ss ST. S E L E N A .
The officers’ guard-house is converted into a Customs baggage warehouse,
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 H u t’s Gate to Longwood, distant
about four and three-quarters miles from the starting-point. Dead-
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 neighbourhood.
Deadwood is the spot usually selected for fairs, race3,
and such like amusements, and Longwood constitutes the largest
farm in the island. After the death of Napoleon on the 5th May,
1821, the house he occupied, as well as that newly-erected for him,