AustLit

19th-Century Australian Travel Writing

Mrs James Foott's (Henrietta Anne Foott nee Lumsden) (1822-1916) Sketches of Life in the Bush was first published in 1872. This account of Australia was written ten years after Foott travelled back to 'the Old Country' for a holiday, hence the subtitle to this text or, Ten Years in the Interior. The work described Foott's family and their life in Australia in a first-person narrative that was almost confiding in its style. It concluded with an account of the English mail arriving from the 'noble steamer' of the P. and O. Company and the excitement that colonists felt hearing good news from home; this served as a reminder to those in the old country how important it was to write to those in Australia to cheer them in their lonely state (even if those who emigrated to Australia were the black sheep of the family). Foott hoped that her sketches would prove useful and teach the reader a lesson of thankfulness. A second edition was published in 1878 and included a dedication to Foott's brother, Captain John Tower Lumsden, who fell at the siege of Lucknow in 1857. This edition does not include images.