AustLit

This column is probably written by the editor of the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, George Cavenagh. It is a justification for the writer's previous remarks on James Martin's 'Botany Bay' essay published in the Sydney Gazette issue of 4 October 1838 (2). 'The author of The Australian Sketch Book', states the writer, 'complains that we do him injustice in attributing to him the possession of opinions favourable to the doctrine of the efficacy of prayers for the dead ...'

Paragraph about the intention of a 'young man, author of several productions which have issued from the Colonial press' to publish a series 'after the style of Boz' through subscription. The work was to be entitled "The Peregrinations of Tobias Twichenham, Esq. [sic]".

The 13 November 1838 issue of the Sydney Gazette acknowledges 'the receipt of the first number of a work styled:- A Faithful History of the Life and Adventures, and Public and Private Career of Tobias Twickenham Esquire,... edited by Boz Jun ...' (2)

This short paragraph republished from an English newspaper (The Sun, 31 May 1838?) tells of the auctioning of a Shakespeare autograph. The autograph was found on the fly-leaf of a copy of the John Florio translation of the works of Montaigne. Considered authentic in 1838, by the beginning of the twentieth century it was recognised as a forgery.