Page 97 - Bulletin 14 2010

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Town.

I have received on board the fifteen Mr Scholtz has brought down to the water side. Six of them
number II, III, IV, V, VI, & X, the remainder plain – in getting under way hope with much your
approbation.

I have the honour to remain, Sir your most sincere humble servant
William Long

PS the weather wouldn’t permit me for [10] days to wait for the last boat containing two plain
stones. I have on board 13 and sailed.

W. Cape Archives: CO 31 Port Office, W Long to C Bird.

There are further references to milestones a few years later, the first being in a progress report by
John Chisholm:

th
Cape Town, February 6 1815

“Inclosed is the monthly accounts for Simons Town Road. I am happy in stating to His
Excellency Lord Charles Somerset, that the quantity of work performed last month exceeds any
nd
rd
preceeding it, particularly the Wynberg Party. Consisting of the 83 and 72 Regiments not only
kept the wagons at full work in bringing in ironstone and gravel but shaped or filled [the road]
nearly three feet high near the nine [sic] milestone …..”

W. Cape Archives: Sundry Civil and Military Officers and Private Individuals, CO 68, letter 6.

The ninth milestone stood at present-day Plumstead and it may be inferred that Nos. I – VIII had

already been installed prior to this as the section of Main Road from Cape Town to Wynberg was
in good order.

In letters from Captain Jahleel Brenton (Commissioner of Simon’s Town Dockyard, 1815-22) at

Simon’s Bay to Colonel William Warre (Deputy Quartermaster-general at Cape Town, 1813-21)

at Sans Souci, Newlands, between November 1818 and February 1819 milestones are being used
as reference points in journeys between Simon’s Bay and Newlands. The Brenton and Warre

families were close and, when visiting, one would meet the other at the half-way point in the
journey and accompany them home. Brenton would meet his guests with a phaeton (a four-