1961 - The Richmond-Atkinson Papers Vol I - Chapter 2, To the Antipodes, 1850-51, p 65-105

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Chapter 2

To the Antipodes

1850-51

In 1849 the Pekin sailed for New Zealand with the rest of the Hursthouse family (Charles pere, his son Charles Flinders and daughter), James Stephenson Smith, of Beccles, with his wife Hannah (a sister of Maria Richmond) and their children, and William Smith Atkinson.

When the first letters reached England describing the voyage and arrival of the Pekin the two younger Richmonds (James Crowe aged 27, and Henry Robert 21) decided to follow immediately. In Jun 1850 Jane Maria announced to Margaret Taylor that they were going as the vanguard of the family. If their reports were encouraging the rest of the family would follow in 1852.

On 3 Oct 1850 accordingly the brothers sailed in the ship Victory. The journals they kept on the voyage, though well written and illustrated as occasion offered with pen and pencil sketches, differ little in content from many published in those years by emigrants. The roughness of the accommodation and food was matched by the harsh conduct of the captain (W. L. Mullins) who treated the passengers with a marked lack of consideration and resented the mediation of James Richmond on their behalf. Of intellectual consolation the young men had no lack. James gave lessons regularly to the children on board, read aloud to some of the passengers and had many opportunities of sketching. The narratives of the brothers have been drastically abridged for the present purpose.

The Richmonds landed at Auckland on 1 Feb 1851 and spent a few days making acquaintances and acquiring from earlier colonists information as to the state of society and the comparative advantages of the various provinces. In all quarters opinions were offered

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gratuitously on political questions, which seem to have enlisted all of the colonists for or against the Governor (Sir George Grey). Amongst the early settlers were members of the older universities, men of education and social standing who were able to express their views freely in a well conducted, if rather outspoken, newspaper press. In the main they seemed to be hostile to the policy of the British Government, which the Governor was administering in a rather autocratic spirit. In several of the provinces progress was halted by the reluctance of the Maoris to sell their land, and in this Grey was believed to have encouraged them. He was also accused of hindering the inauguration of that complete self-government which was a sine qua non of all colonies founded on the principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. It was public knowledge that he had refused to put into operation the act passed by the British Parliament in 1846 to grant a constitution to the Colony, and had persuaded the Secretary of State to suspend its operation for five years. The hoped-for measure which was to take its place had not yet been introduced in Parliament. Thus when the two Richmonds landed in New Zealand they found Sir George Grey a common target of angry criticism.

By walking overland from Auckland to join the forerunners in New Plymouth, the brothers formed a useful opinion of the country. There is unusual interest in the impressions recorded on this journey, meetings with settlers and traders and a first intimate acquaintance with Maoris. They enjoyed, too, the hospitality of missionaries who had spent years amongst the people of Waikato, Waipa and north Taranaki, and could discuss their history and affairs with knowledge and sympathy. Beautiful scenery and unfamiliar people alike appealed to the artistic nature of James Richmond, who on this journey made some of his earliest sketches of New Zealand life. In practical affairs he was not less interested. As a trained engineer he foreshadowed roads and bridges for the future as part of a vital scheme of communications.

Before settling down amongst the relatives at New Plymouth James paid a visit to Wellington in April in the schooner Lucy James. By nature politically conscious, he appears to have adopted the resentment of the old colonists. As early as Aug 1851 he wrote - in terms

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which might have warned the family against emigrating just yet: 'I imagine that a day will come not long hence, when the preposterous Waitangi treaty will be overruled and the ridiculous claims of the native to thousands of acres of untrodden bush and fern will be no longer able to damp the ardor and cramp the energies of the industrious white man.'

Though in the forties the Taranaki natives had sold to the Government land in the Grey, Bell, Omata and Fitzroy blocks, the hindering influence of the anti-selling chiefs was now evident. The movement was a concerted one in which several tribes in Taranaki and the West Coast were associated. The Native sentiment which opposed the advance of the white pioneers was reinforced by periodical meetings of chiefs and debates on the marae.

In the last months of 1851 the home of the Richmonds was taking shape. As the familiar lares and penates came one by one into appropriate places the brothers discussed far into the night the pros and cons of the family migration. From month to month their opinion seemed to vacillate. While they set forth in their letters the manifest advantages of colonial life those roughnesses, in men and manners, which newcomers must encounter were not consciously glossed over.

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H. R. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - On board the Victory, 3 Oct 1850

We have had a very curious scene this afternoon: the weekly ration of tea, sugar, bread and butter were served out in a most comical and unbusinesslike manner by a man not distinguishable from an ordinary sailor, with a very rusty pair of scales. The plan attempted to be pursued was to divide the people into messes, each mess consisting of six, but owing to different misunderstandings some of the messes were found to contain too few . . . However after a good deal of clamour all the difficulties were got over, and James, who assumes the office of receiver for a mess, had the interesting task of dividing the substances into six shares. The tea, of which two ounces a week are allowed to each was weighed in the medicine scales, the bread distributed in half loaves, the butter beaten into shape and divided by eye, and the sugar, which is remarkably brown still remains in our possession.

We have not had regular rations of water but just a little when we applied for it, and a sort of thin soup called hot water has been served out for making tea to those who were not wise enough to have water boiled in their own hook-pot. In the present arrangement of tables there is not room enough at the public table for all the number, so that we have hitherto had our meals in our own cabin, which is the most comfortable though not the most sociable plan.

Friday morning . . . Having been provided with two loaves by E.A., we had a good breakfast of bread & butter and coffee from our private stores: our dinner consisted of a plentiful allowance of very hot soup and boiled beef & potatoes, and our tea was rendered interesting by the preserved milk a pot of which we opened to try it; ... we find it an excellent substitute for fresh milk . . . We have a great many Scotch amongst us, one very simple friendly fellow with whom we are on very good terms, Mr Crisp . . . with his wife and a family of five I think ... by far the most interesting of our number is an old lady from Martinique who dresses like Denise, grabs the provisions and dances about in the most singular manner. A lot of salt pork of very good quality has been served out this morning. Our cabin is really very comfortable and we both sponged in salt water this morning: the sea is perfectly smooth.

v 2, p 45

J. C. Richmond, journal - - - Ship Victory, T iy Oct 1850

. . . 'the hour that wakes regret anew' seems to have little power over the tough matter of fact Scots and Anglo Saxons that form our crew & cargo . . . The crew seem particularly to enjoy the evening hours and sing & play pranks of various descriptions. There is a strong family resemblance among the melodies of these nautical songs and the words are minutely narrative going to day of the month & year . . .

. . . One can hardly imagine 4 months of such weather on the glorious ocean tedious: to lie on the top of our jolly boat over the sheep & spars with a book (not to read unless one likes), is the height of mere sentient pleasure . . .

S 19 Oct. . . . We left Gravesend . . . and were towed to Margate . . . on Saturday

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night we began battling with breeze . . . Sunday . . . was a most alarming night. How the loose goods in our cabins rattled & smashed boxes tumbled, bulk heads creaked, water poured in at open scuttles, children screamed, women groaned, we were at an angle of 45deg. almost with double reefed topsails fore staysail, main trysail and bare mizen . . . the waves came in great luminous swoops as if to cover us, the ship is lively and a dry sailor, quite remarkably so, we seldom ship a sea . . . Well after struggling some time going five knots an hour under bare poles . . . Captn. thought we were getting across the channel too fast & we ran back to Deal . . . We lay here in the long swell for some days experiencing the gratification & freedom from anxiety . . . among a hundred other ships that have just been in like trouble . . . the Lizard on Friday at daybreak. I shall long remember the bright eye of the Lizard in the grey twylight, the last land of our dear country that we saw . . .

We have had much sparring with the mates about the way in which we are treated. Captn Mullins 1 has quite changed his key since we have got away, he was all attention & only too talky in Dock, he has never come near us but once since we sailed and turning a deaf ear to our remonstrance persists in treating us as not 'cabin' passengers and therefore within the meaning of the passengers act of 1850, which subjects us to various inconveniences and what some of our companions call injustices. Thus, we have no help in keeping the lower deck clean but much help in dirtying it from repeated visits to the hold to get water and stores: they come 3 times where once wod. do with right management so the lower deck hatch is off a large proportion of the day. I have represented this and got some small alleviation of the inconvenience. Our worthy mate is as obtuse as he is worthy . . . We can scarcely get a word with Mullins who certainly has acted a most ungentlemanly part and failed to carry out the spirit if not the letter of Willis & Co contract as well as given the lie to his own gratuitous professions . . . Unless we are treated better for the future we shall sign an expression of disapproval & publish it shd. we arrive at Auckland in safety . . . Surely it could not be the intention of the brokers that we shd. receive the treatment of 'free emigrants,' convicts or pigs. . . .

Our first essay of home cooked beef was made today. We opened one of the loose bunged bottles & found the beef in good preservation and very timely succor, our improvident mess having eaten cold pork for breakfast till we ran short . . . We have wasteful allowance of flour, rice, pease, oatmeal, barley & we eat prodigious puddings, heaps of boiled rice & preserve, large jorums of porridge. As yet we have invented no use for barley which accumulates. Henry & I have each made puddings. . . .

S. We have passed Madeira ... I have tried to make a sketch of the W. extremity of the island. Funchal is S.W. on land less precipitous than my sketch shows ... A poor weary osprey met us and rested on the rigging about the time we sighted land it

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was caught killed & stuffed despite the Ancient Mariner and is now part of the collection of the worthy Scot Mr Burnet.

Th 24 Oct ... A newspaper has appeared edited by Mr Crisp of a subdued Punch tone. I have opened school and have about a dozen pupils, our subjects are writing, arithmetic, geography and poetry. Happily some of the scholars are docile for there are a few rampagious little rascals male and female that give me some labour to start with . . . My most docile pupil the little Charlotte Crisp is now opposite me writing abstract of Goldsmith's Hist. Eng. Our Capt read service on Sunday, rather rapidly but with more intelligence than the majority of church clergymen. One could not help being a little moved by the special prayer for the preservation of 'this ship and those that sail in her' . . .

F 25 Oct. We are at last absolutely within the tropics, lat at noon 21 deg 56' . . . I saw flying fish for the first time. I lay 3/4 of an hour on the gib boom to watch them but could not get a near sight. School goes on pretty well. I gave a lecture on geography and a reading of Goldsmith's Hist. Eng. The formality of style and long words are particularly unsuited to young people ... I went up the rigging as far as the top today, the sailors thought I had been before and did not put in practice the custom of lashing me up but I have agreed to pay my footing on a bottle of rum notwithstanding. The motion of the ship is not as much felt in the rigging as I should have expected . . .

M 28 Oct. Fairly broiling. Thermom 82 in our cabins ... I have given a hand at the pumps which are worked twice a day to clear leakage . . . but today I could not find heart for it, the least action makes perspiration pour off . . .

T 29 Oct ... I turned out at 5 1/2 this morning, the healthy exercise of the 'holy stone' and sweeping keeps one's digestion on a par with appetite . . . Thank God we shall not suffer from the roughness of our voyage but delicate people must not come between decks unless assured of almost impossible things - sufficient attendance, rare opening of the hold, clean quiet neighbours ready to cooperate, ventilation in all weathers . . .

v 2, pp 49-50

T 5 Nov . . . The forward end of our cabin occupied happily by respectables is decorated with 3 lamps our green cloth lies on the table, remains of cakes and negus are on it and round it the respectables themselves except me playing at vingt un. Lieut King, RI Artillery from the cuddy is of the party . . . Capt has lowered away a good deal of sail . . . because they use the old sails in these 'variables' and he is afraid of splitting them in the squalls . . . thermomr. 83 deg. ... I am in a tremendous perspiration with the labor of writing but the labor of sitting or lying down has a similar effect. Oh what wod. R.H.H. say to our costume. The speaking the Atlas was quite an epoch in our voyage & seemed to refresh our departure. It was a quiet ship without a passenger and the German bearded sailors seemed quite astonished at our English cheer as we passed close abreast of each other. . . .

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Th 7 Nov. ... I think it was . . . Tuesday Oct 29th that some remarkable events 'came off' in our cabin. Lieut King joined the table at our end in the evening and having had more than enough wine at dinner . . . became very noisy and in fact drunk. With some difficulty we got him induced to leave us at 11 o'clock and not till he had given countenance & impulse to drinking in other quarters.

The uproar was tremendous. You will see that we have a fair allowance of the shadows of life on our little world. Henry slept through most of this going to bed early with toothache. On the Wednesday we were all a good deal cast down by the disgust we felt at the affairs of the last night. We talked the matter with Capt Mullins and had stricter arrangements made as to supply of spirits. The corruption among some of the officers is sad and the disaffection to Mullins almost universal from stem to taffrail. Vagg the 1st Mate is loyal and the only satisfactory man in the ship. . . .

