The trials and tribulations of being a settler in Albany in the 1800s are very much the focus of the current catalogue of Grahamstown African dealer Ian Balchin.
The trials and tribulations of being a settler in Albany in the 1800s are very much the focus of the current catalogue of Grahamstown African dealer Ian Balchin.
Old books they may be, but they clearly make for juicy reading.
"Starting his journal on the death of his wife, he documents the daily grind, his struggles with debt, liquor, weather, war, raising children single-handedly, all the while maintaining a relationship with a married woman," reads Balchin's description of The Albany Journals of Thomas Shone. Balchin has one of 500 copies.
"Harry Hastings" is regarded as the alter ego of Wesleyan missionary and 1820 settler John Ayliff. Grocott's Mail's predecessor, Grocott's and Sherry published The Journal of Harry Hastings, mostly in diary form. It describes the experiences of a typical young British settler of 1820. It covers the four-month voyage from England, the trek to the settlement near Bathurst and the difficult months that followed.
Conversations of Sir George Cory records oral interviews as they survive in Cory's notebooks and typescripts. The volume documents 'conversations' with 1820 Settlers, Xhosa chiefs, old soldiers, a Voortrekker, and ordinary citizens, 'giving voice to people beyond their lifetime', the description says.
The reminiscences of Richard Paver documents newly qualified engineer Richard Paver's experiences in the Eastern Cape after he moved here in 1843.
"He worked on the watermills at Sidbury and Glenthorn before entering into an agreement with Sir Andries Stockenstrom to erect a mill at Maasstroom. His reminiscences, written about forty years later, deal largely with his experiences during the Frontier wars which ensued," Balchin's description reads.
"Paver's reminiscences provide vivid insight into a little-known and contentious phase in the history of the Eastern Cape frontier." Balchin own fables Bookshop in High Street.
