Fix this text
Book Collectors' 1 Society of Australia
Fix this textBIBLIONEWS
Fix this textApril, 1958
Fix this text146th Issue
Fix this textVol. 11, No. 4.
Fix this text"LEGENDS OF AUSTRALIA” & JOHN LANG
Fix this textA Curiosity of Colonial Literature
Fix this textJ.W. Earnshaw
Fix this textEarly in 1842 the Sydney press carried an announcement by James Tegg, well known
Fix this textand enterprising bookseller of George Street, that he would commence publication on
Fix this textFebruary Ist of No. 1 of Legends of Australia, to be completed in twelve fortnightly
Fix this textparts at one shilling each* Mr. Tegg’s project was not altogether successful. Only
Fix this textfour parts - in three issues - appeared: Nos. 1 and 2 in February, 1842 and nos. 3 and.
Fix this text4as one issue in the following month. There were 128 pages of text altogether, very
Fix this textwell printed, and each issue was bound up in a nicely embellished wrapper which shovzed
Fix this textthat local printers were not lagging behind their London contemporaries.
Fix this textLegends of Australia, an anonymous work of fiction, is one of the rarest items in
Fix this textAustralian literature. The only sets recorded are one in the Mitchell Library and
Fix this textanother in the Public Library of New South Wales. An incomplete run is in the collection
Fix this textof Mr. Justice Ferguson. It is so little known that the Public Library set, which had
Fix this textits identifying wrappers removed when bound in with other pamphlets at an early date,
Fix this textwas listed in ’’Australasian Bibliography” (1888) as published in ’’London, n.d. ”). Nor
Fix this textcan any reference to it be traced other than the listing in Mr. Justice Ferguson’s
Fix this text’’Bibliography of Australia”.
Fix this textThe first legend, entitled ’’Frederick Charles Howard”, has strong claims to being
Fix this textthe first novel with an authentic Australian background published in N.S.W. It is the
Fix this textstory of Hovzard, the young and aristocratic murderer, who was transported in 1836 and
Fix this textassigned to a squatter on a station far to the south of Bong Bong in the wild Shoalhaven
Fix this textcountry. He is followed to the colony by his beautiful and equally aristocratic wife,
Fix this textIsabella; after many disappointments and vicissitudes usually attendant upon such ex-
Fix this textpeditions she traces her husband to his hut in the wilds. Finally they find felicity
Fix this textand contentment under the wide, blue Australian sky.
Fix this textThe second legend, ’’Edward Nox”, runs for but six pages before it abruptly ends
Fix this textand we are forever left wondering why the mysterious New South Welshman, Ned Nox, was
Fix this texttravelling in his private carriage from Paris to Brussels one bleak February Say in the
Fix this textyear 1833.
Fix this textThere is much to suggest that John Lang, first Australian-born novelist, was the
Fix this textauthor of Legends of Australia. Born in Sydney in 1816, a second generation Australian,
Fix this textas a boy he enjoyed all the material advantages of wealthy '’emancipist’ family connections.
Fix this textAt an early age he showed exceptional talent and a literary bent which resulted in the
Fix this textpublication in Sydney, in 1835? of his excellent verse translation of Horace’s First
Fix this textSatire. Only one complete copy (in the Ferguson Collection) is known of what would
Fix this textprobably be the first separate publication of a translation from the classics by any
Fix this textAustralian. The title page reads: ’’Dedicated to W.T. Cope, Esq., Head Master Sydney
Fix this textCollege by his pupil, John Lang (Latin quotation) J.C. Austin, Litho® 15 Hunter Street.”
Fix this textThe translation is headed ’’Against the Inconsistency of Man and Avarice.” For two
Fix this textsuccessive years John Lang won the Classics medal at the Sydney College.
Fix this textIntended for the Law, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1838 and was
Fix this textadmitted to the English Bar in 1841. He returned to Sydney with his well-born English
Fix this textwife in October of that year. But here he found that the cleavage in colonial society
Fix this textbetween ’emancipist’ and ’pure Merino® was such as to hinder the full enjoyment of his
Fix this textIt's easy and takes two shakes of a lamb's tail!
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Book Collectors' Society of Australia. (1947). Biblionews Retrieved August 16, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2999686829
Book Collectors' Society of Australia. Biblionews [Sydney]: The Book Collectors' Society of Australia, 1947. Web. 16 August 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2999686829>
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{{Citation
| author1=Book Collectors' Society of Australia.
| title=Biblionews
| year=1947
| section=v. ; 29 cm.
| issn=1529-1715
| issue=Vol. 11 No. 4 (April 1958)
| location=[Sydney]
| publisher=The Book Collectors' Society of Australia
| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2999686829
| id=nla.obj-2999686829
| access-date=16 August 2025
| via=Trove
}}
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