Sydney, NSW. Sunday night, July 10/98.
I must revert to Saturday (yesterday) & before posting Mary’s card. I made the day up till the time of my departure, 3:40 p.m., one of sight seeing. I viewed about the city till nearly midday, having posted diary & post cards when at the post office in Bourke St., then I took a cable car out to Toorak, 4 miles distance, populated all the way, but gradually thins away to fine villa residences & lovely gardens, as the terminus was approached. It was a fine day, really the best weather I had experienced in Melbourne. Irving Road was the terminus. The suburbs are rich & healthy, some very fine churches on the main thoroughfare, called Toorak road. Old Government House is a very fine building & stands in lovely grounds. It is now called Toorak House.[1] I passed two fine Presbyterian churches en route, beautiful architecture & each has a fine-proportioned spire. One is called Toorak Presby’n Church. I returned by car to the entrance of the Botanical Gardens & walked through these. The Governor’s House (Lord Brassey’s) stands on high ground which joins these pretty tropical gardens, fine lake, & plenty water with fowl about. The vegetation was very charming, & all trees & shrubs & rare plants are named on slabs, forked & stuck into the earth, & under each tree or shrub, but this prevails in all botanical gardens I’ve been in elsewhere. I came out on the river bank in front of Government House, & great improvements are being made along the bank by removing a hill side of stone & the partly [5:43] improved portion is already planted with trees & beautifully levelled, & in course of time, this long line of frontage will be a fine road for the public benefit. I have got ahead of my time, I find. Before I went to Toorak, I visited the Mutual Store in Flinders St., & this was a great treat to me. Mrs. Manning was anxious I should see through it before I left Melbourne. It is an enormous establishment, beautifully appointed within, 6 floors, each 2 immense rooms, all fire proof, duplicate stairs, lifts to the top, which top has a flat roof, an enormous space. They have a reservoir & a system of sprinklers from each ceeling [sic] & in case of fire, these work automatically & can flood the rooms in no time. They have about 320 employe[e]s. (In Anthony Hordern‘s, where Mr. Whitfield is, they have fully 1,000 in the shops, & 6 years ago they kept a man & boy doing odd jobs in iron work, & now have a factory employing 127 men. This is in Sydney.) Well, as I was viewing the grocery & provision departments, the shop walker made his way to me & was simply delighted when I said who I was, & my desire to view. He gave himself to my disposal then & there, & guided me through the whole place, cellars (wine), to top of the place, & explained all so kindly & cheerfully. He is an Aberdonian, a draper to trade, & named Mr. Craib. I ascertained he was manager, beautifully dressed, silk hat &c. &c., quite London city style. I quite appreciated all I saw & certainly such an establishment will be bad to beat. The big fish seem to be eating up all the “small fry” as they are doing in the “Old country”.
[5:44]
Now going back to the 4th line on page 43, after “public benefit”. I crossed the river by the fine Princess Bridge into Swanson St., & took car down to hotel, & had lunch, after which I took car up Collins St., went & surveyed the beautiful buildings of the fire station & the Catholic Cathedral near by. I spent a while inside, which was very interesting, plain, massive interior except about the alter [sic], which is very fine indeed. I then came back to Coles Arcade which runs right through from Collins St., across Little Collins St., & right through to Bourke St. The same proprietory [sic] throughout, & there you can get & see everything imaginable, a real exhibition, & one of the sights of Melbourne. This finished my viewing & car’d it down to hotel, & there wrote Mary’s post card & one to Mr. Bertram, & then squared up & left for Spencer St. Station, only 4 minutes from hotel, & left at 3:40 p.m. for Melbourne.[2] [sic] Train leaves earlier on Saturdays by nearly 2 hours. About 6, I had tea en route at refreshment rooms, no dining cars here at all, then we had supper at 9:15 at Albury, the frontier, or first, town in NSW, & here the “sleeper” was attached. I engaged my berth at 10 o’clock Saturday morning. It was fully engaged. I had a top berth. I was too late to get a lower, which are preferred. The arrangement on this railway sleeper is on the American plan. Berths run parallel with the carriage & the passage in centre. 16 berths for men & I think 8 for women. I passed a very fair night & at 8 a.m. [5:45] we were all aroused & told it was time to turn out, as we were due to arrive at 9:05, & we arrived to the minute at Sydney, 10/7/98. I changed platforms & got tram at 9:35 for Lewisham, & arrived at Mr. Whitfield‘s about 10:30. They were expecting me as I had advised them of my movements. Now it is getting late, so I will close for the present.
[1] Inserted on facing page: “Governor’s House, Melbourne”.
[2] Context suggests this should be Sydney.