I have been spokesman on all remonstrances on this head & after wearying myself with talking to good little Vagg I went into the cuddy to Mullins, who had the impertinence to refuse to speak on the subject & referred me to Vagg . . .

W 6 Nov ... I went up again with Mr Burnet, our picturesque manly Northumbrian. Mullins was playing at back gammon, we requested to speak with him, he said he was busy. We waited the game out ... he retired to his berth & sent for Vagg; returned in a minute & said that if we were dissatisfied with the tarpaulin we might be battened down. I said that was out of the question (the thermomr being at 85 deg.) 'No I shall not come, Mr Vagg will attend to you, that's enough'. 'Then I have only to say that your conduct in this matter is most improper and unbecoming.' 'Thats my look out' Burnet could not stand this & burst out 'Aye, but it shall be our look out, sir, you'll find.' 'Very good.' . . . The secret of the matter is the dirty stinginess of the man. I believe that a move to duck him at Auckland would find active support: but shall be guarded as long as we are on board, for I hope we may find him legally slipping. The doctor came down & declared the place to be unhealthy . . .

F 8 Nov ... I had school in spite of the heat, but it is uphill work ... I had our map of New Z. pinned to one of the struts in the middle of the table and my scholars were set to sketch N. Island marking the chief features in writing. I have 5 pupils that make satisfactory exertions. . . . The evening was partly spent at cards. Henry joined the sport & won 1/- . . . Today ... I was on deck at and had a bath in the gratings under the bowsprit, from the forecastle pump.

I have been surprised to find how many ships we see in the open ocean. The voyage round the Cape is so systematic that within a band of a couple of degrees is a constant stream of ships of all nations bound for the Cape, Mauritius, Bourbon, India, China, the Pacific Islands . . . We had school this morning I loitered, read Typee, dined on suspicious mutton . . . The cuddy passengers repudiated the animal. My stomach . . . was not disturbed by their judgement and I dined well off it. ... Pumps sadly too old for a ship so leaky as this, they were overhauled today, and the suction pipes paid over with spun yarn & tar. . . . There must be some good large bolt or treenail

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left out of the ship to account for the leakage... The call to pump ship occurs every 6 hours. ...

T 12 Nov. Up at 6. Bathed. . . . heat much more tolerable with this breeze, pace full 7 knots an hour . . . Passengers busy quarreling, children form a medium of great use in conveying affronts that cannot be directly offered. Spent great part of the afternoon in the fore top with Plato . . . Played vingt-un for a couple hours winning 2/6.

W 13 Nov . . . Wind maintaining we cross the line from 7 to 9 o'clock. Capt forbid 'larking' so forecastle pump was unrigged. However, as the men observed, what are 2 men to 50? we have ropes and buckets enough. So a good many compliments passed in the shape of salt water & we furnished some rum to crew. Read Plato, Henry busy gambling quietly.

Th 14 Nov ... I took tea in the steerage with Capt Williams & family, a worthy set of folk, the old skipper has owned & commanded a ship larger than this. He is our nautical authority, has charts and takes daily observations. He thinks ill of the Capt -- not as a seaman but as behaving ill to the passengers and sacrificing masterly navigation to dirty false economy . . . We ought now to have our new canvas bent, the old sails let the wind through everywhere & we do not make that figure among our companions that our appearance leads to hope.

T 26 Nov . . . Now however there is a real change in affairs. Our head points towards New Zealand we have crossed the Southern tropic, we are before a breeze N.W. by W. . . .

I awoke to the sound of 'cheerly men' and found they were raising the yards & shaking out reefs again . . . We are for the first time since we left the Lizard on the larbord tack. It always occurs on the outward voyage, the scuttles ventilate the cabins on the windward side when the lee scuttles admit but little air but often a good deal of water. People should have cabins on the larbord side . . . and then they will have the advantage of being to windward through the trade-winds & tropics, except the variables.

W 27 Nov. This day a barque has been sighted ahead outward bound and spoken with. We have had no school, the day was very fine and talking with the flags made too much excitement among the scholars for me to hope for attention. The Trent, that is the barque's name, has been alongside us. Our Capt and ship met her and her skipper in Ceylon last voyage, so an edifying conversation was carried on through speaking trumpet . . .

Th 28 Nov. Wind has headed us & is freshening. Morning occupations as usual; worked up my sketch of barque Trent. The second mate is much disgusted at it. It represents the ship quite close, seen from the larbord bow so the foremast is drawn higher than the mainmast, he wishes this altered: ... He produced a drawing of his own to exemplify what he argued for . . .

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F 29 Nov. Wind ahead blowing a very strong breeze. Our figurehead dips to the epaulette every tenth pitch, and now & then we have a wave over the hero's head & all. . . . One molinawk caught by one of our Northumbrians, Mr Bedlington, & skinned by his friend the other Northumbrian, Mr Burnet. I wish I could make a picture of the latter with his red cap, his bronzed face, bushy whiskers, beard & moustache, his noble honest simple eye & expression; and beside him his good collie dog & skye terrier. He is for Auckland but I have a faint hope that he may after all prefer New Plymouth. The two have some idea of walking over with us there . . . They are a fine pair & would be a great acquisition to N.P. every way. . . .

Su 1 Dec. Wind still ahead but only gentle . . . Capt read prayers at the cuddy door, ladies were inside men except the cuddy passrs. outside. There is room for all inside . . . Our cabins look clean after yesterday's scrubbing. ... I have scolded my messmates much more than enough but not half as they deserve. . . . We have quite retired to our own cabin & seceded from the 'Dirty Mess'. Thank heaven I am not shabby enough to have got into any mess by talking scandal, my tongue has erred in scolding but I have said all my hard sayings to people's faces . . . Henry, of course, has kept clear of all trouble of the tongue's making. He is a favorite, being found always good natured and obliging. . . . We spoke an American whaler and she sent a boat on board to ask for longitude, newspapers & potatoes & other vegetables . . . We are informed the whales we see are no use to them, they are fin backs & hump backs, . . . dangerous to tackle . . . Their yield of oil also inferior . . . The creatures we see are from 70 to 30 feet long & almost black . . .

M 2 Dec . . . flights of whale birds & cape pigeon . . . There are folks on board fond enough of their own cleverness to shoot these creatures though they cannot get them & sometimes only wound them, & oh monstrosity! they are shooting at whales. One cannot but think of aiming at haystacks. We have refused gun shot powder or caps to aid in this amusement. . . .

It feels very cold still. Those railway rugs are a capital speculation. . . . Every passenger should have if he can afford it a folding armchair, one of those american concerns, well made it must be or it rucks to pieces, strong camp stools for cabins with carpet tops and well made. There has been a 'row' about the water today, the third mate has quarelled with the Capt or as it is expressed 'cheeked the Capt' because the former accused him (with needless rudeness) of embezzling stores of water, distributing them with partiality . . . The Capt has dismissed him . . .

Su 22 Dec . . . The weather is so cold that we have chafing dishes to dry our floors, main hatch battened down at night . . . Yesterday ... it blew a gale and we ran with the wind right abeam of us at 8 knots an hour . . . We rolled about not a little and had a few heavy seas down the main hatch ... no females on deck & a very desolate look between decks. ... I have made an attempt to give an honest representation of our appearance under these circumstances painted on the spot and in a degree of lively action you will think incompatible with much of drawing. My sketch

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(made after mizen & courses were hauled down) shews the ship as she appeared before the gale was at its strongest. . . . Several pencils were set to work by the ice bergs we have seen during the week. . . . One that I have sketched appears like two distinct bergs but the two are joined below water . . . The cold ... is such as to have stopped school during a fortnight. We amuse ourselves in cooking, baking, reversing the Maori English dictionary making it English-maori, reading Arabian Nights & other profound & philosophical works and drawing. We have written one article for the periodical literature of the Ocean, a defence of New Plymouth & agriculture against an impertinent & ignorant attack in a weekly libel published by Crisp & Co . . . The gale of yesterday was not awful at all to me . . . Standing on the poop or forecastle it was a glorious sight to see the waves fairly playing with the great heavy thing, lifting it bodily and swinging it so fast, this is what strikes me. The ship does not look stately and majestic, it is whipped about far too quickly for that. In general the motion was as soft as that of a cradle only now and again did we get one of those broadside thumps that sent sea over us. ...

6 Jan . . . We celebrated Christmas. There was a strife in the composition of puddings, we think ours was the best altho the Crisps had been provident enough to bring candied lemon &c. . . . The ship was pretty steady while the gentlemen exacted the tribute of the day under a representation of misletoe which I painted and Mr Crisp suspended. The desolation between decks was further decorated by rosettes of pink & green tissue paper, theatrical festoons of calico and another picture of a bunch of holly by me. We formed a party in Crisps cabin at tea time (that is the select ones) of the intermediate and our military young men from the cuddy Lieut King, & Capt Campbell. We had games and cakes & punch and made shift with a little howling (indeed) to pass the evening more merrily than could be hoped or expected. . . .

In ten days we hope to be in Bass Straits & in ten more in Hauraki Gulf . . .

14 Jan Long 146 deg. 38' E. Lat. 44 deg. odd S. Passing Van Dieman's Land which was seen grey on the horizon this morning. . . . People begin cramming dirty linen into empty flour casks and dismounting books &c. We feel our captivity drawing to a close. Certainly nearly every discomfort of our voyage has been of immediate human manufacture The heavens & sea have given us but little to complain of, much to enjoy and admire, but der alte Teufel follows across the ocean in the form of an albatross and makes captains as surly and passengers as quarrelsome there as on dry land.

v 2, pp 53-7

H. R. Richmond, journal - - - Ship Victory, T 22 Oct 1850

The first great difficulty, which presented itself, & which was almost too much for our good little mate Mr Vagg, was the division of the passengers into messes of six each, and this difficulty chiefly arose from the fact of these being in all what was equivalent to 29 adults, which formed 4 messes of six and one of 5, but these numbers being continually reversed & jumbled . . . Our own mess which in the first place

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consisted of Mr Stack Mr Webb, Mr Baxter & ourselves, was completed by the introduction of Mrs Wall.

Have not yet made any mention of our disappointing captain who hardly ever says a word to any of the fore cabin passengers & considers it his duty to treat us as government emigrants. There has only been one regular fall to with him & that was when he declared himself not authorized to allow spirits to be sold to fore cabin & steerage passengers . . . We were threatened with having to pump our own water from the casks & hand it up from the hold a job which was supposed to need about five or six hands: but some ingenious individual discovered that the buckets might be drawn up with a rope . . . We have to sweep the deck in front of our cabins every morning & rub with a stone attached to a stick (called a holy or hooly stone) and sand twice a week - James and I, being the only ones in our mess having room and receptacles, have been forced to receive & take charge of all the stores, no small bother . . . We do a great deal in the pudding & pie line in fact hitherto we have thought of little else but how to make our meals as agreable as circes wd permit.

This morning by James's energy a school has been set on foot in which he & Miss Crispe are the principal teachers ... A newspaper entitled the Ocean Times has just been started and is now in course of copying . . .

W 23 . . . Porridge dreadfully burned this morning and cocoa. Six tempting round cakes of bread baked this morning are standing before me . . .

F 25 . . . James is reading history to the children. I have not hitherto given any assistance in the school . . .

M 29 . . . Sunday a most beautiful day, wind light, thermom 81 at 9 o'clock in the cabin. Wind sail established, which comes down just in front of our door. A fat black fish was seen swimming along following a sheep which had been hung out by 'the doctor' to wash. A line was soon out and the fish was pulled up . . . either a benito or an albicor. Mr Curtis undertook the cleaning after stipulating for a share which he eat raw with vinegar and pepper. The rest was cooked (steamed) for dinner and proved very fair eating though rather dry and tasteless. In the afternoon was descried in the distance San Antonio . . . Cape Verde islands ... I spent (Saturday) evening playing whist. Everybody made cake in the afternoon and our mess devoured theirs at tea . . . James has been schooling this morning but I have not felt well and courageous enough to help him ... I have forgotten to mention the most splendid and glorious institution which was set'on foot two or three days since - the regular supply of soft bread made for us every day by our excellent friend Mr Burns. It is a most inconceivable blessing . . .

T James had a little go in with Mr Vagg about the tarpaulin which they have hitherto covered close down over the hatchway in spite of the often repeated promise of the captain that it shd be supported by a pole like a tent.

