WCP3109

[1]

Kensington & Simpson Court

18 Mar 1881

My dear Cousin,

With very much pleasure (& even some degree of pride) we have just read the pension¹ conferred on you by the Queen of £200 per ann, the highest I believe that she bestows. Your name I suppose was brought before Her Majesty by influential parties and did you send to her for acceptance any of your books — perhaps your last Island Life.² All your friends & readers out here are also much pleased[.]

Since I last wrote wife³ & I have been to Melbourne to see the exhibition⁴ from 5 to 17 January — As we went as much to see the Public Institution and Buildings we spent about about 1/2 of our time between [2] them & the other in this great show of the Southern Hemisphere "The Melbourne Exhibition" — Then the Courts of all Europe & America & the flags of all nations were fully displayed — The buildings are of course very extensive and there are several representatives both outside & in published, not only here but in the London Illustrated Papers such as the "Illustrated L-news" — the "Graphic" &c some of which I suppose you see —. There are upwards of 1,000 pictures — some very large ones:— others lent by the Queen; also about 500 statues all ^{these last} are for sale some viz valued as high as £1,000 — Here there are galleries above all full of works past &c &c and underground "Courts" for manufacturing above & below, & the different wines ales &c ^{of all natures} — & fountains & tree-ferns growing naturally — Every day music in Building — Piano & organ. — Tremendous quantities of wool & whole suites of furniture to any amount — Prizes awarded to all the colonies for raw products &c — Many things bought by wealthy colonists from all parts tho' nil except packet articles allowed [3] to be removed till exhibition closes at end of April — We bought a few small articles for children — In Ceylon Cumin ^{coffee &} any amt of Elephants in wood- stain glass & even basket work[.] Glass & porcelain from Austria England & Italy most costly & beautiful ^{also mosiacs} & of every size & shape — The celebrated Prussian ^ortland Vase closely imitated. &c — We went also to Opera in evenings & 2 days to sea-side by rail.

The most important Public Building [sic] were ^are Mint — University — Town Hall – Governm^t Buildings Library — National Gallery (more pictures & statues) Zoological Museum — & Gardens — Ethnolog^l. Museum Technolog^l. D^o — Botanic^l Gardens — Observatory — Houses of Parliament &c &c[.] At the Mint shown all the processes from the crude gold to the perfect sovereign[.] University new Grant of £40,000 from rich man Sir S. Wilson⁵ — Town Hall — Fine organ &c &c. Library large & well filled Zool. Museum[.] Large animals all in natural positions & birds of paradise — many ticketed from Collection of A. R. Wallace Esq [4] The Botanical Gardens are very extensive & in fine position plenty of water lakes ponds &c — but not so pretty as ours — nor so many flowers[.] The Observatory one of finest telescopes in the world — In going to & fro from Adelaide by steamer 48 hours & both neither Matilda (wife) & I the least sea sick — tho’ the deck strewed with the sick & sore.

We are having a wretched harvest one of the worst ever had from only 2 to 8 bushels per acre from droughts & red rust — From former also very great scarcity of fruit & that small[.] Our eldest boy Alley (Algernon)⁶ now 17 has passed his matriculation at our University last Thurs & I have since articled him to a legal firm which has cost me upward of £200, so it will be uphill work for a time. Our Philosoph^l now Royal) Soc^y — Patron the Queen drags us slow enough along & publishes a yearly vol. but in this + [5] + there is nil remarkable or new. Are you writing any more small or pamphlets works or lying by on your oars. Hope yourself wife⁷ and family⁸ are well.

Yours sincerely | C A Wilson⁹ [signature]