190 ST. HELENA 



the house had been left very much out of repair and nothing 

 in the garden but plaintain trees and pasturage for Gover- 

 nor Bourcher's asses. It was afterwards steadily improved 

 under successive Governors, and Governor Wilkes, in 1815, 

 says he had expended during his time £4,500 in repairs and 

 additions to the property, and had planted out 27,000 pine 

 asters. It is now the best wooded property in the island 

 and contains a number of rare and beautiful trees, fine 

 vegetable and flower gardens, and spacious walks, that 

 towards Green Gate being very beautiful. 



Putty Hill is so called from the stickiness of the clay on 

 the hill in wet weather. Governor Blackmore, in December, 

 1690, was killed by a fall on Putty Hill, but so low down 

 that his body fell into the water. Captain Johnson, who 

 succeeded him, stated at the inquest that he and Governor 

 Blackmore with two boys were coming from the country at 

 about six o'clock, and that the Governor slipped and fell 

 down a steep place. The fall was so violent that he had only 

 time to say, " Oh, help me." His body was taken out of 

 the run of water near the waterfall, at the bottom of the 

 steep opposite the upper end of Maldivia Gardens. 



Ruperts. — In May, 1734, is an entry which says " Here 

 Prince Rupert, son of the King of Bohemia and nephew to 

 King Charles I., on his return from India, came to an anchor 

 and stayed to refresh his ship's company." This event 

 gave the place the name of Rupert's Valley. On the same 

 date is an order that the 4-pounder guns in Rupert lines 

 were to be kept loaded with partridge shot — which looks as 

 if the Frenchmen would have been fair game — had they 

 tried to land there. 



Rowland's Cove. — This has been the scene of frightful 

 accidents even of late years. It was first called Downing's 

 Cove from a fatal accident to a soldier of that name. 



In 1734 Corydon, the Company's chief fisherman, going 

 to Ruperts, carrying a small box of fish for his wife who lived 

 in Rupert's Valley, was killed there, and later, a man named 

 Rowley,' carrying a small keg in the same path hit it against 

 the jutting rock, when it hove him down and smashed him 

 to pieces. 



-Southens — near Friar's Valley — was allotted to a 

 Sergeant Southens. It was his widow Sarah, who made 



