his o w n carriage with four horses, and recent heavy rains rendered it a matter of uncertainty when he would arrive at his destination. T h e Rev. M r . Geoghegan left Melbourne, intending to meet the Bishop at Albury; but Dr. Goold's travelling was so quick that Mr. Geoghegan had not proceeded further than Seymour when the Bishop drove into that township. This was on the ist October, and arrangements were at once m a d e by which the party would arrive in Melbourne on the 4th. Meanwhile there were active preparations in town to accord His Lordship a befitting reception, and at 9 o'clock of the eventful morning, a cavalcade (if the term will apply to harnessed as well as saddled horses) started from St. Francis' to meet the Bishop and escort him back. 'Phis demonstration consisted of about thirty vehicles (gigs and buggies) and fifty horsemen. A w a y they went, in high good humour, along the Sydney Road, and on nearing Somerton (some sixteen miles distant) they descried the Bishop's carriage approaching. His Lordship, w h o passed the night at Kinlochewe, resumed his journey after breakfast, and this is h o w the meeting occurred so near town. In the hamlet of Somerton Dr. Goold got thefirstsight of a contingent of his new flock, from w h o m he received a cordial and respectful welcome, and a procession was immediately formed— equestrians in front, Episcopal vehicle in centre, and the other conveyances forming a rear-guard, in which order of march, or rather, gallop, they dashed on to Melbourne. Every mile passed brought in acquisitions to the flying procession, so that by the time it passed through Brunswick, the mounted m e n numbered a hundred, and the vehicles fifty. O n reaching the point of the town n o w corresponding with the intersection of Victoria and Swanston streets, an immense crowd of pedestrians let off such a ringing, warm-heated salvo of cheering as has not been surpassed in Melbourne since, after which the faces and feet of the multitude, bipeds and quadrupeds, were directed towards St. Francis', opposite which, in Lonsdale Street, a general halt was called about 3 p.m. His Lordship then alighted from his carriage, and after a few words of thanks for the kind reception given him, entered the church, and, pronouncing a benediction, the people quickly dispersed. Dr. Goold was at this time a young m a n , the youngest m e m b e r of the Episcopacy on record, for, born on the 4th November, 1812, he was then not quite thirty-six years old. H e did not look in any way the worse after his long and toilsome travel, for as he stepped lightly on the ground, he presented quite a picture of health and spirits, with a round, good-humoured face, such as a painter would design for a full-grown cherub. H e had reputedly a high character for piety, learning and humilityattributes afterwards well tested in Melbourne, where his presence for more than as m a n y years as his then age has afforded an ample opportunity for judging whether the good qualities with which he was credited were exaggerated or not. It is a remarkable coincidence that his advent at St. Francis' was the seventh anniversary of the laying of its foundation by Father Geoghegan. Dr. Goold was the first to make the overland trip from Sydney to Melbourne in a coach and four. H e was nineteen days on the journey, but travelled onlyfifteen,and so averaging forty miles per diem. Very slow going, no doubt, compared with the locomotion of our n o w North-eastern railway; but, in consequence of the state of the roads, or rather, the bush tracks, the only thoroughfares of the era of which I a m writing, a more practically marvellous feat of transit than the far-famed boast of Daniel O'Connell's drive of a coach and six through an Act of Parliament. T h e Bishop's horses were placed in comfortable quarters at the " Repository " of a Mr. Quinan, w h o kept livery stables in the neighbourhood of the church. But no small share of the kudos of this expedition was fairly due to its conductor, M r . Charles Kippen, w h o must have tooled his four-in-hand team with exquisite skill to avoid the perils of ruts and ravines, boulders and stumps, creeks, swamps, and rivers on the route. This ancient Jehu was then aged 62. H e was an old Campbelltown follower of Dr. Goold, and, if there were two people in or out of the world in w h o m he thoroughly believed, they were Dr. Goold and St. Patrick. In less than two years after old Charlie quietly passed out of this life at St. Frances' Presbytery, and, as he died on St. Patrick's Day (17th March, 1850), there were not a few people w h o had the simplicity to believe that his Patron Saint had something to do in removing the veteran whip from this wicked world. T h e Bishop's carriage, though it stood the wear and tear of the 600 miles' pulling remarkably well, was considerably knocked about, and was forthwith consigned for a general overhaul to a coach factory in Queen Street, kept by Messrs. Liddy and Passfield. T h e Bishop's installation took place on Sunday, 8th October, 1848, in the presence of the largest congregation ever to that time assembled in a place of worship in Melbourne. M a n y members of other denominations were present, and the ceremony was a grand and imposing one. At half-past 11, the Bishop
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THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.
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