81
written by Lieut. Col. Hanson, Quarter-master-General of the Madras army, and also to the Journals and Letters of Mr. Moore, to which reference has already been made. At the dinners of the Agricultural Society, which occur four times a year, it is usual for a large party of gentlemen to dine together.
The last occasion is thus described in the Western Australian Journal of November 8, 1834:—
The Quarterly Meeting of the Members of the Agricultural Society took place yesterday at Guildford.
His Excellency Sir James Stirling, accompanied by Captain Blackwood of the Hyacinth, Mr. Taylor of King George’s Sound, and several other gentlemen, after visiting, in the course of the day, the farms in the neighbourhood of Guildford, and inspecting the stock brought to the cattle-show, at 4 o’clock joined the members of the Society, at the Cleikum Inn, where an excellent dinner was provided, and forty-eight persons sat down to partake of it.
To the ladies generally, of the settlement, the meed of praise is due. Some of them are highly educated as well as most amiable women. They have not neglected to cultivate and maintain, as opportunity has occurred, those elegancies and accomplishments in which they have excelled; and music, especially, forms a most pleasing part of the evening recreations of several families. The good sense and intelligence of the sex have been strikingly displayed in the readiness with which they have borne many privations, and encountered the difficulties incident to a new colony. A remarkable example of heroism, for such it really may be called, occurred some time since, in the instance of an estimable old lady, the mother of two gentlemen of the name of Leake, respectable merchants at Fremantle. This lady was induced by her attachment to her sons, already settled there, and to a grand-daughter who was coming out,
