untry is richly wooded, chiefly with our own dear English trees, and
abounds with pleasant buildings, surrounded with gardens bright with
the flowers of the summer of our Northern latitudes. The scene recalls
the most favoured part of Surrey. The cantonments of the troops at
Wynberg, on a well-wooded plateau, have all the lovely features of an
English park.

We made an excursion with Sir Gordon Sprigg and his kind family to
Constantia, where the Government have purchased an old Dutch
manor-house, and are cultivating the vine under the superintendence of
Baron Von Babo, with the view of producing wines on the most approved
European principles. Our host has made one of those interesting and
honourable careers for which colonial life offers so many
opportunities to those who know how to use them. He began life in the
gallery of the House of Commons, as a reporter of debates, in the days
of Cobden. As Premier of a Colonial Parliament, he has had an
opportunity of applying the maxims of political wisdom gathered from a
close observation of our own Parliamentary proceedings.

Another excursion was made to Stellenbosch, a characteristic example
of the old Dutch towns of the Cape Colony. We were under the guidance
of Sir Gordon Sprigg, Mr. Hofmeyr, and Mr. Tudhope, the Colonial
Secretary. The journey from Cape Town occupied an hour by railway.
Stellenbosch is in many ways a perfect reproduction of a country town
in Holland. If we miss the canals, we have the domestic architecture,
the fine avenues running through the principal streets, and the Dutch
characteristics of the people. These features give to this distant
settlement in South Africa, not one of whose inhabitants probably has
ever visited Holland, a markedly national aspect.

On our arrival at Stellenbosch we were driven, under the guidance of
the Mayor, to the University, where a mixed staff of professors,
English and Dutch, are doing excellent work in education. We were
received by a guard of honour, furnished by the students' Volunteer
Corps. Having inspected the University buildings, we drove out to an
old Dutch farm, under a burning sun, and through a country in which
the foliage of the temperate and the tropical zones was closely
intermingled.

The farm we visited comprises an extensive range of buildings, with an
excellent dwelling-house, roomy stables, and the stores, filled with
butts of wine, which are characteristic of the district. The buildings
form a