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pp. 61-64.
“The settler whom I have introduced rented a small spot of land, on which he built a house at the expense of ten pounds; and, with the assistance of his brother, and of labour occasionally hired, cultivated a small farm and a little garden. He had, moreover, an interest in the cattle located at the station we visited together; and, altogether, rubbed on very well. When he arrived in the colony, he brought with him, by the advice of friends, an investment in Morrison’s pills; but the speculation did not answer, and the pills are still on sale. His rather boisterous manners, and the tribe of dogs which always attended him, excited the indignation of the housekeeper at Ulladulla Sarah Ridd nee Harding]; and, when her spleen was particularly excited, and vexation stopped her utterance, she invariably began to dust and rub, with great energy, an old brass warming-pan that had accompanied her from Devonshire, and for which she entertained a peculiar regard, as a precious relic of bygone days. Whatever a female emigrant leaves behind her in the old country, she rarely forgets her warming-pan; which, in some manner, is always associated in her mind with domestic comfort, and social tea-drinkings. This good woman, with her husband and her two children, had been brought into the colony by the friend with whom I resided. The husband acted as bailiff or overseer, whilst the wife ruled in the kitchen; but she did not relish the change of scene, and lamented the loss of her ancient gossips. The husband [George Ridd] - a man of sterling value - was attacked with paralysis, of which several instances occurred on the farm, and ultimately died miserably. In the absence of medical advice, we applied to his scalp blisters spread upon brown paper, and they afforded much temporary relief. To fasten them on, we made him wear, over all, one of his wife’s caps. The daughter, who was reckoned a beauty - and she was certainly a handsome girl, though as brown as a berry - was ultimately married very respectably [the daughter Mary Jane married Edward Kendall on the 1st March 1847 at Kiama].
“I passed some time very happily at Ulladulla; but, when I was acquainted with most of the birds and animals, and had explored much of the country, I felt the want of an occupation, and my existence was a perfect blank. The most trivial circumstance became of importance; and I well recollect the satisfaction with which I hunted a young bull through the woods, and at last flogged him into the stock-yard. On that day I had had a pursuit. I began to think on the melancholy acques, and to mark in my Shakespeare such passages as the following:
‘Banished ?
“Then I turned to Mrs. Hemans and her ‘Home-call.’ Let no one carry her poems into the bush. She will wile him away, as surely as the sweet voice of a bird lures, and charms, its mate. Who, in the midst of gum-trees, can resist the spell of such as these lines ? -
‘How many blessed groups this hour are bending,
Thro’ England’s primrose meadow-paths, their way,
Toward spire and tower ‘midst shadowy elms ascending,
Whence the sweet chimes proclaim the hallowed day.
The halls, from old heroic ages, gray,
Pour their fair children forth; and hamlets low,
With those thick orchard-blooms the soft winds play,
Send out their inmates in a happy flow,
Like a free vernal stream. I may not tread
With them those pathways.’
“The fact was, I was in danger of becoming very spoony, and of partaking of the disposition of the housekeeper aforesaid, who wept in secret o’er Sunday bonnets lying unproduced in a box, and soon, by dint of moth and mould, to be unproducible.
“of those who formed our party in Ulladulla - and we were once a strong one - all are now dispersed. Only one remains there. Over the head of another the wild waves roll, until that great day when ‘there shall be no more sea.’ A third has a more quiet resting-place in the bush in a humble grave, surrounded by a neat fence, erected to keep out the native dogs. His death was caused by lock-jaw and paralysis, brought on by going out in the sun without his hat. I have already mentioned the death of the overseer. He was a sturdy Englishman. On one occasion, a ‘ticket-of-leave holder’ insulted him, upon which he knocked him down, saying, ‘I don’t come out to this here country to be abused by the like of you,’ and, when the man got up, he seized one of those tremendous stock-whips already mentioned, and flogged him until the huge animal - for the culprit was as large and ugly as a Chinese idol - lay down and roared. Alas ! porr George Ridd, I commend not the act, but I loved your honest English heart.”
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