Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/315

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IN INDIA.
295

wind in every direction, over flowery flats, through densest forests, on upland heaths, even to the summit of Table Mountain.

The houses are for the most part of one storey, built of brick, plastered outside in imitation of stone, with papered walls and planked floors, and ceilings. The roofs are thatched with rushes, and raised, so as to afford a high space for garrets, the store rooms of the establishment.

The invalid will find the summer hot,but not oppressive, yet too hot to make a walk in the noonday sun agreeable; but indoors, and with open doors and windows, the temperature is most congenial. A delicious sea breeze, fresh from the southern ocean, will most probably soon set him upon his legs, put flesh on his bones, and a colour on his cheek, strengthen his sinews, raise the dejected spirits, and give a couleur de rose to his whole economy.

Some visitors complain of the dulness of Wynberg, and feel time hang heavy upon their hands, so one must be prepared to draw largely upon his own resources; but I should think that the consciousness of returning health and strength, the luxury of exercising one's limbs unfettered by debility, and of one's mind free from care, sufficient to reconcile most people to the absence of the bustle of the gay world.

Wynberg gets the credit of being a damp place