Part 6 (1/2)
”On Whitsun-eve we had a most enchanting expedition to Stellenbosch and the Paarl, which I will describe here. W., I, the children, and the B.'s, formed the party. We left home just at sunrise, the heavy dew warning us of a very hot winter's day, though it was then cold enough.
We took the train to Stellenbosch, and I was in ecstasies over the perfect loveliness of the scenes we pa.s.sed through as the train climbed the incline towards those deeply serrated mountains which we were to pierce by and by. Looking back as we rose I could more fully appreciate the majestic proportions of Table Mountain, at whose base we live, and, when a long way off it stood above the plain in solitude, disclosed in its entirety, pale amethyst in the white morning light, I was more than ever filled with a sense of the majesty of this land which this dominating mountain seemed to gather up into itself and typify.
”Quite different in outline are the fantastic mountains we pa.s.sed athwart to-day, and nowhere have I seen such intense unmixed ultramarine shadows as those that palpitate in their deep kloofs in contrast with the rosy warmth of their sunlit b.u.t.tresses and jagged peaks. And as to the foregrounds here, when you get into the primeval wilderness, what words can I find to give an idea of their colouring, and of the profusion of the wild shrubs, all so spiky and aromatic, and some so weird, so strange, that cover the sandy plains? Here are some notes. In distance, blue mountains; middle distance, pine woods, dark; in foreground, gold-coloured shrubs, islanded in ma.s.ses of bronze foliage full of immense thistle-shaped pink and white flowers; bright green rushes standing eight feet high, with brown heads waving; black cattle knee-deep in the rich herbage and a silver-grey stork slowly floating across the blue of the still sky.
”But this most paintable and decorative vegetation is not friendly to the intruder. These exquisitely toned shrubs with wild strong forms are full of repellent spikes which, like bayonets, they seem to level at you if, lured by the gentle perfume of their blossoms, you approach eye and nose too near. Depend upon it, this country was intended for thick-skinned blacks.
”As you get farther from town influences there appear much better human forms in the landscape, and to-day I was greatly struck with the appearance of an ox-waggon drawn by twelve big-horned beasts, and upon its piled-up load stood picturesque male and female Malays in white and gay colours--quite a triumphal car. A negro with immense whip walked by the side, and behind rose a long avenue of old stone-pines, and at the end of the vista the blue sky. These stone-pine avenues that border the red-earthed highways are among the most delightful of the many local beauties of the Cape, and such stone-pines! Old giants bigger than any I have seen on the Riviera. There are dense forests of them here, lovely things to look down on, with their soft, velvety ma.s.ses of round tops of a rich dark green, looking like one solid ma.s.s. The wise Dutch who planted them had a law whereby any one felling one of these pines was bound to plant two saplings in its stead. We are doing a great deal of the felling without the planting.
”At Stellenbosch we got out, and, to my pleasure, I saw a long sort of char-a-banc driven at a hand gallop into the station yard, drawn by three mules and three horses--the vehicle ordered by W. to convey us to the 'Paarl.' And why 'Paarl'? Deep among the mountains rises a double peak, bearing imbedded in each summit an immense smooth rock rounded like a black t.i.tanic 'Pearl' that glistens in the sun as it beats on its polished surface. Thither we blithely sped, one driver holding the mult.i.tudinous reins of our mixed team, the other manuvering with both hands his immensely long whip, the gyrations of the thong being an interesting thing to watch as he touched up now this beast and now that.
They have a way in this country of keeping up a uniform trot uphill, downhill, and on the level, but stopping frequently to breathe the team.” (Ah! give me road travel with horses--it is more _human_ than the motor!) ”After an enchanting stage through wild mountain gorges we came to an oak fixed upon by W. beforehand as marking our halting place, and there the six beasts were 'out-spanned.' The simple harness was just slipped off and laid along on the road where the animals stood, and then they were allowed to stray into the wild, tumbling bush as they liked and have a roll, if so minded. Then we lit a fire and spread our repast under the shade of the oak at the edge of a wood that sloped down to a mountain stream. All round the solemn mountains, all about us fragrant aromatic flowers and the call of wild African birds! I can well understand the pa.s.sionate love an Africander-born must feel for his country. I know none that has such strong, saturating local sentiment.
