Rachel Henning's letters to family members, written from England and Australia between 1853 and 1882, did not appear in print until they were serialized in the Australian periodical The Bulletin by its editor, David Adams, from August 1951 to January 1952; they were first published in book form in 1952. The letters are now a widely published and distributed Australian classic as well as an important historical document offering a wealth of information on pioneering domestic life from a middle-class, Anglo-oriented viewpoint. Henning records her experiences in Australia-describing landscape, social attitudes, household tasks, the "servant problem," gardening, and the difficulties of maintaining a fashionable appearance in the bush. The letters are also a significant record of literary history: in her own reading Henning sought to keep abreast of current English fiction and poetry, so a keen literary sensibility informs her writing. Readers can observe, moreover, the author's gradual changes in attitude as a result of her colonial experience. Born in Bristol, England, in 1826 to Rachel Lydia (nee Biddulph) and Charles Wansburgh Henning, an Anglican clergyman, Rachel Biddulph Henning was the eldest of five surviving children. After her father's death in 1840, followed by that of her mother in 1845, Rachel at nineteen was left the virtual head of the family. Her brother, Biddulph, who suffered a hemorrhage of the lungs in 1852, was persuaded to immigrate to Australia for his health, and Rachel's letters began in 1853, when he set sail with their sister Annie. Henning joined them in