The englishman's defence

Component identifier:

Item 66

Content Summary:

This folder contains Neilson's first version of the verses later published as The Ballad of Remembrance. They have been written out by Lisette Neilson at his dictation. In his Autobiography Neilson writes: "...Bob [Croll] did not like the title so I changed it". Had Croll seen this version he would have probably liked it still less, for the poem as printed is much milder in tone. It differs considerably; it contains 25 stanzas as against 23 in the original draft.

Neilson wrote to James Devaney, 4 September 1933: "...I am enclosing a piece of manuscript that I spoke of. It opens too suddenly. I could easily write a few other stanzas to slow it off a bit. The idea has been worked on a good deal of course. When I was in N.S.W. I learned that men were actually flogged at Bathurst Gaol, 60 years ago..." This letter is included.

Ted Harrington's version of the origin of the poem does not agree, as he writes:

"Neilson's father was working on a clearing job with a mate, a quiet, sober man. One day the limb of a tree fell on him and gashed his back terribly. Neilson tore off his shirt to bathe and dress the wounds. He saw that the man's back was all scarred by the weals of the cat-o-nine-tails. Afterwards he told Neilson's father the whole story. It seems he was a convict and had been assigned to a squatter in early days. One day his master gave him a letter to take to a magistrate twenty miles away. He walked the twenty miles, delivered the letter, and the magistrate immediately ordered that he should receive fifty lashes. When he had received the lashes he was ordered to return to the squatter, which he did. He had never disobeyed an order. The squatter had never complained of his conduct in any way. Such was the convict "System". That is the origin of The Ballad of Remembrance. No wonder that Neilson had a great hatred of the old convict system which he repeated to me many times." [This letter is in with No. 70.]

Included with this item (No.66) is an 8 page letter from Shaw Neilson to James Devaney, 13 January 1935, written by Lisette Neilson and signed "J.S. Neilson", in which he comments upon this poem, also The Whistling Jack and The Soldier is Home: "Pieces although very mild and harmless, do rub some people the wrong way". The letter also contains references to A.G.S. and their financial arrangements in respect to publication of Neilson's poems.

Names:

John Shaw Neilson

Access and use