It is said that some of the country seats have grounds--domains--about them which rival in charm and magnitude those which surround the country mansion of an English lord; but I was not out in the country; I had my hands full in town.
And what was the origin of this majestic city and its efflorescence of palatial town houses and country seats?
Its first brick was laid and its first house built by a passing convict.

Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed, it is so curious and strange, that it is itself the chiefest novelty the country has to offer, and so it pushes the other novelties into second and third place.

It does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies.

And all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale ones.

It is full of surprises, and adventures, and incongruities, and contradictions, and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all happened..