Notes on the Cape of Good Hope, Made During an Excursion in that Colony in the Year 1820.
Inbunden bok. London, published by John Murray. 1821. IV, 207, (1) sidor.
Mycket gott skick. Contemporary green half morocco, slightly worn, spine elaborately tooled in gilt and black, marbled boards and fly leaves. Very slight foxing, mainly to first and last leaves. Pencil notes on front fly leaf. An attractive copy with the owner’s signature of James Liddell, Jr. on title page and library stamp of Carl Steimer dated 1981 on front fly leaf. This work provides a detailed account of the British colony in its pioneer years. Beginning as a travel narrative, the book evolves into a closer examination of the societal and cultural practises of the Cape Colony, spanning from notes on the Dutch settlers’ farming practises, the British judicial system and, lastly, observations collected from a shorter exercusion to the island of St Helena. Edward Blount, a barrister from England, looks at the colony with a critical eye; upon his arrival at Cape Town, Blount immediately speculates: ”it is probable that its defects have been overlooked, and its beauties exaggerated”. Like a sassy food reviewer, Blount states that the ”filth, which, mixed up innumerable particles of sand, may account for the gritty taste discoverable in the Cape bread”; as for the local wine he declares that “a stratum of clay” must have caused its “peculiar earthy taste”. Overall, the book concerns the Dutch living habits, which is not entierly seen in a negative light. But after having dinner at a Dutch farm, Blount notes that despite “a very savoury mess”, “bad, sour wine” and “some worse water”, it was “not disgusting”. The Swedish linguist Carl (or Karl) Steimer (1921-1992) was the author of a Swedish/Swahili dictionary and a Swahili textbook. He inherited a fine collection of books on African languages and customs from his father John Steimer, Swedish-American missionary, which he subsequently expanded. Mendelssohn vol. I p. 290, listing the book anonymously.