My dearest Lely, I need not tell you that we often look at your blessed likeness as I doubt not you do on ours. I should feel perfectly cheerful and contented with the

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thought of having you with us in one or two years ... If it was God's will that we should take this step surely it is His will that you should follow; we must pray Him to send out all such of our friends as would really be benefitted by the step.

v 2, pp 46-7

Maria Richmond to C. Hursthouse - - - Wimbledon, 8 Nov 1850

Your welcome letter dated in January on board the Pekin announcing your safe arrival in New Zealand did not reach me until the fifth of this month. We had however previously seen your account of the voyage ... in the New Zealand Journal, 2and rejoiced to find your passage had been a prosperous one.

Since I saw you I have disposed of the lease of my pleasant old house at Merton, which was too large and expensive for me when half my family had left me ... I feel the departure of my dear sons deeply ... I am afraid that they will attempt to walk across the country to New Plymouth, having been misled by a report that Mr Curtis and Mr Smith had performed the journey with ease. It is a pity people delight in departing so much from the truth when speaking of the Colonies.

v 1, pp 129-30 (t.s.)

J. C. Richmond to C. W. Richmond Auckland, 7 Feb 1851

. . . Reckoning from the Downs we were 114 1/2 days, from Gravesend 122 1/2. . . . Our first impressions were by no means favorable. . . . Auckland lies in a country level for N. Zealand a few steep isolated hills with deep craters in their summits & covered with scoria rise from the undulating land around . . . The weather is very hot, Midsummer - harvest is got & they are at work getting potatoes, this one makes allowances for but still at first sight the place looks desolate and barren. There are no considerable trees within ten miles, a little stunted bush still nestles in some of the bottoms, but the large fern has been all removed and there never was heavy timber here. The Waitemata is a magnificent harbor large enough for all the ships in the world at one time sheltered from all violent motion . . . The houses are chiefly of wood, they look rather cockney but seem comfortable in their arrangement. I sketch the plan of the town as I suppose it to be.

Our first impression of the town & country were not worse than of the inhabitants. A hotel coffee room is not a place in England to decide on the national character and so we hope that the quiet inhabitants of Auckland are not to be judged from the 'fast' talk of those we met with in our first 3 or 4 days here. These people seem a good deal like the dwellers in hotels at home if you add a little to the selfishness and a great deal to the dirtiness of those people. The gentlemen colonists for instnace (well dressed men) spit on the carpet as they smoke their filthy little short pipes; they lie in Yankee attitudes on the sofa, one man occupying space meant for 4 whilst his neighbors, even ladies, sit on hard straight backed chairs. We have now . . . laid down our mattress

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for the remainder of our stay here on the floors of a house Mr Malcolm, our fellow passenger, has taken. We have seen something of the country behind Auckland, called on the curate who married Mrs Bollond's sister, & on Mr & Mrs Newman, the latter a Lincolnshire friend of the Hursthouses. These two are delightful people. Mr N. is a farmer, thoughtful, sensible & good one may say at once. He has been 7 years in the colony . . . & reports as follows: Auckland first rate harbor & market with a large quantity of good land. Welln. first rate harbor, no good land conveniently situated (the Hutt no use for transport, the Wairarapa too far off.) Wellington the worst of the settlements. N. Plymo magnificent country land averaging 60 or 70 pr. c. better than Auckland, no market. Nelson, fine land & fine harbor though not equal to Auckd & Welln. but deficient in natives. He considers the land claims at N.P. will eventually be satisfactorily adjusted but thinks it must be very long before there is any land traffic between N.P. & Auckland or other harbors. He says the land up the Waikato & Waipa is of first rate quality . . .

We are waiting now in hopes of our two Northumbrian friends joining us in our walk overland ... up the Waikato & Waipa valleys crossing to Kawia & then by coast. There will then be 6 of us besides natives in our party. Ourselves, Messrs Burnet & Bedlington, Stark and a young friend of the Malcolms who appears in our journals, A. Fennessey. We have a native each to guide us & to carry tent & provisions. Native huts abound in dirt & fleas, the open air is intolerable from mosquitoes. No food but potatoes to be had. I forgot to mention that Mr Newman states that the apparently poor volcanic soil of this neighbourhood & other places in N.Z. grows in favor with the farmers. The white clover roots there very deep & bears the longest summer weather, giving rich pasture in the moister season. At first the old hands predicted that when cleared of fern, ti and bush it would blow away, but these predictions have not been verified.

I have not yet said a word of the natives. I am much taken with them, the first lot we saw alongside with fruit having sold a handful of peaches for 3 or 4 shillings they returned with a fresh supply, & in high glee. (We find peaches sell 2d & 3d the doz on shore). Poor creatures, their little impositions are returned with interest, they are fond of buying boats & they have several little 10 to 20 ton coasting schooners worth £100 to £200 for which they paid £1000 to £1200. They are not always to be so imposed on . . . All the natives seem happy & good natured, they bear a high character for honesty; respecting their bargains even when the law would support them in repudiation.

v 2, p 64

J. C. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - Auckland, 7 Feb 1851

. . . We first sighted New Zealand on the western coast near Hokianga and had to beat round the North Cape against a head wind. After weathering the Cape we kept far out to the eastward and sighted the land again about 100 miles north of Auckland

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early on Friday morning . . . We found that we were sailing close in to a most romantic coast, with lofty and sometimes precipitous banks clothed down to the water's edge with thick forests & fern . . . All day we were sailing up the Hauraki Gulf past various groups of beautiful rocky islands covered with vegetation and some of them several thousand feet high. The color of the rock is chiefly a rich brown, the forest dark green & the fern land olive coloured, & somewhat greener than our moors.

... As you approach Auckland the brown rock is exchanged for a friable light yellow sandstone, the banks become lower & less interesting though still very pretty. We anchored in the mouth of the Waitemata harbour, as the tide was running down & got off in the first boat . . . The gardens in the neighbourhood are disorderly & neglected, but others show plainly what might be done with a very little attention; the town is supplied with vegetables, viz. potatoes cabbages & onions chiefly by the natives who bring them from great distances in their canoes and sell them very cheap, they also bring immense quantities of peaches which are dirt cheap, other fruits are all very dear. We are all munching unripe peaches at this moment, the remains of a large washhand basin full purchased this morning for a shilling.

v 2, p 64

Maria Richmond to Jane Maria Richmond - - - Wimbledon, 11 Mar 1851

I heard just after I wrote to you from Em Atkinson. She is a clever creature and quite an original . . . she tells me: 'We have all recovered from the measles and the influenza which followed, with no other doctors than our parents and the total absence of medicine, as the patients steadily refused to take anything that was not nice, to the great terror of one or two prophetic old ladies in the neighbourhood who think it will be well for the family if nothing serious is the matter before three months are over our heads. ... It is proposed, . . . that Dec.[imus] should go on the 25th to the Rochester Grammar School. I shall be so glad if he goes, for he does not learn much at home except gardening; this is very useful I know, especially for an intending emigrant, but something else is wanted besides horticulture in the education of a young person of these days.'

Emma Kinder has written to ask me for introductions for a young married friend of hers from Newcastle, who is going to emigrate with her husband, Mr Blackett, an engineer, to New Plymouth.

Messrs Holland, Hutton, Boult and Richmond had a long discussion - at times quite a debate - yesterday on public matters in general and the social state in particular. William was as usual very earnest, and had an immense deal to say ... I feel that his unquiet mind is wearing him out, and that his position here is unnatural, unsuited both to his bodily and mental constitution; he sees, and cannot see calmly, great and crying evils of which he seems utterly powerless to attempt the remedy. Whether he would find his place in a new country is a problem only to be solved by experiment. . . .

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William is now very much interested in 'Christian Socialism'; but of this you must take no notice in your letters unless he should write to you on the subject, which as his mind is full of it and he finds no natural vent for it here, he probably will. ... It is a system in direct opposition to trade principles, and numbers amongst its advocates earnest and good men, intelligent and clever also, clergymen, lawyers and working men.

v 1, pp 132-3 (t.s.)

J. C. Richmond to Maria, C. W. & Jane Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 25 Mar 1851

We spent a fortnight in Auckland lying on the floor of an empty house taken by our fellow voyagers the Malcolms. Auckland is a fast little place eminently commercial . . . The country round . . . yields crops of corn & has pastures of clover far beyond one's anticipation; the volcanic soil is far richer than similar looking soils in England.

We made aquaintance of Mr & Mrs Thatcher & Mr & Mrs Newman. The former curate of the church married Mrs Bolland's sister. The latter a farmer married to a Lincolnshire friend of the Hursthouse family. We found Mr Thatcher liberal & well informed. Mr Newman is a very sensible man, a Methodist and a teetotaler. He has chosen Auckland after seeing all the settlements . . . We had letters from him to his brother in law up the country and started overland for this place on the afternoon of the 18th ult. We were 6 in party, ourselves, young Stark & 3 Maoris with 'pikau' burdens.

Our first night we pitched our tent on the edge of the bush, having walked over the 15 miles of level fern land behind Auckland on the east of the Manukao. So far the road is like some English by roads in quality. We were delighted with the strangeness of the scene as the night came on, our lads amusing themselves with singing or rather panting a strange sort of song or noise made in the lungs & back of the throat & used in their war songs. The effect by firelight amidst the tangle of the bush was savage enough. After tiring of this they set off with burning brand & tomahawk to catch crawfish & tuna, the eels of the country, in a little brook near our encampment. We made a good meal of potatoes roasted in the ashes, cold meat & tea, and fastened ourselves into our calico tent for the night killing all the mosquitoes we could lay hands on before lying down.

At day break we started again, and had our first bush walk over matted roots and stumps amidst tree fern, cabbage palm, supple jack, not to name the long list of timber trees whose fine stems are almost all disfigured with rank parasites. One of these parasites, the red myrtle, winding in & out of its patron becomes itself an enormous tree stifling the original growth ... as the first tree rots from its grasp. It is covered in season with lovely scarlet & gold flowers in shape like those of the English myrtle . . .

After passing several creeks breast deep at low water, we reached the noble Waikato about the great bend it takes to the westward. I had already tried my hand as a sportsman, shot my first pair of barrels successfully at a brace of wild ducks, one a flying shot and I had also killed one of the beautiful pigeons of which we have heard

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(but they are rather scarce), magnificent green & blue grey birds with rosy heads & feet. They sit up on the branches of the tall timber trees about 60 feet from the ground & when seen are a certain mark for all but very clumsy sportsmen. We fell in with a party of Europeans at the embarking place. The surveyor general & commissioner were adjusting land claims and we had their assistance in bargaining for a canoe to take us to the upper part of the Waipa (near Otawhao on the map) to the 'kainga Patera,' or in English to Mr Buttle's house. Mr B. is Wesleyan Missionary married to Newman's sister.

The broad Waikato is much like the Severn about Bridgnorth. It runs through a rich level of deep fern fringed with the raupo (a bullrush) . . . and the magnificent toi-toi, a gigantic grass whose flower stalk is from 8 to 12 feet and has an exquisite feather of two feet long playing in every air. This grass is a noticeable feature in New Zealand landscape & with the phormium tenax the most remarkable of the open country vegetable products: you . . . can hardly persuade yourself so noble looking a thing is . . . only a spontaneous product of nature. The Waikato is of a swiftish current & has a good many islands & shallows. You see many native dwellings & many canoes for they are a most locomotive people, few as ignorant of all but their own kainga as our British Hodge. There are troops of wild ducks & shags, some hawks of large size, bitterns & smaller waterfowl unknown to me.

Two days brot. us to a place where we met a church missionary Mr Ashwell who asked us to stop, join his service on Sunday & visit him further up at Takopoto on Monday. . . . We spent Monday getting to Mr Ashwell's, Tuesday at his place seeing his school. Wednesday we left him & the Waikato taking the humbler Waipa. We reached Mr Buttle's on Friday and dismissed our men who had caused us needless delay and after imposing on the hospitality of the Missionary (which I repaid with a drawing of his station) for 3 days spent a great deal in bargaining with this race of tattoed Jews. We got off with only one man, Stark lame & on the missionary's pony; we were heavily loaded & got to Kawia on the following day Wed. Thursday we visited another of the Wesleyan Missionarys, John Whitely, a well known & much respected man; and a Jew Joseph (who occupies the house & business of S. Spencer, gone to Honolulu). . . . We . . . arrived here on Sat week, being the 25th day since we left Auckland & about twice the right time having been spent on the road, we got a good insight into native ways and some smattering of the language which we had begun to work at on ship board.