The horses and mules, whose feet I had espied several times waving in spurts of rolling above the undergrowth, being collected and 'in-spanned,' we set off for the Paarl Station and descended back into the Plain by rail at sunset; and as we left the mountains behind us they were flus.h.i.+ng in the glory from the West, their shadows remaining of the same astonis.h.i.+ng ultramarine they had kept all day. In any other country the blue would have changed somewhat, but here I don't expect anything to follow any known rules--I accept the phenomena of things around me as time goes on, and have ceased to wonder. Oh! vision of loveliness, strange and unique, which this day has given me, never to be forgotten.”
My great regret is that I had so little time to ply my paints and try at least to make studies which would now be very precious to me. How little I knew the shortness of my sojourn! The two little Cape ponies (with much of the Arab in them) were in almost daily requisition along those great pine-bordered, red-earthed roads, to take me for my return calls, or a portion of them. I fear I left many unreturned towards the end.
There were the Dutch as well as the English, a large circle. I had sketching expeditions projected which never came off, with a clever Dutch lady, who did charming water-colours of beautiful Constantia and the striking country above Simon's Bay, and the true ”Cape of Good Hope” beyond. She had battled with snakes in the pursuit of her art, and in the woods had sustained the stone-throwing of the baboons, who made a target of her as she sat at work. I was willing for the baboon bombardment, and even would chance the snakes, as one chances everything, to wrest but a poor little water-colour from nature.
Two events which, in that tremendous year '99, were of more than usual importance loom large in my memory of the Cape--that is, the Queen's Birthday Review in May, and the opening of Parliament on the 14th July.
The Birthday Review on the Plain at Green Point was the ditto of others I had seen on the sands of Egypt, on the green sward of Laffan's Plain at Aldershot, on the Dover Esplanade, and wherever W. had been in command; but this time, as he rode up on his big grey to give the Governor the Royal Salute before leading the ”Three Cheers for Her Majesty the Queen!” a prophet might have seen the War Spectre moving through the ranks of red-coats behind the General.
At the opening of Parliament we ladies almost filled the centre of the ”House,” and I was able to study the scene from very close. The Dutch Members, on being presented to the Speaker, took the oath by raising the right hand, whereas the English, of course, kissed the Book. The proceedings were all on the lines followed at Westminster, the Governor keeping his hat on as representing the Sovereign. The opening words of ”the Speech from the Throne” sounded hollow. They proclaimed amongst other things _urbi et orbi_, that we were at peace with the South African Republics.
”And now,” says the diary, ”Good-bye, South Africa, for ever! I am glad that in you I have had experience of one of the most enchanting portions of this earth!”
As you know that experience only lasted five months after all. We left on the 23rd August '99 on a day of blinding rain, which, as the s.h.i.+p moved off, drew like a curtain across that country which I felt we were leaving to a fast-approaching trouble. The war cloud was descending. It burst in blood and fire a few weeks later and deepened the sense of melancholy with which I shall ever think of that far-away land.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CAPE ”FLATS”]
IV
ITALY
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BRINGING IN THE GRAPES]
CHAPTER I
VINTAGE-TIME IN TUSCANY
[Ill.u.s.tration]
A descent from the Apennine on a September evening into Tuscany, with the moon nearly full--that moon which in a few days will be s.h.i.+ning in all its power upon the delights of the vintage week--this I want to recall to you who have shared the pleasure of such an experience with me.
A descent into the Garden of Italy, spread out wide in a haze of warm air--can custom stale the feeling which that brings to heart and mind?