The ride through the scattered village of Guildford, with a view of
the rich and extensive flats of Woodbridge, the property of Sir James
Stirling, and the frequent bends of the river, is a very agreeable
one. The whole country of the middle and upper Swan resembles a vast
English park. We passed the pretty country church of the Middle
Swan, with its modest parsonage beside it, and then proceeded through
wooded ravines along a pleasant drive to one of the most hospitable
mansions in the colony. Extensive stables, barns and out-buildings
occupied the back of the premises. As it was now too late in the
evening to see much of the surrounding scenery, we entered the house
of Samuel Moore, Esq., and sat down to an excellent dinner. In the
evening we had music -- pianos are as common in Western Australia as
in England. At night I occupied a sofa in the parlour. The
excitement and novelty of my present situation -- so many thousands
of leagues removed from the spot on which, only a few months before,
I had deemed I was to spend my life -- kept me wakeful; and about one
o'clock I arose, and opening the French window, stepped out into the
verandah. How solemn was the scene before me, faintly lighted by the
moon! In front of the house was a pretty sloping garden, and below
this stretched a broad clearing, now waving with corn, amidst which
rose up a number of scattered, lofty, dead trees, which had been
purposely killed by ringing the bark. How mournful they looked in
that gloomy light!

The river bounded this clearing, and beyond the river stretched its
high bank, covered with forest trees, the advanced lines, as it were,
of the vast wilderness which lay behind. From out the depths of
those woods rose the occasional shrieks of an owl, or other night
bird, and at intervals the long dismal howl of a wild dog -- the only
carnivorous animal indigenous in that country. The air was balmy,