Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 28 June 1941, page 10


THE EDITOR'S POST BAG

LA TROBE'S HOUSE

Mrs. R. A. Watson, Lyons st., Williamstown, writes-I, too, was surprised to see in your Weekend Magazine that Governor La Trobe's cottage had been removed from Jolimont. This is incorrect. My father was related to Governor La Trobe, and his daughter wrote to me up till her last illness from her home in East-bourne, Sussex, England. The name is also spelt incorrectly. Her letters were always signed Eleanor La Trobe.

In a letter from her dated December, 1933, she tells me her age then was 92, and later, in acknowledging some views I sent her of Williamstown, she says: "I was very interested in your views of Williamstown, so different from what I remember, only a bare beach and a few houses; not a tree."

When Mr. Bedggood bought Governor La Trobe's house he wrote to me and told me he had framed a letter he re-ceived from Miss La Trobe and attached it to the cottage.

This is probably what Mr. A. T. Latham refers to in his letter. In St. James's Old Cathedral, Melbourne, there is a christening font that was presented by Governor La Trobe. He got it from an old church in England that was removed to make room for extension (or erection) of the London docks.