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Christmas Day in the Bush single work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 1851... 1851 Christmas Day in the Bush
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A burning Christmas Day outback in 1840 and two English stockmen, left without food, journey to their Devon neighbour's station and join his generous Christmas party. One of the pair enjoys not only the repast but the fair company - and later marries her. Slight, colourful, cheery, egalitarian yarn: well-connected Englishmen meet successful once-starving Devon family in the land of opportunity. The earlier version includes the reminiscence it stirs of an English Christmas in 1832 when poverty forced his family to emigrate ...(PB)

Notes

  • This story was originally published in Household Words in 1851. Sidney subsequently revised it for inclusion in Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia (1854), where it appears as the first part of Chapter VIII (pp. 123-128).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Household Words vol. 2 1851 Z1243094 1851 periodical issue 1851 pg. 309-310
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Goulburn Herald and County of Argyle Advertiser vol. 5 no. 232 4 December 1852 Z1769492 1852 newspaper issue 1852 pg. 2
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Australian Journal vol. 26 no. 307 December 1890 Z1033521 1890 periodical issue 1890 pg. 200-201
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Further Tales from Botany Bay John Lang , Samuel Sidney , Victor Crittenden (editor), Canberra : Mulini Press , 2005 Z1228008 2005 selected work short story extract This selection claims to brings together the uncollected Australian stories of John Lang, previously published separately in English and Indian periodicals and newspapers. Research since its publication shows that some of the stories are in fact extracts from a novel Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia by Samuel Sidney Canberra : Mulini Press , 2005 pg. 100-104
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Tales of the Bushman Samuel Sidney , John Sidney , Canberra : Mulini Press , 2006 Z1328626 2006 selected work short story

    John Sidney came to Australia in 1840. He spent ten years in the colony. On his return to England he told his brother Samuel about his experiences in Australia. Samuel wrote them down and they were published in Household Words 1850-1852. John returned to Australia and sent news back to his brother. Samuel Sidney never visited Australia. His novel Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia is based on his brother's information.

         Canberra : Mulini Press , 2006     pg. 34-38
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Further Tales from Botany Bay John Lang , Samuel Sidney , Victor Crittenden (editor), Canberra : Mulini Press , 2005 Z1228008 2005 selected work short story extract This selection claims to brings together the uncollected Australian stories of John Lang, previously published separately in English and Indian periodicals and newspapers. Research since its publication shows that some of the stories are in fact extracts from a novel Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia by Samuel Sidney Canberra : Mulini Press , 2006
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Related Works

y separately published work icon Gallops and Gossips in the Bush of Australia, or, Passages in the Life of Alfred Barnard Samuel Sidney , 1854 single work novel From a roving, largely outdoors, education in England and France, the narrator - an orphan - becomes unfitted for an office profession and emigrates to Australia. The stories recount aspects of his life in the colony. The narrator finally returns to England - near York - for Christmas. He hears sad tales of England's poor but finds rich welcome with his family - and a wife.
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Last amended 13 Dec 2011 14:57:03
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  • Bush,
  • 1840s
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