Where did they get the architects to
design these buildings? Where did they find the trained craftsmen to
execute the architects' designs? Why did the settlers, struggling with
the difficulties of an untamed wilderness, require such large and
ornate dwellings? I have never heard any satisfactory answers to these
questions. Groot Constantia, originally the home of Simon Van der Stel,
now the government wine-farm, and Morgenster, the home of Mrs. Van der
Byl, would be beautiful buildings anywhere, but considering that they
were both erected in the seventeenth century, in a land just emerging
from barbarism seven thousand miles away from Europe, a land, too,
where trained workmen must have been impossible to find, the very fact
of their ever having come into existence at all leaves me in
bewilderment.
These Colonial houses, most admirably adapted to a warm climate,
correspond to nothing in Holland, or even in Java. They are nearly all
built in the shape of an H, either standing upright or lying on its
side, the connecting bar of the H being occupied by the dining-room.
They all stand on stoeps or raised terraces; they are always
one-storied and thatched, and owe much of their effect to their
gables, their many-paned, teak-framed windows, and their solid teak
outside shutters.
Pages:
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298