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South African Memories - Social, Warlike and Sporting
From the diaries written at the time by Lady Sarah Wilson
Edward Arnold, London, 1909
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Sarah Wilson |
Contents
Dedication
Preface
CHAPTER I FIRST VOYAGE TO SOUTH
AFRICA—CAPE TOWN
CHAPTER II KIMBERLEY AND THE JAMESON RAID
CHAPTER III THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE
RAID—THE RAIDERS THEMSELVES
CHAPTER IV JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA IN
1896
CHAPTER V THREE YEARS AFTER—LORD MILNER
AT CAPE TOWN BEFORE THE WAR—MR.CECIL RHODES AT GROOT SCHUURR—OTHER
INTERESTING PERSONAGES
CHAPTER VI PREPARATIONS FOR WAR—MAFEKING,
AND DEPARTURE THEREFROM
CHAPTER VII IN A REBELLIOUS COLONY—VISIT
TO VRYBURG DURING THE BOER OCCUPATION—I PASS OFF AS A DUTCHMAN'S SISTER
CHAPTER VIII BETRAYED BY A PIGEON—THE
BOERS COME AT LAST
CHAPTER IX HOW I WAS MADE A PRISONER—IN A
BOER LAAGER
CHAPTER X EXCHANGED FOR A
HORSE-THIEF—BACK TO MAFEKING AFTER TWO MONTHS' WANDERINGS
CHAPTER XI LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN
CHAPTER XII LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN
(continued)
CHAPTER XIII ELOFF'S DETERMINED ATTACK ON
MAFEKING, AND THE RELIEF OF THE TOWN
CHAPTER XIV ACROSS THE TRANSVAAL TO
PRETORIA DURING THE WAR
CHAPTER XV PRETORIA AND JOHANNESBURG
UNDER LORD ROBERTS AND MILITARY LAW
CHAPTER XVI MY RETURN TO CIVILIZATION
ONCE MORE—THE MAFEKING FUND—LETTERS FROM THE KING AND QUEEN
CHAPTER XVII THE WORK OF LADY GEORGIANA
CURZON, LADY CHESHAM, AND THE YEOMANRY HOSPITAL, DURING THE WAR—THIRD
VOYAGE TO THE CAPE, 1902
CHAPTER XVIII FOURTH VOYAGE TO THE
CAPE—THE VICTORIA FALLS AND SIX WEEKS NORTH OF THE ZAMBESI
APPENDIX I MAFEKING RELIEF FUND
APPENDIX II IMPERIAL YEOMANRY HOSPITALS,
1900-1902
TO THE MEMORY OF MY
BELOVED SISTER,
GEORGIANA, COUNTESS HOWE,
TO WHOSE EFFORTS AND UNCEASING
LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH THE YEOMANRY HOSPITALS,
DURING THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, THE EARLY
BREAKDOWN OF HER HEALTH, AND
SUBSEQUENT DEATH, WERE
UNDOUBTEDLY DUE,
THIS BOOK,
CONTAINING RECOLLECTIONS OF THAT
GREAT AND MYSTERIOUS LAND, THE GRAVE
OF SO MANY BRAVE ENGLISHMEN, IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
Preface
Everything of interest that has happened to me in life chances to have
been in connection with South Africa. In that land, where some of my
happiest days have been spent, I have also experienced long periods of
intense excitement and anxiety; there I have made acquaintance with all the
charm of the veldt, in the vast country north of the great Zambesi River,
hearing the roar of the lions at night, and following their "spoor" by day;
and last, but not least, I have there made some very good friends. Only a
few years ago, when peacefully spending a few weeks at Assouan in Egypt, I
was nearly drowned by the capsizing of a boat in the Nile; again the spirit
of the vast continent (on this occasion far away to the north) seemed to
watch over me. For all these reasons I venture to claim the indulgence of
the public and the kindness of my friends, for these recollections of days
in South Africa, in which shade and sunshine have been strangely mingled,
and which to me have never been dull. To sum up, I have always found that
life is what you make it, and have often proved the truth of the saying,
"Adventures to the adventurous."
I am indebted to Colonel Vyvyan for statistics respecting the Mafeking
Relief Fund; and to Miss A. Fielding, secretary to the late Countess Howe,
for a résumé of the work of the Yeomanry Hospital during the Boer War.
S.I.W.
THE STUD HOUSE,
HAMPTON COURT.
September, 1909.
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