teinidad: then and now. 



193 



ly grazing — a delightful pastoral scene — lending still 

 greater charm to it. You can describe the beautiful 

 Botanic Gardens with their ever changing panorama 

 of soft green hills in whose lap they are placed ; wild 

 and cultivated flowers in glorious profusion, with 

 towering trees and climbing vines one mass of bloom 

 and colour, of such varied hues as will tax all your 

 powers to describe, or do adequate justice to ; whose 

 glory would make the dullest nature beam with de- 

 light. You can describe the city of Port-of-Spain 

 with its towers, steeples and domes peeping their 

 lofty heads as it were above a sylvan wood-land 

 scene, lying in the near distance to the south ; the 

 homely dwellings and charming villas to the east and 

 west, beginning with Government House, the resi- 

 dence of the Governor, with its background of lofty 

 purple hills ; the building planned in the shape of the 

 letter " L ' ? to perpetuate the memory of Sir James 

 Longden, who approved of the plans and design, but 

 did not remain long enough to enjoy its comforts or 

 see its completion. Very few are aware of the reason 

 of its design or, perhaps, ever noticed it, probably it 

 will be news to many. It certainly did not serve to 

 perpetuate his memory, for the memories of most of 

 the good people of Trinidad are short, their time is 

 too much taken up in the struggle for existence or 

 the endeavour to amass a fortune, to allow them to 

 dwell on such insignificant things as perpetuating the 

 memory of a nearly forgotten governor. 



Cast your eyes over the lofty Laventille hills, 

 stretching in an undulating slope along the Eastern 



M 



