‘Resume’. Edward Mills Grace, Downend, 1864’. Maroon leather note book, with colourful marbled end

‘Resume’. Edward Mills Grace, Downend, 1864’. Maroon leather note book, with colourful marbled end papers and page edges, containing a sixty two page account/diary, handwritten by Grace, covering his seeing the Eleven off to England, his return voyage aboard the Steamship ‘Madras’ calling in at King Georges Sound, Galle, Aden, Suez, Alexandria, Malta etc, the period covering 26th April 1864 to the 29th April 1864 and the 26th May 1864 (the day he left Australia) to the 11th July 1864. Grace begins this note book and talks of seeing the Eleven off to England and booking his own passage home... ‘Went into town from Mr Kirk’s by the Brighton railway. Did a few little things for the Eleven. Gave Tarrant a brooch for his wife, and Hayward a little one for his little girl. I did not give any of the others anything except my good wishes. I went down in the steamer with them to wish them good bye. They started punctually to the minute. Most of the ten were very much cut up that I was not coming home with them, especially Tarrant and Tinley. Tarrant very much so I could not help pitying them poor fellow, but there I hope they will get over it ere they reach England. I came back in a little steamer and up to town by train. Found a goodly array of bills waiting for me at Marshall’s which I suppose the people thought that I was off without paying’......’ first went and posted some letters then came back to Marshall’s when it came on to rain most tremendously, so I borrowed an umbrella from Mrs Marshall and went to the P&O Company office to book my passage home by the mail and gave them a cheque for - cricket £74-0-0 as half the fare to Marseilles when I shall have to pay going through France’.... There is then a gap of almost a month before he resumes his diary on the 26th May 1864 onboard ship ‘When we started punctually to the minute for home we had great fun coming up the Bay as the City of Hobart left just after us and tried to catch us but we, that is the Madras, walked away from her in gallant style. In the evening we said, or rather I said, good bye to pleasant Victoria. In the evening I was so sick I went to bed’.....’had a very long talk with Mrs Leigh. She was so pleased to hear that my engagement was broken off [mentioned in the letters sent home by Grace] entirely and absolutely for ever. I like her so much and I flatter myself that she likes me quite as much’...He then mentions the book he is writing of his travels and cricket in Australia and New Zealand ‘Nearly a head wind again but not quite. This is the eventful day on which I first commenced to write my book [the manuscript document being sold as lot 29] which I shall have published immediately on my arrival home’ ..... Grace talks in length of the stopover at King George’s Sound [on the south coast of Western Australia] ‘A large boat came off from the shore and took us at a most reasonable rate of a shilling a head each way. Mr & Mrs Leigh were going to call at a friends so Macfarlane and myself went for a walk inland and gathered some very pretty flowers. After that we were immensely bothered for sixpences and shillings by the natives, blacks who were almost in a state of nature, and now was the time to admire them in their pristine beauty. They had only a kangaroo skin slung over their shoulders for a covering. The men had their right arms loose to throw the boomerang or spear, that is the women had their left arms loose and a bag made of a kangaroo skin slung on their back, most of them carrying a looking glass which is their chief delight to admire themselves. Most of them get a lot of yellow ochre and grease with which they plaster their hair and skins making themselves look more hideous objects than they were before. For my part I do not think that they are one degree removed from monkeys, but these are the worst tribe of Aborigines in the whole continent of Australia. We purchased a boomerang a pace from them for a shilling taking care to rub them well in the sand as they were very greasy and nasty’...... ’We could see range upon range of hills studied here and there with trees but mostly scrub, and turning northward as far as the eye could reach was an immense plain of valueless land it all being one mass of scrubby bush and heath to the end of the horizon. But the ranges looked magnificent, not a single house or cleared bit of ground to relieve the eye either on the plain or hills. Then we came down and thought about getting lunch, which we could not get a very good one. We made best of a bad matter and after we had finished there was a nice piece of flat gravel road in front of the hotel. The natives had followed us down there and one, a strong big active fellow, said he would run any one of us, so as no one else seemed inclined I accepted the challenge for a hundred yards race. I won easily but still for all that the black fellow run pluckily as he put on what he thought was a tremendous spurt at the end’.......’There are about 50 convicts stationed there and some of them are a most vicious looking set of men. It is a capital place for convicts because if they try to escape inland they must starve’..... Back at sea, Grace reflects on his time spent in Australia, his thoughts of home and again talks of writing his book which he intends to publish ‘Last night we had a tremendous wind and heavy sea on. We shipped some awful seas. At one time the deck was a foot deep in water. In the day time it was calmer. It made one or two of us feel very queer but it rained most tremendously hard and blew once or twice and in the afternoon we sighted Cape Lewin and then we said good bye to dear Australia where I had spent one of the happiest 5 months I suppose it will ever fall to my lot to do so again. The people hardly without exception being so very kind to and hospitable to me’....‘Very warm indeed. Had a tremendous storm, it seemed to beat the sea down flat by the quantity of rain that fell in so short a time. I am writing my book from breakfast to dinner, dinner to lunch and lunch to tea every day. Get chaffed immensely about it’....’We have such a motley collection of passengers. Mr Daniel is the Purser on board. How much he would like to come home to have some cricket with me. We are getting along steadily and I am getting along steadily with my work, that is my book. I then have to do up my diary’...... ‘I begin to get an anxious longing to be once more at home among my dear father’s family, but I must not give way to it as I am exceedingly hard at work at present on the great work [book], which I hope will pay. I play whist every evening with Macfarlane, Leigh and Woolnough, that is the only rest I have from working all day, and when the cloth is laid an hour before dinner’..... ‘I have finished my book all except the cricket and voyage home which I shall leave until I get home. I felt very sick indeed today as it commenced to be very rough, but the Captain has not had such a quiet passage at this time of year for sixteen years’.....Grace then talks of a heavy storm causing the ship damage, passing various Islands and arriving in Aden ‘Very rough indeed, I felt so sick again. Too rough to have service in the morning, a whole lot of slight casualties occurred. First of all in heaving the log the line broke close up to the reel, then the rope holding the mizen gaff broke and they had to pull that down. Then the main topmost gaff sail blew into ribbons and kept cracking like a stock whip. Then the fore top sail blew away and all in the space of half an hour, but nothing at all too serious, all the time we were keeping on shipping. Seas on deck but we shall soon now get into calmer waters’..... This description has been edited, please contact the auctioneer for full description.