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Harry Dashboard
Cvening: ←Created page with ''''Harry Dashboard''', pen-name of the Australian newspaper poet identified as James Riley (1795–ca.1860),<ref>Date of Riley's death is estimated - see Vening,...'
'''Harry Dashboard''', pen-name of the Australian newspaper poet identified as James Riley (1795–ca.1860),<ref>Date of Riley's death is estimated - see Vening, p. 156.</ref> who also wrote under other pseudonyms including "Felix."
== Early years ==
James Riley (or Ryley) was born in [[Cork (city)|Cork]], Ireland, in 1795. In 1824 he was tried at the [[Old_Bailey|Old Bailey]]<ref>The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, JAMES RYLEY. Theft: grand larceny. 2nd December 1824 (t18241202–5).</ref> in London for the theft of two shillings, convicted and sentenced to seven years transportation, arriving in [[New_South_Wales|New South Wales]] in August 1825 aboard the convict transport "Minstrel." Assigned to [https://ift.tt/30yehrV Rev. Thomas Reddall] at [[Campbelltown,_New_South_Wales|Campbelltown]] as a labourer (though he was a clerk by calling), and then to [https://ift.tt/2ZtIUkS Major George Druitt] at [[Mount_Druitt|Mount Druitt]], probably as a schoolmaster,<ref>Letter and poems from James Riley to Miss Reddall of Campbelltown, 20 December 1830, in Reddall Family – Papers 1808-1897, undated, State Library of NSW, A 423 (microfilm CY974), pp. 75-82.</ref> Riley was granted his Certificate of Freedom in 1831.<ref>Riley's convict years can be followed via UK Prison Hulks Registers 1802–49—''Justitia'' Register 1803–36; "Free Settler or Felon" website at jenwilletts.com; NSW Convict Indents—Bound Indentures 1823–26; NSW Convict Musters 1800–49—General Muster, 1825; Butts of Certificates of Freedom, 1831, Dec; ''Sydney Gazette'', 1 September 1825, p. 3, and 12 January 1832, p. 1; ''Sydney Herald'', 16 January 1832, p. 4. His ship is generally referred to as "Minstrel (2)."</ref>
Through the 1830s and early 1840s Riley published verse – mainly comic and satirical – in [[Sydney|Sydney]] newspapers, either anonymously or under various pseudonyms including J. R., Dick Lightpate, A Child of Song, Owen Bulgruddery, Felix M'Quill, Caleb Menangle and Felix.<ref>See Vening, pp. 143-4 for further details.</ref> During this time he became associated with the Hume family, explorers and settlers of southern New South Wales. He was schoolmaster to the children of Francis Rawdon Hume (brother of [https://ift.tt/30AGONA Hamilton Hume]) at Rockwood, [[Appin,_New_South_Wales|Appin]], and to the family of Hume relative George Barber at Glenrock, [[Marulan|Marulan]]. Riley published several poems dedicated to Hume family members, most notably an elegy for Barber, drowned trying to cross flooded Towrang Creek in a winter storm in 1844,<ref>"The Horseman Who Faced the Storm" was printed in ''The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature'', 4 January 1845, p. 6, and republished twice in the ''Goulburn Herald'': once (16 December, 1848, p. 4) attributed to Felix, and a second time (3 October 1860, p. 4) attributed to Harry Dashboard. A manuscript version, apparently in Felix's hand, is in "Elegiac Pieces by Felix" in Hamilton Hume–Papers, 1840-1855, Ferguson Collection, NLA, MS 3575.</ref> and a lament for John Kennedy Hume, killed in a fight with bushranger Thomas Whitton in the streets of [[Gunning,New_South_Wales|Gunning]] on 20 January 1840.<ref>"Lines, Written as a tribute…to the memory of the late John Kennedy Hume, Esq…" appeared in the ''Australasian Chronicle'', 8 October 1842, p. 1. A manuscript version is in "Elegiac Pieces by Felix," NLA MS 3575.</ref>
== Fisher's Ghost ==
