Lady Anne Barnard At The Cape Of Good Hope 1797 - 1802 (1924)

Published by The Clarendon Press, 1924, hardcover, illustrated, index, 343 pages, no dustjacket, condition: very good.

Lady Anne Barnard (1750  1825) was a Scottish travel writer, artist and socialite, and the author of the ballad Auld Robin Gray. Her five-year residence in Cape Town, although brief, had a significant impact on the cultural and social life of the time.

Her letters written to Melville, then secretary for war and the colonies, and her diaries of travels into the interior have become an important source of information about the people, events and social life of the time. She is also retained in popular memory as a socialite, known for entertaining at the Castle of Good Hope as the official hostess of Earl Macartney.