Prince of Wales at Napoleon's Tomb, 1925

Visit of Prince of Wales to Napoleon's Tomb, 1925 (1)

Over the years there have been only a handful of Royal visits to St Helena. One of the earliest, perhaps even the first, was that of the Prince of Wales in 1925.

A willow tree being planted to commemorate the visit

The opening passage in the speech he had made on arrival on the island began with a glowing reference to Napoleon, although he was not mentioned by name.

I need not assure you of the deep interest with which I set foot on an Island whose name is so well known to all students of History, not only because it was here that were written the closing pages of a great and romantic life story – the story of the Emperor whose mortal remains now lie on the banks of the Seine, where many soldiers of France have found a resting place ... (2)

Delivered in the shadow of the horrific loss of life in the Great War, the speech evokes memories of a time when France was Britain's closest ally, and when Napoleon was looked on far more favourably in the United Kingdom than a half century later.

Commemoration of Centenary of Napoleon's death

Four years earlier there had been a joint Anglo-French commemoration of the centenary of Napoleon's death, with the Union Jack proudly displayed over Napoleon's tomb alongside the French tricolour.

Recent commemoration of Napoleon's death

In recent years the commemoration of Napoleon's death on St Helena has been revived. The emphasis is now far less imperial and euro-centric, and more focus is placed on involving local people in what is an important part of their heritage.

Plans are I understand already well underway for the commemoration of the bicentenary. Not everybody who wants to attend can find seats on the scheduled flights nor be accommodated on the island, so I believe two cruise ships are being hired.
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1. I acknowledge the Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France for use of the two photos of the Prince at Napoleon's tomb. The photo of the 1921 commemoration I found on Saint Helena Island Info which is a very useful source.
2. A copy of the speech was, or at least used to be on display at the castle in Jamestown. A friend faithfully transcribed it for me. As far as I am aware it is not available anywhere else on the internet, so I will include it here.

I am very grateful to the people of St. Helena for the welcome offered to me on landing at Jamestown this morning, and I much appreciate the good wishes contained in their address.

I need not assure you of the deep interest with which I set foot on an Island whose name is so well known to all students of History, not only because it was here that were written the closing pages of a great and romantic life story – the story of the Emperor whose mortal remains now lie on the banks of the Seine, where many soldiers of France have found a resting place – but for the fact that during the period of maritime development of our Empire, St. Helena formed one of the most important links in Britain’s chain of communications as an invaluable supply depot and an outpost of the East Indies.

To-day trade routes have changes with the times, and though the Island, finding that circumstances have deflected the main arteries of traffic, may at times feel somewhat remote from the outer busier world, I know full well that St. Helena still prides herself on her place in the Empire, and that the loyalty of her people to the Crown and to Britain ideals remain undiminished.

I am hoping in the time at my disposal to meet as many as possible of the people of the Island and to learn something of your interests and your activities.

This morning before leaving the Castle, I am to see an exhibit of your local domestic industry, that of lace-making, samples of which I know attracted the attention of the general public at Wembley and won commendation from the experts. And tomorrow I look forward to the opportunity of inspecting some of the flax mills and shall be interested to gain some first hand knowledge of this Industry which has been established in your midst and on which much of your material prosperity depends. You have my best wishes for your progress and welfare in the years to come.

In conclusion I will not fail to convey to the King your assurance of loyalty and devotion, and will at the same time tell His Majesty of the cordiality of the welcome which the people of St. Helena have given to me to-day.

Edward

Longwood House Restoration 1950-1955

Royal Visit to Longwood House, 1947

The visit by the Royal family in April 1947 probably proved crucial in safeguarding the future of Longwood House and of the French properties on St. Helena.

New material on this has now come to light from the archives diplomatiques du ministère des Affaires étrangères on the Facebook page of the Domaines nationaux français à l'île de Sainte Hélène, Atlantique Sud .

Longwood House 1951 rebuilding commences

Apparently when Georges Peugeot took charge on 15 October 1945 he found Longwood House in such a bad state of repair, largely as a result of the depradations of the termites thought to have been introduced on the island from the 1840's, that he felt he had no choice but to close it to the public. On 12 November he informed the French Government that the house was in a lamentable state inside and out and would create a very bad impression on any tourists who visited. Peugeot tried to convince Paris that a full restoration was necessary.