I find J. Hursthouse looking healthy & stout . . . We are in treaty for a small property of 16 2/3 acres chiefly cleared, with house & offices price say £105 . . .

v 2, p 67

H. R. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 25 Mar 1851

... As far as I can say at present I should be contented to make this place my home although most people would consider it very dull. The country is by no means romantically beautiful, that is without the mountain, but when he is visible I can hardly

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take my eyes off him, he is so very beautiful. Our people here are living in a very uncomfortable house, having only three rooms including the sitting room and kitchen, one good sized bedroom containing all the children and a lean-to bedroom for uncle and aunt. We have been accommodated at first on the floor of the sitting room and now on the corn in the barn which is much more comfortable.

Mr Smith's house is about 2 1/2 miles off and is by far the most comfortable we have seen in the settlement. They have a pleasant little sitting room with their English furniture in it, papered and carpetted. Old Mr Hursthouse lives with them, they seem quite satisfied with the place: the old gentleman works from morning till night in the garden making arbours and seats etc: the kitchen garden is also under his charge. He looks a great deal older than when we saw him last and I am afraid does more work than is good for him.

Mr Curtis and his wife live a long way from here, in the Omata district perhaps 5 or 6 miles off. They have a large raupo house, very roomy and very draughty. We . . . slept there on a large and delightful mattress laid in front of the kitchen and parlour fire, and furnished with sheets, an unheard of luxury. Ranged around us as we lay in our bed were the following worthies - John Hursthouse, Tom Newsom, Mr Curtis and Mr Weston, a worthy unitarian who is thinking of returning to England. They sang songs and ... I was sound asleep before the break up. . . .

The Victory has not yet come round and we are anxiously expecting her, as we have little or nothing to do and few clothes to put on. She has been detained at Auckland in consequence of all the men leaving her disgusted with the captain and the food . . . We have a small piece of land about 17 acres with a small house (wooden) on it within 1/2 a mile of this which we think will suit us. The land is cleared bush land full of stumps, only fit for grazing. It is a pretty spot, about 1 1/2 miles from the town and would be very suitable for the central establishment should you ever come out to us here . . .

v 2, p 68

H. R. Richmond to C. W. Richmond - - - Taranaki, 3 Apr 1851

You will be surprised to hear that James is now at Wellington & the reason for his being there is that the Victory has never made her appearance at this place . . . it is almost certain that . . . she has thought fit to run past us to Wellington. In this case they would very likely send the goods for Taranaki in a coaster [the Lucy James] & we should most likely lose some dozens of little packages whose directions have either been destroyed or never existed - to obviate this evil I have despatched James to Wellington. . . .

A small section which we thought of purchasing we have . . . finally decided on buying it . . . Our little estate is the third of a 50 acre section & therefore contains 16 2/3 acres. The whole section was originally purchased from the Company by 3 individuals but the names of two only were put on the company's books & the owner of our

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piece had no title to show but some receipts from the other two: I should also mention that a large part of the purchase money remains unpaid & the aforesaid two individuals have refused to cash up until they receive a crown grant: from these circumstances some doubts were raised as to our security in purchasing, but Mr French of whom we buy has agreed to bind himself to restore the purchase money should the land be confiscated which on the whole is very unlikely to happen. The greater part of the 17 acres is cleared & consists of two flats the one about 60 feet above the other, joined by a very steep bank. The upper flat is that on which the house & garden are situated . . . The flat at the bottom is covered in grass or rather white clover which is quite the staple in the pastures here . . . The stumps of the trees remain but many . . . might be hauled out with a pair of bullocks & a chain. The upper flat . . . has been cropped with wheat, potatoes etc, & must now be also laid down in grass. . . . We had made up our minds that dairy farming was our vocation & every one here seems to think it at least as profitable as wheat growing. In the upper flat there are a good many fences . . . made of timber & branches of trees piled on top of one another & giving an appearance of hopeless disorder; they look almost as difficult to clear away as the forest itself. The house measures outside I believe 30 ft. by 15 ft. & is divided into a kitchen & sittingroom & two bedrooms. The kitchen has a wide cob chimney, & is roughly floored with wide planks just laid on the ground. The roof is . . . partly shingled & partly thatched . . . The place is about half a mile distant from Aunt Helen's but the road must be impassable for ladies throughout the rainy season. The price of the extensive estate is 100 guns, which is not thought at all dear . . . We are busily engaged here in enlarging this house; we means John Hursthouse, Stark and myself; the enlargement . . . will be a great comfort to Aunt H. who has been wishing for it for years. . . .

[Continuing with extracts from his journal]

Su 23 Feb. At a small village on the Waikato . . . We have three Maori guides provided for us with some difficulty by Mr Marant 3 the magistrate interpreter at Auckland & a most obliging & kind hearted man. The usual pay for native guides from Auckland is 10/- per week, but to get over some difficulties we were forced to offer ours an extra 10/- for the return journey. For some time before landing we had been arranging knapsacks etc for the journey, and considering how much each of us could carry, but all ideas of carrying anything ourselves, were dispelled by the Maoris, who speedily made up all our packages together with some of their own, into three pikaws or bundles of about 35 lb each which they tied up & slung over their shoulders with strips of the native flax leaf which serves for such purposes without any preparation. . . . Several purchases & arrangements had to be made in the morning and it was about eight oclock before we got off. Our first halt was at Mr Marant's house just outside the town, to have an agreement written between us and our guides at the request of the latter, for the maories are very particular upon such things and always seem to think they are going to be cheated. This business being transacted and one

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pound paid in advance our lads left us to amuse ourselves as we could, whilst they went back to the town to make purchases for the journey.

After waiting some time we walked on to Mr Newman's about three miles further on leaving word for the men to follow. Mr Newman is a . . . sensible and a very good man, one whom I would sooner have for a friend & neighbour than any other we have met with in New Zealand, his wife also is a very nice person & they speak confidently of farming near Auckland as being very profitable. We . . . went out with Mr N. into his potato field where a number of natives were employed in gathering up the potatoes which had been turned up by the plough: after some time the red blanket of one of our guides made its appearance & they were soon seated preparing themselves a meal of Mr N's potatoes. We went back to the house & had a light dinner after which we once more weighed anchor & turned our faces towards the bush . . . Our route lay along the for the most part level land on the southern side of the Manukau harbour. We encamped at nightfall on the margin of a small forest, or technically a small piece of bush, where our men cut stakes for & erected the tent spreading fern inside for us to lie on, made an immense fire & roasted potatoes in the embers. We have with us tea & sugar which are considered almost indispensable in bush travelling, also a few biscuits, & we made an excellent supper & soon afterwards turned in for the night. One tent which we made ourselves at Auckland is constructed of unbleached calico, it has no door with a view to keeping out the mosquitoes; ingress & egress are effected in a grovelling manner by pulling up a corner & creeping under. Our bedclothes consist of a railway rug each in which we roll ourselves up as completely as possible . . .

We rose next morning at about five oclock: it was a perfect morning, & the birds were singing most beautifully in the forest close by. The notes of some of the New Zealand birds appear to me even more musical than the blackbird & thrush, but this may be saying too much & they certainly have not the variety of our English songsters. This day's journey ... we were hindered a good deal by a creek of the Manukau well called the Slippery Creek which had to be crossed at low tide so we had to wait there several hours. Whilst we were there a party appeared on the bank consisting of a settler, his Maori lady, and four guides. They all swam across the creek, the men holding up large packages in one hand above the water. In crossing both James and I managed to sit down in the middle of this truly slippery creek, the rocky bottom being covered with a slimy deposit of oxide of iron . . . Our dinner consisted of a large quantity of fish & eels purchased from some natives at about three times their value.

On Thursday morning we entered the forest after three or four miles laborious walking through fern & bushes from 4 to 8 feet high, which almost stopped up the path & completely drenched us with dew . . . We had our breakfast in a little valley where there were a few native huts the inhabitants of which were felling timber in the forest . . . We purchased a supply of potatoes with a few figs of tobacco which is the current coin in the interior. We brought with us no less than 10 lb. of it . . . The aspect of a New Zealand forest is much more tropical than I had expected & this first specimen more particularly so for in many places the undergrowth consisted of young tree

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ferns and cabbage plants. Many of the ferns attain a great height but the palms more rarely, probably for their being cut down at a certain age for the sake of the heart of the young stem which is very good to eat either raw or cooked, being something between the heart of a cabbage and a cocoanut . . . Creepers of several kinds form in some places such a network between the trees that it would be quite impossible to get on without a billhook to cut them away . . . The forest we passed through was not continuous or rather I should say, the road lay near the outside of it, so that every two or three miles we emerged into a little bit of open fern land. The mosquitoes this day were excessively annoying, especially when we made a halt to rest ... In the afternoon we emerged from the thick forest on the top of a high & steep bank at the foot of which lay the broad & placid Waikato river. We found a large assemblage of people at the waters side who were there for the purpose of settling some land claims: there was a government land commissioner and a certain Lieutenant Gale, who lives amongst the natives in their own style doing nothing & supported by a pension from home. Also an Auckland settler & his wife, on what errand I did not discover . . . There was a large concourse of natives, many of whom came & shook hands with us: they dispersed soon after our arrival in canoes to their habitations up & down the river . . .

After a good deal of bother we succeeded in hiring a small canoe for the sum of 10 shillings, or four dollars as they call it, to take us up the rivers Waikato & Waipa as far as . . . Mr Buttle's missionary station. We started in the morning after paying the owner of the canoe but before we had gone half a mile we heard him shouting behind us ... He made us understand that he was not satisfied with a gold piece we had given him for half a sovereign, & which was in fact a Dutch piece of nearly if not exactly the same value: it seemed that Mr Gale had discovered this, & began making fun of the man telling him he was gammoned; a thing which the natives are in constant fear of: so off he paddled in a terrible stew, but as we had no more change with us ... we were regularly fixed, when in a third canoe Mr Gale paddled up to our relief and gave the man four half crowns for the doubtful coin.

Our little canoe was only just big enough for our party of six, and when we were all in it went nearly to the water's edge on both sides: a very little motion being sufficient to bring one gunwale under water . . . but we soon got used to it and enjoyed this luxurious way of travelling very much. We were a whole week in performing this part of our journey, landing for dinner at about noon or one oclock usually at one of the many small native settlements on the banks, where we bought potatoes & eels for a few sticks of tobacco. The eels all along the river are exceedingly abundant; the natives tie them up in some kind of long leaf, making bundles about a foot long which they roast over the fire or in the native ovens. - Before arriving at this stage of our journey we had lost all our knives but one, and as we had reckoned on living on potatoes almost entirely we had no plates, so that we had to eat our eels in our fingers, a very sticky & unpleasant operation. Wild ducks are exceedingly plentiful on the river & as we had a gun we had always a plentiful supply of them, sometimes shooting 4 or 5 brace in a day . . .

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On Saturday afternoon when looking for a convenient place for the night, a white man passed us in a canoe & landed at a native settlement close by. We were informed by our natives that he was Mr Ashwell, the Church of England missionary residing at Tukapoto, half a day's journey further up. Our men proposed to go a little further before landing, but Mr Ashwell soon made his appearance on the bank & advised us to stop there, at the same time inviting us to come & have our tea in his tent . . . He told us that when he saw us in the canoe he knew by our eyes that we were respectable settlers & invited us to his house at Tukapoto where we remained a whole day. The settlement in which we were was one of several in which Mr Ashwell holds service, and as we had to halt there during the Sunday we attended church, which was held in the open air in a square enclosure, the natives squatting on the ground, the men only rising at singing & prayers . . . The sermon was extempore & delivered with great energy and a great deal of action; the singing was very bad, as might be expected from the fact the music was unknown in New Zealand before our coming, but the manner of conducting all the responses puts English congregations to shame; it is really beautiful, each syllable being distinctly articulated at the same instant by the whole congregation, showing clearly how accurate is their feeling of time.

On Monday evening we arrived at Mr Ashwell's station at Tukapoto . . . this was the native place of one of our guides and we agreed to stop there a day that he might enjoy the society of his wife & baby to whom he appears much attached. This was the prettiest part of the river we had come [to] . . . On Tuesday we ascended the hill opposite the settlement, called Taupiri, which commands one of the finest views I have ever set eyes on. Stark . . . gave up the attempt before he was half way up . . . What he will do in the expedition to Mt Egmont, projected for next year, I do not know. We inspected Mr Ashwell's native school at Tukapoto, it contains from thirty to forty scholars mostly girls some nearly grown up, they are chiefly boarders from distant places & this is found the only plan of doing them much good, for if they live in with their parents they are sure to acquire all the old savage customs. We heard them examined in geography, in which they were very well up, after which the singing class commenced & they sang a number of rounds & glees in a very satisfactory manner. Mr Ashwell is a very devoted missionary & wears himself out with his labours in the school & at his various stations, the furthest of which are 70 miles apart. This station as well as most of the native settlements along the Waikato, overflows with peaches, but here . . . they have a fine large kind to which we did ample justice.

