riage with his pretty pair of ponies. They
are said to be perfectly quiet, and I suppose they are, according to
Australian ideas; but they did not come up to my notion of docility.
Besides sundry kicks and buck-jumps, they had both legs over the
splinter-bar once, one leg over the pole twice, and another leg over
the traces, which fortunately came unfastened, or in the regular
kicking match which ensued some mischief would have been done. I
expected every minute that the little carriage would have been broken
to pieces, and that we should have been landed at the bottom of the
quagmire over which the road appeared to run.

Seymour was reached at 6.30, just in time to change into the express,
and at Albury we were again transferred, at 10.30 P.M., into Lord
Carrington's carriage, sent up from Sydney for us.

[Illustration: Banksias, &c., New South Wales]

CHAPTER XIV.

_NEW SOUTH WALES._

_Saturday, July 2nd._--When I awoke in the morning I saw a landscape
of a very different character from the scenery of Victoria, showing
that we were getting into a warmer climate.

Our train was late, and all were glad when Sydney was at last reached
and we found ourselves driving swiftly to Government House. The way
lay through crowded streets resembling the Hammersmith Road beyond
Kensington. There were some pretty views of the harbour down the
narrow streets through which we drove on the way to Government House,
a building in the Gothic style.

The afternoon was so fine that everybody longed to be out of doors,
and I enjoyed a stroll in the gardens--from which there is a lovely
view of the harbour--immensely. I had heard so much of it that I had
fully expected to be disappointed, but it more than fully realised all
my preconceived ideas of its attractions. The water was crowded with
small boats, and the Volunteers, disappointed in the non-arrival of
the 'Sunbeam,' were taking their exercise in Macquarrie Fort. So deep
is the water beneath what is called the Tarpeian Rock that the big
ships of the Orient Line, the P. & O., and other giant traversers of
the ocean, can easily lie alongside. We spent a quiet evening, and
were glad to go to bed early after our recent short and disturbed
nights. Before retiring, however, arrangements were made for a
steam-launch to meet Tom in the 'Sunbeam' on his way in from the
Heads, and to tell him to stop at Watson's Bay, as the Volunteers
wished to go out to meet him. Saturday aftern