In the months prior to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 the government of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR – the South African Republic) four forts were constructed to defend the capital, Pretoria. One of these, Fort Klapperkop, was built at a...
“If thou would’st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight;” – from Canto Second of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott. It is not really necessary (though not a bad idea either – though you...
After the dreadful sufferings of the people of Southern Africa in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 to 1902 there was widespread support for the unification of the four British colonies which had been involved in the conflict – the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange...
Just north of the Magaliesberg range which thrusts into Pretoria is the Wonderboom Nature Reserve, so called because of the huge 1000-year-old Ficus (wild fig) tree growing there. When in the late 19th Century the authorities of the then Zuid Afrikaansche...
