y fatiguing.

_Thursday, June 30th._--We were called at half-past six, and hastily
got up to pack off the luggage before setting off at eight, on a fine
though misty morning. We had a delightful drive to the station at
Lilydale, after bidding a regretful adieu to picturesque St. Hubert's.

Once in the suburbs of Melbourne, it was necessary to crawl along at a
snail's pace on account of the numerous express trains running into
the city at this early hour. We did not reach the terminus until
nearly eleven o'clock, and were glad to drive quickly to Menzie's
Hotel for breakfast. A large mail arrived for us from Wellington, as
well as heaps of letters and telegrams. At half-past twelve Mabelle
and I went to the Botanical Gardens, where Mr. Guilfoyle, the
superintendent, met us, and was good enough to allow me to drive all
round the gardens. He kindly explained the arrangement of the plants,
clearing away many botanical difficulties which have puzzled me ever
since I landed in Western Australia. I do not think I ever saw so
well-arranged and beautiful a garden as this, and never have I had so
intelligent and kind a _cicerone_ as Mr. Guilfoyle. There is a
beautiful lake in the gardens, well stocked with different species of
wild-fowl. We drove all over the exquisitely kept lawn, yet the
carriage-wheels appeared to make no impression. The grass grows from a
mixture of buffalo and other kinds of grass-seeds--a combination which
produces a velvet-like sward about three inches in depth, and
apparently incapable of injury. At one part of the gardens where the
carriage could not possibly penetrate, Mr. Guilfoyle had thoughtfully
provided a chair and two men to carry me through the fern-gully. This
rivals what we saw at Fernshaw yesterday, and I was able to observe
what I could not well see there--the undergrowth of smaller ferns and
the parasitic ferns growing on the trunks of others. I was quite sorry
to leave. Mr. Guilfoyle sent us away laden with interesting botanical
specimens, and gave Mabelle and me each a sweet-smelling bouquet of
daphnes and white camellias.

We lunched at Government House. After bidding good-bye to H.E. and
Lady Loch, from whom we have received so much kindness, we went to
Menzie's Hotel, calling on our way at Cole's Book Arcade, which is one
of the sights of Melbourne. A most curious place it is; consisting of
a large arcade three stories high, about the length of the Burlington
Arcade in London, though