Pounds.
The first Pound was established on the 13th March, 1839, off Flinders, between Swanston Its keeper was a and Russell Streets, just northward of the Corporation Free Baths. Mr. George Scarborough, who, though he would not take a champion prize for good looks, was a worthy and energetic fellow in his way. H e lived in Melbourne until a few years ago, and often in days of yore had troublous times of it, in his altercations with goat-owning and fowl-loving ladies in their efforts to get impounded live chattels out of his grip, without paying his demands for fees and damage. Ex. gra.:—lt is recorded that on the 4th March, 1846, as Police-Sergeant O'Connor and some constables were driving a mixed herd of about 150 goats, mobilized in Melbourne and suburbs, to the Pound, and whilst the jailer was gleefully making arrangements for the reception of his welcome guests, the owner of a portion of them came to the rescue. She was a Mrs. Neave (a market poultry vendor), and aided only by a chopper which she brandished in a thorough Amazonian fashion, and single-handed, effected a deliverance. For such audacious lawlessness the officer "pulled" her before the Police Court, where she was fined 35s., with 3s. 6d. costs. A monster sale of impounded goats was held 1st February, 1849, w n e n 14° animals were knocked down for £9, though the Poundage fees alone would amount to £30. The Yarra-bank Pound was in a position which left it an easy prey to any unusual flooding of the river, and the keeper was ever in a state of uneasiness as to the probability of a flood. The inundation of December, 1839, swept over the place, and carried off most of the fencing; but as there happened on that day to be only a few temporary sojourners in "limbo," no further injury was done. At the period of the August flood of 1842, the Pound was crowded with a m o b of offending cattle, which had a hairbreadth escape from wholesale drowning ; but Scarborough was just in time with a staff of volunteer drovers to prevent the disaster by transferring the prisoners to a large yard attached to the Caledonian Hotel, in Lonsdale Street, a short way from the south-west corner of Swanston Street, where an asylum was found well above any probable flood mark. This led to the removal of the Pound from contiguity with the river, to west of the Old Cemetery, near the corner of Capel Street.
A MARVELLOUS MAGPIE.
There was for a time attached to the original Pound, as an aide-de-camp of the keeper, a member of the Ornithological tribe, a special favourite with the Pound habitues, from his liveliness of disposition, recklessness of habits, and looseness of tongue. It was a magpie, and such were the gifts natural and acquired of this wonderful bird, that he got to be known as "The Professor," though such an Institution as an University was about the remotest thing to be thought of. The biped had received a limited education, not taught at a Sunday-school, for his language was very bad, and his phrases, though choice, were extremely inelegant. H e picked up a little of the worst slang'from the ex-convict bullock-drivers and stockmen with w h o m he consorted, could fly into a public-house and call for "beer," and when a bar toper would oblige him, the "Professor" had the human accomplishment not disdained by some modern Professors of getting intoxicated, and when so muddled behaving in a very ungentlemanly manner indeed. Occasionally he would sink into the besotted condition that would justify a policeman in locking him up, not only as a drunken and disorderly But as he could not by even the character, but for using blasphemous and obscene language. longest stretch of legal ingenuity, be regarded as a "person" within the meaning of the Town's Police Act then in force, he possessed an immunity from the watch-house which he sadly abused. O n e Sunday forenoon the " Professor," through a desire to shake off the effects of a heavy spree, started from the Pound for a stroll up the Yarra. Captain Lonsdale resided in a comfortable cottage, at the western end of Yarra Park, then known as the Government Paddock. T h e inmates, with the exception of the lady of the mansion and a maid-servant, had gone to church, vv
