In this, her third book on old homes, Miss Nesta Griffiths travels much farther afield, into the district called by the great Macquarie 'The New Country'. It was one of the earliest to be settled. The countryside was quickly occupied soon after its discovery, and the pioneers began to build the stately old homes about which Miss Griffiths writes so interestingly ... It is not the brick and stone of the old homes about which Miss Griffiths writes; it is the people who lived in them who claim her interest. Knowing personally the descendants of many of the pioneers she has had the good fortune of being permitted to examine letters and other documentary matter in their possession, and they have also told her many of the traditions of their families which have passed on from generation to generation. (Introduction).