Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Is it nature or by the error of fantasie that the seeing ofplaces we know to have been frequented or inhabited by menwhose memory is esteemed or mentioned in Stories, doth insome sort move and stirre us up as much or more than thehearing of their noble deeds or reading of their compositions?
The care which a nation devotes to the preservation of themonuments of its past may serve as a true measure of thedegree of civilization to which it has attained.
UP-PARK CAMP IN 1840
From a coloured lithograph by Joseph B. Kidd
HISTORIC JAMAICA
PREFACE
In the year 1900 the present writer published a smallvolume entitled “Studies in Jamaica History,” giving therecords of certain historic sites in the colony.
In its issue of October 27, 1908, the Editor of the “WestIndia Committee Circular,” commenting on the appointmentof a Royal Commission to enumerate and report uponthe historical monuments in England, drew attention to theneed for the preservation of historic sites and buildings inthe West Indies, and stated that a letter on the subject hadbeen addressed by the West India Committee to the ColonialOffice. On November 24 he was able to state that theSecretary of State for the Colonies (the Earl of Crewe)sympathised with the object of the West India Committeeand had forwarded their representations to the governors ofthe various West Indian colonies, recommending them totheir consideration.
In Jamaica the present writer, at the request of theGovernor (Sir Sydney Olivier) and with the consent of theBoard of Governors of the Institute of Jamaica, undertookto prepare a list, parish by parish, of historic sites, buildings