HOSPITALITY. 251 



countiy, excellently cultivated, appearing as an oasis 

 in the sandy district that surrounded it. We had 

 received, or understood that we had received (and 

 certainly such was the gist of the message conveyed 

 to us), an invitation from the proprietor of a hand- 

 some garden in the vicinity to visit him, and help 

 him to eat some of his abundant fruit, partake of 

 dinner with him, and generally enjoy ourselves at 

 his expense ; he wishing no other return than the 

 pleasure of playing the host to an assemblage of 

 Neptune's sons. This, even to our unsophisticated 

 ears, sounded almost too disinterested for the in- 

 habitants of Australia. Nevertheless, having little 

 else to do, we determined to face the music, pro- 

 viding ourselves with plenty of biscuit in case of 

 disappointment. We landed and went up to milord's 

 house, which proved to be a neat and substantial brick 

 edifice, and, with the assurance of invited guests who 

 had come ten miles to please their host, we approached 

 the door. "We found that the individual who was so 

 liberal in his promises was absent, and in his stead 

 his home was garrisoned by a party of women, the 

 young and pretty of whom were kept in the back- 

 ground by the high shoulders and higher cap of an 

 old dame, whom I afterwards understood was a 

 genuine specimen of the English titled lady; but I 

 doubt it — as I have always understood that the 

 matrons of England were distinguished for their 

 hospitality, and this ladj^ certainly possessed no such 

 quality ; as, with a vinegar aspect, she informed us of 

 the absence of her spouse, looking at us meanwhile 

 as if she thought us a party of marauders come to 

 Btorm her vineyard. She indulged in remarks which, 



