Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and VictoriaWestgarth, William
History
Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria
Westgarth, William
Victoria -- Description and travel
Allow me first to complete the outward passage. I concluded my
"Recollections" when still at sea, within about a day of our ship's
destination, Hobart. The Tasmanian shores gave us a salutation not
usually associated with Australia, that, namely, of the snow, thickly
sprinkled over the southern slopes of the island. I welcomed the scene,
both as recalling that of Home, and as giving the promise of the highest
of civilization, which, as Mr. Froude reminds us, belongs to the
countries where the snow remains on the ground. We shortened our course
by a few miles in taking D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and were, as I
understood, the first of the large vessels from the other hemisphere to
do so. We cast anchor off Hobart after nightfall, the many bright lights
of the city gladdening our eyes, while the babble of English tongues
from the boats around us reminded us once more that, after so many
thousands of additional miles since at Cape Town, we were still within
the British Empire.
WESTELLA HOTEL.
My first salutation came from an exact namesake of mine, Mr. William
Westgarth, whom I had known at Melbourne thirty-five years ago, and who,
after varying fortunes, had for the last dozen years been conducting a
superior class of boarding house or family hotel. It was called
Westella, and was situated in Elizabeth-street, the chief thoroughfare
of Hobart. The house I recollected as that of Mr. Henry Hopkins, a very
early merchant of the city, whom I had met more than once between forty
and fifty years ago. It was the undisputed palace of the city of its
day; nor was it disposed, even now, to bend its head to any second
position. As my friend conducted our party over the pretty scene of
garden and cliff behind the house, we found it all wrapped in frost,
except where the bright morning sun had struck, and we broke the ice,
quite quarter of an inch thick, on a fishpond of the grounds. Thus
Tasmanian ascendancy in the civilized world is secured.
PROGRESS OF THE ANTIPODES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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