Frederick Fisher disappeared from his Campbelltown farm in June 1826. Foul play was suspected, and a police search led by Aboriginal tracker Gilbert finally found his remains in a boggy creek nearby. Fisher's friend George Worrall was accused of his murder, tried and hanged in 1827. The affair was reported in the newspapers of the day,<ref>See, for example, ''The Australian'', 11 November 1826, p. 2; 3 February 1827, p. 3 and 7 February 1827, p. 2.</ref> but James Riley's verse account was the first to introduce a new and sensational element based on local rumour: the appearance of the ghost of the murdered man on a Campbelltown bridge, pointing to where his body would be found. The story of [[Fisher's_ghost|Fisher's Ghost]] continues to exert a fascination today.<ref>See Further reading</ref> Riley's poem "The Sprite of the Creek!" first appeared anonymously in 1832<ref>''Hill's Life in New South Wales'', 14 September 1832, p. 3 (with title misprinted "The Spirit of the Creek!"); full version with author's corrections, 21 September 1832, p. 4.</ref> and again – this time with an explanatory letter and extensive footnotes – under the pen-name Felix in 1846.<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 27 June 1846, p. 1.</ref>
== Felix's comic verse ==
As Felix, Riley also produced comic verse, most notably two serio-comic epics, "The Luprechaun; or, Fairies' Shoemaker, An Irish Legend of '98"<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 11 October 1845, p. 4; 18 October 1845, p. ?; 25 October 1845, p. 4; and 1 November 1845, p. 4. Reprinted in the ''Goulburn Herald'' attributed to Harry D––––, 10 and 14 March 1860, p. 4. Riley's source was probably the second part of the story "Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry.–No. V. The Luprechaun," ''The Dublin and London Magazine'', July 1825, pp. 195–7, which was reprinted in Sydney in ''The Currency Lad'', 3 November 1832, p. 4.</ref> and "Billy McDaniel; or, 'The Ould Fellow' Balked. An Irish Legend", an [[Asmodeus|Asmodean]] tale in which Billy rescues a young bride at a country wedding from the clutches of the devil.<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 10, 17, 24 and 31 July and 7, 14 and 21 August 1847, p. 4. This is a retelling in verse of the tale "Master and Man" from ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' by Thomas Crofton Croker (1825), which was reprinted in the ''Sydney Gazette'', 12 June 1830, p. 4.</ref> It is likely that Riley was also the "Felix McQuill" who wrote "The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much", a cautionary tale set in the time of [https://ift.tt/1t6Qh8A Governor Macquarie].<ref>''Australasian Chronicle'', 20 September 1842, p. 2; 22 September 1842, p. 1; and 24 September 1842, p. 2. See also Webby, p. 48 and Vening, p. 144.</ref> However Felix's crowning achievement was arguably the Humbuggawang Despatches, a series of prose and song satires on New South Wales politics of the 1840s and '50s, particularly the progressive causes of extension of the franchise, a halt to the transportation of convicts, separation from British rule and a federated Australian republic. The despatches are in the language (and eccentric spelling) of stockman-poet Tim Donohue, Felix's uproarious Irish-Australian friend, from the wilds of the [[Murrumbidgee_River|Murrumbidgee River]]. The sporting and satirical newspaper ''Bell's Life in Sydney'' carried twenty despatches over the years 1847 to 1859.
== The Gundagai flood ==
Riley's most widely-known piece – and the only published one to which he attached his name – was "The Gundagai Calamity," a lament for the destruction of the town of [[Gundagai|Gundagai]] in the Murrumbidgee River flood of the night of 24 June 1852.<ref>''Goulburn Herald'', 28 August 1852, p. 6, and reprinted widely in NSW newspapers.</ref> It was written at Francis Rawdon Hume's home Castlesteads, at [[Boorowa|Boorowa]], only a few weeks after the events described. The poem would reappear regularly in NSW newspapers over the next eighty years.