18 months later, in April 1847, with Longwood House in an embarrassing state, resembling plus à une ruine qu’à la dernière résidence d’un empereur, M. Peugeot was faced with the prospect of a visit from the Royal Family, on their way back from South Africa. Somehow he managed to to get Longwood into a presentable state for the royal visitors. King George VI duly signed the visitor's book, and said he had found the visit very interesting. Nevertheless he noted the enormous damage the termites had done, and expressed the hope that the French Government would take the necessary steps to restore the historic house.(1)

1953, Rebuilding in progress

On returning to England the King summoned the French Ambassador, M. Massigli and informed him of the bad state of Longwood House. As he had done on St Helena, the King said that he hoped the French Government would quickly begin to take the necessary measures to preserve the building. (2)

This intervention perhaps saved Longwood House from suffering the same fate as New Longwood House and the Balcombes' house at the Briars. In March 1950 the project was approved, and over the next 5 years the house was restored.

Reopening, 27 March 1955

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1. Restauration 1950-1955 des appartements de Napoléon à Longwood, Domaines nationaux français à l'île de Sainte Hélène, Atlantique Sud
2.Letter from L. Roché, chargé d’affaires de France en Grande Bretagne, 2 septembre 1947.

The Masons of St Helena: The Visit of Captain Cook

Journal of Captain Cook, May 1775

Following my recent post on Polly Mason, my friend John Grimshaw has pointed out that the Masons of St Helena entertained a very famous visitor, Captain Cook, long before Napoleon emerged on the world stage, let alone set foot in the Fishers Valley on St Helena.

In May 1775 Captain Cook landed on the island of St Helena for his second visit. Many locals had been upset by the description of the island given in the official account of his first voyage, compiled by John Hawksworth, which Cook had not seen, and which had drawn heavily on the journal of Joseph Banks.

All kinds of Labour is here performd by Man, indeed he is the only animal that works except a few Saddle Horses nor has he the least assistance of art to enable him to perform his task.  Supposing the Roads to be too steep and narrow for Carts, an objection which lies against only one part of the Island, yet the simple contrivance of Wheelbarrows would Doub[t]less be far preferable to carrying burthens upon the head, and yet even that expedient was never tried.  Their slaves indeed are very numerous: they have them from most parts of the World, but they appeard to me a miserable race worn out almost with the severity of the punishments of which they frequently complaind.  I am sorry to say that it appeard to me that far more frequent and more wanton Cruelty were excercisd by my countrey men over these unfortunate people than even their neighbours the Dutch, fam'd for inhumanity, are guilty of.  One rule however they strictly observe which is never to Punish when ships are there.

During his 1775 visit Captain Cook apparently visited the eastern part of the island where the Mason family had its property and where Napoleon was to spend his last years:

the two Mr Forsters and myself dined with a party at the Country house of one Mr Masons, at a remote part of the island, which gave me an oppertunity to see the greatest part of it, and I am well convinced that the island in many particulars has been misrepresented.

 

It is a pity that Captain Cook didn't give more information about Mr Mason and the location of the house in which he was entertained. Presumably the Mason referred to was Polly Mason's grandfather, Benjamin Mason, baptised in January 1725 who died in 1805. Polly Mason's father, Richard Mason, was only 22 in 1775. Richard and his wife Elizabeth then had only one daughter, Elizabeth. Interestingly "Polly", christened in 1780, was given the names Mary Elizabeth, which suggests that the first Elizabeth did not live long.

E.M. Forster, the British Association and St Helena

E. M. Forster, photographed in 1930's

In the list of famous visitors to St Helena, the scientific community is well represented by Halley, Maskelyne and Darwin, but other than a childhood visit by William Thackeray, no leading figures of the literary world, as far as I was aware, has had any association with the island. I was therefore surprised to find that E.M. Forster, one of England's greatest novelists, visited the island in 1929, and was enchanted by it.

Forster's visit occurred on a cruise to South Africa organised by the British Association. Unenthusiastic about accompanying some 500 scientists on a long sea voyage, Forster generally did not enjoy the experience, but St Helena was according to his biographer an exception: an intense experience, "an island of gentle birds and gentle people". (1) To a friend Forster wrote

Views over crags of lava and the soft radiant sea, and birds of fairy-white called "love terns" nest in the crevices .. Have seldom seen such a touching island, all the volcanic sternness and the live things perched about in it, longing for kindness and company. Some day we will go and give it to them."

Unfortunately he never returned, probably to St Helena's loss, for who knows what inspiration the author of A Passage to India might have gained from a more intimate acquaintance.

