'What a set of Radicals you must be in your new settlement, on looking over the names of the streets to be found in the town of Adelaide I see O'Connell St., Grote St., etc., etc., which bear a strong stamp of Radicalism ...'

O'Connell Street was named after Daniel O'Connell, radical Irish MP, whose activism was instrumental in ending anti-Catholic legislation and who advocated free trade, prison reform, universal suffrage and the abolition of slavery. Grote Street was named after George Grote, historian, Utilitarian and 'Philosophical Radical,' a member of British Parliament from 1832 to 1841. Both men were advocates of the controversial and ill fated Reform Bill of 1831 - an attempt to reform the British Parliament.

The cross writing employed by Eliza made reading the correspondence difficult but was employed to save money on expensive paper and postage which was customary at the time.

This letter is featured on Australia Post's Letters of a Nation website.

Symonds, Eliza
Symonds, Richard Gilbert, 1810-1896

Johnson, Donald Leslie, The Adelaide city plan: fiction and fact Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1986

Loyau, George E. Notable South Australians or colonists: past and present, Adelaide, S. Aust.: G.E. Loyau, 1885

Jennings, Helen Young Bingham Hutchinson (1806-70) and the foundation of South Australia Adelaide: Pioneers' Association of South Australia, 1991

Kwan, Elizabeth. Living in South Australia: a social history, Netley, S. Aust.: South Australian Government Printer, 1987

Manning, G A colonial experience, 1838-1910 : a woman's story of life in Adelaide, the District of Kensington and Norwood together with reminiscences of colonial life Underdale, S. Aust. : Gillingham Printers, 2001

Baker, Penelope A. Position of women in South Australia 1836-1876. Thesis B.A. Hons, University of Adelaide, 1977.

Jones, Helen. In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836. Rev. and updated ed. Kent Town, Wakefield Press, 1994.

Greater than their knowing: a glimpse of South Australian women 1836-1986. Netley, Wakefield Press, 1986.

Australia Post: Letters of a Nation

State Library of South Australia, General Information Factsheets Online: Religion in South Australia

State Library of South Australia, General Information Factsheets Online: Women in South Australia