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suitable accommodation regardless of expense. A sensational canard in connection with an early Police Comt-aem lock-up has been found floating in the clouds of antiquity, and this vagrant was deemed even worthy of a niche in print. It is to the effect that one night, either some intoxicated roysterers or a bull of Batman's rushed the place, and laid it in ruins and that a reward was subsequently offered for the identification and apprehension of either the bull or the bull-ies- I have tested the accuracy of this statement, and to a query transmitted to Mr. Robert Russell, the best living authority, have received the following reply':— " O f the tradition to which you refer as to the Police Office, the bull and the rowdies I k n o w nothing. Batman had no bulls running about wild, but his well-known horse, ' Post Boy,' onefinemorning m a d e a flying excursion through ' the settlement,' to the great terror of the inhabitants—and a small building (not a Police Office), belonging to Mr. Nodin, having become offensive, was violently assaulted and overthrown, bodily, one dark night, by four or five rowdies, whose names I could give you, but not the sketch by D'Arcy of the event, for I have lost it. O n these stern facts, I think Mr. has built his pleasingfiction."Mr. James F. Strachan, one of the primitive merchants, having had built a brick store at the corner of Collins and Queen Streets, vacated a wooden tenement in William Street, and this was purchased by the Government for conversion into a Police Office. It was shifted bodily, or rather, simply moved round close to where the new watch-house had been put up, and as it was in a somewhat dilapidated condition, it underwent a thorough overhaul to m a k e it ship-shape, for the new and important role in which it was destined to play a prominent part for m a n y years. O n the 15th February, 1839, official instructions were issued for the doing up of this old rookery. 'Phis looked like business, and Captain Lonsdale lost no time in abandoning the m u d hut, ensconcing himself comfortably in the vicinity of the new-madefireplace,and enjoying his comfortable quarters, never dreaming of ejection until the morning of the 13th May, when he was suddenly awoke by the startling intimation that he must clear out to m a k e room for the superior tribunal of the Quarter Sessions, to open on the same day. H e could not do otherwise than yield, and as the Sessions would continue for some days, he forthwith despatched a curt m e m o , to the Clerk of Works (Mr. Russell), commanding him to "give up the Clerk of Works' office that the necessary arrangements may be m a d e to hold the Police Office duties there during the sitting of the Quarter Sessions." T h e building, so unceremoniously asked for, was the one-roomed brick cottage erected the year before in King Street, for the special accommodation of the then Public Works Department. But if Lonsdale, w h o had ordinarily m u c h of the slow-coach in him, could be imperative in minuting his desire, he had his match in Russell, w h o sent back a counter-memo., the next day, " declining to give up his office, because he required it for the security of such documents as he had received from the Colonial Architect, and also because it was requisite that he should have some room in which to make the necessary drawings, & c , for the public buildings under his superintendence." Though nominally subordinate to the Police Magistrate, the Clerk of Works was then professionally responsible only to the department of the Colonial Architect in Sydney, of which he was an officer, and this circumstance m a y be considered in justification of his non-compliance with the wishes of Captain Lonsdale. A personal conference subsequently induced the Clerk of Works to obey the order of the " Commandant," and the Police Court was transferred temporarily, as desired, but was moved back to the Market Reserve as soon as the Quarter Sessions had terminated. T h e Police Court had acquired a "local habitation," but to render it sufficiently effective for the time, it had to be provided with an instrument of punishment and exposure known as " the stocks." For the information of such as m a y require it, it m a y be stated that " the stocks " was a modification of the historical pillory, but intended for the feet instead of the head and hands. A bench, capable of seating halfa-dozen persons, was m a d e fast in the ground to the right of the Police Court door, a few yards away, and facing all w h o passed to and from the Court. Fixed in front was a strong wooden frame, composed of two beams, the upper one working on an hinge at one end, and secured with a strong padlock at the other. T h e beams were fashioned with leg holes, so that a person seated would have his legs fastened something on the hand-cuff method, and when the upper beam was let d o w n and locked, he was securely hobbled. Only offending ticket-of-leave convicts and incorrigible drunkards used to be condemned to this pillory, and very coolly and philosophically used they to " take it out" there. There was no guard to object to the passers-by having a "yarn " with the unfortunates, so that it often came to pass that their " pals" and other sympathisers would have a confab with the fellows in trouble, and give them figs of tobacco, as modern