CHAP, VIII. GEATIFYING VISIT TO GLEN AVON. 225 



dreary scene of her recent bereavement to a place of shelter 

 and comfort. The other valued friend, who had subsequently 

 experienced the kindness of Mr. Hart, was Thomas Pringle, 

 one of the gentlest and kindest of men, to whose pure bene- 

 volence and high and noble Christian principle South Africa 

 is greatly indebted for some of her present dearest privileges ; 

 to whose memory is due a tribute which has yet to be paid, 

 but which, I feel assured, the growing love of liberty and right 

 in that rapidly rising community will not allow to be either 

 overlooked or forgotten. 



Glen Avon is distinguished by fine specimens of European 

 trees and magnificent orchards. I never saw such a collec- 

 tion of noble orange trees, literally loaded with fruit, some of 

 which was just beginning to turn yellow. Mr. Hart told 

 me his son had sold last year 200,000 oranges, which were 

 carried away by waggons-full, and sometimes several waggons- 

 full at a time, to different parts of the colony ; and he added 

 that during the coming season he expected to have a still 

 larger crop. 



In our walks, we came upon a retired dell in a sort of rocky 

 recess, high above a rippling stream that wound its almost 

 noiseless way amongst the stones of the wood-covered valley 

 below ; and while I was looking at the fruit-bearing olive, the 

 only one I had seen growing by the side of the wild olive of 

 the African wood, I noticed a neat stone-facing of rock- work 

 round a massive door. This, I learned, was the last resting- 

 place of the o'svner's family — a tomb within whose precincts 

 the remains of his wife were already laid. An unusually 

 solemn feeling came over me while standing talking with one 

 who, in the course of nature, would so soon be resting in 

 peaceful silence there. It was a spot apparently formed by 

 nature for such a purpose, — a quiet sheltered nook, such as 

 one would choose for the last long resting-place in death. I 

 more than once had occasion to notice this novel feature of a 



Q 



