AustLit

'In 1839, with his brother Godfrey and other family members, Richard Howitt (1799-1869) emigrated to Australia as a settler but returned to England in 1844, disillusioned. His experiences are recorded in Impressions of Australia Felix, during Four Years’ Residence in that Colony (1845), an interesting mixture of prose and his own poetry, as well as occasional quotations from other published poets.

'Like a poetic talisman, William Wordsworth’s name recurs again and again in both the poetry and the prose of Richard Howitt, both directly and indirectly. The focus of this article will be on two poems addressing an English daisy discovered in Australia by Howitt, to consider them in the light of four daisy poems published by Wordsworth between 1807 and 1815.

'Finally, this article will argue that the power of memory and recollection, explored through Howitt’s poetry, would prove to be the undoing of this Nottingham poet and would-be colonist. ' (Publication abstract)

'The memorial to the Victorian naturalist-explorer John Gilbert (1812-45) in Saint James’s Church, Sydney, bears the Latin inscription Dulce et decorum est pro scientia mori, which translates into English as “it is sweet and fitting to die for science.” Gilbert was killed in 1845 during a night attack by Aboriginal people on members of the first Leichhardt Expedition at a remote camp in Western Cape York. He was the only salaried collector in Australia for the nineteenth-century English ornithologist and publisher, John Gould. Two of Gould’s other primary collectors, Johnston Drummond (1820-45) and Frederick Strange (1810-54), were also “martyred” to science (Angus 5) while on collecting activities for Gould.

'This article examines the contemporary and later historical remembrance of the lives and achievements of these three “men of science” (Barton 73). Using an historical and contextual approach, I consider the factors that shaped the construction and commemoration of their historical legacies in both textual and material forms. While there were similarities in the manner of their deaths there are clear differences in how their personal and scientific reputations have been remembered and recounted. I contend that the subsequent scientific and historical status of each individual was determined by a range of factors, the most significant being the different ways in which their legacies were championed by others after their deaths.' (Publication abstract)