Part 2 (1/2)
A TRIP TO ENGLAND
I have gone on with the story ofthe current history of reat steps taken in the development of Australia The first hen McArthur introduced the reaves and others discovered gold; and the latest when cold-storage was introduced to make perishable products available for the European markets The second step created a sudden revolution; but the others were gradual, and the area of alluvial diggings in Victoria made thousands of men without capital or machinery rush to try their fortunes--first from the adjacent colonies, and afterwards frooldfields of Mount Alexander, Bendigo, and Ballarat by h licence fees for clai like the scenes recorded of the Californian diggings could be permitted But for the time ordinary industries were paralysed
Shepherds left their flocks, farmers their land, clerks their desks, and artisans their trades Melbourne grew apace in spite of the highest wages known being exacted by ht ruin stared theoldfields offered for their surplus stock Our South Australian fars in the hands of their wives and children too young to take with therain and produce to send to Victoria It was astonishi+ng what the wo their absence The fences were kept repaired and the stock attended to, the grapes gathered, and the wine et 80 acres or ht fros and improved their houlated prices in Adelaide, but when the land was unlocked and the Victorian soil and cliood as ours it was Mark lane that fixed prices over all Australia for priers there was a great deal of e The radually came back, and the nine remarkable copper mines of Moonta and Wallaroo attracted the Cornishes and hoo wheredemanded capital, and the miners were paid by the week These new copper mines were found in the Crown leases held by Capt (afterwards Sir Walter) Hughes He had been well dealt with by Elder, S hi and John Taylor were partners in that fired to the legal firreatest friends seemed to be in it I think reat advance of South Australia than he deserved for sticking to the Bank of South Australia He got s was so enhanced that at the end of seven years it did not buy un with
My eldest maiden aunt died, and left to her brother and sister in South Australia all she had in her power My e in Pulteney street and a Burra share with her legacy--both excellent investments--and my brother left the bank and went into the aerated water business with James Hamilton Parr
We made the acquaintance of the family of Mrs Francis Clark, of Hazelwood, Burnside She was the only sister of five clever brothers--Matthew Davenport, Rowland, Edwin, Arthur, and Frederick Hill Rowland is best known, but all were rement, accurate observation, and kind heart, that I was drawn to her at once But it was Miss Clark who sought an introduction to me at a ball, because her uncle Rowland had written to her that ”Clara Morison,” the new novel, was a capital story of South Australian life She was the first person to seek rateful to her I think all the brothers Hill wrote books, and Rosamond and Florence Davenport Hill had just published ”Our Exemplars” My friendshi+p with Miss Clark led toof interests for hters--Miss Clark and Hoere the ence They were Unitarians, and W J Wren, my brother-in-laas also a Unitarian, and had been one of the 12 Adelaide citizens who invited out a uaranteed his salary I was led to hear what the Rev J Crawford Woods had to say for that faith, and told ) that for threeand Mr Woods in the evening, and read nothing but the Bible as uide; and by that tio to the Sacra, but when I was 25 I said I could not continue a coreatly surprised both Mr and Mrs
Haining, as I did not propose to leave the church The result of my three months' enquiry was that I became a convinced Unitarian, and the cloud was lifted from the universe I think I have been a most cheerful person ever since My h she never separated from the church of her fathers My brother was as co a wife like minded My sister, Mrs Wren, also was satisfied with the new faith; so that she and her husband saw eye to eye It was a very live congregation in those early days We liked our pastor, and we ad and clever people ent to the Wakefield Street Church
It was rather remarkable that my sister's husband and my brother's wife arrived on the saland, and the other in the Three Bells froow--in 1851; but I did not make the acquaintance of either till 1854 and 1855 Jessie cu and Mary Spence shook hands and formed a friendshi+p over Carlyle's ”Sartor Resartus” My brother-in-law (W J Wren) had fine literary tastes, especially for poetry The first gift to his wife after 's poe's ”Plays and Drahted in them all In those days I considered my sister Mary and my sister-in-law the most brilliant conversationalists I knew My elder sister, Mrs Murray, also talked very well--so much so that her husband's friends and visitors fancied she must write a lot of his articles; but none of the three ladies went beyond writing good letters I think all of theht than I was--more observant of features, dress, and manners; but I took in more by the ear As Sir Walter Scott says, ”Speak that I ue is more important for a novel than description; and, if you have a firue will be true
