the bedrooms. It has a fine screen and wall-cupboards of teak and
stinkwood, while the beams are yellow-wood. With all this it is
amazing to find that the floors are only beaten clay, in a land where
homesteads of any size have usually floors of polished wood or
shining tiles. Perhaps the builder was a faddist, who thought clay
floors sanitary. Perhaps he died before the house was finished. It
could hardly have been economy, for the homestead is built on lavish
lines, and there is no indication that expense was of the sUghtest
consideration. Perhaps they were destroyed in the fire.

The sun was setting, and we regretfully abandoned further explora-
tion in the Dal, turning our faces towards Wellington. A short drive
took us past Roggeland, granted to Pieter Beuk of Lubeck, in 1692,
and still retaining the charming early house at the side of the present
dwelling, to lovely Nonpareil. It is a great delight to come upon a fine
old house which has not been spoiled by latter-day owners.^ Non-
pareil lies on the ground granted to Pierre Vivier in 1694, though he
had held it on loan since 1690. Goede Rust, not far off, belonged to
Jacques Vivier.

A most exquisitely beautiful valley in which these Huguenot exiles
came to rest more than two centuries ago, whether you see it in the
pearly dawn or with the mountains flushed wine-red in the sunset ;
but none of the homesteads look out over a more radiant view than
does Nonpareil. Blessed, too, is Nonpareil in its owners, and in the
care with which Mr. and Mrs. Hugo have guarded the old house.
There is some very good old furniture here and a graceful wall-
cupboard, while over the screen which divides the voorhuis from the
dinmg-room is a curious semi-heraldic painting. Night pressed, and
we were obliged to hurry past Goede Rust, where the farmer's wife
was weighmg magnificent live turkeys on scales hanging from a tree—
' Since this was written a verandah has been added to the house.

KEURFONTEIN, LOWER PAARL

A PAARL WINE-CELLAR

SCHOONGEZICHT IN DAL JOSAPHAT

NONPAREIL

IN THE DAL 147

I never saw so many turkeys in one day as on that drive — through
Rust en Werk, granted to Etienne Bruere in 1694, and so to Wellington
as the darkness hid the distant mountains from our sight.

Most of the grants in Dal Josaphat appear to have been made
between 1693 and 1695. These farms were probably not only grazing
outposts as were many of the grants north of Wellington, but good lands
for vineyards and general cultivation. With very few exceptions the
settlers in this district were French. In connexion with the northern
grants it is interesting to note that Simon van der Stel, after a visit to
the inland districts in 1698, wrote to the Seventeen to say that he
found that some of the Drakenstein and Stellenbosch farmers had
not sufficient land to enable them to develop agriculture, grain, and
cattle-rearing, and that he had provided ' about thirty such persons '
each with a good piece of new land ' in the Wagon-makers' Valley at
the Limiet Berg '.

This resolution explains the number of grants in this district
which were awaiting the signature of Willem Adriaan van der Stel
when he took office in February 1699. Gerrit Cloete for instance,
who owned part of Ida's Valley, near Stellenbosch, was given the
grazing land near Riebeeck Casteel, which he called Alles Verloren.
De Savoie of Simondium had Kromme Rivier ; Isaac Taillefer of the
Paarl had Leeuwen Vallei ; Blesius, and his father-in-law Abraham
Diemer, had Dekker's Vallei in addition to their fine farm of Simon's
Vallei — and so on.

Other grants were made to the newly arrived Huguenots, and very
remote and uncivilized must the uncultivated veld have seemed to
the men and women who had been reared in the fair land of France.
Was it in a wistful mood, I wonder, or with the gaiety of an incurable
optimism, that Pierre Cronier called his wild, uncultivated acres
' Versailles ' ?

In the southern portion of Dal Josaphat there are several old farms
bearing French names — Orleans, Calais, St. Omer ^ and so forth — but
on most of them the early homesteads have either been altered out of
recognition or have been replaced by modern houses. There are,
however, others which have escaped this fate, and one of the most
charming old houses in the district is Nederburg, set in a valley and
approached from Huguenot Station by an up-and-down road across
the veld and down a hill-side. The house probably owes its preserva-
tion from corrugated iron and painted deal to the variations in the
road which I have mentioned. Away from the public eye, there was

1 Granted respectively to Matthieu Manier of Calais, in 1692, and to Armand
Fracasse of Provence, in 1699, to Jean Veron of Malines, in 1699.

148 IN THE DAL

no temptation to ' improve ' it in order to impress the passer-by with
its up-to-dateness. There is cause for thankfulness that the vandals
who stripped the beautiful brasswork from many of the homestead
doors and the silver handles from the old armoires, and sold them in
Cape Town and Johannesburg, never discovered Nederburg.

It is one of the six-gabled houses of the usual country type, arid a
wide stoep, paved with old red tiles, runs entirely round the building,
breaking at each corner into a whitewashed gable with a curved back.
The end-gables are simple and good, those over the front and back
belong to a more elaborate type. Nederburg was probably built
towards the close of the eighteenth century, as it bears the name of the
Commissioner of the Dutch East India Company who visited the
Cape at that time. An older homestead stood near by, on the site
now occupied by the manager's house, but it had fallen into decay
and had to be rebuilt.

The interior of Nederburg is very charming. There are the heavy-
timbered ceilings and the tiled floors which one would expect to find
in a house of this type. The doors are exceptionally good, even for an
old Cape house, of teak panelled in yellow-wood and with very
graceful handles and escutcheons of brass. There is a fine wall-
cupboard which has escaped the destruction which has overtaken so
many of its kin, with claw-and-ball feet and festoons of leaves and
flowers culminating in a group of carved ostrich feathers. In such
cupboards treasures of old cut-glass and silver were kept in the days
before our people learned to give gold for pinchbeck, and to exchange
the treasures which had passed down to them from their fathers for
wares from Brummagem.

In the heart of a wide vineyard near the house is a bare space —
the little burial-place that one finds on many of the country farms.
Here the former owners of the homestead have the right to bring
their dead ; and sometimes through the smiling green of the vines
winds a little train of mourners, carrying to his resting-place some
Relief or Rousseau of the neighbourhood. A pleasant place wherein
to rest, with the bokmakeries and seisjes singing overhead to the
accompaniment of a little stream that ripples down to Orleans below.

There are large fruit orchards on the farm — naartjes and apples,
peaches and apricots. As I looked at the broad expanse, flushed with
bud and blossom, I wished again that I had beside me the little
Commander to whose grit and energy the Cape owes the foundation
of its fruit-farming. A few months ago I walked down Bond Street
and noticed a flash of orange in a shop window. There I saw naartjes
from the Cape, hundreds of them, neatly packed in punnets and

IN THE DAL

149

labelled — the finished product, of which Jan van Riebeeck's struggles
with floods and south-easters formed the raw material.

Struggles with ignorance at head- quarters, too. It is difficult to
picture the sensation with which he must have read the following
directions from the Seventeen in Holland.

* In order to have tame fruit you need only cut off a twig from a wild tree
and graft it, either upon the same tree or another. In this manner the wildness
is entirely destroyed.'

Towards the right of the Klein Drakenstein road, nearer to the
mountains than Nederburg, is a long avenue of stone-pines which
leads to Amsterhof and its orange groves. It is a picturesque old
gabled house sheltered by mighty oaks of Simon van der Stel's own
planting — so the owner, Mr. Hugo, told me. A golden sea of oranges
sweeps almost to the door of Amsterhof, and fruit, leaf, and flower
were enchantingly lovely against the blue of the sky.

The old Italians knew it, this heart-filling beauty of the orange
tree, and they painted it until it came to be as closely linked with the
thought of Italy as are the Madonna's lilies or the purple iris and
yellow tulips of Val d'Arno. At Amsterhof the trees were breaking
under the weight of oranges and citrons, lemons and naartjes. The
air was heavy with the sweet scent of the white velvet blossoms in the
dreamy warmth of the still South African noon. The sun poured
down in his fullness on the heads of Simon van der Stel's oak saplings,
grown into the stately trees which wrap the old house in their green
shade.

Beyond Amsterhof lie several old farms. One of these is De
Wilde Paarde Jagt, granted to Philip Fouche in 1699, and now bear-
ing the more prosaic if less cumbrous name of Mineral Springs. The
change is not for the better, nor is the anglicizing of old names in other
instances to be commended, for Morgenster and Parel Vallei and
Onverwacht have associations which are not retained by Morning Star
and Pearl Valley and The Bush.

XIX

THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY

A DUN-COLOURED morning, one of those days in which a
general sandy hue wraps mountains and veld in dinginess — such
mountains and veld as were visible between the plantations of
wattle, laden now with dull-brown seed-pods — and we regretted the
tw^o-hours' railway journey which lay before us.

But after Kraaifontein we passed into more open country, where
were newly reaped cornfields, of a pensive yellow in the dull atmosphere,
with the corn heaped high in rich stacks. Then a stretch of wild veld,
with belated coral watsonias and red heath set amongst waving brown
grasses. Then the steel-grey mountains behind Klapmuts, against
which dark umbrella pines stood out in velvet richness.

And so through the Dal we came to the Waggon-makers' Valley,
which to-day is known as Wellington, and the modern railway station
set amongst some of the earliest farms about fifty miles from Cape
Town. Many of these early grants were made to men who owned
good farms in Paarl, Drakenstein, and elsewhere, as the sixty morgen
of land which was the usual extent of those farms would not accommo-
date both vines and stock, and, as we have seen, the more northerly
grants were given for grazing-land. They extended for a considerable
distance along the Berg River to the north of the present town, as
Simon van der Stel, in pursuance of his policy of the expansion of the
country, had intended to establish a line of colonists from French
Hoek to Saldanha Bay.

Some of these grants were made to Huguenots ; there is a larger
proportion of French than of Dutch names amongst the first settlers
in the district. Fortuin, for instance, the lovely little homestead
which Hes near Blaauwvlei, south of Wellington, is on the land
which was granted in 1699 to Charles Marais of Plessis. How far it
is his house we do not know, as the peculiarly interesting front gable,
which is decorated with a pineapple device in raised plasterwork,
bears the date 18 10. The house is T-shaped, and the gables through-
out are charming. The ceilings are formed of bamboos laid closely
together over beams of yellow-wood. Three tall, sombre cypresses
keep sentinel guard over the house, and from its stoep we looked
across to the corn-clad hill of Groenberg, on which the sun was now

SIDE GABLES

;«»Kri?7Z5S^^^

FRONT GABLE

NEDERBURG

W A L L - C U P B O /\ R D

GROENBERG

F O R T U I N

THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY 151

pouring a flood of golden light, while the foreground was brilliant
with oleanders and crimson-patched apricots. The distant mountains
had turned from steel to the rich, deep violet of midday, and as we
drove back into Wellington the little gardens that border the wide
streets were gay with purple jacaranda, pink hollyhocks, and roses.

Where the town now stands were originally several farms, each
probably with a fine homestead, but few of the old houses remain.
Of these, Onverwacht is one.^ The Dutch Reformed Church stands
on what was Champagne, the farm granted to Hercule Verdeau in
1699 ' some of the streets lie on a portion of Klip Vallei, granted to
Philippe du Pre in the same year ; while others extend over Kromme
Rivier, granted to Jacques de Savoie in addition to his farm at Simon-
dium, probably as a grazing-ground.

Near the railway station is Olyvenhout, granted to Etienne Cronier
or Crosnier or Crognet in February 1699. Many grants in the neigh-
bourhood bear this date ; the land had probably been given out on
loan earlier, and the tenure was confirmed by Willem Adriaan van der
Stel within a few days of his taking office.

