TASMANIA IN 1840 107 
but seldom seen — only once lately, and then near the lakes 
in the interior.' 
As to the better society in Tasmania, the last of the Convict 
settlements and acquainted with bushrangers, it * is perfectly 
English,' a commendation bestowed on the most comfortable 
houses he enters in any Colony, and 
there is a marked line drawn between the children of 
convicts or ex-convicts and those of honester, even if less 
capable, folk. Wealth is accumulating fast : and the banks 
allow 10 per cent, on deposits. 
Literature, however, is at a low ebb, and except a few 
English families, there are none who take the better 
periodicals, or would comprehend them if they did. 
There are lots of splendid Pianos and Harps, and few 
who can use them. Three hundred copies of Gould's most 
extravagant book ^ are purchased by these colonists, solely 
for the pleasure of seeing the show of it on their tables. 
Looking back after a couple of months' absence he exclaims, 
' altogether Van Diemen's Land was quite a home to us and a 
most attractive place.' His remembrance is of his personal 
entertainers, and the best is of those who could provide him 
with the music he loved : 
There is really so much good society, wealth, and splen- 
dour in the private houses : music is much cultivated, and 
all the new operas, &c., are procured as soon as published. 
Many of those pretty Strauss Waltzes you used to play I have 
heard here. At Government House there is always excellent 
music, and the military band is one of the best in the lines. 
So little had he gone into society at Hobart that on the eve 
of departure he winds up : 
You would hardly beheve it, but Mr. and Mrs. Gunn^ are 
^ Either the Synopsis of the Birds of Australia and the Adjacent Islands, 
1837-8,72 plates, or the first of the seven folio volumes of The Birds of Australia, 
1840-8, 601 plates. 
2 Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808-81) emigrated to Tasmania in 1839, becoming 
superintendent of convict prisons and a police magistrate. A keen naturalist, 
he opened a correspondence with Sir W. Hooker and Lindley, exchanging 
plants for books and scientific apparatus, and sending zoologic?! collections to 
J. E. Gray at the British Museum. [The D.N.B. wrongly names him Robert.] 
