My Early Days (Canterbury Settlement 1854-1879). By Ellen Shephard Tripp

My Early Days BY Ellen Shephard Tripp.

Printed by Whitcombe & Tombs, New Zealand, undated. Circa 1929 revised edition with extra plates (Bagnall T736) VERY SCARCE.

Card booklet in very good condition, vertical crease to front and back covers. Minor wear and marks. Owner's bookplate pasted inside front cover. Inscription dated 1933 to ffep 'To DR HIGHT, (rector of Canterbury College) from A H Johnstone', a little light creasing otherwise pages very good. 21 pages with b&w plates.

Family, the voyage out, marriage and life at Mt Peel and Orari Gorge. Extract: "We lived at Mortimer, in Berkshire, until 1856, when my father (Bishop Harper) was made first Bishop of Christchurch. My father, mother and ten children, left for New Zealand on 10th September, 1856, in the sailing ship Egmont, leaving my two brothers, George and Paul, at Eton. My elder brothers, Leonard and Charley, had gone to the Colony two years previously with Bishop Selwyn. "We had a splendid passage, and landed in Lyttelton on December 23rd, 1856, walking over the Port Hills by the Bridle Track. We girls each carried small bundles containing our best bonnets and finery. My mother and the youngest girl rode the same horse. My father, Bishop Selwyn, and my brothers walked, pushing and pulling a handcart, on which was our bedding, etc. Ellen Shephard, third daughter of Bishop Harper married TRIPP, Charles George who was a Canterbury runholder. Along with J. B. A. Acland, he applied for, and was allotted, certain areas which were afterwards known as Mount Somers, Mount Possession, Mount Peel, and Orari Gorge, besides part of Mesopotamia and Hakatere. By 1857 they had 1,100 sheep on Mount Peel.

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