B is for... Bushranger
Apr. 12th, 2012 09:09 pmI'm interested in how the Australian bushranger "legend" draws on earlier influences. There's a few things going on here. First the, well I don't want to call it a code because that suggests something formal, but the idea that keeps coming up from the earliest years that there's a form of appropriate behaviour that includes avoiding unnecessary violence, treating woman appropriately and then dying game. And then the whole romanticisation thing. Easy to assume that happens after someone dies, because that's the way things work but if you did so, you'd be wrong.
Anyway, I read Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman by James Sharpe. His argument is the highwayman as a romantic figure is primarily due to the book Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth, published in 1834, which features Dick Turpin as a gallant highwayman (who does the ride to York on his valiant black mare). This was followed by more books playing on that theme, by Ainsworth and others; toys by opportunistic toymakers and so on right through the century and beyond. He makes some good points, and it's easy enough to make up that influence coming through in the Australian scene, especially with the popularity of stories about bushrangers towards the end of the 19th century. But I think Sharpe's focus is too narrow, and he disregards influences prior to Ainsworth too easily. I shall read Graham Seal's book next, and then grumble about that being too broad :)
Anyway, it might be interesting to see the changing perceptions within the colonies, especially in the early decades. Give the above and tendency of people to embroider stories are they pass them on, it's important to pay attention to publication dates, and of course, there aren't a lot of sources from the period I'm interested.
Just to finish off, part of a letter by Donald McLeod, was published in the Colonial Times, 9 July 1830. Because of the length, I'll skip the middle paragraphs that detail the attack.
Sir,
The strong degree of feeling that has been excited in favour of the five Bush-rangers, Morton, Cowden, Sainter, Laughton, and Stuart, who are erroneously stated to have absconded from my service, and the prejudice endeavoured to be excited against me and my family, on their account, induce me to offer to the Public the following statement of facts, as it cannot now be supposed lo have any influence either one way or other on their sentence, which must have been decided upon by His Excellency before this can be published.
(snippity snip)
I should like to know in what consists the great merit of these men as bush-rangers. Moles, Ashton, and their party, were much more humane when they robbed my house in June, 1828. Are they to be praised because the interference of a merciful Providence saved my family from their shot -for it is evident from the direction of the balls, that they intended to hurt us - or is the merit theirs, that the determined resistance we made prevented them getting into the house and committing robbery or murder as they chose?
Let those humane people who interest themselves so much about such characters place themselves in my situation, and(if they value their families) judge how they would feel disposed towards men acting as those men did to me.
- I am, Sir, your most obedient servant
D. M'LEOD
Cleggin,
5th July, 1830.
Anyway, I read Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English Highwayman by James Sharpe. His argument is the highwayman as a romantic figure is primarily due to the book Rookwood by William Harrison Ainsworth, published in 1834, which features Dick Turpin as a gallant highwayman (who does the ride to York on his valiant black mare). This was followed by more books playing on that theme, by Ainsworth and others; toys by opportunistic toymakers and so on right through the century and beyond. He makes some good points, and it's easy enough to make up that influence coming through in the Australian scene, especially with the popularity of stories about bushrangers towards the end of the 19th century. But I think Sharpe's focus is too narrow, and he disregards influences prior to Ainsworth too easily. I shall read Graham Seal's book next, and then grumble about that being too broad :)
Anyway, it might be interesting to see the changing perceptions within the colonies, especially in the early decades. Give the above and tendency of people to embroider stories are they pass them on, it's important to pay attention to publication dates, and of course, there aren't a lot of sources from the period I'm interested.
Just to finish off, part of a letter by Donald McLeod, was published in the Colonial Times, 9 July 1830. Because of the length, I'll skip the middle paragraphs that detail the attack.
Sir,
The strong degree of feeling that has been excited in favour of the five Bush-rangers, Morton, Cowden, Sainter, Laughton, and Stuart, who are erroneously stated to have absconded from my service, and the prejudice endeavoured to be excited against me and my family, on their account, induce me to offer to the Public the following statement of facts, as it cannot now be supposed lo have any influence either one way or other on their sentence, which must have been decided upon by His Excellency before this can be published.
(snippity snip)
I should like to know in what consists the great merit of these men as bush-rangers. Moles, Ashton, and their party, were much more humane when they robbed my house in June, 1828. Are they to be praised because the interference of a merciful Providence saved my family from their shot -for it is evident from the direction of the balls, that they intended to hurt us - or is the merit theirs, that the determined resistance we made prevented them getting into the house and committing robbery or murder as they chose?
Let those humane people who interest themselves so much about such characters place themselves in my situation, and(if they value their families) judge how they would feel disposed towards men acting as those men did to me.
- I am, Sir, your most obedient servant
D. M'LEOD
Cleggin,
5th July, 1830.