Olyvenhout was a simple H house in the first instance, but
Mr. Herbert Baker has enlarged it by building on two wings extending
forward, at right angles to the front, each terminating in a simple
gable. The space between these extending wings is a columned
square, open in the centre to the sky after the manner of a Roman
atrium, and paved with large square tiles of dull blue and red.

On the gable over the front door is the date 1797 and the initials
*M. M.' and 'A. M.', probably those of two brothers named Malan,
who divided the house into two distinct dwellings by the simple
device of running a wall across the middle of the long dining-room,
cutting it into two T-shaped houses. This has now been removed
and the room restored to its original dimensions. Olyvenhout is a
good example of the manner in which an old homestead may be
enlarged without its proportions being destroyed.

Not far off lies Versailles, on the outside edge of the town. This
was granted in 1689 to Pierre Cronier, brother of Etienne Cronier
and ancestor of the family which calls itself Cronje to-day. Analysis
of Cape names shows that only a limited number of the early settlers
came from Holland, others were Huguenots or sailors from countries
in the neighbourhood, especially from ports on the Baltic and North
Sea. (The latter brought with them many sea-faring terms : when
the Cape Dutchman of to-day describes his kitchen as a ' kombuis ',
it is as if an Englishman were to call his a ' caboose '.) The vast
^ Granted to Pieter Erasmus, February 1699.

152 THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY

overseas enterprises of Holland in the seventeenth century called for
more men than the gallant little country could spare.

We had some difficulty in finding Versailles — not because it was
hidden, but because we inquired for it by name. Many old home-
steads are in danger of losing their original names, being usually
known merely by that of the owner. In some instances the names
have been anglicized, and not improved thereby.

We turned down an avenue, at the end of which gleamed a scarlet
hibiscus tree against the distant mountains. It led to a pleasant,
thatched house which had been built on that portion of the original
farm of Versailles which was sold to Pieter Rousseau a century ago,
and is now the property of Mr. le Roux. Here we were shown some
fine old furniture and china, and then set on our way to the original
Versailles, which we found near the railway station, much built over
in the rear by the South African Dried Fruit Company and other
enterprising people, but looking out over a glorious view to the north.
White homesteads were tucked away in the shadow of the hills, and
in the foreground was a wide vineyard, extending to the clumps of
oak and poplar that marked the line of the Kromme River.

Versailles is a simple H house, and it is quite possible that it is
the original homestead of Pierre Cronier, who married Susanne
Taillefer, widow of Jean Garde, and daughter of that fine old house-
wife Elizabeth Taillefer, who was famed for her aviaries of singing-
birds. After Cronier 's death Susanne married as her third husband
Jacob Naude, and doubtless made an excellent huis-vrouw to all of
them in turn.

We looked out over the mountains, where the dun colour of the
morning and the purple of midday had yielded to soft rich tints and
a clear pellucid atmosphere, and thought of the old Frenchmen who
for their faith had given up home and country and kinsfolk, and come
away to the wild and savage land of South Africa more than two
hundred years ago.

And then we looked to where, among the radiant green of the
vines, stands the Httle stone guard-house of the Kromme River — one
of the hundreds which are still scattered along the railway line between
Cape Town and Pretoria, in which a few British soldiers guarded the
bridges through the long and troubled days of the Boer War. It did
not seem so very long since people in Cape Town were packing up
parcels of tobacco and soap, newspapers and books, to be thrown to
those lonely watchers from passing trains.

Not so very long ago ; and as we looked our thoughts went north
and east and west to the men of South Africa who held her honour,

THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY 153

and the honour of the Empire, in their hands as they fought shoulder
to shoulder against a common foe, Englishmen, Huguenots, and
Dutchmen side by side.

In the town of Wellington — the modern name of the Waggon-
makers' Valley — there is little of architectural interest remaining.
It is a pretty place, but its beauty to-day is dependent upon its charm-
ing gardens, its wide, clean streets, and its shady avenue of oaks.
A large Girls' School, the Huguenot Seminary, is its point of greatest
interest, but the buildings are frankly modern, as are the houses in the
town. Fortunately, it is free from the caricatures of old gables which
are to be found in other places, where more architectural zeal than
discretion has been displayed.

We visited many fair and prosperous homesteads in the neighbour-
hood of Wellington, and were received at all with kindly and courteous
hospitality. Often we found ourselves sitting under a colour-print
of Paul Kruger, though twice it was Cecil Rhodes, and once the King.
But, whether king, president, or pioneer, the kindness and hospi-
tality were uniform. We are one people in South Africa, whether our
names be English, French, or Dutch, and all the home-grown or
-imported fanatics in the world will not be able to keep asunder those
who love the land and would see all dissension buried, so that she
may take her place proudly in the free union of sister states within
the Empire.

If you drive through the town of Wellington towards the mountains
and turn to the left shortly before the road ascends Bain's Kloof, you
will find yourself in one of those rich and glowing valleys which the
Cape hills so often hold in their stern embrace. It is Boven Vallei,
shortened by local nomenclature to Bo Vlei.

Before you turn aside there is a little homestead worth noticing.
It lies in a hollow, and the road to it leads down through a grove of
the tall, feathery bamboos which are grown in this part of the country
for ladders and fishing-rods and lend a peculiar grace to the landscape.
It was in the glory of the early morning that we drove to this homestead
of Leeuwen Vallei — Lions' Valley — through the bamboos and up
to the oak-shaded stoep, where a lady in a frilled kapje of dazzUng
whiteness, who was watering the pots of daphne and camellia, told us
that the initials 'D. C on the front gable stood for the Daniel Cellier
who built the house towards the end of the eighteenth century —
a grandson of the Josue Sellier of Orleans who came to the Cape with
other Huguenots in 1700, accompanied by his wife Elisabeth Couvret.
There are many of the old Frenchman's descendants in this district,
just as in the Paarl half the inhabitants are called de Villiers and in

2489 X

154 THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY

the Dal Hugo. I do not know what he would think of his name under
its transmogrifications of Sillier, Cellier, CilHer, Cilliers, Silje, Solje,
Zulje, and Cillie ; oddly enough, the last is the most common form.

Leeuwen Vallei was granted in 1699 to Jacques de Savoie, perhaps
as a grazing station, his principal farm being at Simondium. To one
side of the present simple and picturesque house is a gabled building,
used at one time as slave-quarters, but probably the original homestead.

The road which turns to the left a little farther on leads to Nabij
Gelegen, granted in 1712 to Arij Kruisman by the Governor de
Chavonnes. Here are oaks of a great girth and height ; it is difficult
to believe that they are only two hundred years old. Past the front
of the homestead clucks a little streamlet, and the red sea-fish that
a boy was washing in the water struck a sympathetic note of colour
against the milky walls and brown thatch of the beautiful homestead.
Nabij Gelegen is threatened with a corrugated iron roof, so we were
glad to see its charm while yet it remains. The iridescent glass
of the windows is set in teak frames with rounded tops ; rounded, too,
are the corners of the stoep, with curved rustbanks in white plaster.
The interior is very spacious, and still retained one of the tall old
grandfather clocks, over whose dial a little fleet rocks back and forth
to mark the passing seconds. Nabij Gelegen — ' Lying near by ' is
the literal translation of the name — is a singularly beautiful and
harmonious homestead at present. When it is under an iron roof
much of its distinctive charm will have vanished.

Still farther up the valley lies the finely-situated house of Welven-
pas, on the land granted to Claude Marais in 1699. It is the property
of Mr. Daniel Retief, to whose family it has belonged since 1754.
The original homestead was lower down, but of this house only a few
cobblestones remain and the great rose-apple and loquat trees which
^yere planted near it by the mother of Piet Retief, whose memory is
linked with Dingaan's Day. For the little child who was born in
this smiling valley and grew up among its vines and orange-groves
became the leader of that brave band of voor-trekkers or pioneers
which pushed its way northward until it reached the heart of Dingaan's
empire, in the wild, unknown Zulu country. The fate of those
pioneers is known to every one, for the story has come down to us
from an EngUsh missionary who was at Dingaan's kraal and saw the
massacre of the Boers from his camp on a neighbouring hill.

Warned by a messenger from Dingaan of the impending murder,
he had not a moment in which to frame a remonstrance, for the
awful tragedy was even then in full progress, and he could only cover
his face with his shaking hands. When a joyful shout proclaimed to

THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY 155

the little mission station that the work of treachery was accomplished
he drew his little flock round him and read with lips that were
quivering with horror how ' He that dwelleth in the secret places
of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty ',
and through the psalm which was, he says with simple piety, ' so
singularly and literally applicable to our present situation that I
could with difficulty proceed with it '.

Now turn to the story of Dingaan's Day, when the massacre of
Piet Retief and his companions was avenged after the manner of the
smiting of the Amalekites. It is the voor-trekker Charl Celliers who
tells us how he and some others mustered a force of four hundred men
to go out against the powerful Zulu nation under Dingaan. How the
four hundred made a solemn vow to God that if He should grant them
the victory the day should be consecrated and kept holy as a Sabbath
and that the vow should be binding on them and their children after
them. How the Zulus made four efforts to take their camp by storm,
but were repulsed, and fled, so that the word of the Lord might be
fulfilled, who said : ' By one way shall your enemies come, but by the
blessing of the Lord they shall fly before your face.' And how not
fewer than three thousand of the Zulus perished on that day, so that
the river was dyed red with their blood.

Of all these things we thought as we stood on the stoep of Welven-
pas, for it chanced to be Dingaan's Day, and our host, Piet Retief's
grand-nephew, was preparing to drive down to Wellington to attend
the solemn gathering held to celebrate the day that saw Dutchmen
and Englishmen fighting side by side to break the power of Dingaan.

' How far is St. Helena from a Httle child at play ? '

How infinitely far the man who was dragged to his death by the
order of a savage chief from the little boy who had grown up in the
fair and pleasant valley at our feet !

The homestead of Welvenpas has in some respects been
modernized, though not so drastically as many others. It is magnifi-
cently placed, and its white gables, the work of a Malay slave whom
tradition credits with having built most of the gables in the valley,
shine out amongst the green of the surrounding trees. The present
house was built for a younger brother of Piet Retief, and took three
years to complete; it has one very unusual feature in a screen of
'Cape Syringa' wood,^ very beautiful when polished. Welvenpas
is celebrated for its orange groves, but it also has fine vineyards and
orchards.

The soil of this district is well suited to the growth of citrus fruits.

1 Melia Azedarach.

156 THE WAGGON-MAKERS' VALLEY

Still farther in the mountains lies Doolhof, granted to Jacques Potie
in 171 2. This was the farm of the ' Mynheer Latigaan ' to whom
Lady Anne Barnard paid a visit in 1797, and where she was horrified
at the number of oranges eaten by the Uttle daughter of Landdrost
van der Riet of Stellenbosch. In the list of the Requesten in the
Archives there is an appeal from ' the agriculturist Jan Latigaan '
asking for a plot of arable land adjoining his old land ' named Het
Doolhof, behind the Groene Berg '.

There are other interesting farms in this neighbourhood, but in
some cases the homesteads have been so altered that they do not repay
a visit. Not far off is Leeuwen Tuin, granted to Daniel Jacob in
17 1 2, Patatta's Kloof, given to the Huguenot Fran9ois Retief in 1700,
and several others. Slang Rivier, in this district, was granted to
Louis Fourie by Willem Adriaan van der Stel in 1699, and a portion
of this farm to which its owner, Mr. Taylor, has given the name of
M'Foshola, is a thriving apricot farm. As we turned out of the long
eucalyptus avenue which leads to the homestead light and colour
seemed to flash from the ground — it seemed unbelievable that there
could be so many apricots in the world as were spread out to dry on
a wide expanse of grass.