By contrast Forster was generally unimpressed by South Africa

.. beneath and beyond both English and Dutch are these millions of blacks whom one never speaks to and whose existence one assumes as one does electric bells! That was why I nearly cried at Pretoria. It is Valhalla, and the dwarfs haven't been paid. (2)

On his return home he sold his African mining shares.

SS Landovery Castle, which transported members of British Association to South Africa

Henry Balfour and St Helena

A very differet perspective on the visit was given by the archeologist Henry Balfour (1863-1939), President of the Anthropology Section of the B.A.A.S. (British Association for the Advancement of Science). Balfour was taken ashore on the launch of the Chief Secretary(Colonel Salier), stayed with the Governor and was accompanied by him on a tour of the Napoleonic sites: looking down on the Briars from the road above; visiting Napoleon's tomb "in a secluded ravine"; to Longwood where the rooms were bare with "only one bust in the room in which he died"; the hole in the shutters from which Napoleon could look out on the British Camp; New Longwood, "the fine, large house built for Napoleon, but never occupied by him." (3)

At this time Plantation House was being refurbished after devastation by white ants, so Balfour stayed in the Governor's temporary accommodation, but the next day, "after breakfast with local-grown coffee", he visited Plantation House and "interviewed the huge Mauritian tortoise, said to be over 200 years old + pre-Napoleonic, quite a nice friendly beast " (4) In his diary he listed the birds he had seen: Tropic birds (Ph aetherius), Noddies (A. stolid us), "Love terns" (Leucanus albus, Cygis alba or craw fords), Mynahs, Avadavats, Bishop Birds (weaver finches) Java Sparrows, some Pipit-like birds and small doves.[Wirebirds?]

Finally he recorded his impressions of the vegetation and terrain:

Vegetation, largely imported, is fine on the W. side of the island. Arancarcias, Eucalyptus, Daturas, Budleias, Arum lilies, Bougainvilleas etc. do very well. Phormicum tenax (New Zealand flax) is cultivated + the fibre exported in some quantity. Coffee also does well + small bananas. Scenery very hilly, volcanic, rugged + beautiful.(5)

A man of many parts and some energy, that evening on board the Llandovery Castle,

I gave a lecture on the natives of South Africa to the passengers in the third class, + had a very appreciative audience who asked me to come + talk to them again. (6)

Having read Balfour's detailed diary I couldn't help but recall Forsters apprehension about joining such a trip: they would, he feared, "be shown everything and see nothing." (7)

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1.P.N Furbank, EM Forstr A Life (1879-1970), (Two volume edition published London 1979), Vol 2 p. 160

2. Furbank p 161.

3. July 11th 1929 Diaries of Henry Balfour

4. July 12th 1929

5. ibid

6. ibid

7. Furbank p 159.

Charles Darwin and St Helena

As almost everyone should know by now, this year marks the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth, and the 150 year anniversary of On the Origin of Species . Today we took two grandsons to visit the Darwin exhibition at Manchester's wonderful John Rylands Library.

Whilst there I dipped into The Voyage of the Beagle, and read Darwin's account of his visit to St Helena in 1836.

"Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains" is one of those nineteenth century aphorisms which have stuck with me since my youth - and Darwin certainly exhibited that.

He stayed only four days, but with the aid of a guide, a former slave, walked in all directions from morning to night and acquired a detailed knowledge of the island.(1)

He obtained lodgings within a stone's throw of Napoleon's tomb, on which he commented with a rather sarcastic footnote:

After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on this subject, it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A modern traveller, in twelve lines, burdens the poor little island with the following titles, -- it is a grave, tomb, pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb, sarcophagus, minaret, and mausoleum!

He also made a few comments about the situation of Longwood, without actually mentioning Napoleon or the Captivity:

Viewed from a short distance, it appears like a respectable gentleman's country-seat. In front there are a few cultivated fields, and beyond them the smooth hill of coloured rocks called the Flagstaff, and the rugged square black mass of the Barn. On the whole the view was rather bleak and uninteresting.

Other than that Darwin showed little interest in the Napoleonic sites. Darwin of course was not a tourist, and presumably did not wish to enter into controversy about the treatment of Napoleon at a time when the latter's body still lay on St. Helena. In any case he was entirely focused on his geological study, which was to form the basis of a later publication on volcanic islands.

Comments about St Helena

- St Helena's vegetation had

a character decidedly British. .. When we consider that the number of plants now found on the island is 746, and that out of these fifty-two alone are indigenous species, the rest having been imported, and most of them from England, we see the reason of the British character of the vegetation. Many of these English plants appear to flourish better than in their native country; some also from the opposite quarter of Australia succeed remarkably well.

