Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing
Louisa Anne Meredith (nee Tawmley, 1812-1895) was an artist, poet, novelist and travel writer. She first published her two volume My Home in Tasmania in 1852 under the name Mrs. Charles Meredith. This illustrated narrative described her nine years in Britain's remote colony, with Meredith portraying the society that her family engaged with, and their domestic details. It was predominantly concerned with nature, providing a portrait of the countryside in this foreign land. Meredith's travel narrative was later published in one volume in an American edition (1853), and she also published Notes and Sketches of New South Wales, During a Residence in that Colony from 1839 to 1844 (1844), Travels and Stories in our Gold Colonies (1865) and Tasmanian Friends and Foes Feathered, Furred and Finned: A Family Chronicle of Country Life, Natural History, and Veritable Adventure (1881).
'In 1852, a book was dedicated to “our most gracious and beloved Queen.” It professed to be a “simple chronicle of nine years passed in one of Her Majesty’s most remote colonies.” The book was My Home in Tasmania, During a Residence of Nine Years and its author was Louisa Meredith, an English woman who had emigrated from Britain to the Australian colonies with her husband Charles, thirteen years earlier. The Merediths intended to live in the colonies for five years, before returning “home” to Britain, something they never did.Charles Meredith had lived in the Australian colonies since 1821, and when Lieutenant-Governor Arthur denied Charles a land grant in Tasmania, he moved to New South Wales (NSW). He returned to England in 1838, and sailed back to the colonies the following year, married to his cousin Louisa, who was expecting their first child. After spending her first years as a colonist in NSW, Louisa Meredith dismissed Sydney as hot, glaring and dusty, and thought its inhabitants pretentiously imitated British social customs. She understood emancipists to be wealthy, but lacking taste and education, and said convicts struggled with alcoholism, while the indigenous population was savage and brutal. In short, she was unimpressed and welcomed the family’s move to Tasmania in 1844. Meredith found more visual reminders of the English landscape there, and the building of new cultural institutions offered settlers uncontested areas for cultivating a replica of English society, which endeared the colony to her.' (Introduction)
In the Service of Infinite and Glorious Creation: The Nature Writing of Louisa Anne Meredith
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z975333
1998
single work
criticism
Dunscombe discuss the work of Louisa Anne Meredith positing that the attention she gives to the natural environment in her novels has an 'overt conservationist message' (17) and engages with issues of domination, exploitation and general disrespect for the environment. Dunscombe argues that Meredith 'strove to foster in her readers a multi-dimensional appreciation of the natural world, encompassing emotional, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, cultural scientific and practical understandings' (16). Dunscombe admires Meredith's work as an example of 19th century environmentalism and also for Merediths awareness and foregrounding 'of her less than authoratative status as woman and author' (as opposed to the more authoratitive position of male-professional environmentalist). Dunscombe believes that 'Meredith's well-established commkitment to close personal observation is the backbone of her scientific approach' (24) while her 'earnest purpose is to 'inculcate a love and respect for nature by using all the means at her disposal' (29).
In the Service of Infinite and Glorious Creation: The Nature Writing of Louisa Anne Meredith
St Lucia
:
AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource
,
2009
Z975333
1998
single work
criticism
Dunscombe discuss the work of Louisa Anne Meredith positing that the attention she gives to the natural environment in her novels has an 'overt conservationist message' (17) and engages with issues of domination, exploitation and general disrespect for the environment. Dunscombe argues that Meredith 'strove to foster in her readers a multi-dimensional appreciation of the natural world, encompassing emotional, spiritual, ethical, aesthetic, cultural scientific and practical understandings' (16). Dunscombe admires Meredith's work as an example of 19th century environmentalism and also for Merediths awareness and foregrounding 'of her less than authoratative status as woman and author' (as opposed to the more authoratitive position of male-professional environmentalist). Dunscombe believes that 'Meredith's well-established commkitment to close personal observation is the backbone of her scientific approach' (24) while her 'earnest purpose is to 'inculcate a love and respect for nature by using all the means at her disposal' (29).
'In 1852, a book was dedicated to “our most gracious and beloved Queen.” It professed to be a “simple chronicle of nine years passed in one of Her Majesty’s most remote colonies.” The book was My Home in Tasmania, During a Residence of Nine Years and its author was Louisa Meredith, an English woman who had emigrated from Britain to the Australian colonies with her husband Charles, thirteen years earlier. The Merediths intended to live in the colonies for five years, before returning “home” to Britain, something they never did.Charles Meredith had lived in the Australian colonies since 1821, and when Lieutenant-Governor Arthur denied Charles a land grant in Tasmania, he moved to New South Wales (NSW). He returned to England in 1838, and sailed back to the colonies the following year, married to his cousin Louisa, who was expecting their first child. After spending her first years as a colonist in NSW, Louisa Meredith dismissed Sydney as hot, glaring and dusty, and thought its inhabitants pretentiously imitated British social customs. She understood emancipists to be wealthy, but lacking taste and education, and said convicts struggled with alcoholism, while the indigenous population was savage and brutal. In short, she was unimpressed and welcomed the family’s move to Tasmania in 1844. Meredith found more visual reminders of the English landscape there, and the building of new cultural institutions offered settlers uncontested areas for cultivating a replica of English society, which endeared the colony to her.' (Introduction)
