ncisco. Immediately behind the town,
which lies along the sea, the majestic mass of Table Mountain rises to a
height of 3600 feet, a steep and partly wooded slope capped by a long
line of sheer sandstone precipices more than 1000 feet high, and flanked
to right and left by bold, isolated peaks. The beautiful sweep of the
bay in front, the towering crags behind, and the romantic pinnacles
which rise on either side, make a landscape that no one who has seen it
can forget. The town itself is disappointing. It has preserved very
little of its old Dutch character. The miniature canals which once
traversed it are gone. The streets, except two, are rather narrow, and
bordered by low houses; nor is there much to admire in the buildings,
except the handsome Parliament House, the new post office, and the
offices of the Standard Bank. The immediate suburbs, inhabited chiefly
by Malays and other coloured people, are mean. But the neighbourhood is
extremely attractive. To the north-west Table Mountain and its spurs
descend steeply to the sea, and the road which runs along the beach past
the village of Sea Point offers a long series of striking views of shore
and crag. It is on the east, however, that the most beautiful spots lie.
Five miles from Cape Town and connected with it by railway, the village
of Rondebosch nestles under the angle of Table Mountain, and a mile
farther along the line is the little town of Wynberg. Round these
places, or between them and Cape Town, nearly all the richer, and a
great many even of the poorer, white people of Cape Town live. The roads
are bordered by pretty villas, whose grounds, concealed by no walls, are
filled with magnolias and other flowering trees and shrubs. Avenues of
tall pines or of superb oaks, planted by the Dutch in the last century,
run here and there along the by-roads. Immediately above, the grey
precipices of Table Mountain tower into the air, while in the opposite
direction a break in the woods shows in the far distance the sharp
summits, snow-tipped during the winter months, of the lofty range of the
Hottentots Holland Mountains. It would be hard to find anywhere, even in
Italy or the Pyrenees, more exquisite combinations of soft and
cultivated landscape with grand mountain forms than this part of the
Cape peninsula presents. Perhaps the most charming nook of all is where
the quaint old Dutch farmhouse of Groot Constantia[41] stands among its
vineyards, about ten miles from Cape T