On Thursday evening we encamped at a small native settlement a few miles from Mr Buttle's station; there was another encampment here, consisting of an English squatter or 'pakeha maori' as they are called in contradistinction from 'pakeha rangatira' or gentleman foreigner. He had with him his native wife, an awful bloated looking creature, some of his wife's relations, and his fine half caste family. We were much edified by seeing them all bathing next morning; they all swim like fishes both girls & boys & seemed never tired of running up the bank to a place about 12 feet high where they could plump into the water: two grown up Maori damsels who were with them, went in in full dress.

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Leaving our men to take the canoe to its destination we walked on with Turner to his house which was on the road to Mr Buttle's. We were thoroughly drenched with rain before we got there & after a light refection of bread & goat's milk went on to Mr Buttle's. We had several branches of the Waipa to ford, in one place we had to cross along a tree about three feet under water, with deep water on both sides, and a considerable current threatening to upset one, a feat which I should have declined performing had not a native who was on the other bank volunteered his assistance. By the time we reached Mr Buttle's we were in a most deplorable condition, wet to the skin in every part & muddy up to the knees. Here we found everything most beautifully new & clean that we were ashamed of the mess which our dirty shoes made on Mrs Buttle's clean mats . . . whilst the good lady herself was no less put out by the fact of her having no meat to give us for dinner . . . After dinner we were furnished with dry things. Mr Buttle's starchiness, which at first was very alarming, began to wear off & we found ourselves in very comfortable quarters, from which circumstances prevented us from budging till the following Tuesday. Stark . . . had exposed his foot to the sun when in the canoe & it became so inflamed that he was unable to put it to the ground. . . . One of our guides, the leader of the three, either was really poorly or feigned it, the fact being probably that he wished to be with his wife at Takapoto: the other two men had turned out very lazy & impudent fellows & we were very glad of the opportunity of getting rid of them all, so we paid them two weeks' wages & sent them off, but now the difficulty was to procure fresh guides as the natives here, imagining that we . . . must give whatever they asked, were exorbitant in their demands. The whole of Monday a number of them were hanging about the house, & Mr B. every now & then went out to try & arrange matters with them. At last we thought we had secured two at 30/s a piece to take us to Taranaki but just before starting one of them drew back. However determined not to be baffled any longer we shouldered part of the things ourselves, taking with us only the one guide. Stark was accomodated with a pony, by Mr B & a lad went with us to bring it back from Kawia . . . During the time we were at Mr Buttle's James made a watercolour drawing of the house which gave immense pleasure to the good quiet man. This station was not characterised by the same activities as Mr Ashwell's and instead of his hopeful anticipations with respect to the natives, we heard nothing here but the impossibility of civilizing them, & the certainty that they were rapidly diminishing in number.

Well at last we got started on Tuesday afternoon & pitched our tent at the margin of the very hilly & densely wooded district which lies between the Waipa & Kawia. On Wednesday evening we reached the head of the harbour after a most laborious day's march through the forest for the most part, crossing ravines with sides so steep that the forest looked almost perpendicular from the other side. The path is frequently intercepted by a fallen tree in which case a new path, bad enough on foot but dreadful for a rider, has to be found . . . We slept this night for the first & last time in a native hut & were much annoyed by the natives making a fire in it & talking long after we wanted to go to sleep. At last I succeeded in silencing them by a forcible appeal.

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Next morning after some hours bargaining & talk ... we got a canoe to take us down the harbour to Mr Whiteley's station, a Wesleyan Missy, to whom Mr Buttle gave us a letter. We found him a grave & very sensible & agreeable man, his house which had been standing for many years and the furniture of which was quite old fashioned was a great contrast to Mr Buttle's span new domicile, Stark's foot being now much better, we had no farther trouble on that score . . . We were in some fear the Victory might get round before us. Accordingly after dinner we availed ourselves of Mr Whiteley's kind offer of his whale boat to go a little farther down the harbour to a point where a path commences, which cutting across one head of the harbour leads to the coast . . . Going down to the boat we were surprised by seeing one of our natives . . . dragging a small pig by a string attached to its hind leg ... Mr W. said that the pig was going to be killed for supper, but as we did not stop he thought he had better send it with us for use on the road. We had not been embarked many minutes before it came on pouring rain. We had to put in at the house of Mr Joseph, the Hebrew storekeeper of this district, & as it was now dark & very rainy we accepted the offer of his floor with some dozens of blankets to make a bed of. He entertained us with brandy & sherry, changed our pig for some salted pork, sold us knives & sugar, & gave us a bottle of sherry to take with us which as it happened proved very useful. This gentleman's style of housekeeping was far from agreeable: he had a Maori lady not his wife & a troop of Maori hangers on her relations, for such is the custom of the country. A little coaster was refitting at this store & its captain & sailors were all accommodated in & about the house.

In the morning we got off reached the coast walked some distance along it & encamped at a small settlement where the natives were absent & little food could be got. The black iron sand . . . has a most singular appearance, particularly near Kawia where there are great banks & plains of it extending some way inland; in some places the action of the atmosphere or some other cause has formed concretions which appear to be almost pure peroxide of iron. On Saturday afternoon we came to a difficult pass which our guide declined attempting . . . However, being repulsed on the beach & having no food with us, we went back a little way to a place where there was some appearance of a path & pushed our way up the steep earthy bank . . . till at last we found ourselves in pitch darkness in a dense wood where we had to keep touching one another for fear of straying. When we were about half way up we had to cross a sort of earthy water course very steep indeed ... I had a gun in my hand & was rather disabled from holding on: I laid hold of a large stone & felt it loosening from its socket before I could get footing & before my cries of 'Haere mai' 'haere mai' were attended to I found myself slipping down on my face with accelerated velocity; somehow or other I managed to stop ... & escaped with a bruise on my forehead & a little shaking. Well at last we reached the summit where we found a clear space, pitched our tent & quenched our thirst with the bottle of sherry, there being no water to be had.

Next morning although it was Sunday we were forced to push on, having neither food nor water. There was a very ill defined track through the wood which the natives

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called a horse road but we found it a very laborious man road and lost it many times. We were about half the day getting perhaps three miles, when we found ourselves at a native settlement but all the people were absent; we were wet through . . . hardly a day passed without one or more drenching showers. We imprudently stepped inside one of the native huts & ... we were immediately covered with fleas, which got into our clothes & rugs & we did not get rid of them for a week after . . . There was nothing else to help ourselves to except kumara or sweet potato, in appearance like long thin potatoes, in taste like boiled chesnuts . . . On leaving the place next morning we left five sticks of tobacco with an inscription written by one of our guides on a post stating our painful case. Next night we put up at a very comfortable pah to whose chief Joseph had given us a note. Accordingly we were overwhelmed with water melons, five baskets each containing about a dozen being thrust into the tent . . .

On Tuesday morning we were stopped again by a difficult pass which could not be avoided. I have little doubt that we might have passed it but the tide was rising & our guide was frightened, so we encamped . . . Next morning we made another attempt & this time successfully. Stark & James & one of the guides all got knocked down severally by the breakers. James got round first, I followed. Stark, who after his sousing ran up the rocks like a crab . . . strongly dissuaded me from risking a watery grave & began attempting an overland journey, but when he had got a little way up the steep rocky point which here projects into the sea he pronounced that also impossible & again committed himself to the waves. I was the most fortunate of the party for I managed to get over the rocks without wetting my feet . . . This passed we had to cross 12 miles of sandy beach before any food could be obtained & this was the second time we had to fast four & twenty hours: We reached Mokau in the afternoon & put up in an enclosure belonging to an English sawyer who was living there in a very uncomfortable manner in a little hut which was filled with invalid Maoris. Having nothing by him he went up to the house of the German missionary 4 to procure provisions, & came back with a loaf of bread & a live chicken.

Next day we fell in with a party of natives who were going from Mokau to Wanganui, & as we managed to keep up with them our day's journey was the longest we had yet made. In fact we had to go at a great pace all the morning in order to get past some cliffs about 16 miles from Mokau before night tide. This we just managed, & all encamped at a small settlement a few miles further on where our companions presented us with some pork, part of the relics of their feast at Mokau. Next day we expected to reach the Waitera about 10 miles from New Plymouth, & even hoped to get on ourselves as far as that place, leaving Stark & the men to follow next day. What was our disgust then at being stopped at Oneiro by a river only passable at low tide . . . The people of the place began laughing at our vexation, when by some very forcible appeals we managed to make them change their tune & declared our intention of going on in the night which we actually did, getting up at 2 oclock in the morning & reaching the Waitera about 6. We found no native huts on the near side of the river, but heard the

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cocks crowing at the large pahs on the other side which we could not yet see. We made a great shouting & James went to sleep, presently a canoe came for us & carried us all over for half a crown. At about 10 oclock we reached the great town, leaving the unfortunate Stark to follow with the guides . . . We were going to send a horse back for him, but heard from a native who had passed him on horseback, that he had mounted a bullock cart & was doing very well. We made an awful breakfast at the inn, beautiful bread, butter, chops & tea, never in my life did I enjoy a meal so much. Several of the worthies of the town dropped in & conversed with us; soon after we walked up [to] find our good aunt & found Stark already established there. . . .

I know you don't expect any thing definite as to your coming out . . . The most important point however, I mean the society, I can hardly say much of as we have only seen one or two of the Taranaki ladies, one thing is certain that people visit very little here, so we must not reckon on seeing much of anyone but Aunt & her family.

My dearest people, I cannot bear the idea of condemning you to this; you know that I myself am contented with a very material existence and if you would all marry nice colonial young men & women it would be all very well. Of course there are great advantages to the thing: the delight of having a place of one's own is by no means an imaginary one & I have no doubt that a scheme of assisting poor emigrants is a very practicable one; the climate is beautiful & so is the mountain, but if you come you must bring some more people with you.

The Victory . . . has arrived at Wellington . . . the captain spoke of returning to New Plymouth in about three weeks from the 19th ... he had not been able to get in having run too far south probably. Our nine five pound notes we cannot get rid of without a loss of five p.c. After paying for the land, and the duties on some of our goods, we shall have perhaps £50 or £60 remaining on hand, with a debt of £30 to government on the land for which we only pay down £75. There are several books I should like very much to have, but only one which I will allow myself to ask for, namely Knapp's Chemical Technology or Chemistry applied to the Arts & Manufacturing ... I should also like to have a budding knife.

It just occurred to me that you would like to know our position on the plan of New Plymouth. The number of the section is 62 & our part of it adjoins 75. The beautiful clear little mountain stream the Henui runs through 76, on which I have set a longing eye.

By the bye ... I forgot to mention the splendid tract of land covered with luxuriant fern which lies on this side of the Waitera, & the beautiful dark watered mountain streams the Waiongona, the Mangoraka, the Waiwakaiho & the Henui, which all run over beds composed of large rounded stones.

. . . Mrs Boult will require a more comfortable house than any I have seen here yet & she must have charcoal & a fourneau to cook at instead of wood fires & prodigious iron pots to which the poor ladies here are doomed . . . We feel quite convinced that the Atkinson lads would do well here. The only fear for them would arise from their brother who is now in Otago. . . .

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Now I must retire to my couch of straw in the barn, than which I never wish to have a better bed . . . Aunt & Uncle are sitting side by side each with a number of Dombey & Son.

v 2, pp 69-71

J. C. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - (posted Wellington), 15 Apr 1851 5

... all the drawings you have seen [? of Taranaki] are very wide of the mark. Those which exaggerate the least make it too steep. Then the exquisite lines of the spur that runs off towards the West are utterly blurred out. Great flanges of cliff, or gullies if you prefer, run up & down the cone casting fine shadows & redeeming it from formality. The snow only just lies when it has been exposed to 5 or 6 days strong sunshine, indeed I question if there is a 100 feet of the mountain strictly speaking below the perpetual snow line much of what stands the summer is sheltered from the sun most of the day.

Now I must tell you about the people. We got to the kainga about 11, Stark had been some time arrived. Glad we were to pay off our Maori lad & be done with their provoking 'taiho!' 'waiho' (presently wait), to see once more the faces of people known of old & with blood of our own in their veins. . . . Perhaps Blanche will come over for an hour or two to school with us, the rest are too young ... I think the school that Nelly attends seems a good one. Mrs King seems a kind, intelligent person who at all events does not shirk the labors of her business & she has given Nelly a great interest in what she is about. Mr Hursthouse is sadly changed since I parted from him on his watery door step at Beccles in 1844 ... He is now a broken down old man; but contented & interested in his old friends and those around him, . . . The Smiths with whom he lives seem all well & the Curtis family also ... As to the Society generally in New Plymouth I imagine there is not much to be had. There is but little meeting together except among the men & that of a 'convivial' nature, how the word disgusts. But my fortnight in N.P. was not well spent. Boils on the leg from the poorness of bush diet kept me a close prisoner half the time and the rest we were looking out for an abode . . . The conclusion of our negotiation about a place near my aunt I dont know. It is a patch of 17 acres with a small house solid in shell ... a shed or barn & a well, several internal fences, and it is about 3 furlongs from the kainga Hursthouse. 1 3/4 mile from town. Three sides are yet surrounded by bush . . .