The "English" appearance of St Helena:

The English, or rather Welsh character of the scenery, is kept up by the numerous cottages and small white houses; some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others mounted on the crests of the lofty hills. .. On viewing the island from an eminence, the first circumstance which strikes one, is the number of the roads and forts: the labour bestowed on the public works, if one forgets its character as a prison, seems out of all proportion to its extent or value.

Darwin was pessimistic about the future of the people of St Helena, and this long before the building of the Suez canal:

There is so little level or useful land, that it seems surprising how so many people, about 5000, can subsist here. The lower orders, or the emancipated slaves, are I believe extremely poor: they complain of the want of work. From the reduction in the number of public servants owing to the island having been given up by the East Indian Company, and the consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the poverty probably will increase. The chief food of the working class is rice with a little salt meat; as neither of these articles are the products of the island, but must be purchased with money, the low wages tell heavily on the poor people. Now that the people are blessed with freedom, a right which I believe they value fully, it seems probable that their numbers will quickly increase: if so, what is to become of the little state of St. Helena?

Finally I noted some caustic comments about the game-laws that were such a part of England and apparently of St Helena also.

Partridges and pheasants are tolerably abundant; the island is much too English not to be subject to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The poor people formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the coast-rocks, and export the soda from its ashes; but a peremptory order came out prohibiting this practice, and giving as a reason that the partridges would have nowhere to build.

Clearly Darwin was not a High Tory!

When it was time to leave, he did so with some sorrow, having so much enjoyed my rambles among the rocks and mountains of St. Helena . I think I know how he felt.

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1. He described his guide as a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the character of the greater number of the lower classes. It was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly white and respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times when he was a slave. Darwin could not abide slavery, as even a cursory reading of the Voyage of the Beagle makes clear. e.g. On the 19th of August [1836] we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country.

Napoleon would have loved Google

About the only thing Bill Gates and I have in common is that we both underestimated the significance of the internet. On a visit to CERN in 1993 I was underwhelmed when shown the world's first web browser developed by a man I now know to be Tim Berners Lee. The excellent meal in the staff cafeteria made far more impression on me!

Anyway I digress. Following my last posting on Betsy Balcombe and Napoleon's surprising ability to relate to children, I have been reading Captain Basil Hall's account of a meeting with Napoleon at Longwood.

This has got me thinking about another side of Napoleon that may surprise those brought up with a one-dimensional view of him - namely his amazing memory, his curiosity, and his ability to absorb and synthesise large amounts of information on all manner of subjects. Hence the title of this piece!

The French historian Lefebvre, a stern critic of the Emperor, probably put it as well as anybody :

His brain is among the most perfect that have ever been. His ever ready attention seizes indefatigibly upon facts and ideas, which his memory registers and classifies. His imagination plays with them freely, and a state of incessant secret tension enables it tirelessly to produce those political and strategic theses which reveal themselves to him as sudden intuitions comparable to those of the mathematician and the poet." (1)

His thirst for knowledge continued almost to the end, as is indicated in the secret diary kept by the faithful Bertrand. (2) As he lay dying Napoleon questioned doctor Arnott at great length about London and England, and discussed the different characteristics of England and France. He also enlisted his entourage to research information for him.

April 3rd 1821 The Emperor passed a bad night. He felt, so he said, as "though he had the tunic of Deianira on his back." He then asked someone to find out exactly what was meant by the tunic of Deinara.

April 12th Napoleon complained about the delay in receiving the 500 volumes he had asked Lady Holland to send him.

April 20 The Grand Marshall [Bertrand] who had been doing some research for the Emperor, went to his home for a short time while Marchand was reading to the Emperor. The Emperor then asked for the Grand Marshall, and in the evening he made him explain why "he had not returned as he had been asked for an account of the Saracen Kings of Corsica."

April 29th The Emperor could only be recognised by the multitude of incessant questions he asked.

The Meeting with Captain Basil Hall, August 1817

Hall put in to St Helena on his way home from Asia, where had visited the island of Loo-Choo. (3) He was very pleased to be allowed a meeting with Napoleon, which he was to report in the book published on his return. (4) He seems to have addressed Napoleon in a manner that Hudson Lowe would not have approved of.