It was a wonderful picture. Over the white wall which surrounds
the werf — the expanse of grass — nodded a jacaranda laden with great
clusters of purple flowers, while a magenta bougainvillea at its side
struck a note of primitive barbaric colour. Behind the wall were the
orchards and above them rose a hill golden with corn and holding
fair white homesteads in its folds. J^d everywhere the wonderful
light and colour of the apricots. Under an old oak, whose spreading
branches formed a shady tent, women and boys were at work, splitting
the apricots in two and spreading them out on wooden trays. As each
tray was filled it was carried into the cool old wine-cellar near by, to
await its turn in the sulphur furnace— the sulphur fumes intensify
the deep golden colour of the fruit and purify it of any lingering
insect life. The effect when the trays of sulphured fruit were set out
in the blinding sunshine was that of a meadow of colossal marigolds.

And still the stream of Pactolus poured in from the orchard, as
waggon after waggon came in from the orchards laden with brimming-
over baskets, and turned and went their way in quest of more.

M'Foshola— the Horn of Plenty in the Kaffir tongue— is worthy
of Its name, and is a striking illustration of what modern science has
done for agriculture. The ground for these fruitful trees was prepared
by blasting with dynamite, and a liberal supply of fertilisers worked
in, despite the grave disapproval of many of the old farmers of the

H
u

O
H

H
O

O N V E R \\^ A C H T

O L y \^ E N H O U T

THE WAGGON- MAKERS' VALLEY 157

district, who thought the new methods revolutionary and almost
impious in the manner in which they ran counter to the old way of
planting apricots in poor soil with no fertiliser.

The Cape is a land of romance. The high hills, the fair white
homesteads set amongst their oaks, the flowers of veld and mountain —
all are beautiful. But perhaps her greatest romance is the rich reward
which Nature yields to the man who wins to success through difficulties
and over obstacles, in her sun-kissed apricots, her peaches and melons
and grapes, and her red and amber plums.

The Bo Vlei road rises behind the town and curves through the
fine pass known as Bain's Kloof, high up in the mountains, between
wild olives and protea bushes, rocks fringed with maiden-hair fern
and crowned with spicy geraniums. From the summit of the pass
it sweeps down to a wide plain in which lies the town of Worcester^
founded by Lord Charles Somerset, ostensibly as a magistracy, but
— ^if rumour is to be believed — actually as a shooting centre. The
drostdy which he built for one or the other of these laudable purposes
is interesting as an example of a house which is as unaffected by Dutch
traditions as was its builder. Lady Duff Gordon, who drove to
Worcester from Villiersdorp, writes : ' Such a journey ! Such
country ! Pearly mountains and deep blue sky, an impassable pass
to walk down, and baboons and secretary birds and tortoises . . . Our
inn is a very nice, handsome old Dutch house . . . The drostdy has
a pretty old Dutch garden, and the house is a very handsome one.'
Wellington, she says, resembles ' a true Flemish village ', and of the
wonderful Wellington sunsets she writes : ' The sun went down, and
the high mountains behind us were precisely the colour of a Venice
ruby glass— really, truly, and literally— not purple, not crimson, but
glowing ruby-red, and the orange trees below looked intensely green
and the houses snow-white.'

THE LAND OF WAVEREN

BLUE and gold— gold and blue— it was a dream-world through
(Which we passed in the midday heat. Rich corn lands on every
side, for we had left the vineyards and peach orchards to the
south. On either hand— only limited by the azure mountains— were
rolling plains, where wheat and oats lay heaped in high stacks in a
proximity which indicated the richness of the harvest.

And after a time we came to a narrow pass between the mountains,
where the flowers at the side of the railway line yielded to rocks and
queer succulent plants, and the sun shone down fiercely on the red
sand of the slopes. Through this defile the train wound for a few
minutes and then shd forward into a round plain — where was more
heaped-up gold, and where the mountains that surrounded it were as
blue as the sky.

Thus we came to Tulbagh — to that Land of Waveren which
Willem Adriaan van der Stel saw for the first time when he rode over
the Roode Zand Pass in 1699. Enchanted with the loveliness of the
district and the fertility of the land, he determined to found here a
settlement. In his letter to the Seventeen at Amsterdam, in which
he speaks of this project, he writes of the bad harvest of that year —
so bad ' that we could not supply the ships with fresh bread. More
corn than ever had been sown by the people, but continuous rains,
cold, and subsequent droughts and heavy south-easters, caused almost
a complete failure. Moreover, the caterpillars, which had never been
seen here before, destroyed all the ears of rye.'

Then, with that optimistic faith in the country which was one of
the van der Stel characteristics, he turns to a description of the

' beautiful valley about 18 or 20 hours' distant from the castle, and situated beyond
the Ubiqua mountains. It is situated between the Ubiqua and another hitherto
unnamed very high mountain range, extending, as is supposed, towards the sea
behind Hottentots' Holland. It has a breadth of four hours on foot beyond the
Roode Zand, which is merely a steep pass going over the aforesaid Ubiqua
mountains. He found it a pleasant and serviceable country for agriculture and
pasture, and decided in course of time to colonize it with some households who
might be wiUing to go there, especially from Drakenstein, which, as a rule, is

THELANDOFWAVEREN 159

a bad and watery country, and where the larger number of people live too near
each other and cannot get on, so that many of them have been impoverished ;
and also with other inhabitants from this government and such as may from time
to time be sent out from home — the more so as, as far as has been observed,
very few Hottentots are found in that region, who, through poverty and mortality,
have very much diminished in the neighbourhood, and ruined themselves by
their inveterate laziness.

' And as these good regions, some miles in length, have hitherto had no name
for Europeans, as well as the forests which are situated in the bends before and
in the aforesaid basin between these high mountain ranges, in which there are
many tall and stout kinds of trees very fit for timber for those who may settle
there (though difficult to work), the Governor, in order to distinguish them
properly in course of time from other districts, has named the aforesaid valley
the Land of Waveren, and the unnamed mountain ranges Witsenbergen . . .
It is also the Governor's intention to do this because he believes and plainly
sees that within a few years he may increase the Company's stock there and
elsewhere, under the blessing of God, at such a rate that he will be able annually
to provide the Company's ships, hospital, and slave quarters from the increase.'

I do not suppose that the Company received this letter v^^ith any
gratification, for its poHcy in regard to the Cape was a limited one.
But they raised no objections, and the settlement of Roode Zand was
founded in the Land of Waveren. Grants of land were made to such
colonists as were bold enough to venture into the new country.
Amongst them were some of the Huguenot emigres, and farm names
such as Montpelier and Rhone indicate that they carried with them
their love of the lost mother country. There is a jaunty air about
some of the Dutch names in this neighbourhood — Vrolykheid, for
instance, and Twee Jong Gezellen, a homestead built by two old
brothers.

It will be remembered how the Stellenbosch and Drakenstein
farmers refused to come to the assistance of the Roode Zand settlers,
forgetting, says van der Stel, the help which they themselves had
received.

So the new colony was founded, and forty-three years later was
built the Pastorie and the beautiful little church which still stands at
the entrance to the village. Much of the material employed was sent
out from Holland. Lovely in its very simpUcity, the church has two
plain hipped gables, most of the ornamentation being concentrated
on the gable over the door. The date on it is incorrect, and only
records a later whitewashing and ' doing-up '. I should like to see
the original date (1743) restored. The white wall which surrounds
the building is a charming feature of old Roode Zand Church. It is
not straight and decorous as you would expect a church wall to be,

i6o THELANDOFWAVEREN

but breaks into graceful curves and ripples and is adorned at intervals
with vases that are almost Greek in their outline. The wall had a very-
beautiful gateway once, with the curves that no modern builder
achieves, but the searing finger of the Boer War touched Tulbagh —
as Roode Zand is called to-day — and the graceful gateway was demo-
lished. At the same time the fine pulpit was destroyed. The inlaid
sounding-board which still remains is a witness to the loss which this
destruction entailed.

For many years the old church has been used for concerts and
other secular purposes.^ Its fine old brass candelabra is fitted with
paraffin lamps, which shed their light on a raised stage. When I saw
it there was over everything that indefinable air which hangs about a
concert room by daylight, and yet to me it was even more truly the
House of God than the newer building over the way, for no latter-day
indifference can wholly efface the tradition that lingers round this
old-world church. The device on the old church seal — a fortress set
amongst mountains — was the inspiration of a poet. So, too, was the
motto ' Rond om Jerusalem zyn bergen ' . I wonder if the hills that
lie round about Jerusalem were more lovely and pleasant to the eyes
of that old poet of an old people than were the hills that encompass
Tulbagh to mine.

The space between the church and the Pastorie is now covered by
houses and streets ; but once upon a time it was an unbroken property,
and no one was allowed to shout or make a noise in the neighbourhood
for fear of disturbing the minister at his studies. The Pastorie still
stands in large grounds shaded by oaks which must have been planted
when the settlement was in its infancy. It retains much of its old
charm, and the alterations which were made to suit the taste of the
last generation could be rectified with little difficulty. Fortunately,
the fine old windows and massive teak door are still in existence,
though not in the place of honour originally assigned to them. The old
JDrass knocker has been removed to the present front door. It is
in the form of a sphinx's head, and is, I should think, late eighteenth
century in design, perhaps of the period of Thibault, who built the
Drostdy near the village in 1804. Fine brasswork was executed in
the Castle armoury in the old days— I have before me a komfoor
bearing the date 1770, which was made there. From the days when
the van der Stels got into trouble with Batavia for detaining skilled
craftsmen on their way to the East, the Cape was famous for its brass-
and ironwork.

1 Since this was written a movement has its object the preservation of the old building
been begun by Lady Beck which has for and its restoration as a Volks Museum.

THE LAND OF WAVEREN i6i

To one side of the Pastorie is a graceful gabled building, apparently
of the same date as the house. It was once a wine-cellar — probably in
the time when the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church farmed
their own lands and vineyards. To-day it is used as a Sunday-school,
and the appreciative care of the kindly and courteous occupant of the
Pastorie has kept the old building unspoiled.

I wish that we could say as much for all the old houses in the
village. The Cape is still waiting for the man who will understand
how to adapt the early buildings to modern requirements without
destroying their charm. Incidentally, it is also waiting for some one
who will make brown tiles which will come within a measurable
distance of the cost of the corrugated iron. There is much to be
said for the point of view of those who argue that thatch is inflam-
mable, besides becoming yearly more hard to procure. It explains —
though it cannot beautify — the glittering roofs which have turned
old-world villages into the semblance of a mining camp. The
obvious remedy is to find the best substitute for thatch, when
circumstances render its removal imperative. Shingles are open to
the risk of fire, but brown tiles which would be safe would last
practically for ever.

Modern Tulbagh has apparently made up its mind that if it
cannot have everything it will at least have cheerfulness. I have
never seen so many gay verandahs anywhere — one that specially
lingers in my mind was painted in wide stripes of red, blue, green,
yellow, and white, and over the front of the house a magenta-purple
bougainvillea blossomed luxuriantly. Some old houses are, however,
still left in their original simple grace.