Hearing on Saturday the 29th March that a large ship entered P. Nicholson a fortnight back supposed to be the Victory ... I started in a coaster [Lucy James] that afternoon . . . We had a very unpleasant beat from Taranaki to Stephens Island and had to lie to behind DUrville Isle for tide, against which it is almost hopeless to beat. I lost a Manilla hat overboard and we had an amusing chase after it under the picturesque cliffs going about a dozen times without hitting it . . . The magnificent harbors of e.g. Charlotte Sound & the Pelorus River (indeed every creek & inlet is a harbor) are quite useless except for refuge, not an acre of flat land is to be had in any

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of them without surmounting the high barren hills which lock them on all sides . . .

I had a strange fellow passenger a Mr Richards, one of whom we have heard C. Hursthouse speak; he is a man of much more cultivation & refinement than the settlers at large but such an inveterate old crab that his refinement goes for nothing & one can take little pleasure in his company. He is one of C.H's recruits & . . . has bought Davy's farm, one of those shown in the sketches in C.H's book and was on his way to Sydney to purchase stock. P. Nicholson is a fine harbor but ships are not quite safe in it . . . We entered in such a gale from the N.W., . . . the mast strained till the lee rigging was visibly slackened, the bulwarks during the puffs were quite under water & to stand on deck without the help of your hand impossible . . .

There is scarcely any level land about the town. You know it was first intended to form this at the M. of the Hutt but the floods soon upset this plan, and now it is as snugly placed as it can be where such winds are, in a little return of the bay after you enter. Probably this 6 represents pretty correctly the form . . . There is a very good (in places a first rate) road to & up the Hutt Valley for 18 or 20 miles from Wellington and this with a bridle & cattle road forms the highway to Wairarapa where there is an active move at present. . . .

I have not been well or active here, have seen few people and little of the country. First week I spent on shore at an inn the Barett's Hotel but charges were high & accommodation bad, so I have taken advantage of my billet on the ship. I went up the Hutt chiefly to see Mr Swainson 7 on behalf of the poor children of the dissolute Mrs -----. ... I am told that our experience of life in an emigrant ship is only too common unless the Capt. or other authorised officer (it is the place of the Surgeon), exercises a minute control over the affairs of the passengers such must be often the case. Here is the school for Carlyle's views on government. How one longs in such cases for some strong man to rise & take all in hand so as to suppress the rampant vice of some & preserve the others from the unavoidable contamination of contact with them. Mullins in spite of his lust for power, his jack in office impertinence, shews a contemptible weakling when one looks back on this disorderly voyage . . .

The natives . . . are now (even up the country) in any thing but a natural state and yet they are far enough from the civilization even of the meanest Englishman. The missionaries who have done a great deal in the way of education and in inculcating doctrinal religion have not been so successful in conveying the idea of duty. That seems to me to be the true distinction between these savages and even very unfavorable specimens of the European or at least of the Englishman. A colonist who thinks nothing of living with a Maori mistress, of steeping himself ... in grog and swearing & cursing in the most atrocious way has still got the germ of a notion of something outside his own desires that has a claim on him. He looks with contempt on the savage that drops his tools as soon as he is tired and does not feel that he ought to go on till his fair day's work is done ... I believe you would agree with me if you compared the talk of these Maoris with that of even a low Englishman. The idea of duty is wanting with the

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savage, the other has it though he acts little enough on it. The Maoris are like grown up children in everything, they are inordinately greedy in asking for anything they fancy. Money they idolize and their bargains are very shrewd, though in their ignorance & suspicion they often overreach themselves. Their suspiciousness is I daresay warranted by the conduct of many Europeans, but they have fair play from a great many . . . Like spoiled children any kindness you shew seems only a ground for further demands; (if they reason on it I suppose they give you credit for an ulterior motive in your good nature). They are most provokingly dilatory. Of course time is no object to a man who sleeps half his nights in the fern, lives on potatoes, kumera & maize, with wild pork once a month. A man will drive a pig 100 miles rather than take 2/- less than he fancies he ought to have for it . . . They have the reputation of being utterly deficient in gratitude; this I will not assent to yet because I think that misunderstanding, prejudice & not altogether unfounded suspicion of Europeans prevent them from feeling its claims. However I must say that they are more remarkable for their intellectual and physical excellences than for any qualities of heart or germs of soul, that I can discover . . . Their . . . honesty as far as it exists is due to pride and interest in most cases.

Their native continence & chastity vanishes before Europeans and young men undertake the shameful office of procurator. Only a small remnant seems likely to survive and be amalgamated with the whites. Asthma & pulmonary complaints shorten their lives and will soon complete what their pugnacious habits have carried so far . . . Of course one finds a few exceptions to the unpleasant character I have given to the Maori, some of the best of those under the influence of the missionaries have the mild eye of civilization beaming among the scrolls of their tattoed faces, showing that under favorable circumstances a born savage may become a Christian: also there are a few whom commerce has lifted up such as Te Hemera, the correspondent of Joseph of Kawia, who treated us so well at Waikawao . . .

The moral of all we have seen as yet is the value, the unspeakable value, of the ideas in which we have been brought up . . . the rarity on all the globe of such friends as the little knot with all its faults that we have seen round the table at Merton or in Ham[ilton] Place. Scenes so different . . . have only made me feel how utterly utterly unworthy I have been of such blessings. How utterly dead to the real feeling, though alive to a barren perception of your value my life has been. God grant I may never again lapse into such a sleep. I am clear that I will have no occasion to do so here or anywhere.

In the good young Henry there is much yet to be found out by us all . . . His nervous shy exterior hides a nobleness which tenderness and sympathy on my part may make apparent ... He is in good health, having suffered less in adjusting himself to the variety of climate, diet, or whatever it may be that affects new comers in most countries. We have both had something of annoyance from boils & festers ... It is now deep in autumn. The grass grows again now the days are short and the sun low, but else there is nothing but the chilly evgs. to remind you of the season . . .

v 2, p 75

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H. R. Richmond to C. W. Richmond - - - Taranaki, 20 Apr 1851

. . . [James] is now most likely on his way here, as a small craft which arrived here last night stated . . . that the Victory sailed out of the inner harbour & in company with her, but was not able to beat out of the outer harbour on account of the surf . . . During all this time we have had no decent clothes, & have been especially badly off for shoes. James was forced to buy a pair the very day we got here as . . . his old ones had galled his feet terribly: he paid 18/s for a pair of ancle boots, & this enormous price frightened Stark & me so that we have shuffled about in slippers or any old things we could get ever since. Such being our condition you may easily conceive what were our feelings, after anxiously spying at the Isabella Hercus for some time, when we discovered that she was full rigged, then came the Cresswell, a barque, with no fore royal mast, very high out of the water, everything as it should be & all the friends of the Victory's passengers were down on the beach with bullock-carts for the luggage, we amongst the rest, but without carts fortunately. When a strange boat & strange people made their appearance I became aware of the disgusting fact that it was the Cresswell & not the Victory. You must understand that vessels from either north or south often make their first appearance nearly opposite the place standing straight in so that one cannot tell which way they have come. . . .

The subject of your coming I dare not approach any more at present, until James & I have had a grand Cabinet council together. I feel little doubt that if we were here almost all our income wd. before long be surplus, in fact as far as I can see at present I believe money may be made here by an industrious farmer with capital. As to the apparently bad success of our friend here ... it does not look like the habits of a successful colonist to lie in bed often till 9 or ten in the morning . . .

There is considerable truth in the picture Mrs Smith has given of N.P. but it looks by no means dismal on a fine day. The place is increasing tho' not so fast as C.H. lead us to suppose. Several new stores are being and going to be built. The population of the settlement according to the last census is 1400. More land is all the cry here but the Waitera natives still hold out, & insulted the governor last time he tried to persuade them to sell. Whatever C.H. may say they are far more numerous & powerful here than the settlers like, and although quite peaceable they occasionally take the law into their own hands in a way people here don't relish. We see very few of them about the town, although there is a pah close by. Many are employed in agricultural operations, clearing, driving bullock carts, etc by the settlers & they call here every now & then to enquire for work. W'e have done little walking about since we got here partly on account of our bad shoes. We have not even been up the big Sugarloaf which looks very tempting, . . . Our mountain is always an interesting object when his cloudy cap is off: very little snow on him at present, . . .

v 2, p 77

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H. R. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - New Merton, New Plymouth, 18 May 1851

I have just been discussing innumerable cups of tea . . . James having been carried of by Mr & Mrs J. H., who paid their first visit to our residence this afternoon . . . The skeleton of the house is simply a quadrangle of small trunks of trees varying from 8 inches to more than a foot in diameter and placed at intervals of four or five feet: outside these are nailed some horizontal bars to which the upright boarding is fixed, so that although the place presents a very neat appearance on the outside the interior is not altogether elegant. We have put up temporary shelves between the posts, on which all our crockery and various other articles are displayed. There are two doors to the house, exactly opposite each other with a passage between and a room of equal size on each side formerly used as kitchen & bedroom, but the bedroom which is only half floored is now occupied by all our ironmongery & tools, and we sleep cook & eat in the other apartment. The partitions which are very rough (made of slabs, the outside board in sawing up a tree, bark on one side) do not reach up to the roof but only to the height of the upright walls, so that all is open at the top. On a bench fixed along the partition I am sitting writing on a table composed of the lid of our longest packing case supported on two flour casks. Opposite me is a large assemblage of boxes on which our two cork mattresses are laid side by side; but no sheets are visible or present, only a blanket and a rug in which the tired colonist rolls himself up as tight as he can, with most of his clothes on. Such are the luxurious comforts of New Zealand ... A bedroom will probably be practicated above the kitchen by the end of next week.

The long expected Victory arrived on Friday April 25th, about twelve weeks after her arrival at Auckland . . . The goods were landed with the greatest care & expedition, the whole being done in a day and a half whereas at Auckland there were all sorts of delays so that, however prejudicial the want of a harbour may be in some respects, it was an advantage to us ... A few of the plates and a cup, an eggcup & a dish were broken but only a very small percentage of the whole. My chemical apparatus has not been unpacked yet . . . One serious loss we have sustained; the anvil was nowhere to be found. We have heard a rumour that it was dropped overboard & nothing said. If this be verified by further investigation we shall ask William to see what he can do with Willis & Co on the subject. The mate of a vessel is answerable for such accidents . . .

Our goods were all carted from the beach by two bullock carts at four journeys for which we have not paid - the damage may be about £2 . . . The barn is now our workshop & contains the lathe & vice ... Of outdoor work there is no end, and some which must be done shortly if the land is to do any good this year. About three acres are freshly cleared, or rather will be cleared as soon as our prosperous neighbour Broadmore has carted away all the firewood for which to our no small satisfaction he this morning offered £2 when we were doubting whether he would take it as a gift. Well, this three acres has to be put down in wheat which is a certain crop the first year . . . before the end of July . . . therefore these three acres at least must be fenced

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in before that time. Then the garden must be attended to, but that will not be a very heavy job. Besides this five or six acres are lying quite waste, covered with weeds . . . Indoors there is at least a month's work before anything like order & comfort can be expected. However on the whole we are very fortunate to have such a spacious & solid abode, such a pretty little plot of land so near aunt & so near the city. One great blessing in a bush section is the abundance of firewood - the scale on which we make our fires is very grand as the chimney will admit a log six feet long . . .

Last Saturday, yesterday week I mean, I performed an exploit far more arduous & painful than any other that has fallen to my lot as yet: a few days before we had received a little note with a silver wafer informing the Messrs Richmond that Mr & Mrs Charles Brown would be at home on the 8th, 9th & 10th, and James insisted upon my undertaking the call, he remaining to take care of the house. Accordingly in a completely new & shining apparel I proceeded down to town to make a formal visit to two people one of whom, the gentleman, I had spoken about three words to, the lady I had never seen. However it came off pretty well, a little nervousness at first then an abundant flow of conversation. The gentleman a pleasant mechanical Atheist or Deist, the lady a very pleasant and pretty young woman. The friend by name Mrs De Moles, . . . has only just arrived by the Isabella Hercus. Her husband bought a bush section of French . . . and is hard at work felling the timber . . .

