Page:Facts and Fancies about Our "Son of the Woods", Henry Clarence Kendall and his Poetry (IA factsfanciesabou00hami).pdf/15



BOUT two years or more after the death of Henry Clarence Kendall, I was engaged by the Secretary of the Sydney School of Arts to deliver a lecture, or lecture-recital, on Patriots and Patriot Bards. I spoke, as was my custom then, from memory. The patriotic songs of different countries were recited in the course of the lecture, and the piece chosen by me to illustrate patriotism in Australia, my native land, was Henry Kendall's verses, "To the Muse of Australia." It was the first time Kendall's poetry had been presented to a public audience by a lady, and utilised for illustrating a theme demanding the expression of the noblest statement in appropriate language. It was a large and cultivated audience, for the School of Arts Lecture Hall was then double the size it is at present, and at that time the hall in which distinguished lecturers, such as the late Rev. Charles Clarke, often gave me their literary entertainments. For it was, as a mere girl, hearing the Rev. Charles Clarke in his lecture on the poet Goldsmith (in the course of which he described his peculiar memory), that first gave me the idea of utilising my own memory (which was then exactly similar to his) on the lecture platform, though ladies, as public lecturers, were not then as numerous as they are at present; and I was the first of my sex, Australian born, to challenge criticism throughout Victoria and New South Wales in that capacity. But to return to the Sydney School of Arts of those days. The Lecture Hall then was comfortably fitted with a private entrance from a room at the back of the platform, which has since been done away with, probably to enlarge the actual library accommodation.

The various pieces of poetry recited in the course of the lecture on "Patriots and Patriot bards" were all very heartily received amidst rounds of applause from the audience. But the verses from Kendall came as a surprise, and were greeted with deafening sounds of approval. I had to hold my hand up repeatedly to "waive off" the applause, so that I may give the concluding words of the lecture.