== Harry Dashboard ==
Around 1848 Riley adopted the pen-name "Harry Dashboard", a term he took from the board at the front of a carriage which shielded its occupants from the muck dashed up by the horses. Harry wrote comic and satirical verse from places in the Murrumbidgee region of southern NSW: Boorowa, Gunning, Bobbera and "Yassville" (probably an imaginary place in or near [[Yass,_New_South_Wales|Yass]]), and his work appeared mainly in Goulburn and Yass newspapers. His subjects are sometimes local – the woeful state of the roads and bridges , the eccentricities of Brummy the coach driver, a mock ode for the local policemen – but the best are satires on colonial politics and prominent figures: the gold mania, Chinese immigration, speculation in railways, the absurd [[Bunyip_aristocracy|"bunyip aristocracy"]] proposal of [https://ift.tt/30yT0hw W. C. Wentworth], the demagoguery of [https://ift.tt/2ZtIXx4 John Dunmore Lang] and sly digs at the work of Harry's poetical rivals [https://ift.tt/30xbpeQ Henry Parkes] and [https://ift.tt/2Zqdc7X Charles Harpur].
Riley's last poem as Harry Dashboard was published in 1860.<ref>"The Horseman Who Faced the Storm", ''Goulburn Herald'', 3 October 1860, p. 4 (a reprint of the poem by Felix which had appeared in the ''Weekly Register'' of 1845 and the ''Goulburn Herald'' of 1848).</ref> His fate is not known with certainty, but the evidence of his former pupil Mary Bozzom Kennedy, daughter of Francis Rawdon Hume, suggests that Riley died "alone and friendless" around that year.<ref>Mrs. Mary Kennedy, "Recollections of an Australian Squatter's Wife, 1832-1912", State Library of NSW, A 2105, microfilm CY1338, Draft C typescript, p. 20A. See Vening, p. 147.</ref> Despite the fact that his work was confined to the newspapers, Riley's output shows him to be a fine humourist, an adroit rhymester and a sharp commentator on matters local and national. His work has yet to be properly recognised.
== Selected individual works ==
'''Anonymous'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yeknB The Sprite of the Creek! (1832)]
'''As Felix'''
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqddZz The Sprite of the Creek, Revised and Accompanied by Notes (1846)]
* [https://ift.tt/30vkC7i The Horseman Who Faced the Storm]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtIYRE Lines...to the memory of John Kennedy Hume, Esq.]
* [https://ift.tt/30yE3fp Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos I & II)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ0sK Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos III & IV)]
* [https://ift.tt/30HEjcp Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos V & VI)]
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdg7H Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto VII)]
* [https://ift.tt/30yemvJ Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto VIII)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdhbL Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto IX)]
* [https://ift.tt/30DzAbG Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto X)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ4bY Humbuggawang Despatch No. 3: Scene from the Murrumbidgee Operatics]
* [https://ift.tt/30yenzN Humbuggawang Despatch No. 5: Tim Donohue's Swarry!]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdiMR Humbuggawang Despatch No. 7: Tim Donohue's Third Swarry! Prefaced by the Gigantic Railway Spec. and contemplated Monster Cod-Fishing Establishment!!]
'''As Felix McQuill'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yeo6P The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto I)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ6R8 The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto II)]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT0Oy The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto III)]
'''As Harry Dashboard'''
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdknX A Brummisode]
* [https://ift.tt/30yeqLZ "A Few Words of a Sort," Addressed to Time]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdkUZ A Razorbackantigo]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT1lA Mammon's Arrival (A Gold Ditty)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdlZ3 A Fun-o-scopic View of Our Peerage]
* [https://ift.tt/30yerQ3 The Luprechaun: or Fairies' Shoemaker (Part 1)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdnA9 The Luprechaun: or Fairies' Shoemaker (Part 2)]
'''As James Riley'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yT2pE The Gundagai Calamity]
== References ==
== Sources ==
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdpbf The Proceedings of the Old Bailey - Reference t18241202-5]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT2WG Reddall family - papers, 1808-1897, undated (A 423)], State Library of NSW.
* "Elegiac Pieces by Felix", in [https://ift.tt/2ZtJcZ0 Papers of Hamilton Hume, 1840-1855 (MS 3575),] National Library of Australia.
* Kennedy, Mary, [https://ift.tt/30yT3tI Recollections of an Australian squatter's wife, 1838-1912 (A 2105)], State Library of NSW.
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdrjn Trove Digitised Newspapers], National Library of Australia.
