Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/156

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152
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
The Principal Street in Bulawayo.

The poetic side of his nature is shown in his choice of a final resting place. From a point twenty miles along the railway south of Bulawayo a branch line runs towards the Matopo hills where he had a large estate. A drive of eight miles from the hotel at the terminus leads into wild scenery along gradually ascending valleys, past large enclosures containing wild animals and through a park which is being continually improved by the planting of trees and all kinds of flora. On either side the road is flanked by hills which seem to have been built up by Titans who piled up rocks and boulders in every conceivable position, perching them on the tops and sides of smooth turtle-back shaped rocks five hundred feet high, or dropping them on the plain and covering them with bushes and trees. As the 'Roof of the World' is approached, the carriages are left and a footpath ascends gradually over smooth rock on to the flat top of one of the highest of the hills—the 'World's View.' On this spot, enclosed by a circle of boulders some fifteen or twenty feet high, is placed the grave dug out of solid rock and covered by a plain slab bearing only the simple inscription, 'Here lie the remains of Cecil Rhodes.' A not unpleasing contrast is afforded by an elaborate monument nearby erected to the memory of Major Wilson and his comrades who fell at the Shangani River on December 4, 1894.

This large estate was owned by Cecil Rhodes and was left by him under the care of the trustees for the benefit of the public, full direc-