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A JAMAICA SUGAR ESTATE.
A sugar estate, and one of the finest in the "land of springs," is that of "Mount Welcome."
Both the ridges are wooded almost down to their bases; the woods, which consist of shining pimento trees, ending on each side in groves and island copses, pleasantly interspersed over a park-like greensward.
The "great house" or "buff" of the estate stands under the foot of the mountain, just at the point of union between the two ridges--where a natural table or platform, elevated several feet above the level of the valley, had offered a tempting site to the builder.
In architectural style it is not very different from other houses of its kind, the well-known planter's dwelling of the West Indies. One storey--the lower one, of course--is of strong stone mason-work; the second and only other being simply a wooden "frame" roofed with "shingles."
The side and end walls of this second story cannot with propriety be termed walls: since most part of them are occupied by a continuous line of Venetian shutters--the "jalousies" of Jamaica.
These impart a singular cage-like appearance to the house, at the same time contributing to its coolness--a quality of primary importance in a tropical climate.
Outside in the front centre a flight of broad stone steps, resting upon arched mason-work, and bordered by strong iron balustrades, conducts to the level of the second storey--the real dwelling-house: since the ground-floor is entirely occupied by store-rooms and other "offices."
This great hall is the principal apartment of the dwelling. It is dining and drawing-room in one--where side-boards and cheffoniers may be seen in juxta-position with lounge chairs, fauteuils, and ottomans--a grand chandelier in the centre extending its branches over all.
The bed-chambers occupy the square spaces to one side of the cross; and these also have their jalousied windows to admit the air, and exclude, as much as possible, the sultry rays of the sun.
In Mount Welcome House, as in all other country mansions of Jamaica, a stranger would remark a want of correspondence between the dwelling itself and the furniture which it contains. The former might be regarded as slight, and even flimsy. But it is this very character which renders it appropriate to the climate, and hence the absence of substantiality or costliness in the style and materials of the building.
Outside, the great house of Mount Welcome looks grand enough. Its broad facade, in which the deep green of the jalousies contrasts pleasantly with the white of the surrounding walls--the massive stone stairway in front--the wooded mountain sweeping up and forming a background of variegated green--the noble avenue of nearly a mile in length, with its double rows of tamarinds and cocoa-palms, leading up in front from the lower end of the valley--all contribute to produce a picture of almost palatial grandeur.
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