Tuesday morning . . . James is now vigorously writing away beside me and I should much like to know what he is saying, for as yet he has hardly opened his mouth on the subject of your following us. For my own part I think we can judge almost as well now as ever of the kind of life & how far it would suit you all . . . all external comforts may be had here if we choose to work or pay for them, the climate as far as we have seen is most delightful . . . but friends, if you are so foolish as to require any, you must bring with you. There may be plenty of pleasant people here, but they are so scattered & so busy at home that the ladies at least see very little of one another. The only way to have anything like society here is as we always thought, to form a little nucleus of one's own ... It is utterly impossible for me to judge how far you could be happy here, all I can say is that I can be contented, more than contented. I enjoy the free life in spite of its present roughness and above all the full, constant & varied occupation. I like better to wait upon myself than to be waited on, and the extreme retirement & quiet suits my temperament. My darling Lely ... do not think, however, that I could tolerate stopping here without you. No, I could leave the place cheerfully tomorrow if necessary with the prospect of spending the rest of my life as a banker's clerk or anything uninteresting of that sort sooner than stop here without you ... I cannot help feeling a doubt whether James fully realizes the state of unsettledness which you all, especially William, are in & I feel as if he would not give you anything decisive for a long time if ever . . . You must give us a long notice, we ought ... to have at least a year to make ready for you.

v 2, p 79

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J. C. Richmond to friends in England - - - Taranaki, 19 May 1851

I have drawn a bill on C.W.R. for £12 in favor of Messrs Faudel & Phillips (of London) & I enclose two halves of £5 notes (which suffer a heavy discount here) to meet the draft which is at ten days sight being only for a small sum. The other half notes shall come by another route as early as may be. ...

What a great pleasure it was to me ... to find your budgets by the Hercus, Cress-well & Travancore. The distance is indeed too, too oppressive so that it is often most painful to think of you and the changes that may have come over you since the lines were written . . . What with the various discomforts of shipboard, bush travelling, New Zealand hotels & slab houses I find it most uphill work to write even what is absolutely necessary to you . . . Though our house is like a good & extensive pigstye with an extravagant roof yet I am going to sally forth this evening in dress coat & white waistcoat, shiny boots in my pocket, to do a party at the Stephenson Smiths in honor of a young pair just married here of the uncommon name of Brown. The lady is a beauty and the gentleman is reputed clever, but I know very little of him. ... I am inclined to think there are people of most sorts here . . . though not of a sort to give much intellectual stimulus. I am sure that it is a real satisfaction to Aunt H. to have us though she looks on us only as passing visitors. Independent of the pleasure of company . . . she looks forward with pleasure to our doing something for the children's education as soon as household matters are a little straight. We are anxious for this also. I feel this and the making of good cheese to be my mission here. . . .

Richmond [Hursthouse] will unquestionably not be a shining light but he is a generous loving boy, very passionate - gloriously passionate - and the only one who often gives up his own pleasure for his brothers & sisters. He has a bullet head but it is a very large one, round grey blue eyes, that let you see all his guileless little heart. . . .

Will you send the following goods & information: Anything published or private relative to cheese making & rennet of the most approved cheese countries carefully packed.

1/2 doz pairs each canvas trowsers: a little larger round waist than those we have say an inch.

1 cwt common soap.

2 d. good quality composition candles a little better than we used at Merton, they waste in our draughty rooms.

6 good grindstones 2 ft 6 diamr. 3 1/2" broad if you can get any Sheffield or Birmingham authority to buy them. Bad grindstones are plenty here . . .

v 2, p 80

H R. Richmond to C. W. Richmond - - - Taranaki, 15 Jun 1851

. . . Our letters would be unsatisfactory if they do not at least verge towards some decision as to your following us here. There is plenty to be said about the parrots & the owls, and the beautiful little fantails . . . and a letter might be written about the

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tapitap so useful for hammer handles, the hakihaki for the handles of axes, and the ramiram for ramming in the posts in fencing, but I cannot help fearing that you will have too much of these things ... I have had some conversation with James on the subject, about the first we have had together and I ought to retract something which I remember saying in my last about his not appearing sufficiently aware of the painful state of uncertainty in which you all must be ... I think James is only waiting to see and know a little more of the people here, and as you allowed us six months after our arriving to make up our minds I ought not to fidget.

The greatest event which has happened for some time past was a ball that came off on Friday last at the Misses & Mr King's - to speak more clearly the ball was given Mr King his wife & two maiden sisters. They are very nice people ... Mr King and his sisters are all three elderly people averaging about 60, the wife much younger, very pleasant looking & a good pianist. They are Unitarians & Irish and appear very warm hearted. Their position in this remote corner, their kindness, their country & the chearful, cozy appearance of their establishment remind me of the dear Miss Shannons. The good creatures are I believe much gratified at our arrival and anxious for our society: they have invited us to go and spend the evening by their fireside whenever we feel so disposed & the moon is disposed to light us. The ball was held in their schoolroom, a fine long room with clean boarded floor & walls, and a thatched roof. It was in honour of the newly married couple, Mr & Mrs Charles Brown, & the invitation was worded, to meet Mr & Mrs C. B., so that we went not expecting a dance & my boots did not permit me to mix with the gay throng so I solaced myself with the conversation of Mr J. S. Smith & others, & with books. The intervals between the dances were occupied by singing, some of it very good. There were about perhaps thirty people besides the Kings, a good many of them married couples - Mr Humphreys 8 the surgeon & his wife, the lady an accomplished but vulgar singer, Mr & Mrs De Moles who arrived by the Isabella Hercus, the gentleman young & pale faced looking . . . his wife a handsome woman on flirting terms with several of the gentlemen. They are Jersey people it appears. Mr Leech the port master & receiver of customs . . . Mr Batkin and his wife the sister of our messmate Miss Keet . . . Mr & Mrs Newman whose aquaintance we made soon after arriving here by mistaking their house for Mr Curtis's. Mr Newman distinguished himself greatly by the agility of his dancing . . . Amongst the unmarried portion there were several pleasant youths, one of them a young engineer from Rennie's who seems disposed to make our acquaintance; the young ladies were not in great force, the chief attraction being Miss Gates, a Jewish looking beauty supposed to be engaged, Miss Mary Hursthouse, and two young ladies who board with the Kings, one of them Miss Wilson by name, a very sweet looking young creature whose parents reside at Nelson . . .

The work of various kinds . . . has not made so much progress this last month . . . but each of us has been poorly in his turn and the house is still in such a terrible muddle ... as it is out of our power to get things straight until the sawyers can get us the tim-

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ber we require . . . We have completed the roof and broken out a window in it for the bedroom . . . We began our fencing operations last week ... it is hard work sawing through & splitting up large logs for posts & rails & one naturally takes it rather gently at first. . . .

Monday evening - It has been a warm rainy day, too wet for outdoors work. I dined at J.H's where I went to settle accounts with French, for whom that gentleman was agent. They were very much occupied with their sheep, it being just lambing time - one poor ewe had died and another was in a dangerous state. We shall have no peace in this place until we are fenced all round for the cattle keep breaking through French's temporary fences and have not only eaten up all the cabbage, etc. in the garden but found their way to our potatoes of which they have devoured not far short of half a ton - value £1. James made several sallies after them last night with pitch forks, firebrands etc. Imagine the pleasure of getting out of bed to chase these creatures through mud ancle deep in the pouring rain . . . The promised £50 when it arrives may . . . enable us to choose the 50 acre section contiguous to ours . . . through which the river Henui runs - if we do not take some prompt measure of this sort it is probable that our rich neighbour Captn King will snap it up, as he is continually extending his frontiers . . .

v 2, p 83

H. R. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - New Merton, 30 Jun 1851

After a long spell of stormy weather we have a south easterly wind, the mountain cuttingly clear, dazzlingly white, with sometimes a delicate and smooth veil of cloud capping his cone: oh how beautiful he glowed in the sunset, and how ghostly he looked with his filmy veil when the rosy light had left him - isnt this poetical my Lely who would have thought your stolid son would turn out a poet. Pulling out stumps in the garden was this mornings amusement ... we extracted six good sized teeth, and so obtained a nice plot of perfectly clear ground for our kitchen garden.

James has been sketching this afternoon - a view of our place; he is not very well & has not got over the effects of his unfortunate fall in the sawpit . . . The weather has been mild throughout, some days like April, ideal English April weather with a few summery showers, others with heavy showers more or less frequent, some heavy hailstorms, a good deal of thunder & lightning, one hurricane which blew many trees down (dead ones) and unfortunately as yet no earthquake or eruption of Mt Egmont.

Everyone here is agog with the great news from Australia of the gold in the Blue Mountains which has just reached us, provisions of all kinds are likely to rise in price in consequence, especially flour, which indeed was previously expected to go up to famine prices on account of the terrible drought in Australia. If these mines turn out as extensive & productive as those of California it will be a great thing for this country.

v 2, p 84

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J. C. Richmond to C. W. Richmond - - - Taranaki, 30 Jun 1851

. . . We had our blocks at work to-day pulling down some stiff stumps of Kohikohi (a red wood used for fencing and roof shingles) and we can now dig all over the little plot . . . We have the first fruits of our farm in 4 eggs which by good luck a hen has laid in our barn, they cunningly take to the bush so that chickens are plenty though eggs are scarce. Another matter that has hindered us last week has been a fall I got walking home in the dark. I unfortunately stepped into an old sawpit & feared I shd. have a long business of it to get over the sprains of back and shoulder that it caused. I am thankful, however, to be nearly cured . . .

You must not be hasty in concluding ... on your course in following us. I would even consider the propriety of investing in Irish land if this can be done without loss . . . The finding of gold in reefs in the Blue mountains . . . which shd make people of sense hold on in a place like this will most likely make many restless souls start up . . . Therefore if you can abide your time let us see the result of some further delay in concluding on this weighty point. That such a circumstance as this Australian gold will enhance values here is plain. Prices are up (almost to what wod be famine prices in England) ... I suppose flour is £25 the ton, the 4 lb loaf is 11d or 1/- today. Shd the first intelligence be corroborated our 4 ac. will pay the interest of money invested in 20 times as much land . . .

Do not send letters by private hands in future, the delays are most plaguing when one has so few opportunities of hearing. Newspapers might be made into parcels by private hand or by ship with more advantage. They seem to be lost or stolen in the mail . . . We read every article and particularly 'Holloway's for renovating the mainsprings of existence.' . . . See the young Atkinsons if they still think of emigrating and point out the uncertainty still hanging over our proceedings.

v 2, p 85

H. R. Richmond to Jane Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 15 Jul 1851

Were James at home we should be employed lining our future bedroom . . . When completed it will resemble a tent, there being a space of about three feet in the middle in which one can stand upright: it will however be very clean, being lined throughout with new planed boards. Well, James's absence, a comfortable fire and an earnest desire to say something tending towards a clear up of our tedious & perplexing topic has made me begin ... I feel little doubt persons like ourselves, possessing considerable capital & disposed to work a little & superintend with care, would at least be able to feed and clothe ourselves from the profits of the farm, besides probably paying the interest for money invested. Secondly the climate so far as we have seen is most beautiful . . . No one in his senses can think of being poorly while it lasts ... If we were all married, & besides our husbands and wives had lots of our old friends here we should be likely to lead lives that were useful and contented . . . but for an unmarried & unlikely to marry family with nothing very definite to work hard for ... I cannot feel that this is the

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right place ... I said in a former letter that I could be contented to pass my life here, but then I am far too much of a vegetable already and if, I being the youngest, you were all to drop down & leave me alone in the forest there is some danger that I would take root & turn into a puriri or a rimu. It is very evidently the duty of those who have no wives, husbands or children to look after & work for, & who have already sufficient for their own support, to devote their time in some way or another to the good of others . . . but surely we are not called on to exile ourselves for this purpose. When I speak of doing good I mean to use the words in a very extensive sense - James painting, William's metaphysics, my science all will come within its scope ... I firmly believe that it is an excellent thing for ourselves as well as one of the most evident modes of doing good in the world, to have something to do with teaching children: it is the natural arrangement of Providence, & no one can doubt that the teacher profits as much as the taught. I know I will be laughed at for this singular effusion . . . but I dont much care. The most amusing point it will be thought is that a youth of my age should be calmly forming plans for himself, his brothers & his sister to be old bachelors & maid, . . .

I was very glad to hear from James that he had spoken of Ireland in a letter to William. The only alternative I can see for coming out here, is a country residence with more or less of a freehold farm in some cheap part of England or Ireland.