Napoleon first questioned Captain Hall at length about the career of his father, whom Napoleon remembered from the time when they were both at Military College at Brienne. Apparently he was the first Englishman Napoleon had ever met. Napoleon then questioned him at considerable length about the island of Loo-Choo. This was fairly typical of such meetings. It was a bit like a viva voce examination.

Having settled where the island lay, he cross-questioned me about the inhabitants with a closeness — I may call it a severity of investigation — which far exceeds everything I have met with in any other instance. His questions were not by any means put at random, but each one had some definite reference to that which preceded it or was about to follow. I felt in a short time so completely exposed to his view, that it would have been impossible to have concealed or qualified the smallest particular. Such, indeed, was the rapidity of his apprehension of the subjects which interested him, and the astonishing ease with which he arranged and generalized the few points of information I gave him, that he sometimes outstripped my narrative, saw the conclusion I was coming to before I spoke it, and fairly robbed me of my story.

Several circumstances, however, respecting the Loo-Choo people, surprised even him a good deal ; and I had the satisfaction of seeing him more than once completely perplexed, and unable to account for the phenomena which I related. Nothing struck him so much as their having no arms. " Point d'armes !" he exclaimed, " c'est a dire point de cannons — ils ont des fusils ?" Not even muskets, I replied. " Eh bien donc — des lances, ou, au moins, des arcs et des fleches ?" I told him they had neither one nor other. " Ni poignards ?" cried he, with increasing vehemence. No, none. " Mais!" said Buonaparte, clenching his fist, and raising his voice to a loud pitch, " Mais ! sans armes, comment se bat-on ?

1 could only reply, that as far as we had been able to discover, they had never had any wars, but remained in a state of internal and external peace. " No wars !" cried he, with a scornful and incredulous expression, as if the existence of any people under the sun without wars was a monstrous anomaly.

In like manner, but without being so much moved, he seemed to discredit the account I gave him of their having no money, and of their setting no value upon our silver or gold coins. After hearing these facts stated, he mused for some time, muttering to himself, in a low tone, " Not know the use of money — are careless about gold and silver." Then looking up, he asked, sharply, " How then did you contrive to pay these strangest of all people for the bullocks and other good things which they seem to have sent on board in such quantities ?" When I informed him that we could not prevail upon the people of Loo-Choo to receive payment of any kind, he expressed great surprise at their liberality, and made me repeat to him twice, the list of things with which we were supplied by these hospitable islanders.

He then required me to tell him where the diflferent parts of these dresses were manufactured, and what were the different prices — questions I could not answer. He wished to be informed as to the state of agriculture in Loo-Choo — whether they ploughed with horses or bullocks — how they managed their crops, and whether or not their fields were irrigated like those in China, where, as he understood, the system of artificial watering was carried to a great extent. The climate, the aspect of the country, the structure of the houses and boats, the fashion of their dresses, even to the minutest particular in the formation of their straw sandals and tobacco pouches, occupied his attention.

He asked many questions respecting the religion of China and Loo-Choo, and appeared well aware of the striking resemblance between the appearance of the Catholic Priests and the Chinese Bonzes ; a resemblance which, as he remarked, extends to many parts of the religious ceremonies of both. Here, however, as he also observed, the comparison stops ; since the Bonzes of China exert no influence whatsoever over the minds of the people, and never interfere in their temporal or external concerns. In Loo-Choo, where everything else is so praiseworthy, the low state of the priesthood is as remarkable as in the neighbouring continent, an anomaly which Buonaparte dwelt upon for some time without coming to any satisfactory explanation.

With the exception of a momentary fit of scorn and incredulity when told that the Loo-Chooans had no wars or weapons of destruction, he was in high good humour while examining me on these topics.

" What do these Loo-Choo friends of yours know of other countries?" he asked. I told him they were acquainted only with China and Japan. " Yes, yes," continued he ; " but of Europe ? What do they know of us ?" I replied, " They know nothing of Europe at all ; they know nothing about France or England ; neither," I added, " have they ever heard of your Majesty." Buonaparte laughed heartily at this extraordinary particular in the history of Loo-Choo, a circumstance, he may well have thought, which distinguished it from every other corner of the known world.

It should be recorded that Napoleon was right to be sceptical! (5)
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1. Quoted in Pieter Geyl, Napoleon For and Against (London 1965) p. 377
2. Memoirs of general Bertrand Grand Marshall of the Palace January to May 1821 (London 1953)
3. The Ryukyu Islands until the mid 20th century called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew,
4. Hall was captain of the Lyra, one of ships taking members of Lord Amherst's Mission to China.
5. The ex-emperor indeed was in the right, for subsequent accounts have shown that the Loo-Chooans must have cunningly imposed both upon Hall and Captain Maxwell, by whom the Alceste was commanded in the expedition, and that these gentle islanders used not only weapons and money, but were among the most merciless pirates in the Yellow Sea. Note on Basil Hall

Meanwhile something different - St. Helena April 2008

Glad to see that Michel has resumed his blog.