Until 1804 the little settlement continued to be known as Roode
Zand, and the rich valley as the Land of Waveren. But, after the
restoration of the Cape to the Batavian Government, when Holland
evidently hoped that the seal of her ownership was set on the land for
ever, the Council of Policy determined to cut the large division of
Stellenbosch into two portions, the northern half to be known as
Tulbagh in honour of the Governor who had administered the affairs
of the Company from 175 1 to 1771. Hendrick Lodewyk Bletterman
was commissioned to inspect the district and select a site for the
Drostdy— the residence of the Landdrost, Hendrick van de Graaff
being subsequently appointed to this office. Louis Thibault, the
engineer officer to whom the Cape owes much of its fine architecture,
was instructed to draw up plans for a building which should include
a hall in which the sessions of the Heemraden could be held. Unlike
most Governments, the Council of Policy, under the guidance of the

2489 Y

i62 THE LAND OF WAVEREN

Commissary General de Mist, does not appear to have let financial
considerations stand in the way of a fine Drostdy. We are told that
3^8,000 was voted for the purpose— a large sum, even in 'these days.
The site selected by Bletterman was the farm of Rietvlei, about
two miles from Roode Zand Church ; it belonged to Hercules du Pre,
to whom the sum of ,(^111 was paid.

The Company received full value for its expenditure. Thibault
was a Frenchman, and I can well believe that when he found himself
in that golden valley, and looked on the blue hills in the crystal
atmosphere, his heart turned to the southern districts of the land of
his birth. To Provence, to that fair Italy across the border, and to
the white houses and shady loggias which lie in the shelter of the
Alpes Maritimes. So he planned the Drostdy at Tulbagh with large,
high rooms opening into each other by means of folding doors, and
he built a wide loggia with rounded arches, each framing a scene
which would be Italy if it were not South Africa. I know of no house
which for spaciousness and airy coolness can compare with the
Tulbagh Drostdy. Through the loggia you pass to a wide hall,
fifty feet long and twenty feet in height — the height of the rooms
throughout the house.

The front door is of cedar, otherwise the woodwork everywhere is
teak and yellow- wood. In this hall stands the table upon which the
Articles of the Capitulation of the Cape of Good Hope to the British
forces were drawn up in the year 1806 — the document which was
signed by Baird and van Prophelow at the Treaty Cottage near Cape
Town. On the right of the great hall lie a morning-room, a long
dining-room and a library. On the left is a large drawing-room,
terminating in a fine wall-cupboard with sliding doors. In this room
hangs a crystal chandelier which was once at old Groote Schuur.
When these five rooms are thrown into each other by means of their
folding doors they form a suite of dignified reception-rooms in which
the Landdrost of a century ago dispensed the hospitality for which
the Cape was famous. Beyond the drawing-room are two large
guest chambers, and two parallel sets of rooms — divided from the
front by a long corridor — afford more bedrooms and kitchens and
pantries.

The ground-plan of the house is unlike anything else at the Cape.
Thibault was apparently unfettered by any convention in designing
it, and the result might well be copied by architects of to-day. Large
and lofty rooms, ample accommodation, and not an inch of waste
space anywhere. Below the dweUing is the prison — cold as charity
in the hot December mid-day. Here prisoners were kept, awaiting

O
<

u
Pi
P
d:
u

Q
Q

THE DROSTDY, WORCESTER

HOUSE IN TULBAGH, ASCRIBED TO THIBAULT

THE LAND OF WAVEREN 163

their trial by the Landdrost and Heemraden in the hall upstairs —

there is an icy stone bench, which I hope they shunned if they valued

their health, and there are heavy iron gratings to the windows. To-day

the prison forms an admirable refrigerating-room for fruit and butter

and for the light Witsenberg wine, which is made not far from the

Drostdy. The exterior of the house is very dignified, with simple

end-gables, and the arms of Ryk Tulbagh above the entrance, with

the date 1804. It was the last great work begun by the Dutch East

India Company at the Cape and the first completed by England. For

the Drostdy was still unfinished when Landdrost van de Graaff

received a letter from Janssens — written from Hottentots' Holland —

in which is indicated the hope that the British occupation would not

spread beyond Cape Town. This hope was dashed to the ground by

a dispatch received two days later from the new Government.

Until the time of Lord Charles Somerset the Landdrost continued
to rule the Land of Waveren from the Tulbagh Drostdy. But it did
not take the new Governor long to discover that the affairs of the
district would be conveniently directed from a more northerly station
—there are those who say that he wanted a hunting lodge in a part
of the country where game was more plentiful— so in 1823 the
decree went forth that a Drostdy should be built in the new village
of Worcester, and Thibault's stately house and the wide lands that
surrounded it fell from their high estate and were leased out to
neighbouring farmers. For more than eighty years the Tulbagh
Drostdy lay forgotten by the world, and little by little the dust of
oblivion settled on it until it became a forlorn and dreary barn— the
great hall a winnowing-place for grain and the pleasant rooms a
hunting ground for rats.

In the face of its well-ordered, dignified air to-day, it is difficult
to realize the destruction that all but overtook it. Sir Meiring Beck
said that it was his wife's pity for the old house that induced him to
buy it. Never was a lovely virtue more amply rewarded— for the old
Drostdy stands to-day in all its early beauty, the iridescent windows
shine from Thibault's teak frames, the tiled floors have been repaired
and polished, the cedar door freed from its incubus of pamt. And by
a strange coincidence, this good work has been carried out by the
descendant of the man who was the first minister of old Roode Zand
Church, the Reverend Arnoldus Mauritius Meirmg, a learned divme
of French descent who came to the Land of Waveren in 1743 and

died there in 1757. . ,

We sat in the loggia as the setting sun dyed the mountains rose-red

and carmine. From north to south, from east to west, the Land of

i64 THELANDOFWAVEREN

Waveren was golden with corn. Over the undulating country crept
heavily laden wagons on their way to Tulbagh Station, there to load
up the trains with forage for those less blessed districts to the north,
where the drought had pressed heavily. Through an archway I could
see the Drostdy garden gay with late roses. Below the roses was a
vineyard, each emerald vine heavy with fruit, and to my left were
laden apricot and mulberry trees.

The sun sank lower, the rose-red on the mountains deepened to
purple as we sat on the threshold of the house that had been begun
by the Dutch and finished by the English.

XXI

SWELLENDAM

THE sun was setting as we drove into the charming old town
which was called after Hendrik Swellengrebel, the Governor
under whose jurisdiction the district ' beyond the Breede
Rivier ' was separated from Stellenbosch in August 1742. Johannes
Rhenius was the first landdrost, and in the following year the site
of the Drostdy was chosen, after much inspection and deliberation.
The old builders had a genius for finding beautiful situations for their
houses, and it was in one of the most lovely spots of a lovely district
that the white walls of the Drostdy rose. Yet another year passed
before the new town received its name ; perhaps the authorities were
torn asunder between the rival claims of Swellendam and Rheniusdorp,
but the Governor carried the day and followed the example of Simon
van der Stel when he founded Stellenbosch and bequeathed to it
his name.

The Drostdy is a fine thatched house with large cool rooms and
yellow- wood floors and ceilings. The plan differs from that of most
Cape houses, the front door being where the back door would be
in houses of the square U type, the space between the two pro-
jecting arms forming a paved entrance court.

Here, no doubt, Swellengrebel came from time to time to watch
the progress of his bantHng town. Probably he was sometimes
accompanied by his nephew Sergius Swellengrebel, the Secunde of
the day, who married an English lady named Anna Fothergill. The
records in the Archives contain a list of the clothes which she
bequeathed to her sister, many of which no doubt the fine rooms of
the old Drostdy saw when she accompanied her husband and his
uncle. Mention is made, amongst other things in this voluminous
wardrobe, of a white satin embroidered gown with its apron, a blue
satin gown with bright flowers, a green and brown silk gown and
apron, many other gowns of chintz, velvet, and silk, of flowered gauze
mantles, sable muffs, velvet calottes, lace ruffles and caps, a pelerine
trimmed with ermine, one of black velvet lined with blue ' pelang ',
another of satin fined with fur, fifteen fans, golden waistbands,
embroidered aprons trimmed with gold fringe, twenty petticoats.

i66 SWELLENDAM

sixty-seven handkerchiefs, and a long Hst of underlinen and other
wearing apparel. If we may judge by her clothes Anna Fothergill
was dainty and bewitching and must have turned all the heads in
sober Swellendam a hundred and seventy years ago, when she arrived
from Cape Town with her trunks of modish gowns.

To her son she left innumerable silver trays, candlesticks, coffee
pots, jugs, spoons, and forks in shagreen cases, nineteen family
portraits, two statues, strings of pearls, diamond, sapphire, emerald
and ruby rings, shoe buckles, earrings and sleeve buttons. His
father's wardrobe descended to him, and a blue coat shot with silver
and a white one with coloured flowers are enumerated in the will,
besides chintz nightgowns and other garments. There was a velvet
horsecloth embroidered in silver, with holsters to match, silver pistols
and spurs, quantities of linen and many other things. These fine
things all went to Batavia, and Madame's clothes to Jenny Fothergill
in England, but probably the old Drostdy saw her in her white satin
embroidered gown and her husband in his blue coat shot with silver.

Swellendam is laid out in long streets of houses, many of which
retain their picturesqueness, though others have succumbed to the
corrugated iron fiend. De Oude Huis is the charming, rambling
thatched house of the Resident Magistrate, and in its garden tall
olive-trees and custard-apples were growing side by side. There
are other picturesque houses in the town — the old schoolhouse, for
example, and the charming though now tin-roofed building next to
the Dutch Reformed Church which has the type of gable peculiar
to Swellendam. The apex of this gable is a circular disc, and in one
instance is embellished by a clock face. On the other side of the
house is the Pastorie, now modernized.

• I am genuinely sorry that I cannot sing the praises of the
new Dutch Reformed Church, because of the courtesy with which
we were received and shown the church silver which had belonged
to the simple building in which early Swellendam worshipped, and
which has made way for the church which is piii grande ma non
piu bella. There is a fine Bible with silver clasps, dated 1756, an
ink-stand with pounce-box and wafer-box, presented in 1798, and
a chalice with an old inscription.

There are many old houses in and near Swellendam, less finely
finished and elaborate, perhaps, than those nearer Cape Town, but
with a simplicity and grave dignity which make them very attractive.
Such a house is Glen* Barry, which stands among shady oaks at the
foot of the Langebergen range. When we saw it the autumn tints
of the surroundings were deepened by an orange tree laden with ripe

o
o

WINDOW IN THE OLD CHURCH, SWELLENDAP

SWELLENDAM 167

fruit in the foreground, and a Pride of India on which the leaves
were as briUiant as those of a Canadian maple in the fall.

Near by is another old house in which lived Mr. Bergh, a descen-
dant of the Olof Bergh who was captain of the garrison in the time
of the van der Stels. He showed us the portraits of Olof Bergh and
his wife, contemporary drawings in pen and ink on parchment,
with the effect of fine steel engravings.

From Glen Barry we drove back through the long streets of old
houses to the other side of Swellendam, where, standing out white
against the green of the hill, was the homestead of Klip Rivier, a fine
house with thatched roof and unspoiled windows, yellow -wood floors
and ceilings and a very unusual gable above the entrance. There was
a smihng air over the landscape, from the tobacco plantations, pink
with blossom, to the ostriches feeding in the rich green of the lucerne
fields. Ostrich feathers and dop brandy are two of the chief industries
of this neighbourhood, both somewhat precarious ; but though the
former may fluctuate with fashion I am disposed to agree with the
member of Parliament who said that he believed that the only females
that would not wear ostrich feathers were the Barbary ostriches
imported by the Government.

At Barrydale we were shown piles of feathers of amazing width
and length, while the floor of the large room in which they were
stored was hollow and lined with concrete for the storage of dop
brandy — which smelt uncommonly noxious. The excise on spirits
having just been raised, we found our hosts in very low spirits, and
even disposed to consider in a meditative manner my query whether
the fiery alcohol under our feet might not be employed to greater
advantage as spirit in the perfume factories for which South Africa
is waiting than in dragging down the natives from manhood to some-
thing lower than an animal. Good brandy is made in South Africa,
as well as bad, and some of the best comes from this district, but
the particular brand which was drawn up in a bucket for us to see
and smell did not lay claim to any virtues.

