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properties. During that year he rode nearly six thousand miles. He always stayed several days at each place he visited and his visits included many hours spent in shepherds' huts and talking to the shepherds as they guarded the flocks in remote areas. After his marriage his wife odten accompanied him on these visits.

On 19 June 1850 while he was living at Bungonia, he was married by his father at Cobbitty to Frances Anna Marina Emma Dixon (born at sea on 1 January 1826), the youngest daughter of Captain Francis Francis Dixon, whose wife was John Oxley's sister. Frances' parents died when she was young so she was brought up by the Oxleys and spent much time at their property, Kirkhaum, Camden, not far from Thomas Hassall's Denbigh. (Much later James and Frances Hassall were to establish their home in Brisbane, called Matavai, at Corinda overlooking Oxley Creek, named after her uncle, John Oxley, who charted the Brisbane River).

In the parsonage grounds he grew wheat and oats so that he could feed his family and keep his horses in good condition. He was so highly thought of in the district that he was often helped with the harvesting by his neighbours, not all of whom were members of his flock. He became quite expert at killing his own sheep.

While he was at Bungonia, James Hassall was visited by reverend W.B. Clarke, the Colony's first geologist, who was on tour of inpsection of the southern goldfields. Clarke went with Hassall to the nearby Bungonia Caves and entered the Drum cave:
"The Rev. W.B. Clarke's main object. in coming to Bungonia. was to explore the Shoalhaven gullies which pass within five miles of the place. So I dorve him out with his man and his paraphernalia. His first delight was to collect fossils from the mass of limestone in which they were abounded. Then we went to see one of the caves, existing there as is usual in limestone country. The one we entered was a deep crevice in the limestone that i had often visited with picnic parties. On one of these visits I tied several candles to a stick with a number of branches, lit them and lowered them with a long string. The crevice was about five feet wide, but as the light descended some feet we found it shine up dfar behind us, showing that we were standing, simply, on a stone or rock, jammed in the crevice, whic h might five way with our weight at any moment. The ladies of our party were out of the cave at a bound. I could reach not bottom with my string. Mr Clarke measured the perpendicular fall by counting the time that stones took in falling, and estimated the depth at seven hundred feet. The river was considered to be fifteen hundred feet below us, so that the crevice would not extend more than halfway down."

The Hassall's first two children were born at Bungonia but they moved from there partly because the gold rushes made it difficult to get servants and James Hassall worried that his wife and growing family would have no protection when he was away on his travels around the