s
other middle-class Englishmen--though perhaps that is not saying much.
But in articles of this kind I am obliged to strike an average. The type
of house I have described is the most common. You must leave a marain on
either side of it according to the education and tastes of the owner. And
here let me note that in Melbourne houses are certainly more expensively,
and perhaps better furnished than in any of the other towns. The
Victorians have a much greater love of show than any of their
fellow-Australians. Where a Sydney man spends L400 on his furniture you
may safely predict that a Melbourner will spend L600. Consequently the
furniture establishments in the latter city are much superior to those in
the former, and that although, owing to the enormous duty-25 per
cent.--but little English furniture is imported into Victoria.

Let us now hie us to humbler abodes, and visit an eight-roomed cottage,
inhabited by a young solicitor whose income is from L500 to L1000 a year.
Here the whole drawing-room suite is in cretonne or rep, and comprises
the couch, six chairs, and lady's and gent's easy-chairs, which we saw
before at Muttonwool's. The carpet is also ditto. The glass, ornaments,
etc., are similar, but on a smaller scale; and if there are any pictures
on the wall they are almost bound to be chromos, for whilst Croesus
sometimes invests in expensive paintings, the middle-class, who cannot
afford to give from L100 upwards for a picture, will make no effort to
obtain something moderately good, such as can be easily obtained in
England for a very small outlay. The gasalier is bronze instead of glass.
The real living-room of the house is the dining-room, which is therefore
the best furnished, and on a tapestry carpet are a leather couch, six
balloon-back carved chairs, two easy-chairs, a chiffonier, a side-table,
and a cheap chimney-glass. In the best bedroom the bedstead is a tubular
half-tester, the toilet-ware gold and white, the carpet again tapestry.
Throughout the house the furniture is made of cedar. The kitchen is
summarily disposed of; Biddy has to content herself with d table,
dresser, safe, pasteboard and rolling-pin, and a couple of chairs. Her
bedroom furniture is even more scanty--a paillasse on trestles, a chair,
a half-crown looking-glass, an old jug and a basin on a wooden table.
Even in the houses of the wealthy poor Biddy is very badly treated in
this respect. In Muttonwool's house, if he keeps two servant