Barrydale is a little village which lies amongst the mountains and
is approached from Swellendam by a Pass of Passes. Early one
morning we drove eastward until we came to the picturesque mission
station of Zuurbraak, and here we turned into the hills and sped up,
up, up, winding our way through a majestic pass between crags and
peaks which sometimes stood out in a stern bareness which was
almost awful, and sometimes were jewelled with scarlet heath and
green with ferns as the water from the summits oozed out of their
sides. After a day amongst the mountains we drove back to Swel-

i68 S W E L L E N D A M

lendam as night was falling, and slept soundly under a roof that was
covered from end to end with a gorgeous canopy of Bignonia venusta —
the Golden Shower of the Cape gardener.

We left Swellendam early next morning with regret, turning for
a farewell look as we cUmbed the hill behind Klip Rivier. The fair
valley was asleep beneath its mantle of gold and dark-green leaves,
and at the base of the blue mountains a soft white cloud hung as
hghtly as a bridal veil. In another ten minutes we were in an arid,
rhinoster-clad land, where not a tree or house was visible — the
sand-veld of which the dwellers in the rich districts from which we
had come had spoken with lofty pity. Grey rhinoster as far as the
eye could reach ; the Uttle bush whose only use seems to be to provide
fuel where wood or coal cannot be procured. The rhinoster smoke
that curls out of many country chimneys has a pleasant fragrance,
not unUke that of burning peat, and perhaps some day — when the
value of the economic plants of South Africa is better understood —
we may see the rhinoster compressed into fuel-bricks which will
easily be carried from place to place, as a substitute for coal.
It is said that rhinoster means good land and bad farming, so per-
haps the sand- veld is less arid than it looks. After some time the
grey of the landscape began to yield to the green of very young
corn and barley, and we came to prosperous farms and wide wheat
lands which seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. One
of the farms that we passed was Appelkraal, granted to Ferdinand
Appel, one of the chief movers against the younger van der Stel. He
also owned Geduld, near the Eerste River, and the land on which are
the hot springs of Caledon, famed for their curative powers in cases
of rheumatism. We passed through Caledon itself at dusk, but did
not linger, for our bourn was Villiersdorp in the hills, still twenty
miles away.

Villiersdorp lies on the knees of the mountains, as remote from
the bustle of the world below as if it were in Mars. A tinkling
stream outside the windows lulled us to sleep, a tinkling sheep bell
woke us in the morning, and we looked out with the subconscious
expectation of seeing Swiss chalets and snow mountains. The thin,
high air deepened the illusion — but only for the moment ; Villiersdorp
is wholly South African — oak-shaded streets and little thatched houses.
There is a pleasant, rambling Oude Huis, belonging to the Botha
family, and a little way out of the village is Mr. Roux's fine farm of
Radyn, with its eighteenth-century homestead and its old mill.

XXII

OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE

THE furniture of the old South African homesteads has some-
times been accused of heaviness. This charge is frequently
found in the writings of travellers v^^ho visited the country
towards the close of the eighteenth century, and no doubt it lacked
charm to eyes attuned to the delicate intricacies of Chinese Chippen-
dale or the grace of the gilded fauteuils and canapes of the French
workers. Captain Robert Percival, writing of the Cape in the last
decade of the eighteenth century, says :

' The Dutch are remarkably neat in their houses. The floors, stairs, and
furniture are kept exceedingly clean and highly polished ; the floors of their
halls, and most of their ground floors, are of broad square tiles, highly polished,
glazed, or painted, and the wainscoting adorned with looking-glasses and branches.
Their sitting-rooms are very neat and clean ; the furniture, indeed, is usually
clumsy in the extreme, and looks very awkward, though kept in excellent order.
Several houses, however, are not inelegantly furnished.'

The furniture, however, is massive and dignified rather than
clumsy, the outlines are frequently beautiful, and there is a quality
of honesty which is singularly attractive — shoddiness is wholly absent
from design or execution. Cape furniture drew its inspiration from
two widely differing sources — Europe and the East — and if we are
to understand the old Cape cabinet-maker we must realize something
of the conditions which produced him. In the Netherlands, solid
furniture, made for the most part of oak, dove-tailed and pegged
together, and enriched with a certain amount of carving or marqueterie,
was to be found in every respectable burgher's house. Tables and
chairs were often made with cabriole legs, sometimes ending in claw-
and-ball feet, sometimes with plain feet, sometimes carved on the
knee. Spiral legs had been introduced from Spain and Portugal
into the Low Countries during the Spanish domination of the sixteenth
century and were frequently employed on the more elaborate articles
of furniture. Spirals are also found on Indo-Portuguese furniture, and
made their way into England in the time of Charles II, perhaps
from Holland or, with equal possibility, direct from Bombay, when
it fell to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza.

2489 z

I70 OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE

The fashion had spread early from Portuguese Goa, for it is to be
seen in the Dutch furniture made by native workmen in Ceylon
during the seventeenth century, and it may have come to the Cape
either from Europe or the East.

Amongst the French refugees who fled into Holland in the reign
of Louis XIV were cabinet-makers and other workmen, and their
influence is clearly to be traced on the architecture and furniture of
Holland. During this period and later Holland, in her turn, exercised
a powerful influence on the cabinet-makers of England, many Dutch
workmen being taken across the Channel in the time of William and
Mary.

But much as the early Cape workmen owed to Holland it must
not be forgotten that Table Bay was the half-way house to the East,
and that lacquered cabinets and clock-cases, fine oriental china,
tables, and chairs of ebony or black rosewood, and many other
beautiful things found their way to the Cape in the old days of the
Company. In Ceylon, then a Dutch possession, good furniture was
made by native workmen, working with local woods on Dutch or
oriental models. Some of this furniture bears a strong resemblance
to that made at the Cape during the same period. We find many
references in the Archives to Cingalese, Chinese, and Malay prisoners
and slaves who were sent to the Cape towards the close of the seven-
teenth century, and it is probable that amongst them were carpenters
and cabinet-makers. When we remember that the van der Stels
detained at the Cape skilled workmen on their way to the East it
will be seen that there was no dearth of good craftsmen in the
country.

The woods at their command were for the most part wholly
unlike those of which their Dutch models were fashioned. The
principal woods found in the Cape forests were yellow-wood and
stinkwood, and of these much of the furniture was made. Yellow-
wood is a species of Podocarpus, and is of a golden shade, toning to
brown with age. At one time the trees grew freely in the neighbour-
hood of Cape Town, but the forests were cut down by the early
settlers and much of the wood used as building timber and for other
less worthy purposes, despite van Riebeeck's efforts to preserve it.
There are several species of yellow-wood, the one known at the
Knysna — where there are still fine forests — as the ' upright ' yellow-
wood, P. Thunhergii, being a more golden colour than the ' Outeniqua '
species, P. elongata. Stinkwood actually possessed a charming
name, being known to eighteenth-century botanists as Oreodaphne
hillata. It is now called Ocotea hullata, but it is not too late to

fcXJ

o
o

o
p

■ '-J

<L)

-Tl

-S-:

C/J

-^-j

, — (

^-J

Chairs and Table

Armoire of Stinkwood, Ebony Armoire of Stinkwood, with Casuarina

and other woods panels and silver handles

FURNITURE IN THE KOOPMANS-DE WET HOUSE

OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE 171

substitute its old botanical name for the ugly appellation bestowed
upon it, quite undeservedly, by the early settlers. When first cut
the wood has a curious odour which disappears as it dries. It is
a fine brown wood, not unlike teak in colour, but breaking sometimes
into lighter shades.

Among the less widely known Cape woods is that of the wild
olive — Olea verrucosa — known locally as olyvenhout. It is a fine
hazel-brown, striped in a darker shade, and forms beautiful panels
when contrasted with the richer brown of stinkwood. Rooi Els,
Cunonia capensis, is still found in the Cape forests, though in greater
quantities at the Knysna. Its wood is very like that of pencil-cedar,
of a fine red colour. That of the Witte Els, Platylophus trijoliatiis,
resembles the Outeniqua yellow-wood. ' Hard pear,' Strychnos
Henningsii, is a light brown wood with a delicate ripple on the surface,
and perhaps the most interesting of all these less widely known
furniture woods is Beukenhout, Faurea arhorea, one of the Proteaceae,
which bears a certain resemblance to satin-wood, though paler in
colour. All these woods are natives of the Cape, and most of them
have been used in the manufacture of furniture, but with the ex-
pansion of South Africa new woods have been brought in from the
north, and, in the Union Buildings at Pretoria, Rhodesian mahogany ^
and teak, so called, have been used for panelling and furniture with
very fine effect. Deal has been brought from Europe for building
and other purposes from the seventeenth century up to the present
time, but European woods were seldom used for furniture. On the
other hand, we read of ebony being sent as ballast in the ships home-
ward-bound from Mauritius, and other furniture-woods came from
Ceylon and the East Indies. Chief amongst these was teak, which
was used for ceiling-beams, floors, window-frames, shutters, and
doors as well as for furniture. Teak — Tectona grandis — is a native
of the East Indies, Southern India and Burma, and few timber trees
can compare with it for durability. The oily nature of the wood
protects it from the attacks of borers or other insects and when once
seasoned it is practically indestructible. Planks of teak have been
found in old Indian rock-temples, in a state of perfect preservation,
having been in position for over two thousand years. The wood
takes a rich golden-brown when polished, and retains an aromatic
scent long after it has been cut.

Several varieties of rose-wood — Dalbergia — came to the Cape
from the East, as did satin-wood. The finest ebony came from

^ Rhodesian mahogany is the wood of Afzelia quanzensis, and African teak that
of Adina Galpini.

172 OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE

Ceylon and Southern India, and some old furniture is made from
the ebony obtained from Diospyrus quaesita, another native tree of
Ceylon, where the wood is known as Calamander — from the Cinghalese
word kalumindrie, meaning black-flowing. This wood is easily
identified ; it is closely grained, very hard and smooth, and is of
a fine brown colour striped with black, while Coromandel wood,
which is sometimes confused with it, is black, mottled or striped with
yellow.^ Camphor wood was also brought from the East.

It will be seen that there was no dearth of material for the old
Cape cabinet-maker, even though oak and walnut were withheld from
him. Teak, yellow-wood, stinkwood, ebony, rosewood, satinwood,
and camphor wood were not unworthy substitutes, and a rich red
wood was used for panels and in other ways which has been identified
as an Indo- Malayan species of casuarina. Marqueterie, which found
such favour in Holland at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
was never used at the Cape. When we remember how this art
deteriorated, until ' Dutch marqueterie ' came to be almost a term
of reproach, it must be acknowledged that the Cape had cause for
thankfulness. Whether the standard of taste set by the van der
Stels and others preferred plain, fine wood to coarsely cut butterflies
and birds set in every possible place, or whether the early workmen
feared the effect of a warm climate on marqueterie, the result was
unpretentious simplicity. It was not lack of ability, for the partition-
screens in many homesteads are delicately inlaid with ebony and
other woods or with ivory.

