Louisa Lawson: ‘A Splendid Horse Woman’
Louisa’s riding days were curtailed when she married a gold prospector and had five children. But her skills with horses remained undiminished.
Paleography – transcribing old letters
Transcribing Elizabeth Macarthur’s letters is at once illuminating and frustrating. I’m currently working on one that Elizabeth sent to Captain John Piper, in 1804. The original is held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. John Macarthur was away in England at the time and Captain Piper, a good friend to both Elizabeth and John, was stationed…
Transporting Horses Over the Sea
Yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day and so naturally my thoughts turned (yet again) to horses; several of which arrived with the white settlers of the First Fleet. Horses have continued to arrive on the Australian continent ever since. But how? Those first horses arrived by ship, of course, but pause for a moment and consider…