With me the main difficulty was the plot; and I was careful that this should not be merely possible, but probable I have heard scores of people say that they have got good plots in their heads, and when pressed to tell them they proved to be only incidents You need much more than an incident, or even two or three, hich to make a book
But when I found my plot the story seemed to write itself, and the actors to fit in
When the development of the Moonta Mine made so said that if I wanted a trip to England I should have it at his cost, but it seemed impossible After the death of Mr Wren my mother and I went to live with ether, so as to be able to bring up and educate her two children, a boy and a girl My brother John had left the railway, and for nine years had been Official assignee and Curator of Intestate Estates; and in 1863 he had been appointed lish, Scottish, and Australian Bank My friend, Mr Taylor, had helped well to get the position for one he thought the fittest man in the city He had lost his wife, Miss Mary Ann Dutton when on a visit to England, and at this tied to Miss Harriet McDerees at all, and considered it a disrespect to the first wife's h a decent interval had elapsed When he wrote to me about it I took quite a different view He said it was the kindest and the wisest letter I had ever written in my life, and he knew I had loved his late wife very much He came to thank me, and to tell land at the ti in a P & 0 boat i had pro There were uardianshi+p of the Duvals to think about I had also undertaken the oversight of old Mrs Stephens, theof one of the early proprietors of The Register These objections were all overruled I still hesitated ”I cannot go unless I have enerous reply--”I have left you 500 pounds inwhile I live” I was not too proud to owe that ood friends John Taylor had put into my hands on board the Goolwa, in which I sailed, a draft for 200 pounds fore he bequeathed ood wishes for his health and happiness I never saw hi child on his knee when crossing the Isthmus of Suez--there was no canal in 1864--to relieve a weary mother The child had s buried beside his first wife at Brighton when the Goolwa sailed up the Channel after a passage of 14 weeks--as long as that of the Palmyra 25 years before--and the first nee heard was that Miss Taylor had lost a brother, the children a favourite uncle, and I, a friend It was a sad household, but the Bakewells were in London on business connected with some claims of discovery of the Moonta Mines, and they took ton, till I could arrange to go topeople and places together were, of course, at an end I was to go ”a lone hand” Mrs
Taylor had a posthumous son, who never has set foot in Australia She ht, and had several sons, but she has never revisited Adelaide, although she has many relatives here So the friend who loved Australia, and was eager to do his duty by it--who thoroughly approved of the Hare systeht I did well to take it up, was snatched away in the prime of life I wonder if there is any one alive nohoister files may preserve some of his work
At Palace Gardens the Bakewell fa to Col Palh never a resident Palmer place, North Adelaide, bears his name
Thackeray's house we had to pass ent out of the street in the direction of the city His death had occurred in the previous year I had an engageiven by Miss Sophia Sinnett, an artist sister of Frederick Sinnett's
I was called for and sent hoe house with wood, as deaf, used an ear truhtful as Miss Sinnett had represented her to be, and I discovered that Miss Sinnett had been governess to her younger sisters, but that there was real regard for her I don't know that I ever spent a 's ”Draether ”Rabbi Ben Ezira” and ”Prospice” She knew about the Hare scheme of representation, supported by Mill and Fawcett and Craik She was a good writer, with a fine critical faculty Everything signed by her na to me I promised her a copy of my ”Plea for Pure Democracy,” which she accepted and appreciated By the father's side she was a granddaughter of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of British pottery as a fine art Her as so much pleased with my pamphlet that she wanted to be introduced toher acquaintance Miss Wedgwood gave me a beautifully bound copy of ”Men and Women,” of which she had a duplicate, which I cherish in re my stay I was visited by Mr Hare I had to face up to the people I had written to with no idea of any personal communication, and I ood opinion I promised to pay a visit to the Hares when I caht children, whooverness, but he was the hters were married--Mrs Andrews, the eldest, had helped hireat book on ”Representation” His second daughter was artistic, and was reat in international law, a pupil of Colenso, as then in London, and as the best-abused reat friend of my late brother-in-law, Mr W J Wren, rote to him till his death, when the pen was taken up by my sister Mary till her death, and then I corresponded with him till his death He came to London a raw Scotch lad, and ton Club Both loved books and poetry, and both were struggling to ie Cowan had been entrusted with the printed slips of ”Uphill Work,” and had tried it at two publishers without success I had to delay any operations till I returned to London, and promised to visit the Cowans there