The most important articles of furniture were the massive ward-
robes or armoires. These are usually Dutch in design, bulging out
below in bombe curves, and frequently resting on solid claw-and-
ball feet. Others show French influence, but whether this made
its way through Holland or was brought to the Cape by the Huguenots
it is difficult to say. Some fine armoires are to be seen in the Koop-
mans-de Wet house in Cape Town, which has been acquired for the
country with much of its old furniture. It stands on the land granted
to the Burgher Reynier Smedinga in 1701, and has for the past
century been the residence of the de Wet family, coming into the
market on the death of Mrs. Koopmans and her sister Miss de Wet.
The finest armoire in the house stands where it has stood through
the lifetime of several generations. It is made of stinkwood with

1 This distinction between Calamander which authorities differ, some regarding the

and Coromandel wood is to be found in two names as interchangeable terms for

a book on modern cabinet work by Messrs. the same wood.
Wells and Hooper, but it is a point upon

An eighteenth-century cabinet

Cabinet of Calamander wood inlaid with ebony. Made at
French Hoek in 1730. Belonging to Mrs. Mackeurtan

13
O
O

Eighteenth-century writing-bureau and cradle-chair in the
Koopmans-De Wet house

Camphor-wood chest with brass fittings at Groote Schuur

OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE 173

wide panels of casuarina or beef -wood, called by the Dutch in the
East Indies paardenvleesch-hout. It is not unlike rosewood in grain
and colour. The curves are graceful and flowing ; it rests on finely
carved claw feet and retains the old silver handles which have been
replaced by knobs on the furniture in many of the country home-
steads, the silver handles having been wrenched off and sold to
passing pedlars. Another good armoire in the Koopmans-de Wet
house has straight sides and folded linen fronts to the drawers, while
the base and feet are of ebony, elaborately carved. The armoires
are usually gable-topped, sometimes with flat spaces on which stood
jars of blue Nankin or Delft.

Many of the old Cape-Dutch chairs look, at a casual glance, like
the work of Chippendale, and are sometimes ascribed to his influence.
But, as we know, Chippendale's early work was strongly influenced
by the Dutch type of furniture introduced into England by WiUiam
and Mary, and it is far more probable that the Cape workman of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries took his examples direct from
Holland than that English chairs were copied at the Cape at that time,
though they undoubtedly served as models later on, after the British
occupation. These chairs are usually of stinkwood — though occa-
sionally of teak — and are for the most part simple in design. Chairs
of another type, with spiral legs and slender twisted bars down the
back, though made at the Cape of stinkwood, are practically identical
with those made in Ceylon, in the seventeenth century, of black
rosewood or ebony. This graceful style was introduced into England
in the time of Charles II and is characteristic of much of the charming
Jacobean furniture which preceded the simpler Chippendale. Carved
rosewood and ebony chairs are found. Probably they were brought
from the East, but it is possible that they were made at the Cape.
Amongst the Oriental slaves and prisoners were clever workmen,
and there may be truth in the tradition which assigns the manufacture
of these chairs to Chinese prisoners on Robben Island. Chairs of
the Louis-Seize type, but made of stinkwood, are to be seen at the
Cape, probably copied from those brought out by the French regi-
ments towards the close of the Dutch occupation. It is on record
that a good deal of furniture was brought from France at that time.

The rust-banks or settees are a charming feature of the old Cape
furniture. There is a great variety of type amongst them, sonie
resembling a low wooden bench with a back like that of a simple
Chippendale chair, some having an elaborate frame enriched with
carving, and seat and back of fine cane work, others resembling two
or more chairs joined together, with one pair of arms. An elaborate

174 OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE

example in teak, with twisted splats and legs, is almost identical
with a type of rust-bank made in Ceylon two hundred years ago.
Sometimes the rust-banks have caned seats, but the seats are frequently
made of interwoven strips of leather called riempje, or of soHd wood.

The old tables were massive, usually of teak or stinkwood. An
occasional example of the gate-leg type is found, and there are others
with solid, twisted legs. Charming small tables with cabriole legs
are common — there is a pair in the Koopmans-de Wet house with
tops of satinwood, edged with ebony, and graceful ebony legs with
claw-and-ball feet. Fine tables of Indian rosewood, usually with
gadroon edges, are often found ; but it is supposed that these were
made in India on English models and brought down to the Cape in
the days of the long furlough, when the Cape Peninsula was used
as a sanatorium by large numbers of Anglo-Indian officials, who were
permitted to draw full pay when within a certain distance from India
but could only go home on half pay. Little gueridon tables with
twisted columns were common in every old Cape house ; they are
usually made of stinkwood.

Massive dower-chests were made at and brought to the Cape
by the old settlers. They are made of teak, camphor, or stinkwood,
and vary in size from the solid, brass-hasped chest which would fit
into a trek-wagon to things of great beauty which now hold pride
of place in the hall or voorhuis. The brasswork on these chests is
always very fine. A few examples with ironwork are to be seen, but
these were probably brought from Europe. In considering the
massive character of the chests, and of Cape-Dutch furniture in
general, it must be remembered that the rooms which accommodated
them were large and lofty — rooms in which spindle-legged tables and
chairs would have looked grotesque, but which formed a dignified
setting for the great armoires and solid presses.

The writing-bureaux partake of this solid character, and are
frequently curved after the manner of the wardrobes, the drawer-
fronts being often fluted in a folded-linen pattern.

Fine old wooden four-post beds are to be found, sometimes with
carved pillars and very like those common in England during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries — allowing for the use of teak
or stinkwood in the place of oak. In the Koopmans-de Wet house
there is a small graceful bed made of stinkwood, without pillars.

I have referred to several examples of old Cape furniture from
the specimens in this house, as they are accessible to every one. Here,
too, may be seen examples of the china and glass owned by a family
which guarded the treasures of its forefathers and refused to go

Stinkwood rustbank, Groote Schuur. i8th century

Ebony chair, Groote Schuur Chair at Groote Schuur

Similar chairs were made ia Ceylon in the 17th century by native workmen under Dutch direction

Brass cofFee-pot and komvoor

Copper kettles and komvoors

^^K'/ ]f ^^^^^^1

■^f^^^l

^■P'VV^H

_«>iMr

RP^^^^I

-..^^jmmr -

^5i^HH^^^Kv^^£!*vvk\1

ii^a

^B|^^^^^^^5j>a^*^;:S;^S^^M^^B

^^^^^^^^^^tf^B^KV^^I

■...:, ^^^^^-^

§Mi^^^^ ■*

I^^HH^^H^H

•

Silver drawer-handle. One ot a set on a wardrobe in the Koopmans-De Wet house

Copper wine- measure

Copper three-legged pot

OLD CAPE-DUTCH FURNITURE 175

astray after the strange gods of Birmingham and Tottenham Court
Road.

Of late years there has been a revival in the art of furniture-
making in South Africa, stinkwood, yellow-wood, and the native
Rhodesian woods being used. From this modern development it
is interesting to turn back two hundred years to Kolbe's notes.
' Stinkwood is beautifully clouded,' he says, ' and the Cape-Europeans
have Presses and Tables and several other very useful and very orna-
mental Pieces of Household Furniture made of it.' In 1772 Thunberg
writes of ' Geel-hout (yellow -wood), a pale yellow wood used for
making tables . . . Stink-wood is used for writing-desks and chests
of drawers.'

XXIII

THE DECORATIVE ARTS

A MONGST the workmen detained at the Cape by the van der
AA Stels were clever artificers in metal. Holland of the seventeenth
^ -^-and eighteenth centuries was famous for her brass-workers,
and in the pictures of Pieter de Hoogh and Vermeer we see the shining
brass candelabra, warming-pans, and fire-irons which were the pride
of the huis-vrouw. To its great possessions in the East Indies, as we
have seen earlier, the Company sent out skilled metal-workers, men
who could reproduce in the ends of the earth the household plenishings
of Holland, and we can well beHeve that their detention at the Cape,
half-way to their destination, by the men who loved the little land at
the foot of Africa and built beautiful houses in it, was not to the taste
of those who were awaiting them in Batavia.

Not from Europe only did the workers in metal come. As we
have also seen, many slaves and political prisoners were brought
from the East, and that some of these were famous for their skill in
metal-work we know. It is, therefore, not surprising that the
hinges and hasps, the door-handles and locks, on the old Cape home-
steads were little inferior to those which may be seen at Delft or
Amsterdam,

At one time there was an armoury in the Castle, where useful and
beautiful things were hammered and forged. Here, it is said, much
of the work was done under the direction of Anton Anreith and
Louis Thibault in later years, and here, probably, much of the iron-
work of the Castle itself was made. The armour has vanished, no one
knows where, but scattered over the land are household utensils of
great beauty which we may suppose were made at the Cape.

In a land where fire-places were almost unknown — apart from the
kitchen — ^we need not look for the graceful fenders of eighteenth-
century England or the fire-irons which afforded such scope to the
art of Holland. In their place are komvoors — small braziers of great
diversity and much beauty of design, in polished and perforated
brass or, more rarely, in copper. There are also the little tessjes
which, filled with charcoal, were put inside the stoofjes or wooden
boxes on which a Cape-Dutch woman of past years put her feet when

B !• a s s k o m

voors

Cuspidor in white metal

Stoofje in carved wood

Brass konivoors

AN OLD CAPE GARDEN

A WATER GARDEN

THE DECORATIVE ARTS

177

she felt cold in the short but wet Cape winter. Tall, graceful, brass
coffee-pots with three legs, standing on a small base above little
komvoors, were common in a land where coffee was the drink of the
people and stood ready for every comer.

There is a great charm about the massive wine-beakers, in brass
or copper, which were used in the wine-pressing as a measure. With
all our boasted civilization we have not improved on many of the
common utensils of our forefathers. Modern wine-making is a very
prosaic business too, though machinery has its own romance, and the

Lock-plate on a chest from Tulbagh

old methods of crushing the grapes by dancing on them cannot be
defended on hygienic grounds. These old wme measures have a
grace which appeals to us. ,1-1 • j

Tall cuspidors of brass or of a white metal which contained a
measure of silver were found in every room of an old Cape house,
but are now difficult to procure.

The old armoires and chests have very fine hinges and locks, and
the perforated brasswork which is used to decorate the latter is
exceptionally good. The designs are usually simple and conventional
but heraldic designs are not uncommon— such as the double-headed
eagle on the old chest from the Tulbagh district. Graceful crutch-
handles and finger-plates on the homestead doors, the iron hinges,

2489 A a

BR.AS5 r/rr/NG5 c5-

Sc-^^i

M^oucuT /m^ ruewi^'^t

i8o

THE DECORATIVE ARTS

Hon jr ^azr^ JcHiyo'/Q

=1=

1-6"

hasps, and bolts on the teak shutters, all
testify that the old Cape metal-worker
was no mean craftsman.

On many of the tall armoires the silver
handles and escutcheons still remain,
though a great number have vanished.
It is said that they were made of the
silver money brought from the East in
the homeward-bound ships by the sailors
and passengers who forgot that it would
not pass currency in the Netherlands.
Much of this silver-work is very fine, but
in the absence of marks it is difficult to
distinguish between that made at the
Cape and that brought out from Holland.
Other examples are rough and simple.
Copper entered largely into the kitchen
plenishings of the Cape. Fine copper
kettles and mortars were made, and great
preserving-pans in which the early huis-
vrouw cooked the conserves of naartje,
green fig, water-melon, and Seville orange
for which the Cape is still famous . Copper
doors to the munition rooms at the Castle
have recently been found under a blanket
of paint.

