1811. 
IN THE BOSJESVELD. 
119 
well, by being treated in the same manner as the quick or haw- 
thorn ; and, by ' plashing' their long tough and slender twigs, 
while young, they produce a very lasting fence, which, at the same 
time, possesses the very necessary property of being impenetrable to 
cattle. These twigs are very commonly used as horse-whips, when 
those made of the hide of the rhinoceros or hippopotamus, are 
not to be procured. At this season, every hedge is loaded with 
the finest fruit, the flavour of which is excellent ; but they are 
seldom turned to any other account than that of affording a kind 
of brandy : peaches, however, yield a better spirit. 
This division of the district, on the northern side of the moun- 
tains, is called Bosjesveld (Bushland, or the Bushy Country) ; and, 
although that name was probably, at its first imposition, charac- 
teristic of the nature of the country, there did not appear at this 
time any peculiar feature, of that kind, by which it might be con- 
sidered to differ much from the other divisions of this part of 
the colony. 
Du Toit's house is beautifully situated in an open country, 
surrounded on all sides by distant mountains ; and, though it be 
wild, and apparently barren, the soil is reckoned productive, as, 
indeed, the garden and vineyard clearly proved. A part of the 
morning I employed in making two drawings of the scenery, par- 
ticularly as they might express a certain general character of the 
houses and landscape, which most frequently occurs in this settle- 
ment. The dwelling itself was a miserable mud-built cottage, with 
a ground floor of four or five rooms. It could boast of glazed 
windows, but neither of a boarded floor, nor of a plastered ceiling ; 
in which respect, however, it was not worse than the best farm- 
houses in the country. In front was a small garden, of the width 
of the house, enclosed by a low mud wall, shaded by two fine trees 
of Melia Azedirach, twenty feet high, whose horizontal branches 
and light foliage gave it an air of much elegance : such trees are 
not uncommon. A beautiful bush of Nerium Oleander, twelve 
feet high, covered with blossom, seemed, by its splendid colors. 
