68 
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 
14 Mar. 
Our walk conducted us to a high part of the hill of Wynberg, 
which overlooks Kerstenbosch, a beautiful estate belonging to Govern- 
ment. The view from this spot, and, indeed, all the scenery around, is 
the most picturesque of any I had seen in the vicinity of Cape Town. 
The beauties here displayed to the eye could scarcely be represented 
by the most skilful pencil ; for this landscape possessed a character 
that would require the combined talents of a Claude and a Both : but 
at this hour, the harmonious effect of light and shade, with the 
enchanting appearance of the foliage in the foreground, and the tone 
of the middle distances, were altogether far beyond the painter's art. 
The objects immediately surrounding us, were purely sylvan ; a blue 
extent of distance terminated the landscape both in front and on the 
right. To the left, the noble Table Mountain rose in all its grandeur, 
crowned with rocks, and displaying, in the broad ravines that de- 
scended its side, the rich colouring of some inaccessible woods, the 
growth, perhaps, of centuries. The enormous and lengthened sha- 
dow of Table Mountain and Devil's Mountain, stretched far over the 
Flats, and seemed to touch the foot of Tygerberg. The last beams 
of the sun, gleaming over the rich, varied, and extensive prospect, 
laid on the warm finishing lights, in masterly and inimitable touches. 
In whatever shape her works appear to us. Nature exhibits nothing 
defective; whether we view her in the mechanism of animated bodies, 
in the structure of vegetables, in the laws of the globe we inhabit, or 
in the combination, beauty, and fitness of all that adorns its surface. 
Here I beheld her perfection in the sweet harmony of soft colors and 
tints of every gradation, speaking a language which all may under- 
stand, transfusing into the soul a delight which all may enjoy, and 
which never fails, at least for the time, to smother every uneasy sens- 
ation of the mind. 
Senecio figidus ? 
Gnaphalium nudifolium 
Rims 7-osmarinifolium 
Roella ciliata 
Echium glabrum 
Scahiosa rigida 
Phylica stipularis 
Gnaphalium P umbellatum 
