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P I L a T l w. .
HOTTEHTOT HOLLAND, WITH SIB LOWEY'S PASS, AUD THE TILLAGE OF SOMEBSBT-WEST.
THE PieU-cometcy of Somtr.et inclades all the farms of Hottentot Holland ».jiich are scattered at the foot of the
mountains of the same name, together with the village of Somerset-West, ivhich has . popnlation of nearly t»o hundred
persons. Tlie situation of Somerset i. remarkably pieturesque: immediately at the foot of a range of magniflcent and
rugged mountains, over which is the highroad to the interior and the eastern frontier of the Colouy, are scattered the
white farm-houses, interspersed with groups of trees and enlivened by herds of cattle and flocks of slieep. On one side
is the expanse of False Bay, witli the bold precipice of Cape llanglip; and, across the Bay, the eye rests upon tlie
utmost verge of Africa, "the Cape of Storms." On the other side is an amphitheatre of mountains, embosoming in their
warm and sheltered vaOeys some of the loveliest spots imaginable—snbstautial-looking Dutch mansions and fann-honses,
built by the lordly burghers of fonner days, sumrandetl mth long nveunes of oak and pine. On one of these stately
farms, once tlie resilience of the Dutch governor Van der Stell, and now occupied by De Heer Jacobus Tlieunissen, there
are magnifcent camphor-trees, originally imported from Batavia, excelling in size the largest forest oaks. It is about two
miles from the village to the beach of Hottentot Holland, and about thirty-tive to Cape Town. The road, or pa.,s, leading
over the mountain was completed under the able supeiintendence of the late Surveyor-General, the talented and energetic
Lientenant-Colonel Miehell; and when opened iu 1830, it was called Sir Lowry's Pass, in honour of its projector. Sir
Lowry Cole, who was Governor of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.
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