RETURN TO MELBOURNE
Before the evening of Wednesday the 20th, we passed through Kyneton,
and found ourselves in the little village of Carlshrue, where we passed
the night. Here is a police-station, a blacksmith's, a few stores and
some cottages, in one of which we obtained a comfortable supper and
beds. A lovely view greeted us at sunrise. Behind us were still
towering the lofty ranges of Mount Alexander, before us was Mount
Macedon and the Black Forest. This mountain, which forms one of what is
called the Macedon range, is to be seen many miles distant, and on a
clear, sunny day, the purple sides of Mount Macedon, which
stands aloof as it were, from the range itself, are distinctly visible
from the flag-staff at Melbourne.
We had intended to have stopped for the night in Kyneton, but the
charges there were so enormous that we preferred pushing on and taking
our chance as to the accommodation Carlshrue could afford, nor did we
repent the so doing.
The following are the Kyneton prices. A meal or bed - both bad - 4s; a
night's stabling, one pound ten shillings per horse; hay at the rate of
9d. a pound; this is the most exorbitant charge of all.
Hay was somewhere about 20 pounds a ton in Melbourne. The carriage of it
to Kyneton, now that the fine weather was setting in, would not exceed 8
pounds a ton at the outside, which would come to 28 pounds.
