137 Hints regarding the Cape of Good Hope. [April 



boarding-house) by the month: a man and his wife £ 15 a 

 month, providing their own liquors and firing. 



Almost the first person whose services you will require, 

 after landing at the Cape, will be the washerwoman. They 

 are excessively extravagant and bad ; not one tenth of your 

 clothes will be washed at all, and you will have to pay from 

 25. 6d. to 3 s. 6d. per dozen pieces, but you have no remedy, 

 and are at their mercy. After the board ship clothes are 

 washed you will hire a woman to wash by the month, the 

 rates are for a single person from 10 dollars upwards, for a 

 family considerably more,- I have paid 40 dollars a month, 

 for washing the clothes of my family consisting of my wife 

 and self, 3 children, 3 Indian servants and 2 English girls. 



The wages of a housemaid are from 12 to 20 dollars a month 

 with board ; they generally work at the needle, but are fond of 

 idling and require much looking after. Your Indian ser- 

 vants should as soon as possible make themselves acquaint- 

 ed with the nature of the current money, and bazar rates ; 

 till when, they will most certainly be imposed upon. The 

 bazar currency, sovereigns, half crowns, shillings, six pences, 

 penny pieces, half-pennies, farthings, rix dollars (\s.6d.) shil- 

 lings, (2\d.) stivers (6 to a shilling) and doublegees (~d. each.) 

 Beef of excellent quality from 2d. to ?jd. per lb., mutton 2d. s 

 fresh butter 2s. in summer, and from that to 3 s. per lb. in 

 winter, good salt butter 8d. and 9d., fish very cheap and 

 good ; vegetables and fruit abundant and cheap in the season ; 

 bread good and about the same price as at Madras, milk 3d. 

 a bottle, but it is often a little sky blue, and the bottle is 

 barely an honest pint. 



The Cape summer season is from the beginning of Octo- 

 ber to April, during which the residents are generally out of 

 town ; you may at this season get a house or lodgings in 

 Cape Town at a moderate rent, and a country residence is 

 expensive. The case is vice versa with the change of season. 

 If you want quiet and fine air, the country is the place 

 throughout the year ; if gaiety is your object, you must fol- 

 low the fashion, and return to town for the winter. There 

 are some very comfortable bungalows at Wynberg, eight miles 



