Spencer Lodge - Millers Point

 Spencer Lodge - Millers Point

HISTORIC HOUSES OF N.S. WALES.

IV.— SPENCER LODGE, MILLER'S POINT.

(For the 'Sunday Times' — By MARY SALMON.)

The picture of Spencer Lodge as it ap-pears to-day does not present a building in accordance with our present idea of a gentleman's residence, but those who knew Sydney a little over fifty years ago have many stories to tell of the

pleasant time they have spent with hos-pitable Captain Lamb and his wife, when a family of handsome daughters and bright happy sons gathered under the roof of the home at Miller's Point, which was the rendezvous for naval officers visiting this port. To-day the old homestead still serves a useful purpose, as a Casualty Ward and outdoor department of the Sydney hos-

pital, and is convenient as being near the wharves and the large warehouses where accidents are of likely occurrence. The garden grounds are much curtailed from the olden days, only a tree or two standing, where once there were lawns, rosaries, and plantations of flowering shrubs. Whilst the bare walls remain, the building is shorn of everything that would suggest an old family mansion ; but there is one thing that can never be taken away — the glorious panoramic view of sea and land stretching in an uninterrupted vista for miles beyond. Balmain, Cockatoo, the openings of Iron Cove, Lane Cove, and the Parramatta River, are in the distance. Immediately beneath are the ship-ridden waters of Darling Harbor ; in the days of the Lamb's residence these were known as Cockle Creek. Further round towards Dawes' Point was the old wharf, now re-constructed under the Harbor Trust, known in early times as Lamb and Buchanan's Wharf, where the Captain brought his brig Resource, laden with merchandise and carrying as passengers his wife and a couple of little ones. It was this shipment of goods that started the firm as merchants, and from which

the large and important house of Par-bury and Lamb has evolved. Although Captain Lamb came to Syd-ney as a permanent settler in 1829, yet it was by no means his first visit to our beautiful harbor, which was well known to him from occasional voyages when in an East Indiaman after he had retired from the navy. A few words concerning the early career of one of the FOUNDERS OF THE COUNTRY'S COMMERCE may be of interest. Captain John Lamb was born in 1790, and when only 11 years of age, in 1801, entered the navy, when he is said to have served under Bligh,

previous to that boisterous but valiant commander being made Governor of New South Wales. Governor Gipps was also an early friend, as in 1813, when Mr. George Gipps was engineer officer in charge on the east coast of Spain, young Lamb was put in command of some sol-diers to place guns in position there. When in 1837 they met again in New South Wales, there was much to be recalled of their midtime career, and a firm cementing of the friendship begun just before the Peace of Europe was signed, when Captain Lamb retired from the navy, on half pay, as Com-mander. He then went into the mer-chant marine service, and used to tell how he was OFFERED NEARLY THE WHOLE OF WOOLLOOMOOLOO as a grant if he would settle here, but he said Sydney itself would not have tempted him in those days. However, when he married Miss Emma Robinson (daughter of the deputy chair-man at Lloyd's for fifty years), he began to think that a family might have great chances in a new country, and thither he sailed in his own vessel, which he filled with goods likely to be salable to start business in Sydney. A stone bearing the date 1833 is in the ground adjacent to the homestead of Spencer Lodge, therefore it may be pre-sumed the family took possession soon after they arrived. In the early fifties old residents remember visiting the Lambs there, and some old-timers assert that Dr. Bland afterwards lived in the house, when, in 1855, Captain Lamb and his wife returned to the old country,

leaving part of a grown up family behind. The Captain did not intend to return to Australia, building a house at Clap-ham Park, but the ties of 26 years of active life were too strong, and he re-turned to Sydney, where, until his death in 1862, he served his country as a mem-ber of the Legislative Council, and in other honorable capacities. In a corner of Randwick Cemetery rests both Captain John Lamb, R.N., and, four-teen years afterwards, his wife, leaving a large family of seven sons and five daughters to carry on life in the State where their parents had come almost as pioneer settlers. Many of the family have passed on — Mr. Walter Lamb, of Woodstock, Philip, a squatter in Queens-land, Edward William, John De Villiers, Alfred, and Charles, are all held by old colonists in affectionate remembrance. Lieut. Chatfield, Commander Simpson, Mr. Archibald Bell Cox, Mr. Henry Carey Dangar, and Mr. Henry Thompson married the Misses Lamb. It was a difficult matter for merchants

in the depressed forties to keep from losing any moneys that the good years previously had given them. Squatting was ONLY IN ITS INFANCY, and outside of a pastoral life there was little means of accumulating wealth. Captain Lamb went through the ups and downs of a merchant's life, and though he may not always have been affluent, was looked on as invariably honorable and straightforward, both in business and in his political career. With the dis-

