Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 227

Transcript

James Wood, a saddler arrived here about 1862, from Melbourne and opened a shop between the Empire & the corner. He was a clever, versatile, sort of man. Good as a tradesman, I believe a fine judge of a horse, and an amusing man with a lot of anecdote and a talent for making ridiculous sketches and putting them up in his shop window. Old St. Quintin, the window ornamenter was his special mark. He seemed to detest him. One of his weaknesses was Brahma Pootras and he kept a farm of them on a section in Hereford Street. They made such an infernal cock crow, that the neighbours were going for an injunction. Then he turned them into capons, and fattened them up for market.

To Mr Wood people were indebted for compelling Lane’s mill to make a raised footpath, as a protection on the old rackety Dray Mill bridge.

Dr Wood, Sixties Bernard Simpson, Sixties. The original partner of H. Marks, the money lender. James Tait, sixties