Page 213 - Bulletin 9 2005

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the 18th century and it ends up under grass. We need books like this to bring attention
to what we have lost so that the present generation will not commit such desecration.

We need to protect the past, not mow over it. (Fig. 5.4.)

Jan Horak owned the Round House for 33 years, before being forced to sell it. Somerset

leased it for 12 years. It seems most unfair that the Round House is permanently
associated in the public’s eye with Somerset not with Horak.

The purchaser of Somerset’s holiday cottage was Attorney General Anthony Oliphant -

every time one of Horak’s cows strayed into his grounds, Horak was threatened with a
summons. Poor old Horak ended up bankrupt.

Oliphant’s son., Laurence was born in Camps Bay. He became famous as one of the
first Christian Zionists. He wrote a book called The Land of Gilead published in 1880

suggesting that Turkish-ruled Palestine be colonized by Jews from Russia, Romania and

Turkey, and he spent his last years living in Haifa trying to promote settlement.

When Oliver was posted to Ceylon, the house was bought by a number of different
people, becoming a boarding house, while the Round House became a tea room.

Mills the miller

Somerset’s Marine House was bought by Mr. Mills the Miller. Daniel Mills was a
successful business man with a mill in Buitenkant Street. He was also a successful

family man with thirteen children and the house did just fine for a summer holiday
house for his large family He bought it in 1864 and it stayed in his family for nearly

forty years, during which time the area was deserted - there was the Round house,
Mills’s house, the ruins of the battery, and the beach. And little else. Later a Mr

Glendinning built his house called the Retreat, now a senior centre. He had difficulty

selling it - even pretended that gold had been found there, without much luck after an
initial rush.