106 FROM SYDNEY TO BATHURST IN 1822 



consisted of three rooms —brick floors— two rooms in front, a 

 skillion room behind one and a pantry behind the other ; the 

 front door opened into the sittingroom, the back door directly 

 opposite with a h^dder between that led up to a loft. It was the 

 former storekeeper's residence, and my husband had come to 

 take charge of the Government stores. 



" Our family consisted of my mother, 70 years of age, and 

 eight children — the eldest 12^ years, the youngest one year — my 

 husband and myself, and a woman servant. How we all that 

 night got supper, or how we all slept, I really cannot tell. Mr. 

 Lawson was at that time the Commandant ; he came to see us 

 the next morning, and promised to do all he could to make us 

 more comfortable, and this he did by adding two rooms, one in 

 front and the other at the back, but it took seven months to 

 finish them. In the meantime we gave my mother the front 

 room and pat two beds in it, and as many of the elder children 

 as possible. I had the skillion, and when the winter came wo 

 suffered much from cold, as it was not ceiled but open to the 

 shingles. Little Ann had a cot in the loft, and the woman took 

 charge of her ; Tom and George had the sitting room. When 

 the new ones were finished we gave up ours to the boys, but we 

 had to pass through that and the one for the girls to get to our 

 own. I mention all these trifles, my dear children, that should 

 you ever in your journey through life have similar hardships to 

 encounter you may bear them as well as T did. I never 1 joked 

 on these things as a trouble. In England I had always had a 

 comfortable home, and I came here to seek one for my children. 

 I made the best I could of it, and was contented. 



" The settlement, as it was then called, at Bathurst, 

 consisted of Government House of four rooms, our own of 

 three, a courthouse, barracks for a few soldiers. Government 

 stores, and a good garden from which we were well supplied, 

 huts for some prisoners who were employed by Government 

 about their land and stock, and a good barn. Here it was Sir 

 Thomas Brisbane, the Governor, Major Goulburn, Mr. Oxley? 

 Dr. Douglas, and the principal people in the colony came to see 

 us in our humble home. We had a grant of 2,000 acres of land 

 on the other side of the river, about two miles from the settle- 

 ment, which we named Bhickdown, and after two years we 

 went to live on it. There I lived for nearly 18 years, contented 

 and happy, and brought up eleven children. 



