In December, 1847, Melbourne was honoured by a visit from Mr. E. Deas Thomson, Colonial Secretary for N e w South Wales. It was a private trip, and no public recognition was attempted. It was as well, as he was no favourite. During the night of 14th December, 1847, there was a terrific thunderstorm, and Jacob Wyer They were fishing in the Bay, and W'yer's hair, and John Chaplin were killed by lightning. eyebrows, and clothes were m u c h singed. Wyer was Chaplin's father-in-law. T h e summer of 1847-8 was very dry, and the country so bereft of feed and water that a considerable number of sheep and cattle died. T h e first Anglican Bishop (Dr. Perry), after his arrival in January, had prayers for rain offered. In March an event, never previously known, happened in the River Plenty completely drying up. In March, 1848, Mr. Henry Baker, of the Lmperial Lnn, Collins Street, erected a public-house at Heidelberg, known as the Old England Hotel. This Baker was a podgy, pushing little m a n , great in getting up substantial shilling dinners; and thoroughly believed in advertising. H e remained for several years a "Boniface" there, when he was obliged to succumb to that inevitable which no one, "publican or sinner," can evade. On the 1st April, that remarkable anniversary made two distinguished Melbournians simultaneously play a bit of the fool. Judge A'Beckett and Bishop Perry resolved to have an outing. They did not travel together, but each took a different route, drove a gig, and had a lady passenger. Both traps capsized, both ladies were unhurt, the Judge had his cheek cut at Flemington, and the Bishop was well shaken on the St. Kilda Road. There is quite a little history to be raked up about that n o w well-established hostelry, the Royal Mail Hotel, corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets, if one only knew where to look it out and find it. Atfirstit was an uncouth-looking, large, rough edifice, built by a road contractor who had made a good deal of money out of broken stones. This man, however, went insolvent in 1848, and the property was brought under the h a m m e r by the Official Assignee, and knocked down for ,£770 to a M r . E. B. Green, a well-known and well-liked mail contractor. Green had it improved intending to convert it into an hotel to be named in a way that would perpetuate the manner in which he m a d e the money with which the property was purchased. Thus it was called the Royal Mail. Its first landlord was M r . Sugden, once a well-known Chief-Constable. In 1880 the place was sold for ^60,000, though the corner half-acre was originally bought at Government land sale by a Mr. William B o w m a n for ,£136 16s. Subsequently I was supplied with the following:—"The original price paid for the Royal Mail Hotel was ,£1750, not £,110. E. B. G did not make his money solely by mail contracting. H e was at that time owner of four cattle and sheep stations—Keilawarra, eight miles below Wangaratta, on the Ovens River; one at Greta, or Fifteen Mile Creek, midway between Benalla and Wangaratta; one on the Broken River; the other on the Wakool Creek, fifty miles below the Sandhills, n o w called Deniliquin. T h e hotel and five shops adjoining the theatre, where the late Richard Punch's timber-yard formerly stood, E. B. G. left to his family, consisting of myself and two brothers. T h e property has never been sold, nor likely to be.—I am, etc.,
"E. B. GREEN, "Casham House, St. Kilda Street, Brighton North. "16th September. 1885." A very aggravated assault was committed at Brighton, 24th June, 1848, by Dr. Adams operating upon Mr. E. L. Lee, the Private Secretary of Mr. Latrobe. T h e parties met near Lee's residence, and a row was got up about a pony on sale by a Mr. Manby, and which the other two wished to secure. A d a m s seized Lee by the throat, and half-throttling him with one hand, horse-whipped him
