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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 of his mind. His mother had also written about the consequences of this revolution. Earlier Napoleonic Wars had caused Britain to lose certain trades altogether, and now they had the recession with high food prices especially cereals. No wonder his parents thought there was little or no future for their children in England. They were not the kind of parents to hide their concerns from their children, and Alfred was old enough to understand the implications too.

The poor wages and living conditions of the industrial revolution had resulted in a lot of disease and malnutrition, causing many premature deaths. Food prices, had soared especially cereals,. His aunt, Mary’s sister Emma had suffered from these problems. She lost several children to disease, so they left their little farm situated near Liverpool in Lancashire, from which they earned a pittance. They packed up their home such as it was, having made the decision to cross the Atlantic for a better life, and it was here she lost even more children, and eventually, her own life as a doctor could not reach her in time, due to flooding. This was also the time when the starving Irish and Scots were doing the same thing, fleeing Britain for a new life.

Mary had written a book about the conditions in the Nottingham lace mills, entitled “Little Coin, Much Care”. Her life long friend, Elizabeth Gaskell, had written “Mary Barton”, and from another angle, in “North & South”. No such conditions applied out in America. People had to look after themselves, tas he time for industrialization of the American colony was still in the future.

Accidents were common place as well as they were in Australia, not just in the gold industry, but in farming, especially as some men were trying new skills, many never having been in a rural landscape before. A new land, where conditions were different from the countries they had left, drought, heat, getting lost in a terrain unfamiliar to them, so they could no longer read the countryside as they had at home in England. Alfred’s survival in this new land, particularly his early years on his own, had a lot to do with the time he had spent in Australia with his father and brother. They had helped, supported and cared for one another, finding out the best way to do things in this strange environment.

Australia was one of the British Colonies, so with the stories of new gold, people’s thoughts soon turned to the Antipodes as a place for a new life, adventure and wealth. It was also the place that the British Government turned its thoughts to when George III had lost the Americas, at the time of the Boston Tea Party. They made the decision to send criminals, who had previously been deported to the Americas to Australia instead. Amongst these early settlers were starving men and women, many of them having a trade, a trade they could no longer use. Whatever their standard of skills they helped in no small way in the establishing the early settlement of the new colony.

“How do you find a ship you can rely on when you go around the world Joe? asked Alfred. “I had great difficulty finding a sound ship to come out here. I got one through Elizabeth Fry’s brother, but I did not think much of him as a businessman. The ship had previously carried guano, you know those bird droppings they bring from breeding grounds, to spread on the fields as manure. The trouble was, the ship had not been cleaned properly, and we had to endure three months of it.” Alfred could imagine the smell Joe must have endured, so replied by saying “Nasty smelly stuff. But we expect you got used to it”.

“Now that you have got here, and you said you wanted to see the area in which I work, I don’t think you will be here long enough to travel all that area, so I would suggest as a start to show you the areas I visited with Pa and Charlton in 1854” said Alfred. “We have passed along some of the route on the way back from Melbourne, because that is where we started back then” Alfred explained.

This sounded alarming to Joe, so he said “Just a minute, don’t get carried away with ideas, I am here on business as well.” A surprised Alfred replied saying “Yes, but when and where is your business?”

“Well, I was wondering about setting up a business out here”. Joe said calmly, but Alfred trying to think why in his head. “What sort of business, something like at home, but importing what?” queried Alfred.

“No, no, no” Joe said frustratedly. “From the letters you have sent me, telling me what you have done, and explaining about the climate, I would like to try to grow my own Indigo, you know the blue dye I was importing into London from India and Ceylon”.

“I see,” replied Alfred. “I need an area where the ground is well drained, your sandy soil should do well,” continued Joe. “Then I need it very hot, it does better the hotter it is, it will also need good transport or access to a port, Melbourne or Adelaide, and the latter could suit, for the treatment of the leaves, to extract the dye. I would also need a water source for that. It grows well in America in areas where the cotton grows.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know about that, I have never been to America.” Alfred interrupted”.

“You know it belongs to the legume family,” continued Joe “so it could have uses towards the fertility of your soil, should its roots contain the nitrogen blisters that our culinary beans contain.” Said Joe.

“Wow, you do think big. I hope it works out for you.” Alfred replied.