Old St Augustine; a story of three centuries . walls of the old powder-house, with its sentry-boxes,have been demolished; its site can be distinguished onlyby the sunken foundation-stones. Nothing whatever isleft to suggest the famous Governors-house, north of theplaza, which stood in the midst of its wonderful botanicgarden, high-walled all about, and with a lofty lookout,whence, like Vathek from his genii-builded tower, theSpaniard might gaze abroad over the surrounding countryand far out to sea. The open square in the center ofthe city—the plaza of the Spaniards and the paradegro
Old St Augustine; a story of three centuries . walls of the old powder-house, with its sentry-boxes,have been demolished; its site can be distinguished onlyby the sunken foundation-stones. Nothing whatever isleft to suggest the famous Governors-house, north of theplaza, which stood in the midst of its wonderful botanicgarden, high-walled all about, and with a lofty lookout,whence, like Vathek from his genii-builded tower, theSpaniard might gaze abroad over the surrounding countryand far out to sea. The open square in the center ofthe city—the plaza of the Spaniards and the paradeground of the English, where Spanish and British soldiery * The cathedral was completed in 1791. The present sea-wall was built in 1835-43. The oldest house in St. Augustine, like the old slave-pen and the oldHuguenot burying-ground, is an invention of the sensational guide-book manu-facturers It is not known which house in the town is the oldest. The so-calledslave-pen was built (1840) for a market, and so used. There is no Later Years. 121 have mustered, and after them Seminole war volunteers,Confederates and Federals—has been transformed intoa pleasure park, now more beautiful, we may well believe,than even in the palmy days when famous for itsorange trees of marvelous size and bearing. Thoughthe shaft of masonry erected here in 1812 still remains, itis itself a grim monument of mutability, for its inscriptionwith fine irony proclaims the eterna memoria—tho. eternalremembrance—of a political constitution, which passedalmost immediately away and left no impress on indi-viduals nor governments.* The Spanish market-and-pilot-house, with the pilot-boats drawn up on theshore—for there was no walled basin in those times—was long ago succeeded by another market, andthat in turn by the structure now used for a musicstand. Northeast of the plaza, where once stood theSpanish guard-house, with stocks and pillory, now rises a * Charles IV. having been compell
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