THE society's heritage from the macleays. 583 



in proximity to St. Stephen's Church, Newtown. But there are cenotaphs to the 

 memories of Alexander and Mrs. Macleay, of Mrs. Harrington, eldest daughter 

 and wife of Mr. T. C. Harring-ton, Assistant Colonial Secretary, and of W. S, 

 Macleay, as well as of Captain Dumaresque, in St. James' Church, King-street. 



Elizabeth Bat House and the Garden. 



After his arrival in Sydney on January 3rd, 1826, Mi-. Alexander Macleay 

 occupied the middle one of the three otiflfial residences on the south side of Bridge- 

 street. The late Judge Forbes contributed a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald 

 of March 17, 1899, entitled "Old Government House, Sydney," in which he re- 

 corded his recollections of old Sydney. He was the son of the first Chief 

 Justice of New South Wales, and came to Sydney, a child of four yeai-s, with his 

 father in 1823. The Judge wrote : "My father lived in a house which stood in 



the centre of the site of the present Lands Office Bridge-street. 



which ran from George-street up to Government House gate (the gate of that 

 time), after passing Bent-street (which it joined then at the same place as now) 

 had, on the south side of it, four detached houses, built in a row, and going from 

 Georo-e-street towards the Government House gate. The first of these you came 

 to was that in which my father lived, bounded on the south and west by Bent- 

 street; next to it was the house which was the residence of Alexander Macleay, 

 the Colonial Secretary; and next to that was another house, the residence of Mr. 

 Lithgow, Auditor-General and Collector of Internal Revenue; (that house is now 

 standing, having a large native tigtree growing in the front of it) [since de- 

 molished to make way for the present Education Department Building] ; and next 

 to that was the Guard-house close to Government House gate. The first three 

 houses mentioned, viz., my father's, Macleay's, and Lithgow's, had gardens in 

 front and yards at the back, and were divided by walls from one another. The 

 Guard-house was close to the gate of Government House, and Government House 

 was about 30 or 40 yards to the east of it, which fixes the site at the place where 

 the plate with the inscription on it was lately found. I was often at Government 

 House when Sir Thomas Brisbane was there, and also when Darling and Bourke 

 were Governors, and I know the localities well, and remember them perfectly." 



Another early notice of the Macleay's first house is to be found in an article 

 entitled "A Journal of Early Australia," contributed to the Sydney Morning 

 Herald of August 30th, 1911, by Miss Mary Salmon. This is a review of a small 

 volume, with the title, "Some Recollections of My Early Days. By [Mrs.] A. A. 

 CD. Boswell," printed for private circulation only among friends and relatives. 

 There is a copy of it in the Mitchell Library. The authoress was born in 1826 at 

 "Yarrows," in Bathurst, and was living in Scotland when Miss Salmon's article 

 was written. Mrs. Boswell was the daughter of Mr. George Innes, who came to 

 Australia in 1823 with his brother. Captain Archibald Clunes Innes. The fol- 

 lowing is Mrs. BosweU's account: — "Early in 1834, I found myself at school in 

 Bridge-street, under the care of Mrs. Evans and her friend and partner, Miss 

 Ferris. Mr. Evans (he was George W. Evans, who had been deputy surveyor 

 when he made the remarkable discovery of the plains beyond the Blue Mountains, 

 which led to a road to Bathurst) had a bookseller and stationer's shop, and we 

 used the rest of the house, which was thought handsome, and in a fashionable 

 street. Our house faced the old Government stores or depot, and close by 

 flov.ed the Tank Stream, now arched and made into the main drain of that part 



