My story will take you into times and spaces alike rude and uncivil.
Blood will be spilt, virgins suffer distresses; the horn will sound
through woodland glades; dogs, wolves, deer, and men, Beauty and the
Beasts, will tumble each other, seeking life or death with their
proper tools. There should be mad work, not devoid of entertainment.
When you read the word _Explicit_, if you have laboured so far,
you will know something of Morgraunt Forest and the Countess Isabel;
the Abbot of Holy Thorn will have postured and schemed (with you
behind the arras); you will have wandered with Isoult and will know
why she was called La Desirous, with Prosper le Gai, and will
understand how a man may fall in love with his own wife. Finally, of
Galors and his affairs, of the great difference there may be between a
Christian and the brutes, of love and hate, grudging and open humour,
faith and works, cloisters and thoughts uncloistered–all in the green
wood–you will know as much as I do if you have cared to follow the
argument.

Sku: theforestlovers

The interior of a farmer’s cottage; the kitchen. The
entrance is at the back right. To the left is the fire-place, an
open hearth, with a fire of peat. There is a room door to the right,
a pace below the entrance; and another room door below the fire-place.
Between the room door and the entrance there is a row of wooden pegs,
on which men’s coats hang. Below this door is a dresser containing
pretty delpht. There is a small window at back, a settle bed folded
into a high bench; a small mirror hangs right of the window. A
backed chair and some stools are about the hearth. A table to the
right with cloth and tea things on it. The cottage looks pretty and
comfortable. It is towards the close of an Autumn day_.
_James Moynihan has finished tea; Anne Hourican is at the back,
seated on the settle knitting, and watching James. James Moynihan is
about twenty-eight. He has a good forehead, but his face is
indeterminate. He has been working in the fields, and is dressed in
trousers, shirt, and heavy boots. Anne Hourican is a pretty,
dark-haired girl of about nineteen_.

Sku: 3plays

The colony of Western Australia was established in 1829; but its
isolation from the older settlement of New South Wales rendered it
necessary to import all the horses, cattle, and sheep by sailing vessels
from Tasmania, or other remote sources, while the heavy losses and
difficulties attending long sea voyages prevented any large importations
of stock–so that, though there was a fair rate of increase, the flocks
and herds of the settlers had found sufficient pasturage for the first
ten years on the banks of the Swan River and its upper valley, the Avon,
together with the coast district southward to the Vasse Inlet; but after
1840 the stock-owners began to feel that all prospect of material
increase must be relinquished unless additional pastures could be
discovered.
Several public as well as private expeditions were undertaken for the
purpose of ascertaining whether in the interior or along the coast on
either side of the settlement there existed any available country, but
they had only encountered dense scrubs of acacia and eucalyptus, with
salt marshes and scarcity of fresh water in the interior. The coast to
the east had been traversed from Adelaide to King George’s Sound by Mr.
Eyre, and found to be altogether unfit for settlement, while to the north
the coast presented a series of sandy plains for more than 200 miles.

Sku: journalsofaustralian

It may be deemed presumptuous that one of my age and sex should venture
to give to the public an account of personal adventures in a land which
has so often been descanted upon by other and abler pens; but when I
reflect on the many mothers, wives, and sisters in England, whose
hearts are ever longing for information respecting the dangers and
privations to which their relatives at the antipodes are exposed,
I cannot but hope that the presumption of my undertaking may be
pardoned in consideration of the pleasure which an accurate description
of some of the Australian Gold Fields may perhaps afford to many; and
although the time of my residence in the colonies was short, I had the
advantage (not only in Melbourne, but whilst in the bush) of constant
intercourse with many experienced diggers and old colonists–thus
having every facility for acquiring information respecting Victoria and
the other colonies.

CONTENTS
Chapter I.    INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Chapter II.   THE VOYAGE OUT
Chapter III.  STAY IN MELBOURNE
Chapter IV. CAMPING UP–MELBOURNE TO THE BLACK FOREST
Chapter V.  CAMPING UP–BLACK FOREST TO EAGLE HAWK GULLY
Chapter VI.  THE DIGGINGS
Chapter VII.  EAGLE HAWK GULLY
Chapter VIII. AN ADVENTURE
Chapter IX.   HARRIETTE WALTERS
Chapter X.    IRONBARK GULLY
Chapter XI.   FOREST CREEK
Chapter XII.  RETURN TO MELBOURNE
Chapter XIII.  BALLARAT
Chapter XIV. NEW SOUTH WALES
Chapter XV.  SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Chapter XVI. MELBOURNE AGAIN
Chapter XVII. HOMEWARD BOUND
Chapter XVIII. CONCLUSION

Sku: golddiggingsaustralia

On the 14th of May, 1858, Mr. Stuart started from Oratunga (the head
station of Mr. John Chambers), accompanied by Mr. Barker, with six
horses, and all that was requisite (with one important exception, as will
be seen hereafter), for an excursion to the north-west of Swinden’s
Country. They arrived at Aroona the same evening. On the following day
(the 15th) they made Morleeanna Creek, and reached Ootaina on the 16th,
about 7 p.m. Here they remained for a couple of days, as sufficient rain
had not fallen to enable them to proceed. On the afternoon of the 19th
they arrived at Mr. Sleep’s, who informed them that Mr. M. Campbell had
returned from the West, being hard pushed for water; very little rain
having fallen to the west. The next day (20th) Mr. Stuart arrived at Mr.
Louden’s, but, in consequence of some difficulties about the horses, he
returned to Ootaina. Various preparations, combined with want of rain,
compelled him to delay his start until the 10th of June.

Sku: explorationsaustralia02

LIFE-SKETCH:
Birth-place–The Forest (a poem)–Conviction of sin–Baptism and
Resolutions–Experience–Diary notes in verse–Sufferings–Last poem–
The One Name and The Adieu (poetry)–Death

RURAL SCENES:

The Walk in June.
An Evening Meditation.
Nature’s Resurrection.
The Bird’s Nest.
Gather Violets.
To a Dandelion.
To a Robin.
God is There.
The Canadian Farmer.
The Return.
The Old Sugar-Camp.
To a Rabbit.
The Old Man.
The Fading and the Unfading (prose).
On Receipt of some Wild Flowers.
The Sick Girl’s Dream.
The Last Song.
An Evening Scene.
Autumn Teachings (prose).
The Watcher.

Sku: canadianwildflowers