CHAPTER VII
MELROSE REVISITED
Jack Bakewell and Edward Lancelot Stirling went to see ht train to Dunbar Station, five ot there in time for breakfast The old house was just the sa out on the North Sea, and the rocks which lay between it and Colhandy path (where randfather Spence had preached and his wife had preferred Wesley), and Chirnside, or Spence's Mains in the sae, where about 80 souls lived, the fields and bridges were just as I reorous business-like wo an over the farrandfather had rented since 1811 Not the Miss Thompson whom I had introduced into ”Uphill Work” She had had a severe stroke of paralysis, and was a prisoner to the house, only being lifted from her bed to be dressed, and to sit in a wheeled chair and be taken round the garden on fine days The vigorous intellect was somewhat clouded, and the power of speech also; but she retained her memory She was always at ith her needle (for her hands were not affected) for the London children, grandnieces, and nepheho called her grand 11 years of her brother Alexander's hood But Aunt Margaret could play a capital ga whist I could see that she missed it iven up the farm to James Brodie, who had married her cousin Jane, the eldest of the two children she had mothered, and he had to coer farm of his own in East Lothian, and a stock farm in Berwickshi+re also to look after The son of the old farm steward, John Burnet, was Jaed, but not so profitable as in old times Aunt Mary said, in her own characteristic way, ”she always knew that her sister was a clever wo up far it on for 30 years when it was profitable, and turning it over when it began to fall off” But she turned it over handsoement My Aunt Mary deserves a chapter for herself She was h why she was never married puzzles more thanthe love of sisters--my father liked her better than his own sisters Whenht it was Helen herself as to come; and when she found out her mistake she shed many tears I was all very well in my way, but I was not Helen It was not the practice in old tiement, or to tell of an offer that had been declined; but my mother firmly believed that her sister Mary, the cleverest and, as she thought, the handsomest of the five sisters, had never in her life had an offer of h she had a love disappointment at 30 She had fixed her affections on a brilliant but not really worthy man, and she had to tear him out of her heart with considerable difficulty It cost her a severe illness, out of which she ee of heart She was a converted Christian I e She was always a noble, generous woion Aunt Mary's disappointment made her most sympathetic to all love stories, and without any disappointment at all, I think I may say the sa friends of her youngest brother, who ht have experienced calf love; so very real, but so very ineffectual One of these said to her:--”Oh, Miss Mary, you're just a delight, you are so witty” Another, when she spoke of sohtful nonsense, said, ”If you would only come to Branxholme I'd talk nonsense to you the haill (whole) day”
When I arrived at the old ho her hand and wrist (she had slipped downstairs in a neighbour's house, and broken her arm, and had to drive hohbour's house went to accoe was sent When she recovered so far as to be able to be out, shein their conveyance They greeted each other, and aunt could not resist the telad that you have spoken tothe liberty of breaking ain” This little expression of what the French call , was the only instance I can recollect of Aunt Mary's not putting the kindest construction on everybody's words and actions But when I think of the love that Aunt Mary gathered to herself from brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends--it seee family could not reckon up as rich stores of affection She was the unfailing correspondent of those members of the family ere separated by land and ocean froether, the s, the estions, as well as of syaret's enfeebled state, she was the head of the house and the director of all things Although she had differed froenerally at the tione over to the Free Church, thethe same standards--the Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechis texture of her faith like cold water off a duck's back From natural preference she chose for her devotions those parts of the Bible which I selected with deliberate intention She wondered to find so much spiritual kinshi+p with ested that the 109th Psalm, which she read as the allotted portion in ”Fletcher's Family Devotions,” was not fit to be read in a Christian household, she said ht, I shall ain”
My ht me like her sister Mary, and when I asked Mr