covery of gold in 1852 came a great change in fortunes, and in 1855 the Cap-tain went out of business with a large amount of money. It was not the man who found nuggets of gold as a rule who was permanently enriched, but he who left the gold-getting to others and stuck by the business he had in hand. Mer-chandise went up, ships were in great re-quisition, houses could not be got at treble rents, and workmen's wages in-creased. Those who had battled through the previous years of depression reaped rich harvests of profit. In the present day when we are so in touch with the world outside, that what happens in London or St. Petersburg comes to us in a few hours, when our mail bags arrive with unfailing regularity every week, it is difficult to realise what commercial life was to men in the days when there was no cable, not even an organised mail service, when newspapers and letters came from the old world in

the casual and uncertain arrival of mer-chant sailing vessels, which took three months or more from London or Liver-pool to Melbourne or Sydney. Even then there was a great casualness about let-ters reaching their proper owners, and orders transmitted to British firms might receive attention if no better way of disposing of goods than supplying the colonies turned up. It was in such days that Merchant Lamb had to struggle until the elysian times that the finding of gold brought to the country. When the city of Sydney had an extra member allowed to represent it in the Council (about 1847) prior to Responsible Government in 1856, Captain Lamb was elected with Wentworth and Lowe, Dr. Bland, who had always been the col-league of Wentworth, being at the bottom of the poll. Captain Lamb (though, per-haps, lacking the mentality of his com-peers) was a popular favorite, and had the respect of everyone, so when three members were appointed, instead of two, for the city, Captain Lamb got a seat. But it was as AN ANTI-TRANSPORTATION AGITATOR that he made his mark, and there are some still living who will remember the great gathering at Circular Quay on June 8, 1849, when the Hashemy arrived with its cargo of unwanted convicts, and over 8000 men gathered in tho pouring rain to listen to Robert Campbell, John Lamb, a young man named Henry Parkes, and others, speak for hours from the top of a bus to the effect that no more con-victs were to be forced upon New South Wales. "We will allow this lot to land, but no more" was the verdict ; and it was Captain Lamb and Mr. Chas. Cowper (young also then, and a coming on man), who took the resolution along to Govern-ment House. Later on the two men were again to be associated, when Captain Lamb was one of the directors of THE FIRST RAILWAY COMPANY, and Mr. Chas. Cowper was chairman of the same. We have just been interested in the Jubilee of the wreck of the Dunbar, and the youth of to-day can scarcely realise that the loss of a single vessel could have caused so profound a sensation throughout the community as did this shipwreck on August 20, 1857. But it must be remembered that Sydney was only a quarter the size, and every man was an individual of particular value in the then youthful settlement. Captain Lamb, as Chairman of the Marine Board, went to the "Gap" with a steamer to try to rescue some of the unfortunate passengers, or, failing to get any alive, he had a number of coffins in which to place such bodies as could be recovered. The Lodge, in Macleay-street, built for, and lived in by Col. Treasurer Rid-dell, is another house associated with the Lambs, whilst the beautiful castle at Potts Point, with its embattled turrets, has long been the home of Mrs. H. C. Dangar (Miss Lucy Lamb, one of tho "toasts" of Sydney Society of years ago). Woodstock, Rooty Hill, was where Mr. Walter Lamb carried on fruit pre-serving, and had a fine estate, but to "old-timers" the Lambs and Spencer Lodge, Miller's Point, will always be in-timately associated. Captain Lamb was not a racing man, but he imported some fine horses. Among these were Peter Fin, Cutty Sark, and Spaewife. They were from the stables of Sir William Maxwell, of Ayrshire, one of the greatest sportsmen of his day. The glory of Miller's Point, as a fine

residential quarter, has long departed; but there are as well as Spencer Lodge, many other old built mansions which even in their decay, speak loudly of having been the ancestral halls of some important families of the past. So, some are, however, entirely effaced, for in-stance, Mr. William Walker's House (uncle of the late Thomas Walker, of Concord), which stood where Milton Ter-race now is a conspicuous object. Mr. Walker was a canny Scotchman, who left his native land with money, deter-mined not to lose "baubees" in the new country. When he returned to Scot-land it was as a very wealthy man. A story told by the late Mr. Thomas Walker shows the foresight of the original found-er of the family, "I was sent overland with a dray, laden with provisions, in which were packed many sovereigns, to be in time for the FIRST MELBOURNE LAND SALE. The Government would not take bills. We had a pleasant, though lengthy, trip over, coming across nothing more formid-able than blacks, to whom the food was more temptation than the gold. Yes, we were in at the sale, and the land bought then laid the foundation of the great fortune gained by me when com-paratively an elderly man."

SPENCER LODGE, MILLER'S POINT.