lerably respectable. My hostess was shocked at my tattered, wet
plight, and dried me, and dressed me up till I was quite smart, and then
we had a very pleasant day, and, best of all, came home by a different
road, so as to avoid the slippery descent and the rivers in the dark;
but I still mourn for my habit!-it was my last. Three have disappeared,
owing to unfortunate accidents, this year, and now I am reduced to what
can be contrived out of a linsey dress.

Letter XXIV: My only fall from horseback.

Broomielaw, June 1868. The autumn has passed away so quickly that I can
hardly believe the winter has reached us so soon--the last winter we
shall spend in New Zealand. I should like to have been able to boast, on
my return to England, that in three years' constant riding, on all sorts
of horses, good, bad, and indifferent, and over abominable roads, I had
escaped a fall; but not only have I had a very severe one, but it was
from my own favourite Helen, which is very trying to reflect upon.
However, it was not in the least her fault, or mine either; so she and I
are still perfectly good friends.

We had been spending two days up at Lake Coleridge, as a sort of
farewell visit, and on our way down again to Rockwood, a distance of
about twenty miles, we stopped to lunch, by invitation, at a station
midway. There was so much to be seen at this place that we loitered
much longer than was prudent in the short days, and by the time we
had thoroughly inspected a beautiful new wool-shed with all the latest
improvements (from which F---- could hardly tear himself away), the
fish-ponds elaborately arranged for the reception of the young trout
expected from Tasmania and the charming garden well sheltered by a grove
of large wattle-trees, it was growing dusk, and we prepared to push on
as fast as possible; for nothing is more disagreeable than being caught
in the dark on a New Zealand track, with its creeks and swamps and wire
fences: the last are the most dangerous obstacles, if you get off the
track, or if the gate through the fence has been placed for convenience
a few yards on one side of it; the horses cannot see the slender wires
in the dark, and so fall over them, injuring themselves and their riders
most seriously sometimes. Having still about eight miles to go, we were
galloping gaily over a wide open plain, our only anxiety arising from
the fast failing daylight; but the horses were still quite fresh, and,
as the Fre