FEBRUARY 3.
A stage of twenty miles brought us to Old Harbour, and,
passing through the Dry River, twelve more landed us at Spanish Town,
otherwise called St. Jago de la Vega, and the seat of
government in Jamaica, , although Kingston is much larger and
more populous, and must be considered as the principal town.
We found very clean and comfortable lodgings at Miss Cole's.
Spanish Town has nothing to recommend it: the houses are
mostly built of wood ; the streets are very irregular and narrow ;
every alternate building is in a ruinous state, and the whole place
wears an air of gloom and melancholy. The Government House
is a large clumsy-looking brick building with a portico, the
stucco of which has suffered by the weather, and it can advance
no pretensions to architectural beauty. On one side of the square
in which it stands there is a small temple protecting a statue of
Lord Rodney, executed by Bacon : some of the bas-reliefs on the
pedestal appeared to me very good ; but the old admiral is most
absurdly dressed in the habit of a Roman general, and furbished
out with buskins and a truncheon. The temple itself is quite in
opposition to good taste, with very low arches, surmounted by
heavy bas-reliefs out of all proportion.
