27th February, 1864, and 17th February, 1866. These form
the first favourable pronouncement upon Australian poetry
by an English critical journal of importance. Their stimulating effect
upon Kendall was very great. From the indifference of the many
and the carping criticisms of some of the magnates here,
he had appealed to one of the highest literary authorities in England,
and received praise beyond his wildest expectations.

Meanwhile the colony of Victoria, which began its independent career in 1851,
had been advancing even more rapidly than New South Wales.
`The Argus' newspaper had been in existence since 1846, and other periodicals
sprang up in Melbourne which gave further scope to letters.
`The Australasian' was established in 1854, and soon became
the most important literary journal in Australia. Adam Lindsay Gordon,
who had landed in Adelaide in the same year as Henry Kingsley -- 1853 --
published a little book of verse in 1864 at Mt. Gambier, S.A.,
and began to contribute verses to a Melbourne sporting paper in 1866.
These were printed anonymously, and attracted some attention;
but a collection of his ballads -- "Sea Spray and Smoke Drift" --
brought very little praise and no profit. Marcus Clarke came to Melbourne
in 1864, and soon afterwards began to write for `The Argus' and other papers.
About the same time the presence of R. H. Horne, the distinguished author
of "Orion", in Melbourne lent a lustre to that city,
which was for the time the literary centre of Australia.
Horne corresponded with Kendall, and contributed to a paper
edited by Deniehy in Sydney -- `The Southern Cross' (1859-60).
He was the presiding genius of the literary gatherings
at Dwight's book-shop in Melbourne, and no doubt exercised
a beneficial influence upon the writers around him.