Nineteenth-Century Travel Writing
Captain Henry Butler Stoney (1816-1894) was a British army officer with the 99th Regiment. Published anonymously in 1854, A Year in Tasmania was revised and published under his name in 1856, titled A Residence in Tasmania: With a Descriptive Tour Through the Island, from Macquarie Harbour to Circular Head, with the cover title Travels in Tasmania: Showing the Advantages Offered by this Colony as a Field for Emigration. This later edition saw Stoney's move to his residence in Tasmania, and was characterised by its numerous illustrations and improved printing quality. In both prefaces Stoney noted that Tasmania was saddled with a "bad name" in the Mother Country, and his words an attempt to remedy this vogue against Van Diemen's Land and combat the lack of knowledge in England about the colony. Stoney described Tasmania as the most lovely island in the world, illustrating the colony in extensive detail and with romantic, picturesque language, including particular reference to the cities and towns of the island, including Port Arthur, Maria Island, New Norfolk, Launceston and Circular Head. Describing the utopic beauty of Hobart and its harbour, the work was a pure statement of the attractiveness of the colony, as opposed to a more practical or political text. Stoney also wrote Victoria: With a Description of its Principal Cities (1856) and Taranaki: A Tale of the War (1861).