There were no textile factories in old
Cape Town — the ' Guinea linen, taffa-
chelas, baftas, chintz, salmpouris, negro
cloth ', and the other fabrics of which we
read in the Archives being brought from
Europe and the East. Ceramics were
almost equally unrepresented, though
there was a tile-factory and a Company's
' Pottenbakkerij ' at the top of the present
Queen Victoria Street. Rough pottery
had been made by the natives for untold
ages, pots of an ovoid shape, not unlike
those found in the prehistoric tombs of
Egypt, having come to light beneath the
present city of Cape Town ; but, though
graceful pots and bowls are made to this

M^_

if;

Vi >^^i'

H^Q^t^V

1^1

BBPM{T^4"^?g^^B

K i«!'' *

^^H

^^m

m^gaa^jk

^It^^^^^?

j/^Si^

■

ZJ^^H^-^.^^:

^^^n

^^H

ON A SHEEP FARM

F R I E S L A N D CATTLE

LM*mAdidiitLAJL tAA. MsJiAJUi^-

HARVESTING

WHITE WATSONIAS IN THE DROSTDY GARDEN. TULBAGH

THE DECORATIVE ARTS i8i

day by the Basuto people, no manufacture of china has ever been
established. China in large quantities was brought from the East
in the days of the Company, and until recently every house of any
importance held treasures of Ming or old Imari. The large services
of blue and white Nankin were bought up by the dealers and dispersed
when the love of modernity seized the people, and at the same time
were scattered the fine collections of cut and engraved Dutch and
English glass which had been the pride of previous generations.
Sometimes these calamities were unavoidable — when a wave of financial
depression passed over the land, for instance, or when the application
of the Roman-Dutch law of inheritance entailed the sale of a property
with its effects. Whatever the cause, the result is equally to be
regretted — and by none more than the descendants of the old burghers
who gathered about them household treasures of such dignity and
beauty. There are, however, signs of an awakening, to be welcomed
even if it come at the eleventh hour, when much has been carried
away from the Cape which can never be replaced.

It will be noticed that the Cape lesser artists were almost exclu-
sively workers in metal and wood — and not much in the latter if we
except Anton Anreith's carved pulpits and sundry fine.fanUghts and
doors. It is true that some old embroideries are found here and there
— closely quilted bed-coverlets and little caps, samplers, and beadwork
of a fineness which must quickly have worn out the eyes of the workers
— but we may look in vain for the embroidered curtains and bed-
hangings of Tudor or Jacobean England or the altar-frontals of lands
where worship and church ceremonies take a more ornate form than
that permitted by Calvin. The cause of the comparative dearth of
fine needlework may be traced to a climate in which it is more essential
to air a house than to curtain the windows, to a church which looked
somewhat coldly on decorative art, and perhaps, in part, to the facility
with which beautiful embroideries and chintzes could be obtained
from the East by the homeward-bound fleets.

That no carpet industry was established is to be attributed to the
Dutch housewife's affection for her floors of highly polished red tiles
or squares of blue slate.

XXIV

THE LAND ITSELF

IT is not the beauty of her old houses alone which marks South
Africa as blessed among the countries of the earth. Long before
these houses were planned or built, long before Drake from his
ship looked upon the land that he passed and hailed it as fair, its
mountains flushed wine-red at sunset, its high veld turned from
green to umber and from umber to green with the changing seasons,
its lilies and ixias and heaths glowed on hill-side and plain. Man has
built himself cities where once the eland and quagga browsed, cities
with factories and theatres and hotels ; but over them brood the
unchanging mountains, around them still grow the flowers, above them
shine the South African stars in their undimmed radiance, reducing
to pin points the electric lights of the busy streets.

As you drive out of Cape Town by the new road which cuts across
the shoulder of the Devil's Peak on its way to Groote Schuur, there
is a corner at which you should pause and look down on the town
lying in the valley behind you. If it chances to be at sunset the white
houses will gleam like pearls in the purple dusk which has gathered
at the foot of Table Mountain while the summit is yet aflame. Seen
from the height they are softened and made lovely, until it is no longer
Cape Town on which you look but some magic city of mediaeval
legend, and the long ripples of the bay are the waters which lap the
golden walls of lost Atlantis.

Across the Flats the mountains are rose-crested, and around their
feet in September is the glow of fruit-blossom. This is the district
of the peach and apricot and melon, of grapes hanging heavily from
the vines and of the vintage, of loquats and figs and strawberries, and
of plums and pears in all their varieties. Naartjes, oranges, and apples
grow freely, too ; but these come to greater perfection in some districts
of the Transvaal, where there is both greater heat and greater cold
than at the Cape. The oranges from the Rustenburg district are
magnificent ; the trees attain a great height and breadth there and
bear enormous crops. It is difficult to describe the beauty of a
Transvaal orange-orchard. Natal, with the firstfruits of the tropics
in her blood, is famous for her bananas and pine-apples, her mangoes

ARUM LILIES

ORNITHOGALUM AT TULBAGH

E R I C; A M O N S O N I A N A

eric; A LONGIFOLIA

L E UC O S P E R M U M L J N f; A R E

ANEMONE C:APENSiS

THE LAND ITSELF 183

and pawpaws and limes, and grenadillas, though the small sweet
pine-apple grows freely in some of the eastern districts of the Cape
Province also. The fruit-market of Durban affords an example which
some of the older South African towns might well follow. A great
deal of South African fruit is sun-dried and exported to Europe.

Not by fruit alone does the South African cultivator of the soil
live. Maize thrives, especially in the districts of summer rains, and
so does lucerne. Certain areas, in the Cape and elsewhere, are given
up entirely to wheat, other districts are beginning to grow cotton with
great success, in others again excellent tobacco is grown — ^Turkish in
some parts of the country and Virginian in others. In Natal tea and
sugar are cultivated over large areas — during the year 19 19 sugar to
the value of ^£360 ,437 increase over the amount exported in 191 8 was
sent from South Africa. The country is still finding out what she
can do, and with her varieties of climate and her great natural
advantages there are not many things withheld from her.

It is not suggested that there are no drawbacks. Sometimes there
are droughts and sometimes there are floods, and then the farmer is as
afflicted as in any other land ; but, take it for all in all. South Africa
is a fine country with a fine climate in which to cultivate the fruits of
the earth. The sheep and cattle farms lie for the most part in the
interior of the country, and, though this land may be less picturesque
than the districts near the coast, the flocks and herds thrive on it.
South Africa exports wool and meat to the ends of the earth, together
with her wattle-bark and hides, her eggs, ostrich-feathers, oats, maize,
and jams. Great fortunes have been dug out of her earth — gold and
diamonds, coal and copper, her horn of plenty has indeed been filled
to overflowing. She has her wide bare spaces as well as her fruitful
farms, her empty river-beds, and her parched Karoo. But even here,
one shower, when at last it falls, weaves a spell under which the dried-up
veld is transformed into a glowing carpet of wild flowers, as lovely as
the orange-groves of the Transvaal or the vineyards of the Cape.

The scenery of South Africa varies, as we should expect it to vary
in a' land which extends from the temperate to the tropical zones—
a land of great mountain ranges, of the wide high veld and the richly
wooded low veld and coast-Une. The magnificent peaks of the
Drakensberg and the crowning glory of the Mont aux Sources in
Natal are as splendid as the sheer grey wall of Table Mountain or the
snow-capped Drakenstein of the south ; the forests of the Knysna
hold as great a charm as the glorious scenery of the Wood Bush in
the Transvaal. From the high levels various streams find their way
to the sea and in many of these streams trout have been naturalized

i84 THE LAND ITSELF

and grow to a great size, notably in the Mooi River and in some of
the streams in the Western Province. Trout-fishing is fast being
estabhshed. The sea, too, yields a rich harvest ; South African soles
are as good as any in the world, and the stock-fish, haarder, elf,
khp-fish, and very many other varieties compare favourably with the
fish of Europe. But Europe has not the klip-kous, the delicately
flavoured shell-fish whose home is the pearly Venus 's Ear Shell — the
old Dutch people understand the secret of cooking it in lemon-juice
and bread-crumbs until it is no longer merely food but ambrosia fit
for the high gods.

South African birds have been unjustly accused of having no song.
True, the melody of the nightingale is wanting, but many of the native
birds have fine rich notes. Early in the morning and again at evening
you may hear the Bokmakeri {Laniarius gutturalis) calling to his mate.
He throws out a deep, sonorous cry of ' Bok, bok, bok ', on one note.
Then, from some far-off tree comes a sweet soprano lilt in response —
' Ma^eri, ma^eri '. The note of this bird varies with the seasons ; at
one time of the year he shouts lustily for ' Peter, Peter, Peter ', neither
getting nor apparently expecting any response. He is a fine, handsome
bird of the shrike family — olive green above, the tail tipped with
yellow, a yellow throat with a broad black collar. There are many
warblers, and amongst the singers is the Cape thrush, the water-fiscal,
the Bonte canary, and the sweet- voiced Seisje. The English thrush
and blackbird have been introduced and are beginning to make their
voices heard, while starlings have taken almost too kindly to the
country. For sheer beauty it would be difficult to beat the glorious
little sugar birds or sun birds, as they hover over the flowers in search
of food. Of these, Nectarinia famosa is usually found in the neighbour-
hood of the Proteas, extracting the nectar from the blossoms by its
long brush-tipped tongue. Its plumage is a shining malachite green,
the wings and tail being black. Another species has the head and
shoulders ghttering green and a violet breast, but the jewel among the
sun birds is Cinnaris chalybaeus, with the head, back, and breast of
metallic green, while round its neck is a narrow collar of blue and a
wider one of red. In the Transvaal flocks of the crimson-breasted
fiscal {Laniarius atrococcineus) are often seen ; here too are found the
pure white tick birds that hover over the cattle like the guardian angels
which in truth they are. Then there are the gaily-clad finches, the
waxbills, the flycatchers, and many more. The weaver birds are
found throughout South Africa, and build their hanging nests in large
colonies. The Spreeuw or glossy starling {Anydrus morio), a hand-
some chestnut- winged bird, is also found everywhere. One of the best

THE LAND ITSELF 185

places for seeing the flamingo is a lagoon to the south of Saldanha Bay,
recently set aside as a bird sanctuary by the efforts of Mr. J. B. Taylor.

Of South African flowers much has been written, but those who
only know them from books will feel when they see them that the
half had not been told unto them. Natal has her splendid flowering
shrubs and trees, from the Transvaal come the glowing Barberton
daisies and the yellow arum ; in the eastern districts of the Cape
province grow wild the blue plumbago, the scarlet George lily and many
another treasure of European hothouses ; at the Cape are to be seen
in perfection the erica in all its variation of waxen white or pink, of
crimson and scarlet and yellow ; here in the Table Mountain stream
gleams the red disa, while the glorious cobalt blue disa jewels the
slopes, together with the agapanthus, the gold-dusted nerine and the
crassula. The ditches below are filled with white arums in the
winter, the wide flats are ablaze with glowing mesembryanthemum
in the spring and summer. From the first shower of autumn, when
in a twinkling the roadsides are gay with oxalis of every colour, to the
last drought of summer, when the purple bells of the roella defy the
heat, the cycle of the flowering year is complete in beauty.

The Karoo has a distinct vegetation of its own — aloes, stapelias,
and a thousand queer succulents which are constructed to defy
drought. In the Knysna and the northern Transvaal and other
districts fine forests of native trees still exist. No two parts of South
Africa resemble each other in scenery or vegetation, and yet, with all
this unlikeness, no part is more typically South African than another.
Of recent years many native flowers and shrubs have been grown
in gardens with great success, and the Botanic Gardens at Kirsten-
bosch illustrate the wisdom of cultivating and preserving the flora of
the country. Perhaps, of the four provinces the gardens of the
Transvaal are the most beautiful, many of them having been laid out
by the architects who built the houses, in harmony with them : here,
too, is found a pinkish sandstone which spHts easily into large
irregular slabs for paving paths, while the lawns are made of a fine
grass called Florida grass, which forms an emerald carpet for a great
part of the year. Both paving-stones and grass have been used with
great effect by Lady PhilHps in the beautiful garden of Arcadia. The
gardens of Natal consist for the most part of splendid flowering trees,
clumps of feathery bamboo, and shrubs growing in grass. To see
Durban at its loveHest the heat of summer must be ignored for the
sake of the glorious avenues of scarlet flamboyant ; here, too, are
hedges of crimson hibiscus and pergolas heaped high with golden
allamanda or the cream trumpets of Beaumontia, and here the
34S9 B b

i86 THELANDITSELF

Bougainvillea, which grows throughout South Africa, sends long
shoots up tall trees from which it falls again in a shower of beauty.

