Part 1 (1/2)

An Autobiography

by Catherine Helen Spence

CHAPTER I

EARLY LIFE IN SCOTLAND

Sitting down at the age of eighty-four to give an account of rowth and development of the province of South Australia, to which I came with my family in the year 1839, before it was quite three years old But there is much truth in Wordsworth's line, ”the child is father of the o back to Scotland for the roots of my character and Ideals I account myself well-born, for My father and my oing back for ent and respectable people I think I ell brought up, forthe care of the family I count myself well educated, for the admirable woe of four and a half till I was thirteen and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times In fact

likeit

The phrase was not known in the thirties

I was born on October 31, 1825, the fifth of a faht born to David Spence and Helen Brodie, in the roe of Melrose, on the silvery Tweed, close to the three picturesque peaks of the Eildon Hills, which Michael Scott's fale night, according to the legend It was indeed poetic ground It was Sir Walter Scott's ground Abbotsford ithin two miles of Melrose, and one ofprocession which followed his body to the fah Abbey There was not a local note in ”The Lay of the Last Minstrel” or in the novels ”The Monastery” and ”The Abbot,” hich I was not familiar before I entered len that had not a song or a proverb, or a legend about it Yarrow braes were not far off The broom of the Cowdenknoas still nearer, and my mother knew the words as well as the tunes of the minstrelsy of the Scottish Border But as all readers of the life of Scott know, he was a Tory, loving the past with loyal affection, and shrinking froe My father, as a lawyer (a writer as it was called), and his father as a country practitioner, were reformers, and so it happened that they never came into personal relations with the man they admired above all men in Scotland It was the Tory doctor who attended to his health, and the Tory writer as consulted about his affairs

I look back to a happy childhood The many anxieties which reached both my parents were quite unknown to the children till the crisis in 1839

I do not know that I appreciated the beauty of the village I lived in so s and the literature, which were current talk The old Abbey, with its 'prentice , and its wonders in stonecarving, that Scott had written about and Washi+ngton Irving marvelled at--”Here lies the race of the House of Yair” as a torand roll in it In the churchyard of the old Abbey my people on the Spence side lay buried In the square or reat tree described in The Monastery as standing just after Flodden Field, where the flowers of the forest had been cut down by the English; but in the centre stood the cross with steps up to it, and close to the cross was the well, to which twice a day the maids went to draater for the house until I was nine years old, e had pipes and taps laid on The cross was the place for any public speaking, and I recalled, when I was recovering froe I rapped entleathered round He said that the Tories had found a new name--they called themselves Conservatives because it sounded better For his part he thought conserves were pickles, and he hoped all the Tories would soon find thehter that I saw this was a great joke

We had gasworks in Melrose when I was 10 or 11, and a great joy to us children the wonderful light was I recollect the first lucifer ot 6d fro him snuff to fill his cousin's silver snuffbox, and he spent thea box of lucifers, with the piece of sandpaper doubled, through which each match was to be smartly drawn, and he took all of us and some of his friends to the orchard, we called the wilderness, at the back of hted each of the 50 randfather (old Dr Spence) died before the era of lucifer et up early and strike a fire with flint and steel to boil the kettle and ive to his wife in bed He did it for his first wife (Janet Park), as delicate, and he did the same for his second wife until her last fatal illness It was a wonderful thing for a man to do in those days He would not call the s wanted plenty of sleep

He had been a navy doctor, and was very intelligent He trusted s On the Sunday of the great annular eclipse of the sun in 1835, which was e double tooth extracted--not by a dentist, and gas was then unknown or any other anaesthetic, so he did not enjoy the eclipse as other people did It took place in the afternoon, and there was no afternoon church

In summer we had two services--one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon In winter we had two services at one sitting, which was a thing astonishi+ng to English visitors The first was generally called a lecture--a reading with coe of Scripture--a dozen verses or ularly built sermon, with three or four heads, and so up

Prices and cost of living had fallen since my mother had married in 1815, three months after the battle of Waterloo At that tiar 11 1/2d Bread and meat were then still at war prices, and calico was no cheaper than linen, and that was dear She paid 3/6 a yard for fine calico to arments were of as called hos at 4/9, and thinner at 3/9 each; silk stockings at 11/6 I know she paid 36/ for a yard of Brussels net toto have net made in the loom When a wo In 1838 ht a chest of tea (84 lb) for 20 pounds, a trifle under 5/0 a lb; the retail price was 6/0--it was a great saving; and up to the tiar 10d It is no wonder that these things were accounted luxuries When a decent Scotch couple in South Australia went out to a station in the country in the forties and received their stores, the wife sat down at her quarter-chest of tea and gazed at her bag of sugar, and fairly wept to think of her oldan ounce of tea and a pound of sugar My mother even saw an old woman buy 1/4oz of tea and pay 11/2d for it, and another woot 8 pounds a year, the housemaid 7 pounds, and the nursemaid 6 pounds, paid half-yearly, but the summer half-year was much better paid than the winter, because there was the outwork in the fields, weeding and hoeing turnips and potatoes, and hay The winter work in the house was heavier on account of the fires and the grate cleaning, but the wages were less My es in the district, and was considerate to her ood women who made the comfort of et a washerwolass of whisky as well as her food You could get a sewing girl for a shi+lling or less, without the whisky And yet cheap as seas it was the pride of the middle-elms women of those days that they did it all theiven to sehen ht Nearly two hours a day was devoted to it in lass of whisky in Scotland in the thirties cost less than a cup of tea I recollect e cask of whisky direct froallon, duty paid A bottle of inferior whisky could be bought at the grocer's for a shi+lling It is surprising how es entered into the daily life, the business, and the pleasures of the people in those days No bargain could be s, funerals--all called for the pouring out of strong drink If a lady called, the port and sherry decanters were produced, and the cake basket If a gentleman, probably it was the spirit decanter After the 3 o'clock dinner there hisky and hot water and sugar, and generally the ca habits were very prevalent araceful, unless excessive But there was less drinking a woainst it Without being abstainers, they were temperate With the same heredity and the same environment, you would see all the brothers pretty hard drinkers and all the sisters quite straight Such is the effect of public opinion Nothing else has been so powerful in changing these custo of tea and coffee and cocoa, but especially tea

