On the summit rested a fleecy
cloud which concealed the pointed crags and hung from the edges of the
precipice like a border of fine drapery. On the right, groups of
buildings stretched onwards to Sea Point, where the surf was breaking on
the rocks within a few feet of the road; on the left were the more
picturesque suburbs of Rosebank, Newlands and Claremont nestling amid
their woods and orchards; and still further on lay Wynberg, with its
vast hospital, already become a household word in English homes. The
dreary flats of Simon's Bay, where British war-ships lay at anchor, shut
in the view.
Pleasing as the picture is when seen from the deck of a Castle Liner,
disappointment generally overtakes the voyager who has landed. Capetown
itself has little to boast of in the way of architecture. Except
Adderley Street, which is adorned by the massive buildings of the Post
Office and Standard Bank, the thoroughfares of the town offer scarcely
any attractions. The Dutch are not an artistic race, and the fact that
natives here live not in "locations" but anywhere they choose has
covered some portions of the town's area with ugly and squalid houses.
Nor, as a matter of fact, does the general tone of thought and feeling
in Cape Colony naturally lend itself to aesthetic considerations. Even
the churches fail to escape the influence of a spirit which subordinates
everything else to practical and utilitarian considerations.
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