584 president's address. 



of the populous city. We were quite close to the old Government House and 

 Macquarie-place, where lived the leading Government oflScials. These houses were 

 back from the street, and had pretty gardens and deep verandahs, shaded by 

 climbing roses and other flowering plants. I do not remember ever being in 

 Government House, but I made many happy visits to our kind friends, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Macleay at Macquarie-place. He was Colonial Secretary, and one of his 

 daughters [Margaret] had been married to my uncle, Major Innes, of Lake Innes, 

 Port Macquarie. Miss Macleay (Mrs. Harrington) wanted to adopt and educate 

 me. She died a few weeks after her marriage, in 1836." 



Among the relics of W. S. Macleay is a small pencil-drawing of the resi- 

 dence in Bridge-street, made by Miss Macleay, with her signature on the back . 

 This was probably sent to her brother in Cuba, before 1836. I exhibit this, to- 

 gether with the photograph of a pencil-drawing of the same house by the artist 

 Conrad Martens. The original of the latter is in possession of the Royal Society 

 of Tasmania. By the kind permission of the Coimeil, Mr. Clive Lord, the Secre- 

 tary, has been able to furnish me with the photograph of this interesting drawing. 



In a letter from Mrs . Eliza Macleay, in Sydney, to her son, W . S . Macleay, 

 in Cuba, undated but written on paper with watermark 1824 [from internal 

 evidence written about June, 1827] slie says: "We have been very unsettled in 

 our house ever since we got in to it, which was the first night of our arrival [Janu- 

 ary 3rd, 1826] ; in the first place, it was much too small for us, which, on proper 

 representation was ordered to have two bedrooms and two smaller rooms built 

 over the library, and eating-room, and a verandah added, which has now been 

 about ten months and not nearly finished, so slow do the prisoner-workmen get on ; 

 and when you consider what sort of people they are, you may suppose we cannot 

 feel very comfortable while they are about. They contrived, I must say through 

 the carelessness of our free servants, to carry off sixty pounds' worth of plate, 



which we could never hear the least account of since Your father 



has little time to think of family-affairs, his whole time being occu- 

 pied with Government business. We have now been here a year and a-half, and, 

 during that time, I think he has not been absent from Sydney above ten days ; the 

 very little recreation that he has consists of his going out before breakfast or after 

 five o'clock, sometimes to a place called Elizabeth Bay, of which he has got a grant 

 of between fifty and sixty acres, where he is making a garden, and [hopes at] 

 some future time to build a house; he is now building stabling, and has built a 

 gardener's cottage." 



[For the copy of this extremely interesting letter, kindly forwarded by Dr. 

 Daydon Jackson, I am indebted to t'e Council of the Linnean Society of London.] 



Mr. J. A. Dowling has recently given a very interesting account of the early 

 settlement of the eastern suburbs contiguous to the harbour and the city. The 

 author points out that, as shown in Roe's map of Sydney (1822). Darlinghurst, 

 including Woolloomooloo, used to be called Henrietta Town, and was a reserve 

 set apart for the Bl;:cks. The name wa.-^ given by Governor ]\Ia"'|uarie. after the 

 first Christian name of his wife. Elizabeth Bay and Elizabeth Point were also 

 named by the Governor after the second Christian name of the same lady. 



Of the grant to Alexander Macleay, Mr. Dowling says: "The Macleay pro- 

 perty was fifty-four acres in extent, and was granted to Mr. Alexander !Maoleay 

 by Governor Darling in 1828. who. in a despatch to the Right Hon. William 

 Huskisson, dated the 28th of March, 1828. stated: 'The land granted to Mr. 