My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county

The endowment from the tiends or tithes, extorted by John Knox froations, who had seized on the church lands, was y I think Mr

Thomas Murray had only 33 pounds in Money, a schoolhouse, and a residence and garden, and he had to an at 2/ a quarter for reading, 3/6 riting was taught, and 51 for arithmetic Latin, I think, cost 10/6 a quarter, but it included English Mr Murray adopted a phonic syste, not so complete as the late Mr Hartley formulated for our South Australian schools, and was most successful with it He not only used reat innovation Mythe years in which she was ”finished” in Edinburgh, and never saw a raphy when her children were learning it No boy in Mr Murray's school was allowed to be idle; every spare iven to arithht Sir David Brewster's sons went to it; but there were fewer girls, partly because no needleas taught there, and needleas of supreme importance

Mr Murray was session clerk, for which he received 5 pounds a year On Saturday afternoons he , like Goldse”--

Lands he could e, And even the rue

Mya much better education than she had had The education seein after she left school

Her father united with six other tenant far the third edition of ”The Encyclopedia Britannica,” seven for the price of six

Probably it was only in East Lothian that seven such purchasers could be found, and ed Johnson's Dictionary in two volumes She learned the Greek letters, so that she could read the derivations, but went no further She saw the fallacy of Mr Pitt's sinking fund when her father believed in it To borrow more than was needed so as to put aside part on compound interest, would make the price of money rise And why should not private people adopt the sa rid of debts? The father said it would not do for thes I recollect of the life in the village of Melrose, of 700 inhabitants, have been talked over with my mother, and many embodied in a little MS volume of reminiscences of her life I hold more from her than from my father; but, as he was an unlucky speculator, I inherit from him Hope, which is invaluable to a social or political reformer School holidays were only a rarity in harvest time for the parish school At Miss Phin's we had, besides, a week at Christmas The boys had only New Year's Day Saturday was only a half-holiday We all had a holiday for Queen Victoria's coronation, and I ith a number of school fellows to see Abbotsford, not for the first time in my life

Two h Melrose every day People went to the post office for their letters, and paid for thenes, who died of consue of 16, and Jessie, afterwards Mrs Andrew Murray, of Adelaide and Melbourne, went to boarding school with their aunt, Mary Spence, lit Upper Wooden, halfway between Jedburgh and Kelso Roxburghshi+re is rich in old monasteries The border lands were more safe in the hands of the church than under feudal lords engaged in perpetual fighting, and the vassals of the abbeys had generally speaking, a h Abbeys lay in fertile districts, and I fancy that when these caation, the vassals looked back with regret on the old times I was not sent to Wooden, but kept at home, and I went to a dayschool called by the very popish nah it was quite sufficiently Protestant My reatest confidence in the lady as at the head of it She had been a governess in good situations, and had taught herself Latin, so that she ood place in the Edinburgh High School She discovered that she had an incurable disease, a form of dropsy, which compelled her to lie down for some tioverness So she deter and day school in Melrose, a beautiful and healthy neighbourhood, and with the aid of a governess, ientlewohbourhood She took with her her old ht the pupils all kinds of plain and fancy needlework She succeeded, and she lived till the year 1866, althoughwas done from her sofa When my mother was asked what it was that made Phin so successful, and so esteeovernesses ell enough, but the invalid old lady was the life and soul of the school There were about 14 boarders, and nearly asas there was no co off, butsister Mary and I were faithful till the day when after nine years at the same school, I ith Jessie to Wooden, to Aunt Mary's, to hear there that my father was ruined, and had to leave Melrose and Scotland for ever, and that we o to Australia That was in April, 1839

As I said, I had a very happy childhood The death of est sister at two years old, did not sink into the h they were seriously alarmed about my health when I was 12 years old, when I developed sye, I was not ill enough to get at all alar to stay away from school for three months When the collapse ca, and I had one whom had known only for soh at Christh the box which ca It was too expensive for us to write by the post Well, neither of our friends wrote a word to us With regard to mine it was not to be wondered atIt was not till 1865 that an old woman told me that when Miss F B caive to my aunt in Melrose, ”she just sat in the chair and cried as if her heart would break” She was not quite a free agent Very few single woents in 1839 We were hopelessly ruined, our place would know us noholidays I had in the year I spent at Thornton Loch, in East Lothian, 40 miles away I did not know that ht his keen interest in the market in Mark lane was on account of the Thornton Loch crops, in which first randfather and afterwards the three Maiden aunts were deeply concerned Myagriculturists in the most advanced district of Great Britain He won a prize of two silver salvers froest area of drilled wheat sown He was called up twice to London to give evidence before Parliamentary committees on the corn laws, and he naturally approved of thee farms held on 19 years' leases at war prices, the influx of cheap wheat from abroad would mean ruin He proved that he paid 6,000 pounds a year for these three farms--two he worked himself, the third was for his eldest son; but he was liable for the rent On his first London trip, aret accompanied him, and on his second he took my mother