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Plate VII · i · a · The City

Sydney

Two villas on the same harbour, one headland apart, both built by men who spent more than they had.

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A harbour foreshore at dusk seen over a sandstone garden wall and old fig trees
Plate VII · i · a · The Eastern Harbour

Every good house here was put where it is for the view, and every one of them was too expensive.

A day, properly arranged
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Spring, if you can manage it. The second half of this day I have planned but not yet walked.

The entries

One stood in, one still owed.
An empty colonial villa hall with a curved cedar staircase in cold evening light
Interior · the hall, and the stair that ruined him

A staircase far grander than the budget allowed, in a house that never got its portico. I have rarely liked a room more for what it failed to become.

OCTOBER, ELIZABETH BAY
Still on the list in Sydney
Not yet stood in. Kept here so I cannot quietly forget it.
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Notes for the city

Both houses face water and both are best in the morning, before the harbour light turns hard and flattens the rooms. October gave me a warm, clear day at Elizabeth Bay and I would take that weather again without hesitation.

They are a headland apart, which sounds like nothing and is not. Whatever way you go — road, ferry, or a long walk you will enjoy more than you expect — allow the middle of the day for the crossing rather than trying to fold both into one morning.

I have been inside one of the two. Vaucluse I reached on the wrong afternoon and looked at from outside the gate, which is not the same thing and will not be written up as though it were.

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