* Hadgraft, Cecil, and Elizabeth Webby, "More Substance to Fisher's Ghost?", ''Australian Literary Studies'', 3:3, May 1968, pp. 190-200.
* Webby, Elizabeth, [https://ift.tt/30yeuvd ''Literature and the Reading Public in Australia, 1800-1850, Vol. 3''], PhD diss., University of Sydney, 1981, pp. 76-7.
* Vening, Chris, [https://ift.tt/2Zqds6V "Harry Dashboard and Fisher's Ghost"], ''Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographic Society of Australia and New Zealand'', 39:3, 2015, pp. 133-62; includes bibliography (via Informit).
== Further reading ==
* [https://ift.tt/30yT4xM James Riley] at AustLit.
* Warden, Ian, [https://ift.tt/2ZtJfnE "Bearded visage a slap in the face for smooth types"], ''Canberra Times'', 3 April 2014.
* Finegan, Andrew, [https://ift.tt/30yT54O "Finding Frederick Fisher: Australia's most famous forgotten ghost story"], Canberra: NLA, 30 October 2017.
* Sigma, [https://ift.tt/2ZqdtYx "Fisher's Ghost: A Legend of Campbelltown"], ''Tegg's Monthly Magazine'' (Sydney), Vol. 1, March 1836, pp. 4-9 (via NLA).
* Lang, Andrew, [https://ift.tt/30yT5BQ "The Truth about 'Fisher's Ghost'"], ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'', Vol. CLXII, July 1897, pp. 78-83; reprinted in ''The Valet's Tragedy and Other Studies'', London: Longmans, Green, 1903, pp. 258-73 (via Internet Archive).
* Crittenden, Victor, "The Five Ghosts of John Lang," ''Margin – Life and Letters of Early Australia'', 71, April 2007, pp. 4-14.
* Downing, J. W., [https://ift.tt/2ZqdvzD "Call Not Tomorrow Thine: The Story of Fred Fisher",] manuscript, Campbelltown, NSW: Campbelltown City Council, n.d.
* Liston, Carol, [https://ift.tt/30yewmP Frederick Frederick Fisher and His Ghost,] Campbelltown, NSW: Campbelltown City Council, n.d.
== Early years ==
James Riley (or Ryley) was born in [[Cork (city)|Cork]], Ireland, in 1795. In 1824 he was tried at the [[Old_Bailey|Old Bailey]]<ref>The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, JAMES RYLEY. Theft: grand larceny. 2nd December 1824 (t18241202–5).</ref> in London for the theft of two shillings, convicted and sentenced to seven years transportation, arriving in [[New_South_Wales|New South Wales]] in August 1825 aboard the convict transport "Minstrel." Assigned to [https://ift.tt/30yehrV Rev. Thomas Reddall] at [[Campbelltown,_New_South_Wales|Campbelltown]] as a labourer (though he was a clerk by calling), and then to [https://ift.tt/2ZtIUkS Major George Druitt] at [[Mount_Druitt|Mount Druitt]], probably as a schoolmaster,<ref>Letter and poems from James Riley to Miss Reddall of Campbelltown, 20 December 1830, in Reddall Family – Papers 1808-1897, undated, State Library of NSW, A 423 (microfilm CY974), pp. 75-82.</ref> Riley was granted his Certificate of Freedom in 1831.<ref>Riley's convict years can be followed via UK Prison Hulks Registers 1802–49—''Justitia'' Register 1803–36; "Free Settler or Felon" website at jenwilletts.com; NSW Convict Indents—Bound Indentures 1823–26; NSW Convict Musters 1800–49—General Muster, 1825; Butts of Certificates of Freedom, 1831, Dec; ''Sydney Gazette'', 1 September 1825, p. 3, and 12 January 1832, p. 1; ''Sydney Herald'', 16 January 1832, p. 4. His ship is generally referred to as "Minstrel (2)."</ref>
Through the 1830s and early 1840s Riley published verse – mainly comic and satirical – in [[Sydney|Sydney]] newspapers, either anonymously or under various pseudonyms including J. R., Dick Lightpate, A Child of Song, Owen Bulgruddery, Felix M'Quill, Caleb Menangle and Felix.<ref>See Vening, pp. 143-4 for further details.</ref> During this time he became associated with the Hume family, explorers and settlers of southern New South Wales. He was schoolmaster to the children of Francis Rawdon Hume (brother of [https://ift.tt/30AGONA Hamilton Hume]) at Rockwood, [[Appin,_New_South_Wales|Appin]], and to the family of Hume relative George Barber at Glenrock, [[Marulan|Marulan]]. Riley published several poems dedicated to Hume family members, most notably an elegy for Barber, drowned trying to cross flooded Towrang Creek in a winter storm in 1844,<ref>"The Horseman Who Faced the Storm" was printed in ''The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature'', 4 January 1845, p. 6, and republished twice in the ''Goulburn Herald'': once (16 December, 1848, p. 4) attributed to Felix, and a second time (3 October 1860, p. 4) attributed to Harry Dashboard. A manuscript version, apparently in Felix's hand, is in "Elegiac Pieces by Felix" in Hamilton Hume–Papers, 1840-1855, Ferguson Collection, NLA, MS 3575.