Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



A pleasant account of a visit to Madeira 

 more than two centuries ago is contained in the 

 letters of Christopher JeafFreson, of DuUingham 

 House, Cambridgeshire, published in 1878 by 

 Mr. J. C. Jeaffreson, under the title "A Young 

 Squire of the Seventeenth Century." This 

 youno- gentleman inherited, besides important 

 properties in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, large 

 plantations in St. Christopher's Island, in the 

 West Indies. On his way out to take posses- 

 sion of these he called at Madeira in the year 

 1676. He sailed from Gravesend in the Jacob 

 and Mary, " a vessell of about a hundred and 

 fifty tunns, 14 or 16 gunns, a square stearne, 

 with good accomodations." 



If this vessel left something to be desired in 

 the way of size and speed, her pleasant name 

 atoned for much. The day of such fearsome 

 titles as Cappadocian or Aconcagua was not yet. 

 It would indeed be agreeable if one of the 

 great steamship lines were to have the courage 

 to revert to the old style. And surely such 

 names as Darby and Joan, The Happy Lovers, 

 or The Jolly Tripper, would amount to a gra- 

 tuitious advertisement in themselves. But the 

 modern shipowner names his ship out of the 



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