8 
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
characterizes the younger females is on no occasion shewn to 
greater advantage. Sometimes eight or ten ladies and as many 
gentlemen start on horseback at the break of day, and ride six 
or seven miles to one of the country-seats before breakfast, and 
afterwards remount their horses, extend their excursions, dine at 
the house of another friend, and without the slightest appearance 
of fatigue conclude the evening with a dance. I have enjoyed 
many parties like these through the kindness of an amiable 
family with which I spent great part of my time ; and I confess 
that the sensations excited on such occasions rendered them 
some of the happiest moments of my existence. I found on such 
excursions, that the feelings of my countrymen were pretty much 
in unison with my own ; and the frequent marriages, which have 
ensued from the kind of intimacy to which they give rise, do 
equal credit to the taste of both parties. 
I have before said that it was not my intention to enter into 
a description at length of the commercial or political affairs of 
this colony ; I shall therefore only remark in general terms 
that it appeared to have greatly improved since my former visit 
in 1802, which is in a great measure to be attributed to 
the judicious conduct of Lord Caledon, whose many amiable 
qualities acquired him the esteem and admiration of all the 
valuable part of the settlement. He was indeed thought by 
some to have been too mild and conciliating in his general 
treatment of the Dutch inhabitants, and to have listened to their 
opinions with too much respect ; but if these be failings, they 
are of a description from which I hope that his successors may 
not be exempt, since their effects have assuredly been eminently 
