resses as we
attempted to sketch the scene, represented the whole animal life within
sight or hearing."[47]

Lady Barker is a practised writer, and a good deal of literary skill is
shown in her books of travel, "Station Life in New Zealand" and "A
Year's Housekeeping in South Africa." Pleasanter reading one could
hardly wish for; the sketches are vivid, and the observations judicious;
the style is fluent, and flavoured by a genial and unobtrusive humour.
Lady Barker looks at things, of course, with a woman's eye, and this
womanliness is one of the charms of her books. She sees so much that no
man would ever have seen, and sees it all in a light so different from
that in which men would have seen it. To our knowledge of South Africa,
Lady Barker has unquestionably made a very real and interesting
contribution. She and her husband, who had been appointed to an official
position of importance in Natal, arrived at Cape Town in October, 1875,
and, after a brief rest, steamed along the coast to the little port of
East London. Thence they proceeded to Port Durban, where they
disembarked, and, in waggons drawn by mules, jolted over the fifty-two
miles that lie between Port Durban and their place of destination,
Maritzburg. During her residence there she made good use of her time and
opportunities, studying the native ways and usages, sketching Zulus and
Kaffirs, interviewing witches and witch-finders, exploring the scenery
of the interior, and accomplishing an expedition into the Bush, the
result being a book of some 320 pages, in which not one is dull or
unreadable. Of her lightness and firmness of touch we can give but one
specimen, a sketch of a Kaffir bride:--

"She was exceedingly smart, and had one of the prettiest faces
imaginable. The regular features, oval face, dazzling teeth, and
charming expression, were not a bit disfigured by her jet-black skin.
Her hair was drawn straight up from her head like a tiara, stained red,
and ornamented with a profusion of bone skewers, a tuft of feathers
being stuck coquettishly over one ear, and a band of bead embroidery,
studded with brass-headed nails, worn like a fillet where the hair grew
low on the forehead. She had a kilt, or series of aprons rather, of lynx
skins, a sort of bodice of calf-skin, and over her shoulders, arranged
with ineffable grace, a gay table-cover. Then there were strings of
beads on her pretty, shapely throat and arms, and a bright scarlet
ribbon tied tigh