Obed West

[6] It was said that the property remained, at West's death, "an oasis of verdant green and spreading forest trees in a wilderness of terraced houses".

[20] The articles in the "Old and New Sydney" series, together with West's letters, were so popular that, in 1882–1883, they were collected and reprinted by the drapery firm of Edward Hordern and Sons for distribution to its customers.

[21] West quickly became an authority on early Sydney, as interest in the city's history increased in the lead up to the centenary of the settlement in 1888.

[32][33] Of particular interest are the writings that arise from West's contact with the local Aboriginal people, one of whom, Cruwee, apparently witnessed one of the early arrivals of the British in Botany Bay, saying the vessels were thought to be "floating islands".

He was not only intimately acquainted with its more prominent events, but a good memory furnished him with recollections of subjects which most men in these days of rapid development and continual changes invariably forget.

The appearance of the city in its very early times, the laying out of the streets, the situation of the principal buildings, the rise and progress of its suburbs were almost as familiar to him as the names of his own immediate relatives.

He was full of reminiscences of the past, and he seems to have clung to old memories with all the mental tenacity which a conservative disposition has for what, by sometimes a strange perversion of veracity, is called the good old times.