"This little book is founded on a Paper read, in 1878, at the Dublin meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It consists of a narrative of events in a journey through one of the least-visited parts of the world, and a record of what was seen of a Court and its surroundings, in which pomp and barbarism are strangely blended"--Preface.

This book addresses on English life in the city of Melbourne. They cover a period commencing with the earlier gold discoveries, and they close with the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to the colony, in the year 1868.