1811. ROODEBLOEM. — RONDEBOSCH. — NIEUWLANDS. 35 
Mountain to Hout-baay (Wood Bay). It is between seven and eight 
miles distant from Cape Town, the road taking first a south-easterly, 
and then a south-westerly direction. After passing the castle *, we 
continued our walk along a broad road of great traffic, it being the 
only one by which the town is entered from the side of the land. 
We passed Roodebloem (here pronounced Roibloom), where the great 
road from Hottentot Holland and the interior of the colony, joins 
the road from Simon's Bay. This place is called Roodebloem^ from a 
profusion of red flowers (probably Gladioli,) which annually sprang 
up there before the land was brought under cultivation. 
Rondebosch (Round-wood) is an assemblage of villas and gardens, 
distributed along the first part of the road ; and here many of the 
inhabitants of Cape Town have their country seats. A little farther 
on, we crossed the Liesbecks river, a plentiful streamlet, at a place 
called Westervoort Bridge. Hereabouts the country becomes ex- 
tremely beautiful, every where shaded with groves and large trees ol" 
luxuriant growth, between which are interspersed vineyards, gardens, 
and many handsome buildings. Turning to the right, or westward, 
out of the Wynberg road, we followed another, equally broad and 
good, and. delightfully shaded by large oaks. This led us by Nieuw- 
lands, (Newlands,) at that time the seat of General Grey ; but wliicli 
has since become the official country residence of the Governor. 
Near this place is a beautiful spot, called the Brewery, where, in the 
midst of groves and plantations, stands an elegant mansion, built 
after the designs of Mons. Thibault the government architect and 
surveyor, to whose taste and talents in architecture, Cape Town is 
much indebted. 
The country between Newlands and Paradise is rich in botany, 
beyond all that I could have imagined ; and, as a European, I might 
say that we wandered through coppices of green-house plants, and 
forced our way through thickets of rare exotics. My sable com- 
panion, witnessing the care with which I collected specimens of 
* See the vignette at page 11. 
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