Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents, and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Legends -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Miscellanea
"The beautiful Lincolnshire hills on my left, and the still more
beautiful hills, dales, and woods of my own native Yorkshire to the
north, lent their charms to form a landscape I never saw equalled, and
in casting my last lingering gaze upon it I felt that the inanimate
beauties of creation must now to me for ever be a blank. I strained my
eyes to catch as much of it as I could, feeling the prospect, as it
were, a part of myself, and necessary to my very existence, for there it
had commenced, and little at one time did I think at how great a
distance I was doomed to end it.
"Arrived at Botany Bay, I was soon disposed of, and commenced in good
earnest the life of a slave. Hard-worked, half-starved, ill-fed, and
worse clothed, such is the fate of the hapless convict."
Whilst in confinement, Snowden Dunhill wrote his Autobiography, and much
wished to send it to his native village that it might be printed there
for circulation. But it was some time before an opportunity presented
itself.
One October day, 1830, as he was wheeling earth and stones near the pier
of Sydney, in the harbour of Port Jackson, he rested for a moment to
look at the beautiful bay before him, and compare it with one of the
lake-like reaches of the Humber, when he was roused from his musings by
a tap on the shoulder, and the salutation of "Well, Snowden, how are
you?"
He touched his cap, and looked up. Before him stood a sailor, who
grasped his hand and shook it warmly. The sailor was the little boy
whose life he had saved in the moat of Spaldington Old Hall so many
years before.
The sailor gave him some money, and told him he was about to return to
Hull. Dunhill at once produced his little Autobiography, and entreated
him to take it back to Yorkshire, and get it printed there. The sailor
readily promised to do this, and to his fulfilment of the promise we owe
the existence of the curious little memoir presented to the reader.
In August, 1833, Snowden Dunhill was seen by another Howden man, who was
at Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land. His account of Dunhill is that he was
"a tall, stout man, bent and stooping with suffering and privation more
than from natural infirmity, but with the step and assurance of his old
self."
The Howden man would not have known Dunhill had not the convict heard
his name mentioned, and introduced himself to him: "Ye're one of ----'s
sons i' Howden?" in the broadest East Riding Yorkshire. Then, when the
stranger answered that he was, Dunhill's eyes filled with tears, and he
began to sob.
"In external appearance he was not very much altered. The boisterous and
overbearing manners of former years yet remained, unsoftened and
unrepressed by the sufferings he had undergone. An habitual stoop had
bent down his person, and somewhat taken away from the portly and
blustering gait of early life. The small, grey, quick, and piercing eye
still retained its cunning and prying character. His dress was much the
same as he wore in England."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account