k 



XIV 



A FIAT TOWN 



IT HAS been, as I have said, the fashion to speak 

 of Nairobi as an ugly little town. This was 

 probably true when the first corrugated iron houses 

 huddled unrelieved near the railway station. It is 

 not true now. The lower part of town is well planted 

 and is always picturesque as long as its people are 

 astir. The white population have built in the 

 wooded hills some charming bungalows surrounded by 

 bright flowers or lost amid the trunks of great trees. 

 From the heights on which is Government House 

 one can, with a glass, watch the game herds feeding 

 m the plains. Two Country Clubs with the usual 



imes of golf, polo, tennis — especially tennis — 

 )tball and cricket; a weekly hunt, with jackals 



istead of foxes; a bungalow town club on the slope 

 tf a hill; an electric light system; a race track; a rifle 



inge; frilly parasols and the latest fluffiest summer 



)ilettes from London and Paris — I mention a few 

 of the refinements of civilization that off"er to the 

 traveller some of the most piquant of contrasts. 



119 



