38 
ST. HELENA. 
The officers’ guard-house is converted into a Customs baggage ware- 
house, while the sentry boxes are playthings for ragged little black 
boys ; and the large barracks are left, almost empty, to fall a prey to 
the white ants. Upon the whole the town is strikingly better in 
appearance than would be expected. The streets are good, and so are 
the houses, but there are no gas or other lamps to rival the brilliant 
light of the moon and stars. With its immediate neighbourhood it 
numbers about 290 houses, which, a few years ago, were valued at 
120,000/., including two churches, a chapel, two hospitals, a market- 
hall, and at least six schools. There are three gardens, two of which 
are public, and the other, well known to visitors as “The Maldivia Fruit 
Gardens,” is situated at the head of the town and valley in which it 
lies, and where grow the only mango trees in the Island. The 
population of the town is somewhat more than one-half that of the 
whole Island, or about 3500 persons. The most striking erection in 
the place is “ The Ladder,” the ascent of which is much more 
fatiguing than at first sight appears. Some visitors accomplish it, 
and even descend it again, but only to pay the penalty next day of 
being scarcely able to move their limbs. 
Three roads lead from the town to the high land, or country, as 
it is generally called ; one follows up the direction of the ravine, 
and, passing Francis Plain cricket-ground, about two miles 
distant from the town, leads to Oak Bank, one of the prettiest 
country residences, and the central part of the Island generally; but 
the road is exceedingly steep and unfit for riding or driving, and the 
same spots are better, though not so quickly, reached by the other 
roads which zigzag up the face of the hills on either side of the 
town. That on the east, called “ Side Path,” passes close to The 
Briars, where Napoleon Bonaparte lived for a time previous to his 
residence at Longwood, and winds round the valley of “ The 
Tomb, through the village of Hut’s Gate to Longwood, distant 
about four and three-quarters miles from the starting-point. Head- 
wood and Longwood together form a large open plain, nearly 
2000 feet above the sea, now scarcely wooded at all, but attractive 
through the lovely and picturesque mountain scenery of its neigh- 
bourhood. Deadwood is the spot usually selected for fairs, races, 
and such like amusements, and Longwood constitutes the largest 
farm in the island. After the death of Napoleon on the 5th May, 
1 821, the house he occupied, as well as that newly-erected for him, 
