ENGLISH SCHOOL , 1860

Pineapple Grove, Singapore with inscription 'Pine Apple Fields/Singapore 1860 by A. J. F. or A. C. H. on the reverse.  Watercolour on paper 22.3 x 32.4 cm

A closer view of Mount Faber from Pulau Brani, a small island offshore from Sentosa Island.  ‘Mount Faber (original name Telok Blangah Hill) was re-named after Captain Edward Faber, engineer to the town, who is described’¹ as being ‘rather unfortunate in his architectural and engineering undertakings in Singapore’.  His road to the top of Mount Faber (as seen in the painting) is listed as just one example of his follies and is described² as being ‘stupidly narrow ... two persons meeting can barely pass each other’.  The little Malay village in the bay is intriguing and is identified from Thomson’s plan of Singapore Town (1846) as being that of the ‘Tomungong of Johore’.  This would be Temenggong Ibrahim, son of Temenggong Abdul Rahman, the territorial prince of Singapore, who was living at the mouth of the Singapore River when Sir Stamford Raffles landed there in 1819.  For the price of 5,000 Spanish dollars Temenggong Abdul Rahman was asked to remove his village ‘lock, stock and barrel’ to Telok Blangah to make way for the new settlement.  The signal station as seen in the painting was moved from its original site at Blakan Mati to Mount Faber in 1845 because the ‘miasma arising from the decaying leaves of the pineapples at Blakan Mati was thought to be of a very injurious nature.³  Unfortunately Mount Faber was also found to be ‘thickly planted with young pineapples’ and an approach was made to the Temenggong ‘to substitute some less obnoxious cultivation.

1.  G. B. Buckley, An anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore, Singapore, 1902, p. 452.

2.  Ibid., p. 431.

3.  Ibid., p. 430.