Marianne North: Teneriffe

"A View of the Botanic Garden, Teneriffe"
by Marianne North

"The winter after my return from Brazil I devoted to learning to etch on copper, Mr. Edwin Edwardes, who had illustrated the old inns of England, kindly giving me a few lessons. The winter was an unusually cold one. After the experiences of the last two in Jamaica and Brazil I found it quite unbearable, so at last I determined to follow the sun to Teneriffe. A friend and I started on New Year's day, 1875, in hard frost and snow, steaming from Liverpool in a wretched little steamer in unpleasant squally weather.

On the 11th we landed for a few hours in sunny Madeira, on the 13th in Santa Cruz, then drove on the same day to Villa de Orotava. We found there was a hotel (and not a very bad one either) and we got possession of its huge ballroom, which was full of crockery and looking-glasses, and some hundred chairs all piled up on the top of one another. This room had glass doors, but served to sleep in well enough, and I determined to stay and make the best of it, for the climate and views were quite perfect. I stayed more than a month. I had gotten a letter to the Swiss manager of the Botanic Gardens, who also kept a grocer's shop. He was very kind in taking me to see the most lovely gardens. When the good people found my hobby for painting strange plants, they sent me all kinds of beautiful specimens.

I remained quietly working in or about Orotava till the 17th of February, when I moved down to Mr. S.'s comfortable home at Puerto di Orotava. I had a room on the roof with a separate staircase down to the lovely garden, learned to know every plant in that exquisite collection. I scarcely ever went out without finding some new wonder to paint, lived a life of the most perfect peace and happiness, and got strength every day with my kind friends. 

Santa Cruz, to which I at first took a dislike, I found full of beauty. I stayed there till the 'Ehiopia' picked me up and arrived in London on the 8th of May."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North" by Marianne North.)