The Letters of Lady Anne Barnard to Henry Dundas from the Cape and Elsewhere 1793-1803

(Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1973) 0869610244. Title continues: Together with her journal of a tour into the interior and certain other letters. Large 8vo; original rexine-backed brown boards, lettered in gilt on spine, and with gilt publisher's device to upper cover; pictorial dustwrapper, housed in removable protector; pp. xv + (i) + 303, incl. index; plates; several contemporary illustrations in text. Fine condition. "This intelligent and entertaining account of the Cape has become a classic. Anne Barnard accompanied her husband who was sent to the Cape as Secretary to Lord Macartney in 1797. He was nominated to this position by the Secretary for War and the Colonies, Henry Dundas. In the absence of Lord Macartney's wife, Anne Barnard became the first lady of the Colony, a position she was well qualified to hold - for she was well connected at home, a friend of Dundas, Windham, the Prince of Wales, and other well-known members of London society. Furthermore, she was well-educated, cultured, accomplished, with an observant eye, and a developed sense of the ridiculous. And she could write. Her letters to Dundas are full of acute observations, assessments of people, comments on situations, judgements on officials, kindly criticisms of her new Colonial friends and their way of life. She was active, even restless. She climbed Table Mountain. And she accompanied her husband on an ambitious overland journey to beyond Swellendam. Always observing, curious, friendly, articulate. She also made sketches of people and places, small scale impressions in pen and wash. There are about 100 illustrations in this book, of which special emphasis is given to a panorama of Cape Town, in 7 parts, drawn as from the ramparts of the Castle." .