Just had a truly moving experience this morning when i visited the "Briars Park Homestead" on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne link
It is an old homestead, founded around 1840, by William Balcombe, who was the providor for St Helena during Napoleon's imprisonment.
Apparently they became such good friends that Napoleon gave him first pick on his (Napoleon's) belongings when he died.
There are three pieces of very fine furniture that Balcombe chose, all of which look as though they have arrived directly from the Tuileries (via St Helena, of course).
Apparently Napoleon got on very well with the Balcombes, and there is a dining room table on display where he sat and wrote a part of his memoirs.
There are also original sketches made four hours after Napoleon's death which were hurriedly dispatched to British warships to take back to London, and swatches from Napoleon's funereal shroud
I suppose the most moving part, to my mind anyway, is the lithograph of Balcombe's daughters arriving at St Helena and Napoleon in full dress greeting them, with their father just behind him.
Unfortunately, William Balcombe was recalled back to London along the way because (it seems) the authorities were becoming worried about his closeness to Napoleon, which is apparently why he chose to emigrate to Australia.
The Balcombe family have now put this homestead into our National Trust (such as it is).
Thanks to the Balcombe family we have our own small part of Napoleonic history preserved, for a while at least.
They have also replanted vineyards, and have flooded some low-lying areas to attract and preserve local wild-life, but that's another story…
paints the Dogman from the Flintloque starter set.
