Title

Early Melbourne pictures. A historic find. [etching plates by Henry Gilbert Jones]

Author

Harris, Edgar c.

Source

Herald (Melbourne) 3 January 1840 - 5 October 1990.

Details

27 November 1937, page 37.

Publication date

27 November 1937

Physical description

illustrated: 2 black and white

Type

Article

Language

English

Country of context

Australia

Full text

Early Melbourne Pictures A Historic "Find"

By EDGAR C. HARRIS

THE recent discovery of a number of

etchings depicting Melbourne in the

first ten years of its existence has re-

vealed the work of an artist hitherto un-

known to our historians. No historical

records, so far as is known, make any men-

tion of the work of Henry Gilbert Jones; yet this

artist, who arrived in Melbourne within five years

of its foundation, left behind him some of the most

charming pictures of our early buildings and

thoroughfares.

Hidden away in an old trunk, a worn leather sat-

chel was discovered containing copper plates in a

fine state of preservation which, when experimental

prints were taken from them, revealed a delightful

series of etchings of Melbourne between the years

1840-45. There are twelve plates in all, depicting

four of our early churches, namely, the Independent

Chapel, Scots Kirk, the Wesleyan Chapel and the

Catholic Chapel (now St Francis Church), a view

of "Collins Street from the West"; Elizabeth Street;

Bourke Street East, showing the White Hart Inn;

the Wharf, complete with paddle steamer and Fawk-'

ner's Hotel on the hill where the A.M.P. Building

stands today; the Wharf and River Yarra from Bat

man's Hill; the Signal Station; the old Government

offices from Batman's Hill, and the first wooden

Bridge over the Yarra completed in 1846, where

Princes Bridge stands today.

This alone constitutes a discovery of the first

historical importance, but there was more to come.

Further search unearthed an exquisite lithograph of

Bourke Street East in 1848, a small pen drawing of

Bourke Street at the corner of Stephen Street (now

Exhibition Street) about 1846, and a large copper

plate of an aboriginal corroboree.

The leather satchel, the flap of which fastened

with two white bone buttons is lined with paper

on which had been written instructions for compos-

ing an essay, and bears the inscription "H. G. Jones,

Nov. 16, 1837."

A FURTHER search in the limbo of the past dis-

closed a batch of old faded and tattered papers,

where the ink is sometimes so faded as to be almost

indecipherable, covering the years 1836-85, which

throws further light on the life of Henry Gilbert

Jones. He was by profession an apothecary, brother-

in-law of D. R. Long, another chemist who came to

Melbourne in the early forties and established himself

in Bourke Street East, where a business bearing his

name was carried on until a few years ago.

We learn that Jones was born in Cardiff in 1804,

that his relatives by birth and marriage lived in

Witney and Bath, and that he wont to the United

States in 1836. A faded letter on four foolscap pages

from D. R. Long followed him about America in 1836.

This interesting manuscript gives him news of his

family and the affairs of Bath at that time, and

begs him to “take sketches of that which appears

most pleasing ... it will add to the pleasure of

knowing what has come under your observation.”

An injunction which Jones later obeyed in Mel

bourne. There is also an inquiry as to the prospects

of emigrating to America "for a hard working man

of small capital." Long apparently abandoned the

idea of going to America, for he preceded Jones to

Melbourne, where the latter arrived in 1840.

There is a tiny piece of paper which, speaks volumes

for the mode of travel in those days. It is an invi-

tation reading: 'Captain Burns requests the pleasure

of Mr Jones's company this evening to supper on

the poop of the Himalaya— 9 o'clock. 21 July 1840."

So did the emigrant lighten the tedium of the long

sea journey in those far off days. Another letter

is written to Long from Witney. His cousin Maria

is the writer, the date November 28, 1842.

It contains family news, but is in a sad state of

disrepair, faded and water-stained and torn where

the seals had been broken. There were no envelopes

used for any of these old letters. They were just

folded and the address inscribed on the small space

not already written upon. She mentions some seeds

sent by Jones which had been planted and "came up

a kind of marigold. They are in blossom now. We

value them very much." She asks for news of

Henry, who was at this time quite settled in Port

Phillip, having already been appointed "Medical

Dispenser to the Aboriginal Natives of Melbourne or

Western Port District," as the faded document states.

This paper is signed by the famous George Augustus

Robinson, and the appointment carried the princely

salary of "three shillings per diem, with a single

ration."

THE next relic in point of time is a letter addressed

from "Smoky Hall, Misery Plain," and bears the

oval postmark of "Geelong, New South Wales, Sept.

1, 1845," It is from one John Scott, and tells a tale

of woe; not without a touch of humor, however, for

the writer says "understanding from your letter that

you were laying the foundation of a monastery, with

a nunnery in perspective. I hope to be received into

one or the other, the latter would be preferred

which being in your gift you cannot surely deny me."

There is much philosophising, and instructions for

writing by return and sending the letter "by Mr

Crockett, of the late firm of Willoughby and Crockett,

grocers, Melbourne, and should you loose the oppor-

tunity … address to the care of Messrs Gibbs and

Anderson, Bolac Plains, Salt Creek, Portland Bay

District."

A frail and faded scrap of paper carries the story

a stage further. This is an account for printing 100

each of the 12 etchings at 4/ per 100. This yellowed

document bears the name of "J. Green, Engraver

and copper-plate Printer, Little Collins Street, near

Queen Street, Melbourne," and is embellished with

delicate scroll work. It is believed that Jones used

the etchings to adorn his letter paper, though no

trace of any of it has been found.

NEXT comes a copy apparently made some years

later of the title to 93 acres of land at Eltham

to where Jones retired in 1850, after being dis-

appointed in love. There he built himself a log hut

where he spent the rest of his days more or less in

seclusion.

A small photograph taken in the sixties or seven

ties shows a bearded old man with long hair.

The last link in the chain is a black edged letter

dated January 31, 1885, from Jones at Yarra Yarra,

Eltham, to "My very dear Sister Helen," D. R. Long's

widow. This is a graceful letter of three. pages men-

tioning flowers— honeysuckle and woodbine — sent

from Eltham to her at Hampden Villa. He says,

"Harry brought you some beginning to fade, of a

golden hue, instead of white, but as I thought still

beautiful. . . Fading blossoms and seeming suggested

thereby 'Decay's defacing fingers have traced the

lines where beauty lingers'— I hope they were not

quite withered."

Toward the end of the letter he 'speaks of loneli

ness. "Christmas and New Year weeks were the,

or among the most lonely and desolate as all Holyday

times are." And so this old man, now 81, passes out

of our knowledge. He died shortly afterwards, but

has left for future generations a series of pictures of

Melbourne in its infancy which must form an im-

portant part of our historical heritage.

[Herald (Melbourne), 27 November 1837, page 37] Click here for full text

Last Updated

03 Aug 2023