Sunday evening - My dearest sister, I have just reperused the foregoing essay and ... I am afraid you & Lely will think I am imitating my respected elder brother in writing first on one side & then on the other but as it is utterly impossible for me to pronounce the final sentence ... I certainly wish that the Irish scheme should have some further investigation. I should settle there in the spirit of a colonist, intending I mean to work myself until such time as it should appear more profitable merely to superintend. A considerable outlay of capital would of course be required, perhaps £3000, is this an insuperable objection? . . . The danger of being shot by wild Irishmen may be set off against that of being tomahawked by the Maoris, neither of them perhaps equal to that of being smashed in a railway accident. It will indeed be a wrench to us to leave this place to which we are already much attached . . . but that is nothing, we should soon be as much or more attached to our little farm in Ireland, & the nearness to all our friends would make the climate there much warmer than this can ever be without them. But all this is more for you to think of than for me . . .

We slept in our new bedroom last night for the first time . . . The corn mill was put into operation the other day, & flour enough for several large loaves was ground with a good deal of labour but great success. We have had heavy rain for several days, today almost without intermission. Outdoor work is at a standstill: both what we are doing ourselves, namely the fencing, and what is being done for us, namely the clearing away of the firewood & rubbish. Would that it were all done & the wheat in . . .

I wonder what William will say & do when he hears that we feel at present as if it was impossible for us to leave the place for several years, three at the least ... I asked him [James] what he thought would be the impression conveyed by his letters he said

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. . . the very hard work here might be too much for William. We make but small impression on it at present but hope & expect to improve in that aspect, but there is plenty of light work. The home department would afford ample occupation for one of us . . . Yes the work here is very interesting, at least we both find it so not only your own progress but that of your neighbours. The process of converting rank forest into green pastures ... is a very satisfactory one. Well it seems that this decision will be left to you in the end ... If you should decide on coming bring all solid furniture, loads of books . . . surely we have taken a long enough step towards reaching a decision, but it seems even this won't do. Shall we toss up or what shall we do? But perhaps by the time this reaches you something may have forced you to a conclusion.

v 2, p 88

J. C. Richmond to C. W. Richmond - - - Taranaki, 29 Jul 1851

Hayward of Clerkenwell Green has some small steelyards which he sold us one for 3/- or 3/6. Will you buy a couple more off him . . . when you are sending a box to us, they weigh about 80 lbs . . .

We received your parcel of newspapers by the Stately. . . . The foreign news . . . is of a kind to keep one on the qui vive. Will the time ever come when civilization must travel westward according to the old law & worse than Scythian hordes overrun poor old Europe again or are things really progressing? I suppose some people are able to have opinions & see through a glass darkly the vision of the world but though it is very interesting to me to speculate and makes me feel my humanity most keenly I cannot grasp the matter with power & faith enough to know whether there is or is not progress. So contradictory the phases of things seem and so imperfectly we realize the past for comparison ...

v 2, p 91

J. C. Richmond to Jane Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 13 Aug 1851

. . . Last Tuesday week Aug 5 just as you were going to tea and I getting up off the hearth where I had spent the night, our chimney very quietly descended, the whole of one side and half another, leaving us a large pile of loam in the place of the fire which I had stoked from time to time during the night. It happened this way. Young Stark having an attack of jaundice came to us to be nursed & for the benefit of the air I suppose ... I gave him my bed in the roof & made up a colonial extempore during his stay on the hearth. During this period we had the worst weather I have seen, three weeks of pouring rain . . . The night before . . . had been the very worst of the bad, rain rain rain like a shower bath steadily perpendicular. These cob chimneys are clay towers against the house side with an opening next the house, the wall of the tower above the opening rests on a beam and in the wet one end of this beam crushed down the wall it rested on: so before breakfast, it was when it fell, we had to dig our chimney out & make a fire in the open air & rain you may say. We have made a sort of patch

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with pine slabs . . . but as the opening is wide & the slabs short, I have just had a painful job in baking, the mountain wind blew for an hour sending all the smoke into the room except what went down my throat & into my eyes.

It is quite calm & lovely moonlight exceeding ordinary English moonlight now. I have had during the writing of last page to make an excursion into the sheep paddock . . . Hearing the sheep running about I feared some strange dog was worrying them, neither sheep nor dog make a noise under these circumstances. The sheep are from J. Hursthouse's, his grass is eaten very low & he has sent his 52 ewes & 56 lambs to 'kai' our grass. I love the sound of them & shall not be happy to go without a few, our land would feed 40 & a couple of cows permanently. We receive 1 1/2d per head per week for feed of sheep and 1/- for cow or ox, lambs we have no agreement for but I suppose 10/- a week for the flock will be fair: you see the interest of money invested in land is soon made up, it costs us no trouble to tend these things, we drive them to fold near the house for our own satisfaction at nights. Our wheat is at last in and the most essential part of our fencing done so that when we have roads in a state to fetch timber from the bush & stone & lime from the beach we shall be more at ease to make things pleasant in doors. We do get on a little. We have a staircase instead of a few sticks against the wall to get up to our bedroom but the upper floor is only laid loose to dry the boards & the lower floor is perhaps growing yet. Our chimney ... we shall not rebuild in cob and a double stone chimney will cost us £20 . . .

M 18 Aug ... I went to 'town' this morning on a report that the land selections were to be made again after the tedious interregnum of Company and Government. We are very anxious to possess ourselves of the section named in a former letter; it is essential to our operations if we become finally settled here ... It is numbered 76 Grey Block in C.H's plan and abuts on our third of No. 62 at the East angle. It is bush land, has some fine trees and is intersected by the beautiful Henui Stream whose sound comes up to us in still weather or with an easterly wind. Our very practical neighbor Broadmore, the Sawyer king I call him, enters warmly into our desire to get this land & says 'I should like to see a few nice openings with fine grass down to the riverside, its a beautiful river.' He does not often break forth in this way but on the same occasion he emitted a saying poetical in another way. I prayed for a little bit of sheltering bush on a section of his only faintly for I knew it was essential to open our roads entirely. 'No' said friend Broadmore 'I was sent here to cut down the bush and I shall go on as long as I live, - them that come after me may plant.' Broadmore has laid up a considerable property, he is a most exemplary colonist, up with the day & always at work whilst the sun is shining or above the horizon. He is accessible in the quarter where 'Maitre Corbeau' was vulnerable, you can get him to shoulder unpleasantly heavy logs or to wheel your barrow up steep places by remarks on his muscle. He has been a very good neighbor to us happily, for he is lord paramount of sawn timber. . . .

A plan of considerable importance has been proposed by Govr Grey to meet the complaints of the defenceless state of this settlement & of the unfair distribution of Government expenditure among the various settlements. It is to form a village like

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those about Auckland of 200 military pensioners & families; they will be in great part young men accustomed to N. Zealand, being disbanded from troops here: they are subjected in the Auckland villages to regular drill every week and if not a very formidable force in themselves I think they will be important in a way that is overlooked too much as a nucleus for organisation among the settlers in case of need and they will have depots of arms. At present, half - all, the settlement might be tomahawked without our knowing it in this place so moderate is the communication among us: but then do not suppose there is a shadow of risk of such a catastrophe. Maori movements are not like those of the red snakelike Indian. 'Nui nui te korero o te Maori' 'very great the talk of the Maori' and any movement is well known beforehand and met in the best way the wits of its opponents will allow as far as notice is concerned. People here make light of pensioner valor but to me the feeling of security will be greatly increased . . . However valueless as a defence (or needless as some assert) all desire the increased population for the cash it brings & the white labor it introduces.

The 200 pensioners will bring £3000 a year to spend, no small sum in this little community and our three innkeepers are especially jovial. Not so Mr Govett, the vicar, who is innocent & naive enough to fear the corruption that these worthies may introduce into his cure. This fear of spoiling their 'happy valleys' has been epidemic on the ministry here, has made the missionaries oppose colonization and led them to vamp up all the nauseous maudlin maori fancying stuff that has caused disaster on disaster here & I verily think retarded the progress of the very remarkable race of people here. An ignorant, arrogant strong schoolboy with a spice of the jew in him is the type of the maori as he is generally seen to us. The relations of white and native here rouse one's bile & make Cromwellian tactics the only ones to be looked on with hope for progress in the colony or among the Maori. Not that one can say there is no movement among these creatures, in some things it is wonderful but on the whole I think that part which has followed trade is more sound than that attributed to religious teaching. One cannot look at some of the ancient grey headed cannibals who tell . . . with gusto of the days when they 'kaikai' (eat) conquered enemies or slaves, who discriminate the saltness of the 'pakeha' from the sweetness of the maori & the superiority of both to 'poaka' pork to see one of these old gentlemen with his tattoo all spoiled with wrinkles & roughness, squatting muffled in his blanket grinning in delight at such recollections, you are pretty sure that though he may have some faith in the atonement as a charm to exorcise 'atuas' that his Xtianity does not go a great deal further. But there seems a solid foundation laying among those who trade much, they get the habit of contemplating other people's interests as something that must be within limits looked after however little pleasure that may give them directly. I imagine that a day will come not long hence, when the preposterous Waitangi treaty will be overruled and as it has been constantly violated on the one hand in the contempt of English law will be set aside on the other and the ridiculous claims of the native to thousands of thousand acres of untrodden bush & fern will be no longer able to damp the ardor & cramp the energies of the industrious white man. . . .

v 2, p 95

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J. C. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 31 Aug 1851

. . . Next week we start again if it keeps fair on fencing and clearing up outside . . . Our first brood of chickens is out ... I am anxious on account of cats and the great and small hawks - the latter are magnificent creatures. The gun is loaded but I must say it would grieve me much to shoot one of those fine birds, more in an artistic feeling than in a mildly humane one . . .

Our little bedroom, whose sides are both slopes and one end ditto, its ceiling 2 ft. to 1/6 in. wide, its window level with the floor is clean and well furnished for a New Zealand house. The timber has cost us nearly £5. We have now a staircase to ascend . . . We have also a store on the same level which relieves us below stairs of much lumber and when our wheat is surrounded with fences we shall get on with the kitchen, our present room with slab floor is hereafter to be workshop . . .

There can be no doubt of the easiness of living here. Henry and I could maintain ourselves with no difficulty and very moderate toil on our little bit of land. We can grow corn enough to make our bread and pay for butchers meat, keep our cow and feed a beast or two to pay for clothing and have room still for sheep or dairy stock to maintain the roof and other miscellaneous expenses. I think six hours labor per day would produce this; tillage by hand is very easy in this soil. Firewood we have plenty to last us for years. Poultry and eggs cost nothing.

1 Sep . . . You are very naughty to trouble yourselves about ship times. Post your letters at regular times and we get them with some approach to regularity . . . Our English news via Sydney is often far in advance of the direct intelligence, there is so large a trade there and regular mails from England . . . This is a crude country, crude forms of hills, crude changes of weather, rain beginning and ending as abruptly as if regulated by a valve like a shower bath, and this peculiarity the shingle roof lets one know distinctly enough.

v 2, p 98

J. C. Richmond to Maria Richmond - - - Taranaki, 1 Dec 1851

The Cashmere arrived off this place yesterday, bringing thirty passengers but we have not seen any of them yet. The influx of people is producing a strong effect on the value of land near the town. Had we arrived just now instead of eight months back, we should not have got so eligible a place for half as much money again.

The most exciting event in the last four weeks has been a picnic or something of that description given by Mr Charles Brown on his land two miles back from this house. He and his pleasant young wife (aged seventeen), just married, pitched their tent (literally) some days before in the dense bush, and had tables and benches constructed of the boards of a house to be erected hereafter, hereon. Thursday week we met to the number of ninety-five visitors, besides bullock drivers and some Maoris working for Mr Brown, and amused ourselves by scrambling about some rough clearings, the site of a saw mill proposed by C.B., and by looking on or assisting in some specimens of

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felling for the benefit of the ladies; for you may live your life here and never see a tree fall if you wish to avoid it. We did singing and eloquence and made a pleasant day of it.

I went back again on the Friday to make a sketch of the place and scene, which I want to have in the Illustrated London News. 9 The Friday was a soaker and I spent the day in the tent with Mr and Mrs C. Brown, and old Miss King who is a very pleasant old lady for such circumstances ... I spent a peaceful night on corn sacks rolled up in a pair of thirty-shilling blankets, and managed the sketch next day.

We have had a young man named Worsley in the house with us some time; we have bullocks of his on feed here, and engaged him to cart the stone for our chimney, not yet begun. He is son of a Church of England clergyman, a tall young man of a cut very frequently observable with short young ladies at polka parties, but he takes to a blue serge shirt and 'Way! Woap!' with bullocks in a manner not to be enough commended . . .

v 38, pp 228-9 (t.s.)