432 NEW SOUTH WALKS. [cHap. xx. 
town. The streets are regular, broad, clean, and kept in excel- 
lent order; the houses are of a good size, and the shops well 
furnished. Jt may be faithfully compared to the large suburbs 
which stretch out from London and a few other great towns in 
England; but not even near London or Birmingham is there 
an appearance of such rapid growth. The number of large 
houses and other buildings just finished wes truly surprising ; 
nevertheless, every one complained of the high rents and diffi- 
culty in procuring a house. Coming from South America, where 
in the towns every man of property is known, no one thing sur- 
prised me more than not being able to ascertain at once to whom 
this or that carriage belonged. 
I hired a man and two horses to take me to Bathurst, a village 
about one hundred and twenty miles in the interior, and the 
centre of a great pastoral district. By this means I hoped to 
gain a general idea of the appearance of the country. On the 
morning of the 16th (January) I set out on my excursion. The 
first stage took us to Paramatta, a small country town, next to 
Sydney in importance. The roads were excellent, and made 
upon the MacAdam principle, whinstone having been brought 
for the purpose from the distance of several miles. In all respects 
there was a close resemblance to England: perhaps the alehouses 
here were more numerous. The iron gangs, or parties of con- 
victs who have committed here some offence, appeared the least 
like England: they were working in chains, under the charge of 
sentries with loaded arms. The power which the Government 
possesses, by means of forced labour, of at once opening good 
roads throughout the country, has been, I believe, one main- 
cause of the early prosperity of this colony. I slept at night at 
a very comfortable inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from 
Sydney, and near the ascent of the Blue Mountains. This line 
of road is the most frequented, and has been the longest inhabited 
of any in the colony. The whole land is enclosed with high 
railings, for the farmers have not succeeded in rearing hedges. 
There are many substantial houses and good cottages scattered 
about; but although considerable pieces of land are under culti- 
vation, the greater part yet remains as when first discovered. 
The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most remark- 
able feature in the landscape of the greater part of New South 
