payable in advance. His wife backed him up by tendering her services " to the ladies of Melbourne," by intimating her readiness to receive into her family "eight young ladies as boarders, whose improvements in all the branches of useful and ornamental education will form her anxious careHer private residence will be situated within an easy distance of the town. Terms, including instruction in French, music, drawing, & c , eighty guineas per annum, payable quarterly in advance." T h e result of this joint speculation of the Braims does not appear to have corresponded with their expectations. Braim floated his notion in a small brick building erected as thefirstWesleyan Chapel, at the north-west corner of Swanston and Little Flinders Streets ; but the boys requisite to make it remunerate did not respond, and the Braims soon disappeared, T. H . having accepted the head-mastership of Sydney College. Sydney College must have reciprocated in some measure, for at the same time its late classical master, Mr. David Boyd, started a school in Lonsdale Street West, where "the system of education comprised all the necessary and ornamental branches of a polite education." T h e T h o m a s Stevenson previously referred to did so well that he was emboldened to take his wife into partnership, and go in for a Ladies' Boarding School. M r . W . H . Yaldwyn, a merchant, occupied a commodious brick cottage in Eastern Russell Street, which was vacated on his departure for Europe. T h e Stevensons became tenants, and here Mrs. S. catered for the corporal and intellectual necessities of the few fair young blossoms entrusted to her care. A s a guarantee of the matron's qualifications was cited " her long experience in teaching, having been more than seven years assistant in Mrs. Nicholl's school, at Chester." T h e Stevensons continued in business for several years, and " T o m " ultimately was transformed into an account collector, a position in which he acquired an eminence. Towards the end of 1839, a M r . John Macgregor, a surveyor, emigrated with his family to Port Phillip, with the intention of following his profession. Circumstances interposed to thwart this intention, and " M a c " early in the following year betook himself to school-keeping in premises in West Bourke Street, in the vicinity of the spot which in after time obtained a colonial celebrity as Kirk's Bazaar. H e soon shifted his quarters to Little Collins Street, eastward of the present Police Court, and was joined in partnership by the Campbell already noted as connected with the Scots' School, from which he retired. T h e firm of Campbell and Macgregor turned out several good boys, some of w h o m m a d e a mark in after colonial life. T h e most noticeable of this group was " Y o u n g John," son of the old Macgregor, for a length of time a Melbourne solicitor, w h o in the course of a brief but energetic political career, sat as a m e m b e r of the Legislative Assembly, held office as a Minister of the Crown, and died in March, 1884. " O l d John " was called to his fathers years agone, but Robert Campbell, as the colony prospered, and Melbourne suburbs were fashionably populated, flew away to the clear air and bracing breezes of St. Kilda, where he conducted with m u c h ability a high-class school. I have frequently heard him kindly spoken of by quondam pupils, w h o testify to the conscientious earnestness and unquestionable efficiency which stamped his preceptorial career. In April, 1840, Mrs. Baylie, whose husband kept a medical establishment in Collins Street, announced herself as ready to "devote attention to the education of a select number of young ladies, in French, English, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history. Terms : ,£3 3 s. per quarter, with French as an extra £1 u s . 6d." Mrs. Dixon opened a few yards off at the same rates with the addition of music as a specialty at three guineas quarterly. A Miss Blackmore about Christmas issued a highly spiced advertisement, in which she " proposes opening a Seminary for young ladies in the town of Melbourne, in all the branches of genteel education." She would have accommodation for six boarders, and a limited number of day scholars. Every attention would be paid to the comfort, as well as the religious and moral improvement of her pupils. T h e school was to open on the 5 th January, 1841, in Russell Street, adjoining the residence of Mr. Ocock, Solicitor. A s a sample of the manner in which preceptresses of thefirstrank of the period charged, I append Miss Blackmore's "Bill of Costs " for a quarter :— English, Grammar, History, Geography, Writing, Arithmetic, iXx. ... ... Music ... ... ,. ,. French ... ... ,. ,..
£*
» o 2 2 0 2 2 0
Dancing ... Use of the Globes ... Board, including washing
... ... ...
... ... ...
Each boarder to bring a silver teaspoon and fork and six towels. Entrance-Five guineas
£1 1 o 1 1 o 10 10 o
