The cottage at the caves is not particularly "genteel" in appearance. The coach-house is large enough to hold almost as many horses as were kept by Solomon, and as many chariots as were possessed by Pharaoh, and at one end it is "double;" but there was no thought of Pharaoh, or Solomon, or Coleridge, or Southey when it was named.
THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE TO THE DEVIL'S COACH HOUSE.
It was not because this huge place was considered big enough to be the Devil's Coach House that it was called after the Devil, nor because it was thought to be a suitable place for Satan to "coach" his disciples in; nor had the person who named it any intention of paying a compliment to poetic genius. It was called the Devil's Coach House for reasons similar to those which created the nomenclature of the numerous Devil's Pinches and Devil's Peaks, Devil's Mills and Devil's Punchbowls, in various parts of the world. Captain Cook more than a century ago gave the name of the Devil's Basin to a harbour in Christmas Sound, on the south side of Tierra del Fuego, because of its gloomy appearance—it being surrounded by "savage rocks," which deprive it of the rays of the sun. For similar reasons, perhaps, the name of the Devil's Coach House was given to this interesting portion of the Jenolan Caves, which are surrounded by mountains and "savage rocks," and from which the rays of the sun are excluded, except during a few hours per day. In winter the sunshine does not glint on to the roof of the cave house till about 10, and at about 2 in the afternoon the valley is wrapped in shade.
It is 45 or 46 years since James Whalan came suddenly upon the mouth of this cave, and it so impressed him with its rugged grandeur and weirdness that when he returned home he reported that he had been to the end of the world, and had got into the Devil's Coach House. So by that term it is still called, although it has been since named the Easter Cave, because of a visit by some distinguished member of the Government service during Easter, which in New South Wales is now as favourite a holiday time as it was when kept as a festival in honour of the Goddess of Light and Spring. For a short period in the afternoon one end of the cave is flooded with the warm beams of the sun. Then it is at its best, and, as the enamoured hand of fancy gleans "the treasured pictures of a thousand scenes," so, after the bright rays have disappeared, and the cave is seen in the shade or by "the pale moonlight," its beauties change from hour to hour, like shadows on the mountains or the cloud glories of an autumn sunset.