They have had an unusual amount of rain I believe. I have heard from another source that the heart shaped waterfall is in full flow. It was dry when were there only a couple of months back.

They have also had a lot of power cuts - Michel says that one lasted from 9.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. I should know why they are having such problems, but I don't.

Meanwhile, in addition to doing guard duty at Longwood House after the departure of the Chief Secretary and his wife, Michel is finalising preparations for the exhibition celebrating 150 years of the French Properties on St. Helena.

He has announced a list of distinguished French visitors who will be there by the end of April

M. Victor-André Masséna, prince d'Essling
Le comte et la comtesse Walewski
M. Emmanuel Suchet, duc d'Albufera
Mme Annie Meunier
M. Bernard Chevallier
M. Daniel Alcouffe
M. Jean-Claude Le Parco
M. Marcel Guery
M. Pierre-Jean Chalençon
M. Philippe Montanari.

An interesting list which includes as far as I can see one descendant of Napoleon, two descendants of Napoleon's Marshals, a curator of the Louvre and a young passionate collector of Napoleonica who is making I think his third trip to St. Helena.Pierre-Jean Chalencon

I wonder if this is the first time that a descendant of Napoleon has visited St. Helena? The answer is no; Count Walewski has visited before; last time accompanied by his brother.

Finally Michel's blog shows some pictures from his collection by Raoul Serres(1881-1971) and Claude Quiesse(1938-) , who visited St. Helena as part of his world tour in 1966-1968 - I liked his portrayal of Sandy Bay and Lot.

Well worth a look.



Finally,finally, a plug for the St. Helena Independent. Always an interesting read; I usually find the weekly column of Mr Cairns-Wicks, St. Helena's equivalent of "Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells", very entertaining. I doubt if the Governor does.

Hutts Gate, Halley's Oservatory and Diana's Peak, St. Helena

Now for something different, and it is harder to think of a greater contrast from Sandy Bay than a walk to Diana's Peak.








First a short stop at Sea View. It is located above Sane Valley (The Valley of the Tomb).

It is where the Judge stays on his periodic visits.

Not the grandest of houses, but it must have some of the finest views on this island of fine views.







Then to Hutts Gate Store, which now looks in danger of falling down.

In the first few months of the captivity Grand Marshall Bertrand and his family lived in a house opposite here, but it has long since disappeared.



Our guide for the day is the lady who is the Financial Secretary to the St. Helena Government, who happens to bear the surname of England's most notorious highway robber. She tells me that I am the first person to notice that!




So we begin our climb to Diana's Peak.

On our way we pass the site of Halley's observatory. His journey to St. Helena made his reputation; on his return to London in 1678 he became one of the youngest ever members of the Royal Society, aged only 22 (1)


A view of Hutts Gate Store as we begin our climb.



In the distance we have a good view of Miss Mason's House (Teutonic Hall/Orange Grove), now apparently in a very poor state of repair.





In Napoleon's time Miss Mason amused the inhabitants of Longwood by her habit of riding on a bullock. She was always effusive in her greetings to Napoleon. There were inevitable rumours of romantic attachments.

When the party returned to remove Napoleon's remains in 1840, she was at Hutts Gate to meet them.

Also there was Mrs Dickson, a widow with a large family who now kept a liquour store at Hutts Gate. She had been the nurse to young Arthur Betrand who had been born on St. Helena: the only Frenchman to come on the island without Hudson Lowe's permission, his mother had said. Arthur Bertrand now returned to St. Helena with his ageing father and tearfully greeted Mrs Dickson. His mother had died in 1836.


Amidst the lush vegetation we ran into a couple of men from Dr Johnson's home town, whom we had met a few times before. They always made us laugh, even on the top of the mountain.











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NOTE

(1) Halley sailed to St. Helena in November 1676, with a letter of introduction to the East India Company from Charles II.
The constant cloud cover made his task difficult, and prolonged his stay. Nevertheless he was able to catalogue 341 southern hemisphere stars, discovered a star cluster, and observed the complete transit of Mercury. On his return to England in 1678 he published a catalogue of southern hemisphere stars.