Page 98 - Bulletin 14 2010

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wheeled open pleasure-carriage drawn by one or two horses) or a carriage, and Warre his guests
with fresh horses. The half-way point between Newlands and Simon’s Bay (a distance of some

16 miles) was, in those times, in the midst of nowhere and only a milestone could fix exactly the
equitable distance that both parties should travel: so they met either at milestone 13, present-day

Steenberg Road, Steenberg or at milestone 14, present-day Vlei Road, Lakeside. This is evident

in the following excerpts from Brenton’s letters to Warre:

1 November 1818: “ ……. therefore, wind and weather permitting, if you will meet us at
the 14 milestone at ½ past 3 – we shall be able to take advantage of the relay. …… and I do hope
to put in execution our circumnavigating expedition round the Kloof ….”

[The Kloof was Kloof Nek and the circumnavigation was a popular tour from the town over the
Nek down to Sea Point, and through Green Point back to town.]

January 1819: “I am to meet Augusta at the 14 milestone tomorrow who is to stay a few
days with us – indeed I hope a few weeks.”

January 1819: “I had some idea of meeting you on Thursday at the 14 milestone when I
went up for Augusta, but think you right for keeping at home. I think I never experienced a more
violent south easter than it was the other side of Muizenberg – on this side it was comparatively
nothing. Augusta returns on Thursday.”

February 1819: “We shall not be able to be with you quite so early on Monday as I have
to dispatch the Medusa. If you will be at the 13 milestone at two o’clock it will do well …..”

Special Collections, National Library, Cape Town.

Two property sales notices from 1821 refer:

Valuable House and Land, at Wynberg.
“In the course of next Month, a Public Sale will be held of a genteel and substantial built House,
suitable for one or more Families, and situated near the Nine Mile Stone.”

Cape Town Gazette, 25 August 1821, p. 2.

th
To be sold, on Saturday, the 15 December,