Sydney, Monday morning, July 11/98.
After arrival at Lewisham St. I had some refreshment (but let me say that after dressing in the sleeping car, I breakfasted of fruit, which I had brought with me & much enjoyed it). We had much to talk about, & so the forenoon passed quickly away. After dinner I photo’d the family & I think got very fair results, & I am sure you will be glad to see Maggie‘s 2 little daughters. Mr. Whitfield was anxious I should see Mr. & Mrs. Smith, very oldest friends here, dating from Mr. W’s coming to NSW. Mrs. Smith has always been extremely kind to Maggie, & they think much of the children. Jean sometimes has been 4 weeks with them. Jean calls Mrs. Smith her auntie & dearly likes to go. She cried when Mr. W. & I set off to visit them. They live about ¼ hour from Lewisham St. They were pleased to see us & entertained us very kindly. They have a most beautiful garden, lillies [sic] in profusion & clusters, a plot devoted to them, heliotrope, roses & very lovely ones in full bloom, a camelia tree loaded to the very ground with blooms, perfection, Daphne, a highly scented flower & a great favorite in Australia, geraniums in bushes with fine flowers, a big peach tree which bears grand fruit, it is not in bloom at present. One peach last season weighed 11 ounces, called, “Slipstone” peach, the name explains itself. [5:46] When the fruit is opened, the stone slips out. An apple tree which bears 2 crops of beautiful apples every year, 3 fig trees, & their fruit is very choice, of course, this is winter here & the wrong time for most fruits. They also have a very beautiful fernery & an aviary of canaries, which Mr. Smith is very proud of, as he breeds his own birds, & he says they are out in the open all the year round. Winter he has a flap which falls down, made of canvas, & this is all the protection they have, & early mornings they sing so richly. Mrs. Smith is his second wife. He lost his first wife & all his family some years ago, & he married this one just about the same time as Mr. & Mrs. Whitfield were married. She is a much younger woman than he is a man, no family, & she just devoted her whole attention & mind to house & garden. As Mr. Whitfield says, “she is everlastingly at it”. The very water tap in the garden was polished like burnished gold. He is night watchman, & has been for 15 years, at the government printing works & is well paid. I enjoyed the hour we spent there very much indeed, such a perfect model of a home. They presented me with some very beautiful photos of Sydney to take home.
Stambridge Cottage, Bishop Street, Petersham is their address. Mr. S. had been a sailor in early life & settled out here when young. Mrs. S. was a widow before she came out here. She belongs in Stambridge near London. After tea & a nice chat, Mr. W. & I went to the PM Church & the Revd. Mr. Atkinson again conducted service, & very ably did he discourse on St. Paul’s wonderful conversion & resolution to devotedness to Christ’s teachings & the future. Philippians 3rd 13-14 vs. We had a short chat with him after service. Mr. W. & he are great friends & he is anxious I should go & spend an evening with him. He is not well just now, suffering [5:47] from an attack of influenza, which is very prevalent here. We returned home about 8:45 & enjoyed the night chatting over much that was common interest, & after a cup of Van Houten,[1] we retired, & now this morning I feel refreshed. It’s a fine sun shinny [sic] morning & I am going into the city by & by. I wrote to D. Whitehead yesterday & told him I would journey to Bathurst on Tuesday & visit him. He is eager to get away to the sheds[2] up country. I also wrote Mr. W. Leask a letter so that he would get it early this morning. One was awaiting my arrival yesterday, asking what night would suit me to go home with him, so I suggested this Monday night & then come into Sydney on Tuesday morning & go to the station for Bathurst 10:15. Mr. Leask lives at Mosman, one of the beautiful bays on the harbour. Pity I did not know he was the son of Mrs. Leask of Adelaide till I got to Mrs. Leask’s & spoke of having visited him at Sydney. Now this is up to date so I close for a while. Oh, let me say that when at Salisbury with Mr. & Mrs. Ebdy, & on their late home grounds, I saw & plucked “wattle” blossom. It is in profusion there. I used to wonder what the perfume was extracted from. It is a pretty yellow flower like an “everlasting”, but small & rich in scent, & grows on trees.
Monday night, July 11th, 1898, Mosman Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
11/7/98, Mosman, Sydney, Monday night.