</ref> and a lament for John Kennedy Hume, killed in a fight with bushranger Thomas Whitton in the streets of [[Gunning,New_South_Wales|Gunning]] on 20 January 1840.<ref>"Lines, Written as a tribute…to the memory of the late John Kennedy Hume, Esq…" appeared in the ''Australasian Chronicle'', 8 October 1842, p. 1. A manuscript version is in "Elegiac Pieces by Felix," NLA MS 3575.</ref>
== Fisher's Ghost ==
Frederick Fisher disappeared from his Campbelltown farm in June 1826. Foul play was suspected, and a police search led by Aboriginal tracker Gilbert finally found his remains in a boggy creek nearby. Fisher's friend George Worrall was accused of his murder, tried and hanged in 1827. The affair was reported in the newspapers of the day,<ref>See, for example, ''The Australian'', 11 November 1826, p. 2; 3 February 1827, p. 3 and 7 February 1827, p. 2.</ref> but James Riley's verse account was the first to introduce a new and sensational element based on local rumour: the appearance of the ghost of the murdered man on a Campbelltown bridge, pointing to where his body would be found. The story of [[Fisher's_ghost|Fisher's Ghost]] continues to exert a fascination today.<ref>See Further reading</ref> Riley's poem "The Sprite of the Creek!" first appeared anonymously in 1832<ref>''Hill's Life in New South Wales'', 14 September 1832, p. 3 (with title misprinted "The Spirit of the Creek!"); full version with author's corrections, 21 September 1832, p. 4.</ref> and again – this time with an explanatory letter and extensive footnotes – under the pen-name Felix in 1846.<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 27 June 1846, p. 1.</ref>
== Felix's comic verse ==
As Felix, Riley also produced comic verse, most notably two serio-comic epics, "The Luprechaun; or, Fairies' Shoemaker, An Irish Legend of '98"<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 11 October 1845, p. 4; 18 October 1845, p. ?; 25 October 1845, p. 4; and 1 November 1845, p. 4. Reprinted in the ''Goulburn Herald'' attributed to Harry D––––, 10 and 14 March 1860, p. 4. Riley's source was probably the second part of the story "Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry.–No. V. The Luprechaun," ''The Dublin and London Magazine'', July 1825, pp. 195–7, which was reprinted in Sydney in ''The Currency Lad'', 3 November 1832, p. 4.</ref> and "Billy McDaniel; or, 'The Ould Fellow' Balked. An Irish Legend", an [[Asmodeus|Asmodean]] tale in which Billy rescues a young bride at a country wedding from the clutches of the devil.<ref>''Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer'', 10, 17, 24 and 31 July and 7, 14 and 21 August 1847, p. 4. This is a retelling in verse of the tale "Master and Man" from ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' by Thomas Crofton Croker (1825), which was reprinted in the ''Sydney Gazette'', 12 June 1830, p. 4.</ref> It is likely that Riley was also the "Felix McQuill" who wrote "The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much", a cautionary tale set in the time of [https://ift.tt/1t6Qh8A Governor Macquarie].<ref>''Australasian Chronicle'', 20 September 1842, p. 2; 22 September 1842, p. 1; and 24 September 1842, p. 2. See also Webby, p. 48 and Vening, p. 144.</ref> However Felix's crowning achievement was arguably the Humbuggawang Despatches, a series of prose and song satires on New South Wales politics of the 1840s and '50s, particularly the progressive causes of extension of the franchise, a halt to the transportation of convicts, separation from British rule and a federated Australian republic. The despatches are in the language (and eccentric spelling) of stockman-poet Tim Donohue, Felix's uproarious Irish-Australian friend, from the wilds of the [[Murrumbidgee_River|Murrumbidgee River]]. The sporting and satirical newspaper ''Bell's Life in Sydney'' carried twenty despatches over the years 1847 to 1859.
