In this charming book Russell Stone, the doyen of Auckland historians, recounts fifteen tales from his encyclopaedic knowledge of nineteenth-century Auckland. They include the stories of the tree on "One Tree Hill", of a newspaper printed on a mangle, of two aborted duels, the mystery of a suicide, of the voyage of an early immigrant ship, of the wreck of the Orpheus, of how Ngati Whatua became the tangata whenua of the area, and more. In his characteristically elegant style Stone brings personalities, feuds and dramas brilliantly to life and offers a cosmopolitan city deeply engaged in the business of the twenty-first century revealing glimpses of its past.