Taylor if he saw any resemblance between us, he said, with cruel candour--”Oh, no Your Aunt Mary is a very handsome woman” But in ways and manners, both my sister Mary and myself had considerable resemblances to our mother's favourite sister; and I can see traces of it in my own nieces There can be no direct descent fro ants and bees do not inherit their industrious habits from either male or female parents, but from their maiden aunts
Galton's theory, that potentialities not utilized by individuals or by their direct descendants ht, and collaterals inal source as never suspected And the Brodies intermarried in such a way as to shock modern ideas When eon, of Leith, was related to him, he said--”He is my mother's cousin and my stepmother's cousin, and my father-in-law's cousin, and my mother-in-law's cousin” Except for Spences and Wauchopes there was not a relative of my father that was not related to my mother
Grandfather Brodie married his cousin, and Grandfather Spence married his late wife, Janet Parks cousin Katherine Swanston I cannot see that these close enerates, either physical or mental, in the case of my own family
Of the twelve months I spent in the old country, I spent six with the dear old aunts How proud Aunt Mary was of aret in it, of the Cornhill article, and the request frohtly I introduced her to new books and especially to new poets; she had never heard of Browning and Jean Ingelow She was so hbours that I often wondered how she could put up with thehters were, to be sure These big tenants considered themselves quite superior to trades way There was infinitelyand that of their labourers than between theirs and that of the aristocratic landlords Jaht down the price of wheat with your Australian grain, and you do big things in wool, but you can never touch us in meat” This was quite true in 1865 I expected to see some improvement in the farm hamlet, but the houses built by the landlord were still very poor and bare The wages had risen a little since 1839, but not ar, but the poor were still living on porridge and bannocks of barley and pease meal instead of tea and white bread It was questionable if they were as well nourished There were 100 souls living on the farms of Thornton and Thornton Loch
A short visit from Mrs Graham to me at Thornton Loch opened up to Aunt Mary some of my treasures of memory She asked me to recite ”Brother in the Lane,” Hood's ”Tale of a Truelow's ”Songs of Seven” She o to see her, and find out how nificent salary of 30 pounds a year; but she impressed Aunt Mary much Mrs
Graha whom she lived, were more impressed by the six one to Valparaiso to join a brother who died, than with her fresh and racy descriptions of four young Australian colonies She had seen Melbourne frorowth and development The only idea the ladies from Valparaiso formed about Australia was that it was hot and must be Roman Catholic, and consequently the Sabbath must be desecrated It was in vain that my friend spoke of the Scots Church and Dr Cairns's Church Heat and Roman Catholicis Uncle and Aunt Handyside and grown-up cousins, who and the easy circus in East Lothian Next farm to Fenton was Fentonbarns, a Show place, which was held by George Hope, a cousin of randmother's He was an exceptional man--a radical, a freetrader, and a Unitarian Cobden died that year Uncle Handyside was surprised that George Hope did not go into ht still lived, and he was the bete noire of the Conservatives in that era; and the abolition of the corn laas held to be the cause of the agricultural distress--not the high rent of agricultural land
George Hope was a striking personality When my friend J C Woods was h, Mr Hope used to be called the Bishop, though he lived 16an infant son, it was Mrs Hope who cared for it till it could go to his relatives in Ireland Later he stood for Parliament himself In the paper I wrote over the nahtly I noted how the House of Commons represented the people--or misrepresented them The House consisted of peers and sons of peers, military and naval officers, bankers, brewers, and landownershi+p was represented enormously, but there were only two tenant farmers in the House It was years after my return to Australia that I heard of his unsuccessful candidature, and that when he sought to take another lease of Fentonbarns, he was told that under no circumstances would his offer be entertained Fentonbarns had been farenerations of Hopes for 100 years, and to no owner by parche Hope's friend, Russell, of The Scots a lease to the forericulturist in Scotland--and when you say that you dom--because the tenant held certain political opinions and had the courage to express them My uncle Handyside, however, always hbour was the most honourablean atheist or even a deist, he had family prayers, and on the occasion of a death in the family, the funeral service was most impressive He was one of the salt of the earth, and the atmosphere was clearer around hiive some space to my visit to Melrose, my childhood's home