South African Memories: Social, Warlike & Sporting from Diaries Written at the TimeWilson, Sarah Isabella Augusta, Lady
History
South African Memories: Social, Warlike & Sporting from Diaries Written at the Time
Wilson, Sarah Isabella Augusta, Lady
South Africa -- Description and travel; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Personal narratives
At Johannesburg we stayed at Sunnyside, as the guests of Lord Milner.
This residence is small and unpretentious, but exceedingly comfortable,
and has the advantage of commanding wide views over the surrounding
country. Our host was then engrossed in his difficult task of satisfying
the wants and desires of many communities and nationalities, whose
countless differences of opinion seemed wellnigh irreconcilable. During
our stay the visit of the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain was announced as
likely to take place during the next few months, and the advent of this
distinguished Colonial Minister was a subject of great satisfaction to
the harassed High Commissioner. As at Cape Town, his staff was composed
of charming men, but all young and with no administrative experience.
Among its members were included Colonel W. Lambton, who was Military
Secretary; Captain Henley and Lord Brooke, A.D.C.'s; and Mr. Walrond.
The Golden City itself was, to all outward appearances, as thriving as
ever, with its busy population, its crowded and excellent shops, and its
general evidences of opulence, which appeared to overbalance--or, in any
case, wish to conceal--any existing poverty or distress. Among many
friends we met was a French lady, formerly the Marquise d'Hervé, but
who had married, as her second husband, Comte Jacque de Waru. This
enterprising couple were busy developing some mining claims which had
been acquired on their behalf by some relatives during the war. In spite
of having been deserted at Cape Town by all the servants they had
brought from Paris, this clever lady, nothing daunted, had replaced them
by blacks, and one night she and her husband offered us, at the small
tin-roofed house where they were residing, a sumptuous dinner which was
worthy of the best traditions of Parisian hospitality. Notwithstanding
the fact of her having no maid, and that she had herself superintended
most of the cooking of the dinner, our hostess was charmingly attired in
the latest Paris fashion, with elaborately dressed hair, and the
pleasant company she had collected, combined with an excellent cuisine,
helped to make the entertainment quite one of the pleasantest we enjoyed
during our stay. Among the guests was General "Bully" Oliphant, who had
just been recalled to England to take up an important appointment, much
to the regret of his Johannesburg friends, with whom he had made himself
exceedingly popular; and the witty conversation of this gentleman kept
the whole dinner-table convulsed with laughing, to such an extent that
his colleague-in-arms, our quondam Mafeking commander, General
Baden-Powell, who was also of the party, was reduced to mere silent
appreciation. This impromptu feast, given under difficulties which
almost amounted to siege conditions, was again an evidence of the
versatility and inherent hospitality of the French nation, and the
memory of that pleasant evening lingers vividly in my recollections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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