402 
company’s stores and civil servants. 
Near the top are barracks for the offi- 
cers and soldiers of the garrison; there 
are three breweries, an excellent free- 
school, with many other valuable in-. 
stitutions. A great number of wild 
plumb trees have been planted in double 
rows through the streets and square, 
and other parts of the vicinity. They 
are now grown up, and form a cool and 
pleasant promenade; indeed, they are 
both useful and ornamental. 
On my landing, I had the good for- 
tune to fall in with a Mr. Thomas, a 
very old acquaintance, who was very 
civil, and apparently glad to meet me; 
and who, immediately on my expressing 
a wish to visit Buonaparte’s tomb, pro- 
cured horses, and we set off forthwith 
for that purpose. Our road lay to the 
eastward, from James’s Town, cut along 
the west side of Rupert’s Hill. About 
a mile and half from the town we came 
to the Briars ; a neat compact estate, 
the property of William Balcombe, Esq. 
(now Treasurer at Sydney, New South 
Wales); and, as this was the first resi- 
dence of Buonaparte, at St. Helena, we 
had the curiosity to alight and go in, 
and indulged for a few minutes in a 
lounge on his sofa. From the Briars, 
we went on to the Alarm Ridge House 
Hill, a distance of about three miles 
from the town, and nearly two thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea: 
from this hill, there is a most com- 
manding and delightful view of the 
town, bay and shipping, Longwood, 
Deadwood, Flag-staff Hill, the Barn 
and Arno’s Vale. The face of the 
country here wears a very different as- 
pect from that which presents itself on 
making the Island; for, notwithstand- 
ing the rocks are as barren, rugged and 
mis-shapen, as on the coast, and the ra- 
vines equally deep and forbidding, yet 
the eye is agreeably relieved, by the ap- 
pearance of several good farm-houses, 
and merchants’ country-seats, scattered 
along the sides of the surrounding 
hills ; every spot capable of im- 
provement being brought into cultiva- 
tion; the young plantations, in many 
places, are sufficiently grown to cover 
the barrenness of the soil, and hide 
some of the rocks; and the several 
runs of grass-land to be seen from this 
spot, with herds of sheep and black 
cattle grazing on them, give an interest- 
ing and picturesque finish to the whole 
view. 
Leaving Ridge House Hill, we pro- 
ceeded to Huttsgate, about three quar- 
Journal of a Voyage from the Isle of France to England. [Dec. 1, 
ters of a mile distant, where the road 
divides into three branches; one lead- 
ing to Government House Plantation, 
another to Longwood, and the other to 
Diana’s Peak. Here we dismounted, 
and turned to the left, and descended 
by a winding path into a delightful little 
valley, at the distance of half a mile 
from Huttsgate, where we found the 
tomb of the great but unfortunate Buo- 
naparte. 
There is nothing remarkable in the 
tomb itself, being only a plain marble 
slab, without any inscription; but the 
situation is most happily chosen. There 
is not, in my opinion, a more romantic 
place in the world, or better suited for 
a place of sepulture, than this spot. 
The valley is small, but beautifully green 
and pleasant; nearly surrounded by 
hills almost perpendicular, the sides, of 
which to a considerable height are co- 
vered with evergreens and plants; wild 
loquet, Chinese rose, jessamine, rock 
rose, magnolia, and many other indige- 
nous flowers and flowering shrubs. A 
few yards from the tomb is a spring of 
delicious water, issuing from a rude basin 
cut into the rock. Two elegant willow 
trees, of large growth, decorate the head 
and foot of the grave; and the whole 
area around it is planted with gera- 
niums, myrtle, dwarf lilac and passion 
flower, with various other flowers, &c., 
some of which are (from the delightful 
temperature of the climate in all seasons) 
ever in bloom; causing an everlasting 
spring in this earthly paradise. 
Having sauntered round the valley, 
and cut some stocks from the geraniums 
immediately touching the tomb, and 
taking a few slips from the willow trees 
for the purpose of transplanting in Eng- 
land, we bade farewell to Buonaparte 
and his tomb, and retraced our steps 
to Huttsgate. As we were to sail 
that evening, I had not time to proceed 
on to Longwood, which I at first in- 
tended, so returned to James’s Town ; 
and at Mr. Thomas’s, where I dined, 
was shown Buonaparte’s famous look- 
Ing-glass. It is the largest I ever saw 
in one plate: I fancy it is sixty inches 
in width, by eighty or ninety in height, 
in a plain black frame, without gilding 
or any other ornament. His bed bell- 
ropes were also at Mr. Thomas’s; they 
are of silk, gilt. In fact, all his furni- 
ture is distributed in the respectable 
houses about the town; and I have no 
doubt, but in time to come they will be 
valuable. 
The climate of St. Helena, I should 
imagine, 
