Now he was reunited with Joe, he asked “Do you remember that smashing meal we had at the posting house Joe.” Then he continued, “Do you remember what we had to eat? I know it was a long time ago, but I still remember.”
“Let me think” said Joe , “We had some fish I think,”
“Yes but what sort of fish, I remember it being turbot”. Sighing, Joe replied “Yes that’s right. Then we followed it with chicken, and ham, covered with a shrimp sauce, and of course accompanied by vegetables.”
“Do you remember the afters?” asked Alfred.
“Yes a lovely English apple tart, peaches and nectarines, all washed down with a 20 year old bottle of port.” Said Jo.e
Joe then asked what repercussions there had been, when Alfred’s mother had thought of their extravagance.
“I really cannot remember, so I presume there wasn’t any!c” Alfred replied.
Chapter 7 – Alfred’s upbringing
Although Alfred had grown up in London, he had been born in Nottingham. It was here he had met many people he was to meet again in Australia, and to some extent these contacts had been of help to him. His parents had taken the family to Heidelberg, because they thought English education was too expensive, but they chose the wrong town. They had chosen a university town, and university towns are never cheap places in which to live.
Their mother Mary and father William, had tried to assimilate into the area, and on one occasion Mary had taken charge of the big Christmas festival, and it has cost them far too much.
The family learnt German, something that was useful to Alfred in Australia, as there were many people from other European countries settling there, including Germans. His father started translating, and Alfred helped him with his work on the long journey to Australia. His mother learnt Swedish, which led her to learn Danish, saying it was easy, along with the French and German she already knew, but it was still the Swedish and Danish she used for most of her translations, such as Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy stories and the Icelandic Sagas. She had also undertaken to translate all the works under taken by the Swedish writer and lecturer, Frederika Bremer, who, like Mary was passionate about anti-slavery and women’s liberation. It was in Heildelberg that Mary met a helpful London publisher, Mr. Tegg.
After about two years in Heidelberg, they had returned to England, leaving their nine year old son Claude at a German boarding school, and his elder sister Anna, at an art college. Almost as soon as they got home, they received a message from Anna, saying Claude was ill. William returned immediately, bringing young Claude home to England. Claude struggled with his illness for a year before he died. Many people visited them, including Charles Dickens. Mary blamed herself for his death all her long life, because she refused the suggested treatment, to have his leg amputated. Her surviving children felt this acutely and possibly this was why they had that fear of their mother. They definitely felt her writing took priority over them so possibly they were also left with the feeling that she was responsible for Claude’s death.
Mary had said of Alfred when he was first born, that he was a fine pink and white baby, with a head like an egg. Not very complimentary perhaps, but Mary had only one other living child at the time, six year old Anna Mary, after having four miscarriages, followed by neo-natal deaths of more young children. However it was a period of interest in the bumps on peoples’ skulls and that was said to account for their character.
She had difficulty in understanding Alfred and his sister Meggie, who described him as being lithe and active in mind and body and more of a Botham than a Howitt. He was not a man to show his emotions, nor was he an academic nor had he any plans for a career. He had worked in the “Standard of Freedom” office, which was not to his liking. It was a Cassell publication, and Mr. Cassell was against strong drink and advocated coffee instead.
During what Mary called, periods of great anxiety over her sons, Mary must have turned her thoughts back to what had happened to her brother Charles, which would increased her concerns. Their father had died and it was left to his brother in laws, (the men in the family), to decide on his future. They found a situation for him in a Liverpool trading office, which he hated. He ran away to sea without telling anyone. A message from Canada arrived, telling the family, that he had died in hospital in Canada as a result of an accident, by falling from the mast in a gale, just a few days out of Liverpool, which resulted in a severe fracture of his leg. The bone had broken the skin, resulting in sepsis, from which he died.
Mary’s philosophy for her children had been no rules, only kindness and truthfulness. It seems odd that one of her children, brought up in Quaker ways, should turn into a dandy even if only for a short period. She wanted him to get a safe and respectable job; these were few and far between in England, but they were very happy for him to taking a similar post in Australia.
Mary also said of him, that he was headstrong, he would have to be, to take such an active interest and to achieve so much following his arrival in his new country. He was to contribute to so much radical thinking that was to follow. She felt he was not interested in his schoolwork except possibly geography, Evening institutes were fashionable, and it was where most men argument their education after leaving school. Mary felt that he would have been far happier in a wooded America or in another location or in paradise. How right she had been.
Alfred had now found his new location and his paradise. This adventurous yet still a young man, not very tall but neither were his parents. He now displayed a large and handsome black beard, something, which was very fashionable at the time. Mary had been proud of him, and now, even more so, because he had become so positive and confident about what he was now doing, although this did not stop Mary from continuing to worry about his antics in Australia.
Alfred’s big sister Anna Mary, was very close to him, especially in the work that he was instigating. This close understanding of one another, enabled Anna to help Alfred despite the great physical distance between them. She encouraged him in his researches. She was in a position in which she could help provide assistance in his work. Through her husband, Alaric Watts, she sought out the instruments Alfred would require, in his search for greater understanding of the rocks and geology of the regions he visited. The help she could provide for his work was considerable, despite the thousands of miles apart.
Now however, Melbourne had changed: it had been a gold mining town, thick in mud, churned up by horses and carriages, tearing through the town, sending the mud everywhere. Trees had been chopped down at waist height, thus getting in the way. Lean on them, and they may fall over. So it had been when he had first arrived here with his father William, and his younger brother Charlton. It now was a thriving centre, expanding rapidly, especially as they now had the railroad, the first in Australia and now the telegraph. England did not feel quite so far away.
Alfred’s father William, the prolific English writer, and translator, had read about the discovery of gold in Australia during The Great Exhibition in London. People’s thoughts were on the British Empire and its achievements at that time. It was to show off the Empire, the minerals and resources they provided for Britain, the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, which had started in Britain, mostly as the result of harnessing steam for the railways and for factory machinery. Great Britain was showing off its Greatness.
The Industrial Revolution had not been painless. Men who had trades, had remained in their families for generations, suddenly found that machinery had taken over, leaving them with no jobs. What do you do when you and your family are starving? Some stole to eat, if caught, were transported or executed. Other men took revenge on their machinery, smashing it, as they thought this would bring their jobs back. No such luck, the machinery was here to stay. These men were known as the Luddites.
This attack on mechanization had started in Nottingham, the town where Alfred was born. His parents had lived through these disturbances, so these thoughts were always at the back