At the Cape the stone-pines and the roses and the sweet homely
garden flowers have a restful loveliness, and the gardens laid out by
Mr. Arderne at The Hill and Mrs. Carter at Bishopscourt are amongst
the most beautiful in South Africa, with their wonderful mountain
background of grey rocks and wooded kloofs. In some old Cape
gardens are hedges of scarlet pomegranate and waxen myrtle, of blue
plumbago and pink or white oleander, pleasant features in the setting
of the old houses.

The story of the expansion to the northward which has resulted
in the Union of South Africa is known to every one. Before the
eighteenth century dawned Stellenbosch and French Hoek had been
founded ; then, with the need for more farms, the Land of Waveren,
now Tulbagh, was colonized ; then, in 1745, Swellendam, and in 1786
Graaff Reinet. Here the colonists were near the Kaffir border, and
forts were built for troops — of these Fort Frederick has developed into
the town of Port Elizabeth, and Grahamstown, founded in 18 12 as
the military head-quarters, is now a thriving educational centre with
fine schools, St. Andrew's College and others.

In 1836 came the Great Trek, when many Dutch farmers from the
border moved northward, a migration which resulted eventually in the
formation of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The first Natal
settlement was in 1823 when an English company, formed to trade
with the natives, was granted the land on which Durban now stands,
the town being iFounded in 1835. Pietermaritzburg, where a church
was built by the Boers to commemorate their victory over Dingaan,
was called after the two leaders, Gerrit Maritz and Piet Retief.

Of the newer South African towns also, every one knows how
Kimberley came into being, on the site of the diamond mines which
were found at a time when the country lay under deep depression
owing to drought and other causes. Then came the discovery of gold
on the Witwatersrand, a few miles from Pretoria, and the town of
Johannesburg sprang up. Large houses were built and beautiful
gardens laid out, but its crown is the Picture Gallery, built by Sir Edwin
Luty ens, where the fine collection of modern pictures, gathered together
through the inspiration of Lady Phillips, is nobly housed.

It is a great land, whether you see it from Table Mountain or
Meintje's Kop.

INDEX

Aan den Weg, ii8.
Aan het Pad, 124.
Adamastor, i.
van Aken, Rev. P. A., 142.
Alles Verloren, 147.
Almeida, Francisco, 4.
Alphen, 83.
Altydgedacht, 68.
Amsterhof, 149.
Anreith, A., 20.
Appelkraal, 168.
I'Arc d'Orleans, 135.
Architecture, 10.
van Arckel, Rev. J., 46.

Babylonsche Toorn, De, 139.

Bahia das Vaqueiros, 2.

Bahia St. Bras, 2.

Baker, H., 24.

Barnard, Lady Anne, 53.

de Barros, 4.

Barrow, John, no.

Barry, Dr., 84.

Barrydale, 167.

Batavian Houses, 31.

Bax, Governor, 46.

Beck, Sir M., 163.

Bellevue, 60.

Bergh, Olof 167.

BergvHet, 90.

Bethliem, 129.

Bien Donne, 137.

Bij den Weg, 119.

Blaauw Klip, 108.

Blesius, Johannes, 59.

Bloemendal, 139.

Bochenhout Vallei, 131.

Bonfoi, 118.

Bonte Rivier, 107.

Borcherds, P., 113.

Boschendal, 136.

Boscheuval, 69.

Boshof, 69.

Buitenverwachting, 83.

Burchell, W., 29.

Burgher Watch House, 10, 35.

Burgundy, 132.

van der Byl, P., 139.

Cabriere, La, 133.

Caille, Abbe de la, 4, 68.

Caledon, 168.

Camoens, 2.

Camps Bay, 63.

Castle, The, 45.

Champagne (French Hqek), 132.

Champagne (Wellington), 151.

Chimneys, 20.

Cloete, H., 76.

i88

INDEX

Coetsee, D., 117.
Coetsenburg, 117.
Colvin, I., 77.
Concorde, La, 141.
Constantia wine, 82.
Cotte, La, 133.

Dal Josaphat, 144.
Dauphine, 131.
Decorative Arts, 176.
Diaz, B., 2.
Diemersfontein, 144.
Doolhof, 155.
Doors, 21.
Drake, Sir F., 5.

East India Company (English), 4.
East India Company (Dutch), 4.
Elsenburg, 125.
Elsevier, S., 125.

Fitzherbert, H., 6.
Fortuin, 150.
French Hoek, 130.
Furniture, 169.

Gabbema, A., 46.

Gables, 14.

da Gama, V., 2.

Gardens of the Company, 38.

Geduld, 94.
Glen Barry, 166.
Goede Hoop, 142.
Good Hope, 136.
Goske, I., 46.
Gratitude, La, 112.
Grendel, De, 63.
Grimp, H. J., 107.
Groen Rivier, 108.
Groen Vallei, 108.
Groot Constantia, 7, 75.
Groot Drakenstein, 135.
Groote Kerk, 34.
Groote Schuur, 65.
Groote Zalzee, 108.
Guest House, 38.

Haazendal, 128.
Hattingh, H. H., 115.
Heems, G., 59.
Heerengracht, The, 33.
Henry the Navigator, Prince, 5,
Hoop op Constantia, 80.
Hospital, 34.
Houtman, C, 5.
Huguenots, 8.
Huysing, H., 91.

Ida's Valley, 120.
Imhoff's Gift, 90.

Jonker's Hoek, 113.
Joostenburg, 128.

INDEX

189

Kalden, Rev. P., 94,
Kirstenbosch, 70.
Klapmuts, 127.
Klassenbosch, 70.
Kleinbosch, 145.
Klein Constantia, 82.
Klein Vredenburg, 105.
Klip Rivier, 167.
Koopmans-de Wet House, 37.
Kromme Rivier (Stellenbosch), 1 1 1 .
Kromme Rivier (Wellington), 151.
Kronendal, 90.

Labor i (French Hoek), 132.
Labori (Paarl), 143.
Lands Kroon, 143.
Las Cases, 68, 82.
Leeuwendal, 60.
Leeuwenhof, 57.
Leeuwen Tuin, 156.
Leeuwen Vallei, 153.
Leguat, F., 75.
Leibbrandt, Rev. H., 59.
Lekkerwyn, 137.
Libertas, 105.
Limiet Rivier, 145.
Lorentz, Dr., 78.
Lormarins, 134.
Lutheran Church, 37.

Malays, 38.
Markham, V., 31.
Meerlust, 91.

Meerlust (Drakenstein), 137.

Meerman, J., 21.

Meiring, Rev. A., 163.

Melck, M., 126.

de Mello, J., 4.

M'Foshola, 156.

Michaelis Gallery, 35.

de Mist, Com. Gen., 73.

Morgenster, loi.

Morkel, P., 102.

Motte, La (French Hoek), 134.

Motte, La (Simondium), 138.

Mulder's Vlei, 124.

N.
Naauw Bepald, 145.
Naby Gelegen, 154.
Nantes, 143.
Natal, 3.
Nectar, 114.
Nederburg, 147.
Neethling's Hof, 119.
Newlands House, 67.
Nieuhoff, J., 40.
Nieuwendorp, 129.
Nieuwste Beschryving, 42.
Nonpareil, 146.
Noodt, Governor, 53.
Nooitgedacht (Cape Town), 61.
Nooitgedacht (Stellenbosch), 124.
Noord Hoek, 90.
Normal College, 63.
Normandy, 134.

Olives, 142.
Olyvenhout, 151.

igo

INDEX

Onvenvacht (Somerset West), 103.

Onverwacht (Wellington), 151.

Optenhorst, 143.

Orangezicht, 61.

Oudtshoorn, Governor van, 60.

Overveen, 139.

Paarde Vallei, 102.
Paarl, 141.
Paarl Church, 142.
Paarl Diamant, 143.
Papenboom, 67.
Paradise, 69.
Parel Vallei, 102.
Paris, La, 135.
Parys, 143.
Patattas Kloof, 156.
Picardie, 141.
Pise de terre, 29.
Plaisir Merle, Le, 138.
Platte Kloof, 63.
Pontak, 143.
Provence, La, 134.
Purcell, Dr., 90.

Radyn, 168.
Relief, Piet, 154.
Rheezicht, 61.
Rhodes, Cecil, 9.
Rhone, 136.
van Riebeeck, J., 6.
Rocque, La, 135.

Roggeland, 146.

Roode Zand, 159.

Roteiro, The, 3.

Round House, 64.

Rustenburg (Rondebosch), 64, 66.

Rustenburg (Stellenbosch), 121.

Rust en Vrede, 107.

Rust en Vrede (Simondium), 138.

Rust en Werk, 147.

Saasveld House, 60.

St. Pierre, B. de, 76.

Saldanha, A. de, 5.

Schoongezicht (Dal), 145.

Schoongezicht (Jonkers Hoek), 114.

Schoongezicht (Stellenbosch), 122.

Sheikh Yussuf, 94.

Shillinge, A., 6.

Simondium, 138.

Simonstow^n, 90.

Simon's Vallei, 139.

Six, Jonkheer, 78.

Slang Rivier, 156.

Slave Lodge, 34.

Solomon, J. M., 35.

Speir, 115.

Stel, van der. Family of, 78.

Stel, van der, Frans, 102.

Stel, van der, Simon, 7.

Stel, van der, Willem Adriaan, 8, 96.

Stellenberg, 71.

Stellenbosch, 109.

Stellenbosch Kloof, 117.

Swellendam, 165.

INDEX

191

Tachard, Pere, 38, 52.
Taillefer, I., 141.
Tas, A., 105.
Terre de Lucque, 135.
Thibault, L. M., 21.
Tokai, 86.

Toll, Mynheer J. van, 78.
Trotter, Mrs., loi.
Tulbagh, 158.
Tulbagh, Governor, 9.
Tulbagh Church, 159.
Tulbagh Drostdy, 161.
Twee Jong Gezellen, 159,

Uiterwyk, 117.
Uitkyk, 127.

Vaillant, Le, 41.
Valentyn, Rev. F., 34, 77.
Vergelegen, 96.
Vergenoegd, 95.
Versailles, 151.

de Villiers, Family of, 133.
Villiersdorp, 168.
Vogel, J., 71.
Vogelgezang, 94.
Vrede en Lust, 138.
Vredenburg, 104.
Vredenhof, 143.
Vrolykheid, 159.

Waterhof, 59.
Waveren, Land of, 158.
Welgemeende, 60.
Weltevreden, 90.
Welvenpas, 154.
Wilde Paarde Jagt, De, 149.
Woods (Furniture), 170.
Worcester, 157.

Zand Berg, 108.
Zandvliet, 94,
Zeven Rivieren, 129.
Zion, 139.

Zoete Inval, De, 141.
Zorg Vliet, 129.
Zwaansvi^k, 88.

PRINTED IN ENGLAND
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

'\n%ir^(fmM

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Historic houses of South Africa"

See other formats