ABSTRACT
My dearest Aunt, It seems very long to me since the arrival of your last letter which was about 6 weeks ago2 – Perhaps you think that my letters were not satisfactory but really one lives in the center of constant whirl, motion, excitement troubles & pleasures that it takes an amazing amount of collection to settle all one’s thoughts & write a rational letter. You will be happy to hear that we both are doing well & likely to be flourishing in a very short time – Willy is gone 600 miles down the country on the Murumbidgee3 on a sheep station of Mr Morris4 I had one letter from him on the road – by this time he must have at the place of his destination but the letters take 8 days coming through the mail goes day & night. I myself am going away in a few days to Bathurst5 to a very nice agreable family as far as I know them6 – I prefered taking a permanent situation as Sydney is a that is giving lessons & living all the year round in it it is a wretched existence – Besides there are numbers of daily governesses as many p married ladies find it necessary to add something to their husband’s income owing to the dearness of the most necessary articles of life – They take pupils at 2 & 3 guineas for 3 month – but well educated governesses there are none – when I found that my accomplishments were at such a premium I made my conditions accordingly – & think I shall be very comfortable & happy with my 3 pupils two girls & a boy7 – We shall be in the country nearly in the bush – but the house they tell me is very comfortable, a horse will be at my disposal & a piano8 in my own room. Does not all this seem very promising? – But now I will tell you how I spent my time – The plan in Sydney to procure as much comfort as possible for those that have no homes of their own, is of finding nice lodging houses – Quite an american fashion – the good lodging houses are expensive but besides being respectable enable one to make many agreeable acquaintances which otherwise would be very difficult – Thus I met a young man here who after a fortnight seemed desperately smitten & popped the question! He was so earnest about it that I was going to say
quick growth – besides he was too unsettled in life rather careless & a great flirst though he had arrived at the age of 30. On the whole I think that being in the colony does all the young men a great deal of good – they brush off a great part of their cockney prejudices & are more natural a agreeable in their manners than they are at home. I never was so much courted as here they are really all as you said “cap in hand” – Elegant women are at a [illeg.] Premium here, so Mr Blair9 a very handsome young man, says who lives in this lodging house where I am but alas he is poor & proud – So we settled that it was no use thinking of marriage but we would contribute to our mutual amusement as long as we were both in Sydney – So there I see his beautiful bright eyes & his dark curls of hair daily – he reads Tennyson’s poems10 to me, & when we come to hear about love in a cottage11 we shut up the book & sigh! – Is not that a pleasant little passe tems !12 There are many balls & parties, I find myself remarkably well received every where so much so that I often wonder in secret what induces those rich people to be so very civil to a poor Miss Nobody like myself & a Governess too! Now I am all right though I had a good many troubles. Sydney it seems to me is a very bad place – a great many fashionable young men the governor’s son’s13 at their head as wild as march hares both very handsome, a great many rich diggers still richer trades people for they are making money hand over fist – I think I never saw so many public houses & drunken people about as here all day long but the nights are comparatively quiet – Yesterday was the Major’s fancy Ball14 but I unfortunately could not go as all my things had been sent away to Bathurst with the drags.15 The best place here for people with a little capital would be to set up a lodging house – You would have your board for nothing only the rent to pay – always lots of people if you choose to make the house agreeable comfortable & decent. They charge 2 or 3 guineas a week for a single small bedroom & common meals & drawing room. There are very few places of public amusement, & those that there are are16 low places more calculated to attract diggers17 & their class. I have not once been to the theatre Willy says it is too horrid for ladies to go to, one concert I heard & that is all So if people have an agreeable family to visit it is far preferable. It would be the thing for you who combine good house keeping with good manners & pleasant conversation.
