Monday 6 August 2007

From some notes of Mrs John Edmond Sturge . .

From Joe Sturge's records, with many thanks . .
[undated but must be after 1878]“Nothing can surpass the vigour and energy with which this peasantry of African descent labour on these holdings of their own.
. . The first lime orchards were planted in 1852 by Mr Burke, an enterprising planter then living on the island, afterwards passing into the possession of the Sturge Montserrat Company, and encountering various difficulties . . They were generally planted 15 feet apart.
. . No lovlier sight could be seen than these orchards when the trees are laden with their bright fruit, the air being pervaded with the fragrance of the blossom.
. . A visitor to the island says “A more picturesque or delightful spot is not often to be found. Above are the thickly wooded hills, broken by deeply ridged gorges in which the tree fern, banana and mountain palm flourish. In the ravines are many large trees with their singular red pods containing the cocoa bean, high trees covered with creepers, and fern trees 40 feet high. Below is the broad expanse of sea, at one time all aglow with brilliant sunlight, or the glorious glow of the setting sun. As the heat passes away, the distant isles light up, pink and purple. The sun nears the horizon, and gives a sudden dart out of sight.”
. . The island has been described as the black man’s Paradise.
. . A drive through the lime plantations to Olveston could not soon be forgotten, when, as in 1878, they were bearing. The air perfumed with the scent of fruit and leaf, the sea a sheet of blue, the land iridescent with sun and colour – on to Harris village, perched on a lofty summit. The cultivated fields, the trees laden with breadfruit, mangoes and bananas, the wide stretch of land and sea with Antigua on the horizon. The fruits: shaddock, pineapple, sugar apple, guava, cocoanut, sapodilla [sic], custard apple, banana, soursop, may not, to English taste, appear as tempting as our own, but are some of them good.
In 1873, when Mrs JE Sturge made acquaintance with M, communication with England was only fortnightly. No steamer landed mails except at St Kitts, and from there they were brought by a small schooner. When the trade wind dropped, this vessel could be seen becalmed, vainly tacking over the still, blue water. Sometimes a rowboat was put off to bring the letters ashore to impatient colonists. Postage at that date was 1/- per letter. The mail was often heavy. It was conveyed in a sack up the long steep hill to Olveston House and poured out on the floor to be opened and digested by degrees. . ”

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Neil H said...
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