====== The Marroon Magazine ======

===== No III, August 1866. =====

The Marroon Magazine was no light undertaking - this issue was 159 pages long, with numerous contributions by M.M.P (Matilda) and her daughter Rosa, the future novelist. Some note of contents:
 
  *  TLM-P had traditional views on women, but this issue reveals that, while the gender divisions are clear, his daughters were independently minded to an unusual degree. In one story the hero marries another; he is duly unhappy and his wife leaves him. Traditionally, the heroine dies of a broken heart or eventually marries her love, but not this one! Instead the hero dies leaving all he possesses to the heroine 'thus rendering me independent for life'! The sign-off is equally subversive: the writer hopes the reader has enjoyed the story although it has been written by "An Old Maid".\\
  * Essays and poems about celebrated women and men such as [[wp>Joan_of_Arc|Joan of Arc]], [[wp>Catherine_de%27_Medici|Catherine de Medici]] and [[wp>Cardinal_Mazarin|Cardinal Mazarin]], many signed 'M.M.P.' That 'M.M.P.' was Matilda as is evident in one of the other poems signed 'M.M.P.' commending good behaviour by Lizzie and Redmond. The poem is entitled 'Lizzie's dolls' and not the most tactful how it ends.\\
\\
Lizzie had four little dolls she loves so well\\
Edith and Amy, Jessie and Bell\\
They have four little servants their errands to go\\
Thomas and Matthew, William and Joe\\
\\
A coach they have got with harness so neat\\
Fine horses and livery all complete\\
Saddles they have too, and habits so gay\\
No ladies in town so fine as they\\
\\
She has made them gay dresses with trimmings of green\\
and bonnets and mantles fit for a queen\\
Such stylish young ladies you never would meet\\
As her four little dolls when drest for the street\\
\\
A house they have got with mirrors so fine\\
And curtains and carpets quite divine\\
They've a tea service too, of crimson and white \\
And their friends to drink tea they often invite\\
\\
She has a dear little brother who helps her to play\\
With her four little dolls on a rainy day\\
Some time he happens to pull out an eye\\
But he gives her his pence another to buy\\
\\
Lizzie and Reddy are good children ever\\
Though not very bright, nor yet very clever\\
When Hervey and Hugh are making a noise\\
They quietly play with their dolls and their toys.\\ 
  * A light-hearted and clever take on a feature of the papers of the time is 'Fashionable Intelligence'. The item that His Holiness the Pope left Marroon for Brisbane maybe a teasing reference to [[thomas_de_montmorenci_florence_mary_m-p|T de M.M-P]]. There is also mention of visitors including the Bundocks (Mary Bundock would be the second wife of [[thomas_de_montmorenci_florence_mary_m-p|Thomas de M. M-P]]) and Richard Harpur. There is also a note that 'Miss Hollinsworth, known to readers as 'Aston Rose'(?) left Maroon 'to our regret'. The Hollinsworths came out on the same ship as Matilda and her family when emigrating to Australia.  
  * Rosa demonstrated her literary talents with, among other contributions, Chapter 1 of a long story entitled Barbarian's Dream. Her preciosity is also seen in her poem  the 'Roman Battle Song' with its note that it had been written by 9-year-old 'RMP' in 1860.
  * 'T. de M. M.P.' (Thomas de Montmorenci M-P) contributed an essay on steam navigation and possibly other items including a poem on the joys of riding:\\
You may take pleasure in sailing\\
A horse for me with a pace like the wind\\
That leaves all
 my rivals far behind ...\\
 

==== Number IV (September 1866) ====
This issue too is a lively and varied collection of the children's sketches and writing - particularly by Rosa - along with that of their mother. 'His Holiness the Pope' gets a further teasing reference to his return to Maroon, and his courting of a 'fair young mademoiselle' who lives at Kangaroo Point. If this was Florence Moor, the courtship had another 12 years to go before they married. This issue also noted a play the children performed to celebrate the 20th wedding anniversary of the 'Heads of this Family' - in this time of Victorian patriarchy, the plural ('Heads') is another indication that the family viewed women to be equal, at least within the family, to men.\\

==== New Series No. I May 1867 ====
One poem cannot be read without awareness that Matilda would die the following year:\\
friends are gone, and mother tho art gone with my sister and my brother 'And I am left alone to mourn\ That dearest, holiest(?) best, my mother'. C.R.
The poignancy of that sentiment is enforced by a poem Matilda contributed, to her eldest daughter (Rosa) on her 16th birthday. It ended, 'But ne'er shall fonder heart caress thee/ Than hers who now bids God to bless thee.'((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.46.))\\

Source: Praed papers, JOLQ, ... Box 3. **Need to check as going on old notes.**