== The Gundagai flood ==
Riley's most widely-known piece – and the only published one to which he attached his name – was "The Gundagai Calamity," a lament for the destruction of the town of [[Gundagai|Gundagai]] in the Murrumbidgee River flood of the night of 24 June 1852.<ref>''Goulburn Herald'', 28 August 1852, p. 6, and reprinted widely in NSW newspapers.</ref> It was written at Francis Rawdon Hume's home Castlesteads, at [[Boorowa|Boorowa]], only a few weeks after the events described. The poem would reappear regularly in NSW newspapers over the next eighty years.
== Harry Dashboard ==
Around 1848 Riley adopted the pen-name "Harry Dashboard", a term he took from the board at the front of a carriage which shielded its occupants from the muck dashed up by the horses. Harry wrote comic and satirical verse from places in the Murrumbidgee region of southern NSW: Boorowa, Gunning, Bobbera and "Yassville" (probably an imaginary place in or near [[Yass,_New_South_Wales|Yass]]), and his work appeared mainly in Goulburn and Yass newspapers. His subjects are sometimes local – the woeful state of the roads and bridges , the eccentricities of Brummy the coach driver, a mock ode for the local policemen – but the best are satires on colonial politics and prominent figures: the gold mania, Chinese immigration, speculation in railways, the absurd [[Bunyip_aristocracy|"bunyip aristocracy"]] proposal of [https://ift.tt/30yT0hw W. C. Wentworth], the demagoguery of [https://ift.tt/2ZtIXx4 John Dunmore Lang] and sly digs at the work of Harry's poetical rivals [https://ift.tt/30xbpeQ Henry Parkes] and [https://ift.tt/2Zqdc7X Charles Harpur].
Riley's last poem as Harry Dashboard was published in 1860.<ref>"The Horseman Who Faced the Storm", ''Goulburn Herald'', 3 October 1860, p. 4 (a reprint of the poem by Felix which had appeared in the ''Weekly Register'' of 1845 and the ''Goulburn Herald'' of 1848).</ref> His fate is not known with certainty, but the evidence of his former pupil Mary Bozzom Kennedy, daughter of Francis Rawdon Hume, suggests that Riley died "alone and friendless" around that year.<ref>Mrs. Mary Kennedy, "Recollections of an Australian Squatter's Wife, 1832-1912", State Library of NSW, A 2105, microfilm CY1338, Draft C typescript, p. 20A. See Vening, p. 147.</ref> Despite the fact that his work was confined to the newspapers, Riley's output shows him to be a fine humourist, an adroit rhymester and a sharp commentator on matters local and national. His work has yet to be properly recognised.
== Selected individual works ==
'''Anonymous'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yeknB The Sprite of the Creek! (1832)]
'''As Felix'''
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqddZz The Sprite of the Creek, Revised and Accompanied by Notes (1846)]
* [https://ift.tt/30vkC7i The Horseman Who Faced the Storm]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtIYRE Lines...to the memory of John Kennedy Hume, Esq.]
* [https://ift.tt/30yE3fp Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos I & II)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ0sK Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos III & IV)]
* [https://ift.tt/30HEjcp Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Cantos V & VI)]
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdg7H Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto VII)]
* [https://ift.tt/30yemvJ Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto VIII)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdhbL Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto IX)]
* [https://ift.tt/30DzAbG Billy McDaniel; or, "The Owld Fellow" Balked (Canto X)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ4bY Humbuggawang Despatch No. 3: Scene from the Murrumbidgee Operatics]
* [https://ift.tt/30yenzN Humbuggawang Despatch No. 5: Tim Donohue's Swarry!]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdiMR Humbuggawang Despatch No. 7: Tim Donohue's Third Swarry! Prefaced by the Gigantic Railway Spec. and contemplated Monster Cod-Fishing Establishment!!]