I was busy after breakfast at Lewisham St., preparing to go to Bathurst tomorrow to see David. I came into the city & brought my hand bag & holdall,[3] & left the latter [5:48] in the station cloak room, & took the hand bag down to Mr. W. Leask‘s office, as I had arranged to go & spend the night at his home. He wasn’t in the office. I enquired what time he left at night & 5:30 was the hour, so I said I would be there in time. The office is only 2 minutes from the Circular Quay, so I saw the P&O “Victoria” at the P&O wharf, & delighted I was to see her majestic form floating gracefully in the harbour. Also the Orient “Austral” – Refer to the “Orient Guide Book” in our book case – she is a fine, large steamer similar to the Victoria, larger, I think. Also, the Messageries Maritime steamer, “Villa de Laciotat”,[4] a very large, magnificent vessel. It was sailing today, & crowds on board, ma[n]y French priests, & lots of soldiers going home from New Caledonia. I went on board & looked thoroughly through her. The cabins are splendid & the saloon gorgeously upholstered, gilded & surrounded by beautiful paintings, far exceeds the Victoria, or any vessel I ever saw over, quite a palace, & the luxuriousness of the upholstery is amazing. Really it was a great treat. I had no idea these steamers were fitted up so handsomely. Well might many travellers extol the Messageries steamers. Frank Musgrave always came home in them. Well, all these 3 monster floating palaces lay astern of each other & nearly touching. A grand sight to see them. Then astern of the Austral was the Canadian Australian [5:49] steamer, “Aorangi”, a fine big 3 master, & in her I had intended sailing on the 16 to Wellington but today I decided definitely to stay here till the 20th & go to Auckland direct by the SS “Elingamite”, one of Huddart Parker’s steamers. It will be as broad as long & give me 4 days longer here, & ample time in N. Zealand. Were I to go direct to Wellington, I would require to go up to Auckland & it’s useless doing a double journey, & would cost nearly as much to go up to Auckland as it will cost going direct from here: £4.
After doing my business at Cook’s, getting coupons &c. for my trip to Bathurst, & cashing the last of Cook’s circular notes[5], I went to Burns, Phillips, the agents for the Canadian Australian line & got my ticket exchanged for the pass I held, Sydney to London. They gave me passage ticket, 1st saloon, to Vancouver, & a further order to exchange at Vancouver for home. I then dined & made my way to look through the enormous establishment of Anthony Hordern’s, where Mr. Whitfield is, & one of the managers, on presenting my card & said who I was, at once placed a young man at my disposal to shew me over the whole of the establishment, which is a “Whiteley’s”. The several floors & rooms were thronged with people. Anyone can [5:50] walk through without interference. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Next I went & had tea. Then I paid a pop visit to Mr. McLean & got some “Mails”. I then went & saw Willie Stoddart (where I also saw Mr. Trotter), & delivered messages I had for him from his Aunt Parker’s at Adelaide, & from there made my way to Mr. Leask‘s at 8 Loftus St., & we left by the 5:30 boat for Mosman Bay, 20 minutes steaming, fine boat & crowded with city men going home. Mrs. Leask was pleased to see me. They have 3 fine boys, Eric, Gordon, & Jim, & we all spent a very pleasant & chatty night.
When leaving the boat to come ashore, a Mr. Greig, to whom Mr. Leask introduced me, told me of an interesting incident in which I was innocently the subject. Maybe I told you that when journeying from Brisbane to Sydney, I had the company of a Presbyterian minister, Mr. Ferguson of St. Stephen’s, Phillip St., & also that he bec[k]oned me into the vestry after the following Sunday morning’s service. Well, the next Sunday whilst intimating from the pulpit that a social meeting would be during the week, he requested that they should be social & recited the following incident. He had travelled nearly 600 miles with a [5:51] gentleman (of course it was night travelling), & it was only when about to seperate [sic] at the end of so long a journey that we discovered we were both Presbyterians, & he pointed out to the congregation what a loss had been sustained by not coming into touch with each other more closely at the earlier stage of the journey. Of course, I was the individual referred to. Mr. Leask, a few nights ago, had mentioned, whilst they were travelling home together, that I had called upon him from England & I had related to Mr. Leask on first calling upon him about the incident of travelling so far with the minister & only when seperating [sic] we each discovered we were of the same denomination, & that we were both highly amused & regretted we had been so long in realising the fact. Then this Mr. Greig, who is a deacon of Mr. Ferguson’s, at once said that would be the very gentleman to whom Mr. Ferguson amusingly referred whilst intimating the social. Mr. Greig was going back tonight to a meeting & was going to tell Mr. Ferguson that he had voyaged with me to Mosman Bay tonight. I sent a message to say I hoped to worship under him, all being well, next Sunday morning. I will now close. It is late & I intend posting this tomorrow morning [5:52] before I leave for Bathurst, as Tuesday is the mail day for home from Sydney.
[1] A hot chocolate drink.
[2] Coal Sheds?
[3] An often cloth traveling case or bag.
[4] SS Ville de La Ciotat: built 1892, sunk by German submarine, 1915.
[5] An early form of Travellers Cheques, introduced by Thomas Cook in 1874