'''As Felix McQuill'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yeo6P The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto I)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZtJ6R8 The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto II)]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT0Oy The Luckless Journey; or, One Half Pint Too Much (Canto III)]
'''As Harry Dashboard'''
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdknX A Brummisode]
* [https://ift.tt/30yeqLZ "A Few Words of a Sort," Addressed to Time]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdkUZ A Razorbackantigo]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT1lA Mammon's Arrival (A Gold Ditty)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdlZ3 A Fun-o-scopic View of Our Peerage]
* [https://ift.tt/30yerQ3 The Luprechaun: or Fairies' Shoemaker (Part 1)]
* [https://ift.tt/2ZqdnA9 The Luprechaun: or Fairies' Shoemaker (Part 2)]
'''As James Riley'''
* [https://ift.tt/30yT2pE The Gundagai Calamity]
== References ==
== Sources ==
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdpbf The Proceedings of the Old Bailey - Reference t18241202-5]
* [https://ift.tt/30yT2WG Reddall family - papers, 1808-1897, undated (A 423)], State Library of NSW.
* "Elegiac Pieces by Felix", in [https://ift.tt/2ZtJcZ0 Papers of Hamilton Hume, 1840-1855 (MS 3575),] National Library of Australia.
* Kennedy, Mary, [https://ift.tt/30yT3tI Recollections of an Australian squatter's wife, 1838-1912 (A 2105)], State Library of NSW.
* [https://ift.tt/2Zqdrjn Trove Digitised Newspapers], National Library of Australia.
* Hadgraft, Cecil, and Elizabeth Webby, "More Substance to Fisher's Ghost?", ''Australian Literary Studies'', 3:3, May 1968, pp. 190-200.
* Webby, Elizabeth, [https://ift.tt/30yeuvd ''Literature and the Reading Public in Australia, 1800-1850, Vol. 3''], PhD diss., University of Sydney, 1981, pp. 76-7.
* Vening, Chris, [https://ift.tt/2Zqds6V "Harry Dashboard and Fisher's Ghost"], ''Script & Print: Bulletin of the Bibliographic Society of Australia and New Zealand'', 39:3, 2015, pp. 133-62; includes bibliography (via Informit).
== Further reading ==
* [https://ift.tt/30yT4xM James Riley] at AustLit.
* Warden, Ian, [https://ift.tt/2ZtJfnE "Bearded visage a slap in the face for smooth types"], ''Canberra Times'', 3 April 2014.
* Finegan, Andrew, [https://ift.tt/30yT54O "Finding Frederick Fisher: Australia's most famous forgotten ghost story"], Canberra: NLA, 30 October 2017.
* Sigma, [https://ift.tt/2ZqdtYx "Fisher's Ghost: A Legend of Campbelltown"], ''Tegg's Monthly Magazine'' (Sydney), Vol. 1, March 1836, pp. 4-9 (via NLA).
* Lang, Andrew, [https://ift.tt/30yT5BQ "The Truth about 'Fisher's Ghost'"], ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'', Vol. CLXII, July 1897, pp. 78-83; reprinted in ''The Valet's Tragedy and Other Studies'', London: Longmans, Green, 1903, pp. 258-73 (via Internet Archive).
* Crittenden, Victor, "The Five Ghosts of John Lang," ''Margin – Life and Letters of Early Australia'', 71, April 2007, pp. 4-14.
* Downing, J. W., [https://ift.tt/2ZqdvzD "Call Not Tomorrow Thine: The Story of Fred Fisher",] manuscript, Campbelltown, NSW: Campbelltown City Council, n.d.
* Liston, Carol, [https://ift.tt/30yewmP Frederick Frederick Fisher and His Ghost,] Campbelltown, NSW: Campbelltown City Council, n.d.
https://ift.tt/2Zqdw6F
